Hall of Light, what have you done! :-(

[ZEUSDAZ]

We've all had websites that we really love, the way it looks and the ease of use, then one day (usually to our horror) the chaps that look after that site decide to have a complete change (change is good,...apparently), the display and look has totally changed, the ease of use has disappeared and you're now feeling sad,...HALL OF LIGHT, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!


I just don't like it, I know others will but for me It's not as nice to look at, the text is hard to read because It's now light blue on a slightly darker blue background,...for goodness sake change the text colour to white!


The other thing I don't like about it is before all the info on a game can be seen on the same screen which is really great for when I'm gathering info for any of my commentary videos so I can take a single snapshot, now you have to scroll down and take at least 2 pics per game info, It's just more work to find info on a game and the whole thing now looks bland, I know It's a free site to view and I thank those that keep the site going but I'm gutted on the changes that have taken place, what are your thoughts?!

[acidbottle]

I like it!

Feels crisp and more modern, is fast and search works just fine.

I do see the point about all info on one screen, perhaps a picture resize at the top is required but other than that, is cool as ever.

[TCD]

Since you missed the feedback thread, you can still use the old layout: https://oldhol.abime.net/

Data is not being updated anymore though.

[CodyJarrett]

Originally Posted by ZEUSDAZ

We've all had websites that we really love, the way it looks and the ease of use, then one day (usually to our horror) the chaps that look after that site decide to have a complete change (change is good,...apparently), the display and look has totally changed, the ease of use has disappeared and you're now feeling sad,...HALL OF LIGHT, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE!

It's not change for the sake of change. The old site hadn't changed its frontend for a long time because we concentrated on content. It also used tables for design, a lot of inline CSS and mixed database queries, functionality and presentation which makes it hard to maintain.

It was never the plan to fossilise the site as an example of early 2000s web design. Monitors have become widescreen and smartphones were invented. It's necessary for websites to work in a certain way or Google will penalise it - like it or not.

I've already said in the feedback threads that I'll create a retro skin that will look the same and will work better on Amiga browsers.

Originally Posted by ZEUSDAZ

I just don't like it, I know others will but for me It's not as nice to look at, the text is hard to read because It's now light blue on a slightly darker blue background,...for goodness sake change the text
colour to white!

The text colour is already white. Which browser are you using?

Originally Posted by ZEUSDAZ

The other thing I don't like about it is before all the info on a game can be seen on the same screen which is really great for when I'm gathering info for any of my commentary videos so I can take a single snapshot, now you have to scroll down and take at least 2 pics per game info, It's just more work to find info on a game and the whole thing now looks bland, I know It's a free site to view and I thank those that keep the site going but I'm gutted on the changes that have taken place, what are your thoughts?!

Even the old site had scrolling on most entries. Also, it's a feature to have all the relevant information about a game on a single rather than multiple different entries.

[Retroplay]

Originally Posted by CodyJarrett

I've already said in the feedback threads that I'll create a retro skin that will look the same and will work better on Amiga browsers.

Forgot to say thank you for looking into that, can't wait for it to happen.
I do use Firefox on a desktop PC, none of that "smart"-phone rubbish but it sure would be nice to browse HOL the good old way.

Originally Posted by CodyJarret

It's necessary for websites to work in a certain way or Google will penalise it - like it or not.

Google-smoogle, screw them and their interwebs monopoly.

Ok, that's enough of me ranting about the evil G, but looking forward to the the retro skin.

[Bren McGuire]

was a new thread on this necessary???

[ZEUSDAZ]

Originally Posted by TCD

Since you missed the feedback thread, you can still use the old layout: https://oldhol.abime.net/

Data is not being updated anymore though.

Ah cheers, I didn't see that link, that's better, cheers.

Oh just to say I'm a Firefox man not a "grab all info off everyone" Google user.

I also didn't realise there was a former thread on this subject, sorry about that, if I saw it I wouldn't have created this new thread.

[malko]

G@@gle uses bots (not users).
The day this company will collapse (if ever), I won't miss it.

[redblade]

Originally Posted by malko

G@@gle uses bots (not users).
The day this company will collapse (if ever), I won't miss it.

You may if it takes Android and YouTube with it, I know I will, I've got a 2nd hand iPhone at the moment and it sucks that cheap Android phones might only get a 2 Year support for exploits before the manufacturer stops supporting it.

[Megalomaniac]

If people searching for an old Amiga game on google can find a link to HoL, it could bring them back into our world. Making the site more google-compliant feels like a good idea. Being able to use the site on mobiles is great too, not everyone has access to desktop machines constantly. Colours look good on Firefox for me as well.

[gimbal]

Originally Posted by Bren McGuire

was a new thread on this necessary???

It's a discussion forum, necessity is kind of besides the point.

[alkis21]

For what it's worth, I'm one of those people who almost always hate change and I love the new design. It took a few visits to get used to, and I get where Zeusdaz is coming from, some sites have given us that old "coming home" familiar feeling by remaining identical for years, EAB is one of them. But this change is definitely for the best, and I am grateful to the guys who dedicate their time to it.

[PatmanQC]

Maybe you should do a video on why it sucks? :-)

[giantclam]

Disappointed, but, I do recognize the need for change (to better suit modern browsers) ~ the new site looks like crap in links2/lynx now...(but I haven't futzed with html options yet)...

[dreamkatcha]

It's essential for modern websites to be reflowable to suit all screen resolutions. The new design ticks that box so is a massive improvement for this reason alone. It's not just a desktop vs smartphone argument. Say you have really poor eyesight and so make your desktop font huge... then you'd have to manually scroll left and right across every single line of text, making the whole experience uncomfortable and frustrating.

[TCD]

I'd like to show an example why the new way to present the data is quite useful:

The Secret Of Monkey Island
HOL v2: https://oldhol.abime.net/1859
HOL v3: https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/t...-monkey-island

On HOL v2 you have a bunch of (budget) publishers and artists. There's no info when which release was published. The artists roles are in the notes.

On HOL v3 you now have roles for each of the artists and each release has its own year and rarity.

While the looks and Google-ability changed, the main reason was actually to be able to present the information about the games in a more concise form. Before (in HOL v2) a simple title screen change would mean a new entry had to be created. Now we can just add a new version to the game.

Filling in the new info takes time, so the difference won't be visible at once. I hope that clears the 'why the heck did you do that?' part up a bit.

[A500]

Originally Posted by alkis21

For what it's worth, I'm one of those people who almost always hate change and I love the new design. It took a few visits to get used to, and I get where Zeusdaz is coming from, some sites have given us that old "coming home" familiar feeling by remaining identical for years, EAB is one of them. But this change is definitely for the best, and I am grateful to the guys who dedicate their time to it.

Same here. It took some getting used to, but it's easy to see now that HOL v3 is an improvement

[giantclam]

Originally Posted by TCD

I'd like to show an example why the new way to present the data is quite useful:

The Secret Of Monkey Island
HOL v2: https://oldhol.abime.net/1859
HOL v3: https://amiga.abime.net/games/view/t...-monkey-island

On HOL v2 you have a bunch of (budget) publishers and artists. There's no info when which release was published. The artists roles are in the notes.

On HOL v3 you now have roles for each of the artists and each release has its own year and rarity.

While the looks and Google-ability changed, the main reason was actually to be able to present the information about the games in a more concise form. Before (in HOL v2) a simple title screen change would mean a new entry had to be created. Now we can just add a new version to the game.

Filling in the new info takes time, so the difference won't be visible at once. I hope that clears the 'why the heck did you do that?' part up a bit.

I do like me an example ~ it leads to demonstration....


With little doubt, HOL x3 is an improvement, all the disappointment I have is merely/mostly to do with html presentation in order text based console web-browsers. I think it's somewhat akin to aminet in a way ; it remains the way it is for a reason (we know what that reason is)....but...demo time, right?....


....the way I have the emulator setup, is for users to use links2 (in graphical mode), to land at for example whdownload front page ...for this example I've already navigated the 'S' page for the title here...







Users could click on the HOL entry number, to read about/see screenshots etc etc, especially useful when one comes across a game title never heard of before... and it used to look like this...




...it was always justified to the left (you could add left margin in links config to make it a bit better), but otherwise totally useful....in X or on the console....


...now with HOL v3 the same exercise looks like this....







.....and whereas before you could navigate the page normally, now it's.... [ Show youtube player ]

[Seiya]

you could install 2 themes: modern and classic.
Who love new layout will use the modern one.
Who love old layout will use the old one

[TCD]

Originally Posted by Seiya

you could install 2 themes: modern and classic.
Who love new layout will use the modern one.
Who love old layout will use the old one

Indeed:

Originally Posted by CodyJarrett

I've already said in the feedback threads that I'll create a retro skin that will look the same and will work better on Amiga browsers.