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  • CrazyEngineers Gets Brand New Home Page!

    Kaustubh Katdare

    Kaustubh Katdare

    @thebigk
    Updated: Oct 26, 2024
    Views: 1.3K
    CEans,

    We're happy and excited to introduce a brand new homepage for CrazyEngineers! A lot has been done under the hood and this post will give you a quick overview of what's new -

    New Home Page:

    We moved all our articles (VoiCE and Small Talk) from our old system (WordPress) to our community forum section. The new home page now shows our news items on the front page with an uber-cool showcase and latest engineering / technology news updates below it.

    Login From The Front Page Itself:

    Until now, the front page remained a separate section of CE and users could login only from community home page. But not anymore. You will now be able to register / login from the front page itself and receive alerts / notifications etc. while browsing our VoiCE aka News articles.

    Search Box searches everything:

    Not many are aware, but search box on our VoiCE pages couldn't search the community discussions and our community search couldn't look into our VoiCE posts. But now, everything's under one roof and that means the search box can look everywhere 😀

    Comment On VoiCE with your CE Account:

    This was one of the most requested facility on CE, but wasn't possible because of two different systems powering our content. But now, you will be able to comment on VoiCE / News articles using your CE account.

    Your threads can be promoted to list on the front page:

    One of the coolest features - if you share an important news article, it can be promoted to the front page! So VoiCE isn't now limited to just a few authors. We'll of course put up a few restrictions on what goes on the front page.

    This is just the beginning...

    Why make these changes? Because all these changes are useful to our members. We've a ton of exciting stuff planned in coming days. Of course, we'd be tweaking stuff in the next few days 😀 Your comments / questions are all welcome.
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  • Abhishek Rawal

    Member • Mar 10, 2013

    It looks very neat.Trust me, It looks better than before.

    The_Big_K
    Comment On VoiCE with your CE Account:

    This was one of the most requested facility on CE, but wasn't possible because of two different systems powering our content. But now, you will be able to comment on VoiCE / News articles using your CE account.
    I always had trouble in logging with DisQus.
    If my memory is not weak then I remember in between DisQus was removed & some new feature was enabled which was better than DisQus.
    But this ? This is Awesome !

    The_Big_K
    Your threads can be promoted to list on the front page:

    One of the coolest features - if you share an important news article, it can be promoted to the front page! So VoiCE isn't now limited to just a few authors. We'll of course put up a few restrictions on what goes on the front page.
    Awesome!
    This gonna be fun - I'm looking forward to this 😁
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 10, 2013

    Our earlier setup had two different systems handling the blog and the community. Now it's just one. Yes, we used 'Disqus' comments system and it didn't sync with user logins of our community. But now, that problem is gone.

    Plus we had to create content at two different places. If we had to write a gadget related news, we had to write it for VoiCE and then create another version of it in our gadgets section. It resulted into duplication of content.

    With the new system, we create content in just one place and it reflects in user's account (post count, likes, ratings etc.)

    Please note that not all the screws have been tightened yet. We'll be fixing stuff in the coming days while we prepare for our next big launch 👍
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  • ISHAN TOPRE

    Member • Mar 10, 2013

    Good, that was simple. Now commenting will be no problem. Yet, the earlier design of voiCE page looked better.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 10, 2013

    Issue
    Good, that was simple. Now commenting will be no problem. Yet, the earlier design of voiCE page looked better.
    We had to compromise on the functionality for the looks. The current setup uses a uniform layout all over, alerts, login, inbox, comments, search -> which outweighs the looks. 😀
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  • Anoop Kumar

    Member • Mar 10, 2013

    Much awaited account integration feature implemented👍
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  • ISHAN TOPRE

    Member • Mar 10, 2013

    But is it impossible to have the features of wordpress on CE? We can be partial for the blog posts.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 10, 2013

    Issue
    But is it impossible to have the features of wordpress on CE? We can be partial for the blog posts.
    Which features of WordPress do you want on CE? We do have most of the features working just the way. Tags may be launched, but it's currently a pending decision.
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  • Pensu

    Member • Mar 10, 2013

    Nice. The front page now looks neat and simple. And the integration is awesome. Commenting with CE account is a superb idea. Loving the changes....😀
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  • ISHAN TOPRE

    Member • Mar 10, 2013

    The_Big_K
    Which features of WordPress do you want on CE? We do have most of the features working just the way. Tags may be launched, but it's currently a pending decision.
    To name a few-
    1. Customization. We can customize our wordpress account. We can decide how it should look. Can you launch some layouts for CE?

    2. Blog post should be distinguishable compared to normal posts.
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  • Abhishek Rawal

    Member • Mar 10, 2013

    Well,
    I just want to say that #-Link-Snipped-# , I have seen gradual decrease in "Guests member Online".
    I always stay up whole night, there are always around 250 guests members online, but it has decreased to 75-100 right now.

    I hope we're again (like before) due to page layout update/change not losing the Rank in Google.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 10, 2013

    #-Link-Snipped-# : We'd be losing on Google Rank - which is expected. We once had 1200 simultaneous visitors online which came down to 400 after there was a massive rise in JavaScript errors on the site we couldn't control.

    After much thought, we've decided to ignore Google and do stuff that matters. It's going to affect the traffic and registration rate. But those aren't on the top priority list at the moment. Had we relied on Google for growth, we'd never be able to do what we're going to do in coming days.

    It's a very hard decision but necessary keeping in mind what we're going to do in future. The only way to get more visitors now is to contribute deep, rich, original content on the site. The faster it's done, the faster will be recovery.

    #-Link-Snipped-# : The move from WordPress to Community was a hard decision taken to standardise the layout - which shouldn't change frequently. The front page now pulls content from community and shows it in a 'blog' or 'article' format.

    The display of blog posts is different, much like what we had on WordPress. See: <a href="https://www.crazyengineers.com/threads/videocon-4g-in-india-this-year-hurrey.66961">Videocon 4G In India This Year! Hurrey!</a> . It's basically a discussion thread displayed in an 'article' layout. Even the comments to it are displayed differently. We'll of course make minor changes to how it looks but don't expect major changes in coming days to the looks.

    The current focus is shifting attention from Google / Traffic and doing what we should have done much earlier. We've made a lot of progress on that front in the last few days, and I'm expecting to make a new announcement very soon. Fingers crossed.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 10, 2013

    Alright - I had messed up a redirect rule that led all the search traffic to land on the error page. It's now been fixed and search traffic should land on their respective pages. I had somehow blocked Google spider too - which is a clear indicator of lesser sleep I've had in the last few days.

    I request all the members to PM me the things they find out of place. We're still making changes to the system. No major changes, but small tweaks hear and there.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 10, 2013

    It'd be great to have CEans commenting on the changes. Good bad ugly pretty - whatever you feel - share it here 😀
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  • lal

    Member • Mar 11, 2013

    The best of all the updates, what I think, is the ability to comment with CE id on VoiCE posts. Looks are pretty descent and neat. But personally I wish the side bar isn't there for VoiCE pages.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 11, 2013

    lal
    But personally I wish the side bar isn't there for VoiCE pages.
    Sidebar basically is meant for two purposes -
    • Have the login buttons / sponsor banners display on important pages.
    • Maintain a uniform look.
    Once the user loggs in, he's presented with the user profile, recent threads etc. We're working on new goodies 😉 for which sidebar is very important.
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  • lal

    Member • Mar 11, 2013

    Just wished it was there not on the VoiCE pages. I wouldn't mind who all are online or who are the sponsors or even wouldn't like to see my profile when I've visited the VoiCE just to read news about new technology and engineering.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 11, 2013

    I understand. But we need to offer a 'sign-up' option to those who might become members 😁 . I however hope that with our next update, you will appreciate the usefulness of sidebar.
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  • CE Designer

    Member • Mar 11, 2013

    Great work! I love the 'Kaizen' attitude here.

    My comments:
    • I love the preview widget on the home page. Its very cool and classy👍 It gives the impression of a large enterprise
    • I feel a little could be done with the color scheme. Contrasting colors between the background and foreground will bring emphasis to the threads and will help the user focus. Also, it will be more aesthetically appealing.
    • Great idea for allowing user comments on VoiCE
    • Search All function is so user friendly
    Thank you to our Admin/Leader and Mods for your hard work.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 11, 2013

    Thanks #-Link-Snipped-# . Yes, I'll make cosmetic changes in the next few hours/days. Currently monitoring the load on server and it seems to be just as normal. We've caching enabled so it should speed up the things.

    I'd appreciate feedback on loading of the front page. Is it 'slow' or just alright or 'fast'? (It does a ton of things when loaded).

    I'll also rebuild search index tonight, which should help our search engine find all the stuff more efficiently and speedily.
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  • lal

    Member • Mar 11, 2013

    The_Big_K
    I understand. But we need to offer a 'sign-up' option to those who might become members 😁 . I however hope that with our next update, you will appreciate the usefulness of sidebar.
    Looking forward to it 👍

    Seems like you are having too much coffee these days ☕ to fight the sleep 😁
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 11, 2013

    lal
    Looking forward to it 👍

    Seems like you are having too much coffee these days ☕ to fight the sleep 😁
    Well, yeah. Typically updates of this type aren't easy. One mistake and you're down. We suffered a lot traffic wise in September for some stupid reason. So was being very cautious this time with every minute change.

    I hope members here will contribute amazing discussions and posts so that we attract even more CEans.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 11, 2013

    Update: I forgot to mention, but the URLs have all changed. Those who remember, all the community URLs began with /community/ . Now, the site structure is more logical.

    Threads now begin with /threads/ , forums are available through /forums/ while the overall community is located on /community/ . 😀
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  • CE Designer

    Member • Mar 11, 2013

    The Home page is loading surprisingly fast for me.
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  • Gurjap

    Member • Mar 11, 2013

    Comment On VoiCE with your CE Account:

    This was one of the most requested facility on CE, but wasn't possible because of two different systems powering our content. But now, you will be able to comment on VoiCE / News articles using your CE account.

    Spot on!! Here's to TBK, the best admin around!!
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 11, 2013

    I however am not seeing comments on our latest VoiCE posts just as fast as we should have them. 😀

    Looking forward to all your comments. I hope CEans will be more expressive 😀
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  • Jeffrey Arulraj

    Member • Mar 11, 2013

    I am of this opinion You guys made me shut my mouth in awe I was literally dumb founded on seeing the new Home page Hats off to all who worked tirelessly for this
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  • Rupam Das

    Member • Mar 11, 2013

    A very good jib nicely done!
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 11, 2013

    Good to know that our most active members have liked the new homepage. It's still being tweaked and improved.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 11, 2013

    Alright - #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-# - It'd be great to have you as commentors on the VoiCE articles that we write. Suggestions on improving the coverage of topics and any other related feedback would definitely be a huge plus.
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  • Abhishek Rawal

    Member • Mar 12, 2013

    The_Big_K
    Alright - #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-#, #-Link-Snipped-# - It'd be great to have you as commentors on the VoiCE articles that we write.
    Sorry Biggie,I was(am) busy somewhat due to Technical/Cultural fests & also upcoming MidSems.
    But whenever I will get free time,I will undoubtedly start flooding the posts 😀
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 12, 2013

    Troll_So_Hard
    Sorry Biggie,I was(am) busy somewhat due to Technical/Cultural fests & also upcoming MidSems.
    But whenever I will get free time,I will undoubtedly start flooding the posts 😀
    Yo brother! 👍 I've made trolling easier by removing the 50 char limit (just preparing for the upcoming mobile style 😉 )
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  • CE Designer

    Member • Mar 13, 2013

    Will do Sir. Anything I can do to help.
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  • Kaustubh Katdare

    Administrator • Mar 14, 2013

    Quick Update: I've made some speed improvements to our front page and overall threads. We now serve all images through a content delivery network from Amazon. Should speed up stuff by a great deal. 😀
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