[FSPA] Just like FSPA--Fwd: Pinball News Update

Wed Aug 9 17:03:25 EDT 2017

Just like FPA--Pinball news is migrating to a modern site.   I really liked the old one, but I’m sure they will do great!

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: "Pinball News Update" <updates at pinballnews.com <mailto:updates at pinballnews.com>>
> Subject: Pinball News Update
> Date: August 9, 2017 at 4:14:52 PM EDT
> To: pmcglone at erols.com <mailto:pmcglone at erols.com>
> Reply-To: "Pinball News Update" <updates at pinballnews.com <mailto:updates at pinballnews.com>>
> 
>  <http://www.pinballnews.com/index.html>
> Hello and welcome to a special  Pinball News <http://www.pinballnews.com/index.html> Update e-mail.
> 
> Traditionally in these Update e-mails I begin by bringing you up-to-date with the latest Pinball News articles. Well, while we have been working on lots of new reports from our team of talented writers - all of which you can see on the website by clicking the logo above - the main focus of this particular Update is on the website itself.
> 
> Pinball News began back at the end of 1999, at a time when data speeds were slow, displays were low-resolution, and browsers were fairly simple products without much to do except display basic text, place a few small images here and there, and maybe display a short video if you had the right codec installed.
> 
> Nearly eighteen years later, everything has changed.
> 
> Websites are as likely to be read on phones or tablets as on desktop computers, data speeds and allowances are way up, displays are HD, Retina or 4K in a multitude of different shapes and sizes, and live or pre-recorded videos are everywhere.
> 
> I've been wanting to refresh the Pinball News website to take advantage of these advances for some time, but have been waiting for many different factors to come together before putting the serious time needed into such a major project.
> 
> The key thing was to get the design right, so that we can put the important information out front with other useful helpers close-by, but not making the page appear cluttered or visually confusing.
> 
> I wanted to allow for bigger pictures and videos to help tell our stories, have a better search facility and make navigation easier so you can find what you want, allow comments on every page, make the site work better on mobile devices, have easier social media connections, and generally give it a fresher, more modern feel.
> 
> But there was always the problem of having the resources to do it.
> 
> Finding the time in-between adding new content to the existing website to research the options, set up the new system, try new ideas, reject many of them, find new bugs, and then try actually creating some articles in the new format has been challenging.
> 
> But I am pleased to let you know we are well on our way, and very happy with the way it has turned out. 
> 
> So I wanted to give you, as a subscriber to the Update newsletter, the first look and the opportunity to give me your thoughts on what you like and dislike.
> 
> We have nearly 2,000 existing articles to convert to the new format and more than 37,000 images, so I want to make sure we've got the new look as good as it can be before we get too far down the line.
> 
> So far I have converted the past year of articles to the new format, but to show you how they look, I'm going to have to finally break out of this 600-pixel-wide yellow box...
> 
> Urgh...
> 
> ahhhh...
> 
> almost there...
> 
>  
>   
> There, that's better isn't it?
> 
> The new website is wider, allowing us to show more reports and bigger pictures, add a side-bar with useful information and tools on it such as a summary of the next pinball shows coming up, a way to send us a message quickly and easily, the latest new articles, a search box, a way to sign up to this Update newsletter, and more.
> 
> Want to have a look? OK, here we go...
> (We have scaled these images down a bit, so if any appear a little pixelated try clicking it to open it in a new tab.)
> 
>  
>  <http://www.pinballnews.com/new-website/New-Pinball-News-Design-Desktop.png>
>   
> We have moved the menu from the side to the top, where it stays at all times. That way it is always available and takes up less space, allowing more room for articles previews and lots of other useful information.
> 
> Certain categories on the menu - such as News, Shows and Games - have pop-up previews of the most recent articles as well as dedicated pages showing all the reports in that category.
> 
>  <http://www.pinballnews.com/new-website/news-top-five.png>
> The Pinball News logo is the 'home' button, and a small arrow appears on the bottom-right of the screen when you have scrolled a little way down an article so you can fly back to the top in a single click.
> 
> There's also a progress bar running along the bottom so you can see how far through the current article you are, an approximate reading time is shown at the top, along with the published date and author details, and - with this being the age of social media - we have easy-click buttons to share reports with your friends or visit the Pinball News presences on other sites.
> 
> The full page is somewhat taller than that image above., showing the sixteen most recent articles, with next/previous page controls to see the next groups of sixteen.
> 
> We wanted to keep the spacious, uncluttered look while trying to make sure the features you use most are easily accessible, improving them where we can.
> 
> One area where there we have made huge improvements is the Pinball News Diary.
> 
>  
>  <http://www.pinballnews.com/new-website/New-Pinball-News-Design-Diary.png>
>  
> It is now fully auto-updating, always showing the next events at the top and in the side bar. Each event has its own page with address and links details along with a Google map.
> 
> In the main Diary page you can choose from various list, month, week and day views, and filter events by country or region so you can only see events in the USA, or in Europe, or just in Germany, and/or only those with IFPA tournaments, and/or only European Championship Series events, and so on.
> 
> You can even send tournament or show details to your own personal calendar for reminders.
> 
> The Directory has been converted too, as have the Links, Video and About sections.
> 
> Finally, I said earlier how reading on mobile devices is now so commonplace. So, the new look is fully-responsive to different screen sizes and aspects.
> 
> Here's the top part of one of the mobile versions, with the menu collapsed to the top left.
> 
>  
>  <http://www.pinballnews.com/new-website/New-Pinball-News-Design-Mobile.png>
>   
> So if you've thought we've been a bit quiet recently, that's what we've been working on over the Summer instead of heading to the beach.
> 
> Want to try it out for yourself? I probably shouldn't, but.... OK then. But please keep it to yourself as I have no idea what impact this will have on the existing site.
> 
> Because the new site is still in beta and running on a shared-server it is going to be slooooow at serving pages (another reason it needs to be kept private for now), so don't worry too much if it takes eight seconds to load a page. We're working on getting a much faster host.
> 
> It also mostly contains the original images in each article, so they will be smaller than they will be in the future and you'll find a few yellow backgrounds on some of them. You will also find some things link back to the old site. That's mostly because the linked pages haven't been converted yet, but all links will be updated to the new site in due course.
> 
> They important thing for now is the look, how the site works for you and if you have any suggestions to make it better.
> 
> Try it out by clicking here <https://wp.pinballnews.com/>
> Now it's over to you.
> 
> What do you think about the new look? Does it make things easier to find, or harder? Is the focus on the articles, or does it look a bit too gimmicky?
> 
> As I say, it's still a work-in-progress (after all, what pinball software is ever released in a fully-working state these days, right?), but that means we can still make changes if there's something important missing, we can tweak anything to make it better, or if any aspect just doesn't feel right.
> 
> Just reply to this message with your thoughts.
> 
> I can't promise to implement every idea or reply personally to every message, but all feedback is genuinely useful and gratefully received.
> 
>  
> 
> And with that we return to the 'classic' yellow box to bring this special Pinball News Update to a close. 
> 
> Thanks for reading about our plans. We look forward to your comments and, as always, until the next time we wish you very Happy Flipping.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Martin Ayub
> Editor, Pinball News
> www.pinballnews.com <http://www.pinballnews.com/>
> 
> Got any ideas about how we can further improve this Update e-mail or the website?
> Or maybe you've got an article or an idea you think we'd like? 
> Get in touch and let us know your thoughts <mailto:Editor at pinballnews.com>.
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> ................................................................
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