2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 07:56:17 GMT

[quote user="Robert FalconerTaylor"]I also noticed that the youtube recommendations were personalised so one should be careful if one has been watching anything one would wish to keep to oneself [/quote]

Like Star Trek?

WRT to latest site developments, I'm hoping we are going to have the new quick post feature for the forums this morning, so you'll start seeing a few changes.

I am also reviewing the layout of various pages.

One thing I'm thinking about is the forum page, which currently has a list of 20 recent discussions.

I am thinking about splitting this list into two, first:

Latest Clinical Discussions

and

Latest Nonclinical Discussions.

Two reasons. First, it helps with another aspect of the new site structure. Second, it highlights the main strength of VetSurgeon, which is that it is a much better format for clinical discussions than fleecebook.

Thoughts anyone, everyone?

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Robert FalconerTaylor — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 15:05:32 GMT

I also noticed that the youtube recommendations were personalised so one should be careful if one has been watching anything one would wish to keep to oneself

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Arlo Guthrie — Mon, 26 Nov 2018 09:04:39 GMT

Robert FalconerTaylor Thank you ...

In fact, the choice of video host is actually up to the person who shares a video.

You can in fact share a vimeo video, or even upload one directly to this website.

I do recommend youtube because it is so simple to use and ubiquitous. Yes, I agree that selection youtube gives you at the end looks a bit rubbish. But it's a relatively small price to pay for the fact that youtube is such a robust service, and pays for all that bandwidth and storage.

But as I say, if people want to share a video on vimeo, that's fine too!

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Robert FalconerTaylor — Sun, 25 Nov 2018 17:22:43 GMT

The layout is simple and logical and the collection of thumbnails is great. Youtube is a pain as it gives you this at end of play which is a bit tatty and may take folks off the site. Vimeo may be better? Just my penny'sworth

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Arlo Guthrie — Sun, 25 Nov 2018 09:49:31 GMT

If anyone is interested, I'm making some headway here with the restructuring of content, and it's now possible to see how it is taking shape.

Best illustrated at this stage with small animal cardiology. Here's the small animal cardiology gallery:

https://www.vetsurgeon.org/veterinary-clinical/small-animal/cardiology/m/photo-video-media/

That website address shows the new structure of content. But if you look on the page, it is also seen in the new title bar which reads 'Clinical Small Animal Cardiology Case Gallery'

If you click the various elements of that title, it now takes you to a subject home page (albeit a rudimentary one at this stage).

Clinical = all clinical content, regardless of species

Small Animal = all small animal clinical content

Cardiology = all clinical small animal cardiology content.

As I said, the main site layout stays the same (forums, galleries, news, jobs etc). This is for those who want to zoom in, so to speak, on a specific area. In particular for specialists who might be interested in subscribing and contributing to an area specific to their discipline, and don't want to have to sift through everything else!

I'm probably about half way through setting this all up, and we're expecting the new 'quick post' feature to make it easier to post and easier to categorise your post.

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Arlo Guthrie — Thu, 22 Nov 2018 08:20:34 GMT

I'm going to make a start on restructuring the site this morning, which means you will likely find that some things don't work as I shift them around. It will also make things perhaps slightly LESS intuitive in the short term, until our new upgrades are deployed ...

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]but breadcrumb navigation is a new one on me....[/quote]

Evelyn Barbour-Hill Breadcrumb navigation is the navigation in tiny text at the top left of the white area on the page, which 'builds' as you navigate deeper into the site, leaving a trail home, like breadcrumbs, behind.

But it has never worked that well with the way we structure content, so it is being phased out.

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Thomas Johnson — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 08:20:18 GMT

[quote user="Evelyn Barbour-Hill"]

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"] to better indicate which page you are on and replace breadcrumb navigation which is being removed. [/quote]

Well, I'm used to brushing toast crumbs off my super soaraway dumbed-down Vet Wreck, not to mention wiping blobs of marmalade, but breadcrumb navigation is a new one on me....

[/quote]

I think it precedes trying to eat an old lady's house, and ends with pushing her into her own oven

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Evelyn Barbour-Hill — Wed, 21 Nov 2018 00:14:03 GMT

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"] to better indicate which page you are on and replace breadcrumb navigation which is being removed. [/quote]

Well, I'm used to brushing toast crumbs off my super soaraway dumbed-down Vet Wreck, not to mention wiping blobs of marmalade, but breadcrumb navigation is a new one on me....

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Arlo Guthrie — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 15:51:28 GMT

Nearly ready for the latest upgrade ... here's what is coming.

First of all, I've been thinking a lot about facebook, because it is very popular. The thing is, whilst it is good for idle banter, it is really badly suited to clinical discussions in particular:

You have no idea of the professional qualifications of the person who is talking to you
You see posts as they appear on the timeline, which makes it kind of random what subject comes up. On here, you get presented with a nice list of subjects to take your pick from.
Here today, gone tomorrow on facebook - once a discussion has slipped down the timeline, it has gone forever. Here, discussions are much more enduring.
You can record the time you spent in facebook discussions towards CPD, but really, who on earth does that? It would be time-consuming to keep the urls of the discussions you have ever participated in. On here, you just click the claim CPD button, enter the time and off you go.

So, my focus now is on improving the site to make it THE destination for quality clinical discussions and information sharing.

To that end, when the next upgrade comes, I will be completely restructuring the site so that content is now presented both as it is now (forum section, news section, galleries), AND by discipline / area of interest. So you'll be able to go to the cardiology section and find cardiology news, forum discussions, photos and videos.

If you're a regular user of the site, this restructuring isn't for you!! (and you can continue to browse the site exactly as you do now).

My hope is that it will make the site MUCH more appealing for more referral practitioners to come and subscribe to and get involved in. In short, it creates areas of the site which contain information and discussions specifically relevant to you.

As part of the restructuring, three other things:

a) The quick post feature. It will allow you to start a new discussion straight from the forum home page with a (fingers crossed) better mobile phone interface.

b) The page title bar is becoming dynamic - to better indicate which page you are on and replace breadcrumb navigation which is being removed.

c) The page title bar (with search box and claim CPD) is being reprogrammed to move down the page with you. So claim CPD will always be there. Same for title of page.

Once I'm happy it is all set up and configured OK, then we can start on the gargantuan task of upgrading the whole site ... onto the new, mobile friendly platform.

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Lucy Fleming — Wed, 31 Oct 2018 12:40:53 GMT

I've started watching The Haunting of Hill House on Netflix....if the lights had gone out in the middle of that I probably would have wet myself!

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Sarah Wheadon — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 21:15:27 GMT

Was that when you hid behind the sofa...

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Neil Wheadon — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 12:34:55 GMT

[quote user="Arlo Guthrie"]... and we’re beefing up the server this evening, so if the street lights in your area start to flicker, that’s why...[/quote]

and there we were in the not so posh, next door village of Coleford, watching Sherlock when it all went dark, and I thought it was a plot twist

Neil

RE: 2018/19 VetSurgeon Upgrade

Arlo Guthrie — Mon, 29 Oct 2018 21:04:27 GMT

... and we’re beefing up the server this evening, so if the street lights in your area start to flicker, that’s why...

(hoping the upgrade doesn’t cause the whole thing to fall over!)