honewatson

If you have your own server or vps I would look into Sphinx Search. It is vastly superior to any MySql based fulltext search. It can be configured so that domain ids are attributes which means you can then have global or search or filter by domain id.

To give you an idea of how scalable it is Craigs List uses it for its millions of custom searches per day.

I haven’t tried upgrading to WordPress 3.0.

In theory I don’t see why the SharDb plugin wouldn’t work with multi sites since each different multi site domain blog still has its own blog_id in wp_blogs. SharDb uses the blog_id to obtain the ShardDB hash.

I would maybe store the menu as html in wp_sitemeta db table if its the same html every time.

I might look into this further but I suppose you need to combine the wordpress rewrite api and the template_redirect action hook to get this working.

@fesworks

Thanks for the tip on the drop down menu. I like the overall feel of this plugin and will make some additional changes for my own users.

@janeforshort

Thank you for your work on WordPress and your efforts to improve the experience for everybody.

My aim was to offer feedback and criticism which is the name of the forum. I offered alternative view points regarding specific aspects of the UI throughout both my responses and gave specific reasons why.

I reviewed my responses and in the context of this forum name I don’t know how you can consider either of my responses baiting. I acknowledged that Otto was entitled to his view point. I also acknowledged that my viewpoint is subjective in my response.

I know that it hurts when people criticize hard work. Naturally you want everyone to like and feel great about the work you did, but the name of the forum is feedback and criticism.

Being able to openly offer feedback and critiques is an important aspect of a products continued improvement.

I have one final idea to offer.

WordPress TinyMce comes with an ‘Advanced’ button which offers additional functionality when clicked. Perhaps this concept could be applied to the overall WordPress Admin where menu items such as the Settings Page, the Plugins Page etc are toggled when an ‘Advanced Settings’ button is clicked.

@otto

That’s it? That’s the best you got? That the word “Title:” is missing on the left side of the title field is the deal breaker for you?

What’s the point in having a feedback forum if the moderators are just going to bait people Otto?

For my own situation where I regularly have new users the problem is legitimate since I have had an increase in support requests from not only experienced users but also new users.

As for your other responses we’re comparing your subjective opinions to my own.

You’re entitled to your view that the grey looks more professional but I think it just looks dreary. For as long as I can remember the UI has been some kind of blue. It seems like a radical departure from the branding and changes the overall feel of wordpress. On what basis was this decision made?

The problem is the best features of CrazyHorse UI which made the UI better were replaced in 2.7 by untested features. It seems like somebody thought that the CrazyHorse UI was simply better because the menu was on the left hand side.

I wouldn’t go that far. The menu was reworked and the look was different, but the UI is functionally very similar to the CrazyHorse test.

And it’s important to remember that CrazyHorse was a TEST. Not a finished product. It was testing usability, not aesthetics. In fact, CrazyHorse was downright ugly, IMO.

Interesting point Otto. Let’s compare it to one of your first responses on this thread.

Most people prefer the left-side menus, because there’s no searching through tabs that way.

To me this confirms my original point. Changing the menu to the left was not necessarily the most significant benefit of CrazyHorse. The most beneficial aspect of the CrazyHorse UI was to simply have a large ‘Write Post’ button in the the top left part of the UI.

This is now gone.

Instead the short cut is placed in the top right of the screen which is not a natural place for a westerners eye to view.

I reiterate that CrazyHorse UI is different and the changes made to 2.7 drastically effect some of the benefits gained with the CrazyHorse UI test.

There are three main actions for the majority of uses:

1. Write Post
2. Edit Posts
3. Moderate Comments

Having three big buttons in the top left corner for these three activities would drastically increase usability and intuitiveness for both new and experienced users.

The Icons are worthless in adding usability and in fact can inhibit it.

Having the Icons in the menu mean that there is less room for the words and therefore the fonts are smaller.

Better to have no icons, bigger fonts, and faster load times.

I find the long left hand menu a pain in my 15.4 inch laptop and even worse on a netbook. Constant scrolling.

But that’s not all.

1. In theory there may be a benefit that you can get to anything because its only 2 clicks maximum away but I for me its difficult find and see anything with the new left hand menu. The overall effect of the left hand menu is poor readability. Others have confirmed this experience.

2. Most of the items in the left hand menu are probably accessed less than 5% of the time users are in their wordpress admin. I’m talking about plugins, settings, pages etc. Why have these in the main menu when all it does is clutters the menu and makes it more difficult to see and access the main tasks?

That’s my feedback.

Meanwhile I’m starting my own Admin UI project for WordPress.

@otto42

Sorry but I disagree with you Otto.

I was neutral towards the 2.5 change in UI.

The CrazyHorse UI study perhaps justified a UI change. The problem is the best features of CrazyHorse UI which made the UI better were replaced in 2.7 by untested features. It seems like somebody thought that the CrazyHorse UI was simply better because the menu was on the left hand side.

Many of the developers (myself included, but not *all* of them, obviously) are of the opinion that having extra options like this actually hurts usability in the long run. Especially when those options are somewhat useless.

Customizable is not necessarily better, as many, many years of user interfaces and “skinning” has proven. It leads to a disbalanced and fragmented user base, with different customized interfaces causing too many choices for the newcomer.

This point you make here is contradicted by the jquery sortable UI included in 2.7. Users can now customize their admin layouts extensively with drag and drop. A multitude of plugins also have always provided further changes to the admin.

Not only can you drag and drop but you also have the ‘screen options’ which allows you to leave out or include UI blocks.

Adding the ability to drag the menu to the top for horizontal or including the ability to select that in ‘screen options’ is a relatively minor addition in functionality considering all the core to required to make that happen is already there.

Some new aspects of the UI are just plain poor.

The worst new aspect is the “Add New Post” completely replaces the “Title” label for the title field on the add new post page.

For new users there is nothing to hint what the title field is for. You just have to guess that the title goes there.

Was it really necessary to make the default grey?

I think the flash uploader functionality is fine.

However, having the flash uploader in a thickbox is completely unnecessary. The new flash uploader could have been kept below the Post Content text field. An anchor link to the Uploader would have been good at the top of the post editor so that new users could find it more easily.

To clarify I am comparing the new interface with the interface used in the usability report. (Crazy Horse)

On what basis were the changes to Crazy Horse made?

You cannot claim the original benefits of Crazy Horse apply to the new theme. The new theme simply has too many differences to Crazy Horse in terms of clarity.

This thread is not for debating whether the new interface is better than 2.5.

Due to canonical URL’s WP_Rewrite is really inconsistent.

Canonical sucks.

Thanks for the tip shift this

Naming the file exactly the same as the template name worked for me.

Javascript based Analytics like Google Analytics can never be 100% accurate because many people have javascript blockers installed on their browsers.

https://www.google.com/search?q=javascript+block+analytics

Around the middle of the following article there are some interesting comments on analytics, tracking and accuracy.

https://www.marketingexperiments.com/improving-website-conversion/increase-conversion-technology.html

Are you sure? I’m from Australia. Anyway I know of a guy who does mysql optimization which you could talk to.