Do you want to relocate SSP Ottawa to another site?

[J.OT13]

If we're building a new forum, should we consider how we'll divide it up? We've been talking for years about separating projects as Ottawa Inner Greenbelt, Ottawa Outer Greenbelt, Gatineau...

BTW, I had set the poll to be open for 7 days. Should be enough, right? I think we have what we need.

[J.OT13]

Seems SSP has doubled down on advertisement now. No longer just at the top and bottom, it's now between posts. Very annoying.

[McKellarDweller]

So horrible on mobile, now even for armchair users like me who aren’t posting images and links.

[Ed007Toronto]

Will look into it.

Ed, is there any theme cutomization support on SkyriseCities? I looked quickly through my Account Profile pages, but couldn't find it.

After spending some hours now scanning postings, I've got to say that I'm finding the skinny grey font very difficult to read against the white background. I'm using Windows 10, so it's Roboto Light that's being used (the head of the font stack). Firefox renders this font slightly more clearly than Chrome, but neither is ideal. I think that a somewhat darker text colour would improve overall readability of the site.

It sounds funny, but this little detail would actually be a deal-breaker for me. When a site isn't easily and comfortably readable, then I eventually stop visiting.

[rocketphish]

Originally Posted by Ed007Toronto

Will look into it.

Thanks Ed.

I've noticed that another similar community, Skyscraper City, also runs on XenForo, but it's much more readable. It's using the font "Inter" @ 14px, #383a3b on a white background.

You can see it here: https://www.skyscrapercity.com/forums/toronto.3730/

This darker text in particular makes it easier to read than the "Roboto Light" @ 15px, #333333 on a white background used at Skyrise Cities.

Another layout choice that makes SSC easier to read that SRC is the restricted thread panel width. This saves the reader from having to turn their head from side to side to scan the overly wide content panes that are used in SRC (granted this is likely only an issue on large screens, but that's what I used on my desktop system).

There have also been a couple of comments about the lack of breadcrumb navigation at SRC. I see that SCC has this, and it really does simplify the task of jumping between cities or sub forums within a city (eg. Home > Forums > Continental Forums > North American Skyscrapers Forum > Canada > Ontario Local Forums > Toronto > Toronto Developments).

Given the common underlying software platform, it probably is possible to change the skin on Skyrise Cities, either globally, or via individual user preference, to provide an improved user experience like Skyscraper City does.

Have any members here used Skyscraper City for any length of time? I'm curious what your feeling is about the ease of use over there.

[Ed007Toronto]

Awesome! Looking forward to having you come over. Will start the backend work. Will reach out when ready. In the meanwhile come and join.

https://skyrisecities.com/forum/forums/buildings.450/

Happy New Year all!

[Harley613]

Originally Posted by Ed007Toronto

Awesome! Looking forward to having you come over. Will start the backend work. Will reach out when ready. In the meanwhile come and join.

https://skyrisecities.com/forum/forums/buildings.450/

Happy New Year all!

As of now, I am only posting building updates on the new site. I look forward to continuing other discussions on there once we have mods and organization!

[harls]

Gonna be honest - if this site disappears, I will probably disappear too.

[SweazyCavalry]

Originally Posted by harls

Gonna be honest - if this site disappears, I will probably disappear too.

I've been a longtime lurker (2 years) and avoided posting or creating a profile because of how unfriendly the website is. The new website is much better IMO

[Kitchissippi]

Originally Posted by harls

Gonna be honest - if this site disappears, I will probably disappear too.

Ditto. I'm one of the people who voted no.

[Ottawacurious]

Originally Posted by Kitchissippi

Ditto. I'm one of the people who voted no.

I found neither this site nor the skycities site super user friendly at first...starting to get the hang of them. I'm still struggling to figure out how to use the skycities menus to move between the various 'forums' or whatever the heck. It's not intuitive for me there yet but I will adjust. Adding the 'Buildings' Forum to my watch list made my life a bit simpler...saved searching for it or trying to click links to find it. Still need to click around more to see if there are other 'lists' I should be following on there to track suburban vs urban topics but meh! ...keep clicking right?

[J.OT13]

Originally Posted by Ottawacurious

I found neither this site nor the skycities site super user friendly at first...starting to get the hang of them. I'm still struggling to figure out how to use the skycities menus to move between the various 'forums' or whatever the heck. It's not intuitive for me there yet but I will adjust. Adding the 'Buildings' Forum to my watch list made my life a bit simpler...saved searching for it or trying to click links to find it. Still need to click around more to see if there are other 'lists' I should be following on there to track suburban vs urban topics but meh! ...keep clicking right?

Yeah, I find the navigation on this website better. With SkyriseOttawa, we need to scroll way down to see the forum options, can't navigate between forums when you're on one. Maybe I'm missing something.

Some things are much more user friendly on Skyrise, but SSP has a lot going for it as well. It's simpler.

But yeah, as I suspected, it sounds like we'll end up splitting the participation between two sites, so both will be moderately active instead of having one very active site.

[lrt's friend]

Originally Posted by J.OT13

Yeah, I find the navigation on this website better. With SkyriseOttawa, we need to scroll way down to see the forum options, can't navigate between forums when you're on one. Maybe I'm missing something.

Some things are much more user friendly on Skyrise, but SSP has a lot going for it as well. It's simpler.

But yeah, as I suspected, it sounds like we'll end up splitting the participation between two sites, so both will be moderately active instead of having one very active site.

When you split the group, there is a good chance that both sites will suffer. Hopefully not, but the end result may be less participation.

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by harls

Gonna be honest - if this site disappears, I will probably disappear too.

Come on, you can still stick around just for the Canada section. You’ll miss Proof Sheet’s rants about CHEZ 106. That’s what I’m going to do anyway. I mostly just lurk on the Ottawa sub forum to keep myself informed about local developments. Still not sure I’ll keep doing that regularly if the forum were to move though. I admit I’m not exactly a fan of the format of Skyrisecities. The lack of breadcrumbs to facilitate navigation, as noted above, is a big turn off for me.

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by le calmar

Come on, you can still stick around just for the Canada section. You’ll miss Proof Sheet’s rants about CHEZ 106. That’s what I’m going to do anyway. I mostly just lurk on the Ottawa sub forum to keep myself informed about local developments. Still not sure I’ll keep doing that regularly if the forum were to move though. I admit I’m not exactly a fan of the format of Skyrisecities. The lack of breadcrumbs to facilitate navigation, as noted above, is a big turn off for me.

Oh yea, are you in the SSP Discord group?

[harls]

Originally Posted by le calmar

Come on, you can still stick around just for the Canada section. You’ll miss Proof Sheet’s rants about CHEZ 106. That’s what I’m going to do anyway. I mostly just lurk on the Ottawa sub forum to keep myself informed about local developments. Still not sure I’ll keep doing that regularly if the forum were to move though. I admit I’m not exactly a fan of the format of Skyrisecities. The lack of breadcrumbs to facilitate navigation, as noted above, is a big turn off for me.

I'm not leaving here, I am just saying I'm probably not going to move to a new site.

To be honest, I'm more active on the Canada section these days than the regional Ottawa one.



click for more ancient threads started by harls.

[Dengler Avenue]

(edit)

[lrt's friend]

I have deliberately not voted. If we move to a new site and it is mostly about new developments and discussions about urbanism and municipal affairs declines, then my participation will likely also decline. Some will likely cheer, but I believe a suburban perspective is important in our discussions.

[Dzingle Bells]

I thought that was the purpose of holding a vote? The majority chose to move. This site has shown to be unreliable and difficult to use.

Of course, changing to a new platform will come with a learning curve, but I feel a short learning period will put us in a more sustainable place than just staying put.

Considering the majority voted to move, can we all agree to give SkyriseCities the good ol' college try at least for a few months? Maybe at that time, we can do another vote on whether to stay or come back.

I will be using SkyriseCities moving forward, checking in here the odd time.

I have deliberately not voted. If we move to a new site and it is mostly about new developments and discussions about urbanism and municipal affairs declines, then my participation will likely also decline. Some will likely cheer, but I believe a suburban perspective is important in our discussions.

@lrt's friend I agree that a suburban perspective is important in the discussions! It would be great if you made the move. Feel free to start any threads you think are relevant or missing.

[lrt's friend]

Pretty clumsy entrance to the Ottawa site and I am an Urbantoronto user. It seems that you cannot cross from city to city discussion easily.