CrazyEngineers Layout Update - We're Back To Square One
CEans,
You're aware that CrazyEngineers is sailing through troubled waters at the moment and that has made us rethink everything we've been doing for the last few weeks. Regular readers are aware that our CE experienced a sudden traffic drop around 4-5 September and since then; we've abandoned almost every other plan we've had and working on finding out what went wrong and what needs to be fixed. We first thought that it was the useless tags that we removed from our blog and then discovered a nasty issue with the comments system we had. Those issues have been fixed; but we were forced to re-consider our decision of introducing the sidebar on all the pages of the website.
The sidebar was introduced to offer some more information to the readers; however we're thinking that it may not have been the bestest of our moves. Though there are very valid reasons we want to use the sidebar, we've currently decided to remove it and revert to our original layout.
We acknowledge that adapting to the changes isn't always easy, but we're counting on you to keep your faith in CE and be with us as we fight our way back.
Dancing to search engine's tunes is exactly what we've been doing for the past ~2 months and that has took us away from the things we love doing - building and growing this community. That needs to be fixed and we're taking steps in that direction. That will ensure our long term sustainability as well.
Removing the sidebar and getting back to the earlier layout was the last thing on our list; but we're convinced that it could have been one of the things that might have affected us.
Switching back to older layout does not mean we're compromising on anything. Our usability analytics show that 'What's New' link at the top is still the most used to get the new discussions and < 30% of the people used the discussions listed in sidebar to keep track of the latest threads posted on CE. We really need to find out something more interesting to add to the sidebar so that our members can use it.
The Good Great News
We've commenced on one of the most important projects that we had planned for CE and while we do have deadline decided and work in full progress; I'm holding off myself from announcing it. As our tradition goes - we'll make you happy with surprises.
Let's get back to making this place better than ever before and a very useful resource for all our fellow engineers.
You're aware that CrazyEngineers is sailing through troubled waters at the moment and that has made us rethink everything we've been doing for the last few weeks. Regular readers are aware that our CE experienced a sudden traffic drop around 4-5 September and since then; we've abandoned almost every other plan we've had and working on finding out what went wrong and what needs to be fixed. We first thought that it was the useless tags that we removed from our blog and then discovered a nasty issue with the comments system we had. Those issues have been fixed; but we were forced to re-consider our decision of introducing the sidebar on all the pages of the website.
The sidebar was introduced to offer some more information to the readers; however we're thinking that it may not have been the bestest of our moves. Though there are very valid reasons we want to use the sidebar, we've currently decided to remove it and revert to our original layout.
We acknowledge that adapting to the changes isn't always easy, but we're counting on you to keep your faith in CE and be with us as we fight our way back.
Dancing to search engine's tunes is exactly what we've been doing for the past ~2 months and that has took us away from the things we love doing - building and growing this community. That needs to be fixed and we're taking steps in that direction. That will ensure our long term sustainability as well.
Removing the sidebar and getting back to the earlier layout was the last thing on our list; but we're convinced that it could have been one of the things that might have affected us.
Switching back to older layout does not mean we're compromising on anything. Our usability analytics show that 'What's New' link at the top is still the most used to get the new discussions and < 30% of the people used the discussions listed in sidebar to keep track of the latest threads posted on CE. We really need to find out something more interesting to add to the sidebar so that our members can use it.
The Good Great News
We've commenced on one of the most important projects that we had planned for CE and while we do have deadline decided and work in full progress; I'm holding off myself from announcing it. As our tradition goes - we'll make you happy with surprises.
Let's get back to making this place better than ever before and a very useful resource for all our fellow engineers.
0
