AH.FM Needs your opinion... please look

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dan

dan

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Hello everyone, first off would like to say thank you all for the massive support you have given us. This is a personal thank you from me "Dan" :)

Ok to the point now... it's been 13 months now since Afterhours is running, I need feedback from all of you in regards to a new site. That's right new site is in the works, we would like to know some of the following:

- what colors would you prefer the new site be ( clean white or dark ?)
- what type of option or functions would you like to see ? ( next5, last5? etc etc )
- you like plain sites or flash sites?
- should the new site have ( news? dj reviews? upcoming events? new forum? voting for best shows weekly and monthly? etc)

Please tell us as much as you can, this is extremely important to me and AH, I would like your input because we at AH would like you to feel great while listening to the radio and also browsing the new site, afterall were a Family here :)

Any comments much appreciated !!

Dan

 
Dan - you've done an excellant job with ah.fm, and over the past year its come a long way.

I personally liked the next 5 / previous 5 tracks played thing. Also the upcoming events list. It gave the DJ's for that week some "front page" exposure to their sets.

I don't think we should go clean white with the colour scheme - cause then we'd look just like DI.FM...and we're better than them :p

A plain site is good, but we should have some flash menus etc to give it a bit of "zaz". Not to much flash though, otherwise it'll be like loading somone's myspace page that has a 10Mp photo as their wallpaper, and links to 50 YouTube videos..where even a Core 2 Duo machine with 2Gb of ram grinds to a halt. That's just ghey.

A voting option is good, but people already do that in the Livesets thread where they vote. DJ reviews are good though...maybe even like a wiki type thing where people can go and add their own reviews to each DJ they listen to.

Maybe better visibility/benefit for ah.fm supporters/subscribers? Maybe a "members only" area, or some extra features that would be avaliable to donating members, such as:
- ah.fm email address
- bigger PM inbox
- bigger signature (or more characters allowed)
- members only area in the forum
- more profile options or different profile options (animated avatars etc)

I'm just pulling ideas out of the air...I don't know how viable these are to implement.

I'll post more ideas if I come up with any...but regardless, you've done a fantastic job of ah.fm and I'm looking forward to seeing what the future holds.
 
- what colors would you prefer the new site be ( clean white or dark ?)
I prefer the dark. Seeing as how most of the time when I am on here, I don't have lights on lol. It's already clean as it is.
- what type of option or functions would you like to see ? ( next5, last5? etc etc )
Really, I'd like to be able to mark threads as read. either individually or groups. Preferably marking groups of threads as read.
- you like plain sites or flash sites?
A little flash is ok, but not too much. The amount of flash currently on the site is perfect.
- should the new site have ( news? dj reviews? upcoming events? new forum? voting for best shows weekly and monthly? etc) If news of events and news is maintained and fresh enough to look every week, I'd love them. If it's kinda stagnant, I don't see the real point of them
 
EntrancedShift said:
- what colors would you prefer the new site be ( clean white or dark ?)
I prefer the dark. Seeing as how most of the time when I am on here, I don't have lights on lol. It's already clean as it is.
- what type of option or functions would you like to see ? ( next5, last5? etc etc )
Really, I'd like to be able to mark threads as read. either individually or groups. Preferably marking groups of threads as read.
- you like plain sites or flash sites?
A little flash is ok, but not too much. The amount of flash currently on the site is perfect.
- should the new site have ( news? dj reviews? upcoming events? new forum? voting for best shows weekly and monthly? etc) If news of events and news is maintained and fresh enough to look every week, I'd love them. If it's kinda stagnant, I don't see the real point of them
Click to expand...


Thank you, I would like to just say that in regards to making threads read.. you can just double click on the AH icon beside the forum and they change colors to read :)

Will take all those points into consideration, thank you!
 
Something would be an idea would be to have countdown to the next show somewhere near the next 5 / last 5.....

ie. "Time until next show: 10.04"
Now people could check the calendar, but if they're new to the site then they might not know how, and just not bother.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Another thing i have picked up on a couple of other stations is that they have a slideshow of banners advertising shows. if you wanted to, this could potentially be implemented in one of two ways.

1. Permit advertising only for regular donations.
2. Show only the set days banners, ie wednesdays shows LeSaux/T4L etc.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

just a couple of idea's for now, if i think of anything else i'll post again :)
 
- what colors would you prefer the new site be ( clean white or dark)

In general I prefer the clean white ones but the purple skin on here rocks my socks :) It also matches my winamp skin perfectly...

- what type of option or functions would you like to see ? ( next5, last5? etc etc )

I like the next 5/last 5 thing so I'd certainly keep that. As for other functions, well, one I have seen on some other sites/stations which is popular is an arcade :love:

- you like plain sites or flash sites?

I hate flash sites with a passion. Fiddly things that you can't post direct links to, look way over the top, and often crash on me for no reason. I never shop at Beatport unless I absolutely have to :mad:

- should the new site have ( news? dj reviews? upcoming events? new forum? voting for best shows weekly and monthly? etc)

I think the news/review thing is a little overdone and not essential, but I like the idea of a weekly vote thing going on :)
 
Its my turn :lollypop:

Color preferences
I don’t like clean white sites, hurt my eyes (even more when I get up in the morning xD), and I spend so much time here sooo this is not gonna be good for my eyes, a little bit tire out for them and for my glasses :p Also I think a medium dark (not white) web is always more stylish and professional, u have to do an amazing design to show a clear website and be able to say.. woooww
Another factor is the AH logo. There is a great combination among grey/orange/white, and I think is the best u can choose.. and there are more than 5 thousand people registered… AH has an identity now for all those men and women and its cool.. why u wanna change it?? (maybe just asking xD) I think is a good idea be playing with those same colours everytime.

Flash
Although I hate flash sites.. some of them are amazing.. but its not a comfortable option when u have a forum which is the main part of the site. Besides, u have to think in all those people who don’t know anything about computers… sometimes because they not have anything to show flash in their pcs.. sometimes because when a pop up window appears with a message like.. do u want to install….. the answer is always NO xD. Maybe it could seem im joking.. but in the (died) Spanish trance radio, which had a flash site,... many people asked me why they couldn’t listen the radio.. its like a firewall to listeners lol
So just top header, some menus and little things would be ok imo :)


Next/Last 5 is great, but sometime ago there was just under this control panel, other one that shows the upcoming events of the 5 next days… I missed it xD, maybe with just 3 days.. but it would be nice, special for all those people who aren’t addict yet. In my firsts days.. I used to come to AH and take a view of that panel… and maybe that day I didn’t listen the radio but.. I could see that the next one Daniel kandi will be on air.. soo the next day I was here again. And now u have to go to “schedule” if u want to know who are going to play.
Maybe a box with next 3 days, with all the radioshows/day and the guestmixs dj name.. would be really nice.. I know this is + job for u but im pretty sure that one, or all, of us can help in these little things :)

About news, dj reviews… as lazarus said.. all is overdone.. but this is not mean that we cannot talk in the forum, perhaps we should talk more in it about these questions in order to be a site in which u can get those info.. but I don’t think of AH needs to work in a professional news or dj reviews.

Voting for best shows weekly and monthly… that’s a great idea :)

And my last comment is about upcoming events/advertisement. Most of time we just think of advertisement as a way to get money.. but for example.. I like to see those ads about parties.. I know many of them thx to ads... so perhaps will be an easy way to get money for server costs (or buy a boat if u want xDD) and a way to show upcoming events… for example.. armada events, id&t, biggest clubs events.. or just in Europe, this summer, there are more than 10 big parties… im sure that some of them would like to have a banner in an important radio :) AH is growing, its better and has more visits each day… so people are going to love this little space a lot

The good way is always improve.. but im really happy with this site, I like all.. so Id just change some of these little things, no need many more to be the best :love:

Ok, that’s all until I have another 10 hours to write a text like this xDD :p
 
mmm yesterday i forgot something.. its about the massive mail from AH

I think it would be nice to have something like a newsletter... specially AH needs in "huge events days".. a spam message where u can see the flyer, not a link of it for example.

Also maybe to send massive mails when u add a new important show.... moderate spam is the future dani :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

:lollypop:
 
here's mine
- dark or shiny i perfer dark site ...
- the last5 and next 5 is great as it is ...
- the flash or plain site .. that is just from the site itself up .. i'm not that specific on any side of this point
- should the new site have ( news? dj reviews? upcoming events? new forum? voting for best shows weekly and monthly?)

a main site would be amazing ... with some options like Events, Resident dj's, Forum, Store, ...and so on

the rest i dunno ..

hope just the sign change not the dj's/sets :D
 
The menu mouseover underneath the banner at the top looks ugly IMO

And that's about all I don't like...

Oh yes, and once feature suggestion: You know the flash menu with the next 5 and previous 5? if you click on the show, it will take you to the forum thread? That would be an awesome feature
 
I love the site how it is. We need AH.DJ's profiles. and on the mainpage, a link to the current playing set. ( a link on the mainpage about the liveset@AH forum, current playing show. )

People will join this forum easier when I'ts on the mainpage too.

( so, link to the current playing show thread )
 
- what colors would you prefer the new site be ( clean white or dark ?)

I think that a darker style should be cool, approximately the same as current forum colors. Since the majority of people here play trance music, I think it should be a mixture of blue, black, and dark gray, which I, for example, associate with this music (this is personal opinion! :)).

- what type of option or functions would you like to see ? ( next5, last5? etc etc )

Last 5 needs to go, in my opinion, but next 5 needs to definitely stay. I would also like the site to have a direct link to the forum discussion of the current show that's playing, so new people have a chance to register and post their comments / vote in it with no hassle.

- you like plain sites or flash sites?

I think the site should be clean, with smooth images, but it should not be all done in Flash (maybe only the logo), since some people still don't have broadband connections. The site should be fast-loading with as many GIFs as possible, but look good at the same time.

- should the new site have ( news? dj reviews? upcoming events? new forum? voting for best shows weekly and monthly? etc)

Definitely. The new site should have all of the above, except a new forum. I think the current one does the job well, and we're all kinda used to it... And there should definitely be DJ profile pages, in which they can update the info themselves and have a Top-10 chart.

Hope any of my suggestions will be taken into account when the site will be created. Thanks Dan!
 
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I like plain sites best, because not all PCs have flash...and the mouseover doesnt look that great anyways...

I like the designs of sensgenerate and etn, theyre clean and professional looking without flash...
 
Hi: I'm new here, joined yesterday. I noticed some of the posts in this thread are from back in July. I don't know if I'm seeing the new site or the old one. But I would like to say I like the color choices Im seeing here now. I have a visual impairment so the contrast really makes it easier to read. The site feels comfortable. ---- And the music is great.
 
Glyph54 said:
Hi: I'm new here, joined yesterday. I noticed some of the posts in this thread are from back in July. I don't know if I'm seeing the new site or the old one. But I would like to say I like the color choices Im seeing here now. I have a visual impairment so the contrast really makes it easier to read. The site feels comfortable. ---- And the music is great.
Click to expand...

yeah your seeing right :)

just not many requests were made :) site runs too good haha

:welcome: to afterhours friend...

there is 5 colors you can choose from bottom of the page on left hand side :)
cheers
 
Dan said:
snip, snip...

 - what colors would you prefer the new site be ( clean white or dark ?)
- what type of option or functions would you like to see ? ( next5, last5? etc etc )
- you like plain sites or flash sites?
- should the new site have ( news? dj reviews? upcoming events? new forum? voting for best shows weekly and monthly? etc)
Click to expand...

1) Would prefer at least one theme available that was light colored background. The existing ones might look cool, but are too high contrast and tiresome on the eyes after long viewing. Keep the dark/orange as default if you're concerned about visually differentiating yourself from di.fm but offer a few lighter themes for logged in members. Personally, I think ah.fm does sufficient job of differentiating itself from di.fm in areas of substance.

2) I like the next 5. Last five doesn't mean much.

3) Flash seriously sucks. The eye candy Flash offers is a poor substitute for real content and for me the Flash stuff on ah.fm incessantly gets in my way. Moreover, is not w3c conformant. ah.fm should strive to adhere to the standards that enabled the web to evolve into the awesome thing that it is today and resist the encroachment of proprietary b.s. Fighting over the latter is, after all, what left the niche open for Berners-Lee. As an "old dog" whose watched the 'net evolve since the beginning, I urge you to give this issue serious consideration.

4) This one is so potentially broad that I'll have to give it some more thought, but I would like to note that voting might be cool at first blush, but in long run I think is detrimental. Music should be taken as an artistic expression, not a competition. The latter leads to "sporting event" mentatlities, wherein dj's become pitted against each other in some kind of contrived rivalries.

News is difficult to keep current, unless you're pulling from some kind of feed aggregator.

Reviews might be interesting if you have ah.fm staff you has the time and integrity to be objective, even if that means lukewarm reception of fellow ah.fm staff set.


My $0.02 :)
 
Yeah I don't really think that flash is that great of an idea, despite its eye candy, it can lag up on older pcs too
 
about the background color, this dark one for me rocks the house, because of the colors we sometimes put here, gives a great aspect and pleasure to our eyes.
Another thing this black background is soft for our eyes and it's kind relaxing, so Dan i hope this will not change.

About the forum color, well i use the original one Orange, but maybe if more colors could be added i don't know if is possible, but should be great.
 
- dark
- next 5 and maybe the last two
- plain please

I'm pretty used to getting around here now,so to many changes for me aren't necessary.Keep up the good work AH :super:
 
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