Please change it back!!!

bigboat · Post by **bigboat** » Mon Jun 14, 2021 5:18 pm

Please change this page back to the way it was.

Eric Holst · Post by **Eric Holst** » Mon Jun 14, 2021 6:45 pm

bigboat, I'm sure the crew at Boatnerd are continuing to improve the new website, and although they're putting in a lot of work and long hours, they're probably open to constructive input on how to hone it.

If you remember how things went over the past few years, you can think about how boatnerd was uncomfortably close to shutting down completely. If that's the alternative, let's think about how to be grateful for the site's continued existence and for all of the hard work and dedication that people have volunteered to keep it afloat. Remember that those same folks can read your comments, so even if it's a change that you don't like at first, real people and real effort have gone into what you're seeing now.

There will certainly be things about the old site that everyone misses. It had more or less the same format for 25 years, which in a way is a credit to its original design. We can reminisce about those things positively. We can also provide helpful constructive tips and criticisms as the new site develops.

It would benefit us all to realize, however, that when a person makes statements in a way that elicits strong and immediate emotional reactions, it is not likely to lead to the people who run this site doing whatever it is the complaint wishes they'd do.

Paul Beesley · Post by **Paul Beesley** » Tue Jun 15, 2021 8:47 am

I agree, Eric. Kudos to all those who have spent innumerable hours developing the new presentation.

I'm an old dog. This is a new trick. It will take a few visits to acclimate myself.

Thanks to all.

Paul Beesley

OhioBob · Post by **OhioBob** » Tue Jun 15, 2021 10:05 am

Yep... us old dogs are going to have to get used to new tricks. A million thank you's to the Boatnerd crew for their time and dedication to this site!! We old farts will learn the new ways eventually but we didn't get along this far in life without grumbling a little... Just ask my wife!

wlbblw · Post by **wlbblw** » Tue Jun 15, 2021 9:59 pm

It really needed an update. The old site still looked like it did in the late 90s/early '00 era.

lakercapt1 · Post by **lakercapt1** » Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:41 am

Once we have visited a few times and got used to the format it should be great. I like the new presentation. I had problems with logging in as my user name would not be accepted, the one I had used for ages but the new one is close.

JPLB · Post by **JPLB** » Thu Jun 17, 2021 9:53 am

All the work done by volunteers is greatly appreciated but I have to agree with bigboat. This update is much less user friendly and less intuitive than the previous site. The previous version was very concise and easy to navigate.

DCN · Post by **DCN** » Thu Jun 17, 2021 10:20 am

As somebody who has been visiting Boatnerd since the oakland.edu days (and that's going back a bit) I can say that yes, this new version is going to take a little bit to get used to, but to be honest a "healthy" website that is "community oriented" like Boatnerd is you want to be dynamic, ever changing and improving.

Think about what the internet was like when the site was founded, websites with pictures (and a very rare video), chat rooms, and email was as cutting edge as it got. No social media, no video hosting sites, a live webcam?! You're out of your mind, there isn't enough bandwidth in the world for that kind of thing. Oh and doing any of it on a phone wasn't a thing either.

Now, all that is not only common but expected yet the site was an, all be it upgraded, holdover from the old days. It needed to be modernized and it has been / is being. I say well done and thank you to those doing the work of keeping it going, hopefully for many many more years.

Boatnerd has been around long enough that it has its own history in the news it's documented over the years and the information generated and compiled in the chat rooms. Hopefully there is a way much of that can be saved and archived in the new version, maybe it already is and I haven't discovered it yet, maybe it is doomed to be lost, I don't know. Whatever the case may be, I suspect Boatnerd will remain the definitive go to website for all thing Great Lakes shipping for a long time to come.

DCN

boatnerd · Post by **boatnerd** » Thu Jun 17, 2021 8:26 pm

Thanks for the kind works DCN. We are working on getting the Archives all set up. Everything on the old site was tied together and some parts we need to keep the AIS fully functional. Its very much a work in progress. 25 years of data takes a while to sift through, and a boatnerd is going to sift through it very differently than a web designed that we hired.

WaiverWire · Post by **WaiverWire** » Fri Jun 18, 2021 7:51 pm

1 question.......the old site you could bring up Port Huron and see a list of the ships that would be passing. Is that now gone?