We’ve been experimenting over the past few weeks with a number of improvements to the site, and we’d like to invite everyone to preview it at http://www.youbemom.com/beta/. Now I know some of you are going to freak when I tell you that part of this update includes some minor changes to the look and feel of YB, but before you flip out, I want to say a couple of things that I hope will help put you at ease:
1) This is a preview, and as such we’re putting it out there for you to play with and tell us what you like, dislike, or think could be better. It’s far from done, and we’ll continue to refine it over time.
2) We’ve tried very hard to keep the behavior of this beta site consistent with the current one while introducing a number of enhancements. If you notice something about the beta site that is significantly different, let us know. It’s possible that it was an unintentional change that we overlooked.
So What’s New?
A quick rundown:
- My Favorites - you can save posts permanently in a separate favorites list instead of having your screen be cluttered by stickies. You can access your favorites by selecting “My Favorites” from the view pulldown menu.
- Unsticky All there is a link above your stickies to clear them all in one shot instead of having to click into each post to unsticky it.
- Highlight New Posts Since Last Refresh - New posts or replies since the last time you refreshed will have a little purple asterisk next to them, even if the post is collapsed. It’s helpful when watching posts with a lot of replies where you want to quickly find the newest replies.
- Collapsed Stickies - stickies will finally stay collapsed even if you log out and log back in.
- Hiding Posts and Replies to Posts - by clicking on the hide button for a post or reply, you can collapse and hide parts of a thread. Use this to close posts or portions of your post that go off-topic or get taken over by trolls.
- Embedding Multiple Clickable Links - if you put multiple links in your post message, they will all become automatically clickable. Just makes sure you include the “http://”.
- (Hopefully) Improved Safari Support - the new design should allow for keyboard scrolling that wasn’t supported on the old YB.
We All Have Issues
We’ve already gotten some feedback and identified some issues from users:
- refreshing with F5 in IE does not return you back to the top of the screen (note clicking the refresh button will return you back to the top) *fixed*
- Some Mac users are having problems with the bullets not drawing properly or showing grey/black boxes on the screen. *fixed*
- Post numbering on IE6 repeats from 0 to 9. *fixed*
- Permalink dates go back to 1969 *fixed*
I’ll continue to keep this list updated as we go. I also want to remind you all that you can continue to use the current site at http://www.youbemom.com/forum/ if you are having too many problems with the beta site. (But please tell us what those problems are first!)
I love you.
I will stand by you, whatever changes you make.
I love the idea of stickies staying collapsed.
You RULE.
you have a phd in awesomeness. Thanks for being awesome.
Overall I’m OK with the new look, the look and feel is mostly like the old UB/Old YBM…One thing, on a usability point: It was great having the “reply” button be all the way on the right, it made it easy to move to and click on. But now, having a huge, different color button (”add to favorites”) in that prime location is terrible, especially since it won’t be used anywhere near as much as the “reply” button.
Please rethink the placement of the “add to favorites” button, and even reconsider shortening it to “favorite” or “make fav.”
Thanks for all of your hard work, I truly love the site!
@WebDesignMom,
Thanks for your comments. The reason we used the coloring and placement for the favorites button was to allow for additional buttons in the future (flagging posts etc). Having a row full of blue buttons started to get difficult to distinguish.
I know users are used to reply being at the end and the change in color was also meant to help with that problem. I'll take a look at reworking it.
- YBM
Wow! Great — thanks!
I miss having the page numbers at the top of the page, as well as the bottom. I personally use them alot and it’s a pain to scroll all the way down to use them. Just my two cents. Thanks for all your hard work!
@rock on, Curious what you mainly use the page numbers for? - YBM
Thank you for continually improving our experience. I like the changes.
Thanks for swapping the “add to favorites” and “reply” button
I still think that the “add to favorites” button is just way to big, especially for a button that will get used far less than the other buttons, don’t you think? I like having the functionality, but it’s minor compared to the other every day type of usage.
Also, it doesn’t really need to be green…I understand why you made it green, but by that same logic, “sticky” could be yellow, because a post that has been sticky’d has a yellow star next to it…and then the future “Flag Message” button would be red, or purple…It’s cool to have different color buttons, but watch out, it could create more problems than it solves…and the next thing we know, YMB might starting looking like Rainbow Brite!
So, my suggesting is to make it blue, and as I said above, shorten it to “favorite.” It will fit in much better that way.
FYI, I use the page numbers at the top to quickly get to page 2 or 3 when a topic has fallen off the main page (that I haven’t sticky’d)…But as long as I don’t have to scroll down to access them, it doesn’t bother me too much to have them at the bottom.
And finally…The “Ybm blog update” bar looks a little fuzzy, and kind of gets crowded and lost in the way top right…I’d float it in the center of the top bar (but not anchor it to the top)…It will be more visible, and less crowded…And, you could tighten that real estate up there by a few pixels by moving it to the center, and not stacking it.
Anyway, sorry if it sounds like I’m micro-managing
I do this for a living, so I can’t help myself 
Thanks again for your GREAT work, and for listening to and considering feedback from us!
-WDM
Will you be adding the option to change the timezone? Also, what about being able to clear only certain posts from our posting history?
Love all the work you do for us - THANK YOU!!
I would love an option to collapse all stickies. Sometimes I like to hold on to stickies to refer to another time. It would be great to collapse them all at once, rather than one by one.
You are amazing!
Help. I cannot clear my post history. I keep hitting “clear my post history” under settings, but IT IS STILL THERE! I have only posted once but I am afraid to post any more if all the posts are going to remain at the top of the page every time I log on.
@Sarah, it sounds like you are referring to Stickies, which are simply posts you are keeping an eye on. If you want to release a sticky, you can click on the post and click the "unsticky" button, or you can click the "unsticky all" link at the top to clear them all. - YBM
Hi,
Just a quick FYI - I’m running Opera on XP and it looks funky…
http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=x56t6s&s=4
@Preznit Bush, thanks for the pic. It looks simliar to the issue Leopard/Safari users are having. I'm experimenting with another solution that does away with the clickable bullets, which appear to be the cause of the problems. - YBM
I’m having a problem posting from the beta site. The reply box is under the “about this site” button, so when I try to send the post I can’t click the reply button and end up on the “about this site” page. I’m on a Mac, using Firefox. I’d like to use the Beta site though, it looks great
@zaz, sorry you're still having problems. Would it be possible for you to send a screenshot? You can email it to support@youbemom.com. btw what version of Firefox are you using? - YBM
Even though I have the beta site set to the smallest font, it’s bigger and the lines are more spread out than it used to be–I prefer fitting more type on the screen. Any way to get it smaller? Xtra small setting? Thanks!
@banana, will you try logging off and logging in directly from the beta site? Then go to your settings and make sure "sm" is selected. There are some issues switching between beta and the regular site which I am still trying to iron out. The sm font size should be identical to the regular site's 11px font. - YBM
Thanks for the hide function…just love making trolls go bye-bye
hey.
only one thing. im on a mac and use safari and my reply button cannot be seen. i hit return so its working, but the entire bottom of my message box (including the reply button) is obscured. unable to scroll to it either.