I miss the old Zoochat format

Just wondering am I alone in missing the old Zoochat format/layout ?

At a guess it seems like there is allot less postings than before. Is that correct?

I found the old format allot more visually pleasing and very user friendly for non tech savvy person as I am.

The new format seems far more geared towards tech savvy users.

Thoughts?

 

I miss the links directly to a Zoo's facebook/webpage at the top of their respective threads (at least, that's how I remember them)

 

Generally speaking I much prefer the new format to the old format ZooChat. I think that the new screens look better and the software is more intuitive to use.

However, there is one major problem with the new ZooChat; the way that it handles comments made about photos in the gallery.

Previously, the first thing I did when logging on to ZooChat was to check for recent comments that had been added since I last visited the site. This functionality is no longer provided which stifles discussion about photographs. In the past some interesting photos used to generate thought-provoking debates with pages of comments; this now rarely happens with new photos.

I hope that the fix for this is implemented soon.

 

I empathize with your misgivings. Whenever something changes, there is a learning curve. When you first joined the old ZooChat it probably took a little while to get used to it. The same happens here.

However I do agree with @Tim May about the photo threads. Another source of frustration is the inability now to upload a photo into a comment thread without first uploading it to the gallery. This may or may not be changing in the near future. I will say that Sim (the administrator) puts a lot of time and effort into this site essentially for free and I think there are technical reasons why the new software change is advantageous, even if it is not readily apparent to everyday users.

(Disclaimer - this is my opinion as a forum member and not an official response in my role as a moderator).

 

I used to look at newly uploaded photos every day. Now I never do, the new format just doesn't invite it.

 

I like the new format better, except that I would much prefer to see a smaller version of each whole picture in the galleries, rather than the larger central portions only.

 

I agree. The old format made photo uploads and latest comments easier to review. I was able to enjoy and learn so much more from the photo posts in the old format.

 

Excellent; that's good news. Thanks.

 

That's quite interesting. I wonder what makes us different. I would have thought any group of enthusiasts would have a lot to say about at least some photographs.

 

Yes.

 

I only skimmed through these so I apologize if someone already mentioned this. What I miss most was the ability to find news threads linked to the zoo's respected gallery, and vice versa. Back when every zoo had it's own forum of choices between it's many subject news/other threads and an immediate link to the gallery. As others have said and as Sim has told me many times that this will be resolved, I've lost interest in searching through the site ever since the recent comment section was taken away. I also am not a fan of the galleries' chronological orders. It was much more interesting on the old site when the most recent comment caused a photo be bumped up to the top of the gallery. This gave people the idea of "That photo" must show the most interesting thing about the zoo. Without the recent comment section or the order idea I just mentioned, this causes less and less discussions in the gallery. As someone said as well, I have never once gone into the new media section since the new website went up.

What I do like is the mobile friendly structure. It was always a pain to constantly zoom in to reply to a thread on my phone. The zooming wasn't the issue, but the page would always jump around in the process. I also love the notifcation bar. The red number actually gets me excited and makes it a mystery of what your notification is. The Like button was also a great addition. It's my way of telling someone they took a great photo without actually having to tell them. The most important thing that I'm grateful about the newer site is the ability to upload clips and lengthy videos to the gallery. I have no problem with the overall structure, but I do very much miss the small things that made Zoochat better.

 

There is a way to change the media view to display in order of recent comments. It is not the default (like the old site), but it is just a button click away.

 

On my end, after changing that, all it did was show what had the most comments in greatest to least order.