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Poster: ARossi Date: May 4, 2015 12:05pm
Forum: texts Subject: The new archive.org site

Hi everybody,

As you may already know, we've been working on a new version of the archive.org web site. It became available as a beta in November of last year, and started being more widely used in January.

You can read a blog post about the new site that explains reasons for the change and talks a little about some of the evolution the site has seen.

About 94% of archive.org users are using the new web site today. We can see from anonymized statistics that more people are playing and downloading files (now called Views) , more people are creating accounts and favoriting (bookmarking) things. So taken as a whole, the new site is doing really well.

But we realize that for people who use this site on a regular basis, the changes may not be seen as positive. To be clear, NONE of the following has changed: the content, the search engine, the upload process, or download numbers (called Views now).

We will be asking people to try the new site this week (or try it again, if you've already seen it). For a limited time you will still be able to exit the new site (exit button in the upper right corner) to return to the classic view, but we encourage you to give us feedback. If there are things we missed or areas of confusion, we want to address them. The classic site will go away at some point - we cannot maintain both indefinitely - and we want to make sure the new site serves your needs.

There are several videos about the new site that should answer most functionality questions. Jeff Kaplan and I are happy to answer questions in this thread as well.

Thanks,

Alexis Rossi
Director of Web Services

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Poster: TL7 Date: May 18, 2018 2:48pm
Forum: texts Subject: Classic site

I would still like, if the legacy design, which gives a library-like look-and-feel, could still be accessed via a voluntary style chooser. Edit: Ah, yes, I can not stand rounded profile pictures.
This post was modified by TL7 on 2018-05-18 21:48:19

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Poster: altviewstv-fanclub Date: Nov 27, 2016 9:06pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

I love the new site. Is there a way to "unfavorite" something tho? Nothing happens when I click the star on something I've had favorited.

Thanks!

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Poster: Jeff Kaplan Date: Nov 28, 2016 9:34am
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

yes, that should work. there is a bug that is scheduled to be fixed. just not sure when.

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Poster: Mr Cranky Date: May 8, 2015 6:03pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site and the data

As a disappointed user of the new site who's own collection has received only negative comments about the BETA I am interested in the 94% happy users and their activities. Would the Archive make the anonymous data available?
Especially interesting would be the geographic location of the new accounts being created, the visit numbers and longevity of new accounts and the access time such as local morning, noon or night.
Let us not forget that the electric sheep downloads are program driven and the numbers do not indicate real human interest. Or that the Servici uploads of 2011 were not due to popular demand.

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Poster: BNRToast Date: May 12, 2015 1:28pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site and the data

A lack of response says all you need to know. But the data is available to admins.
Just review this chart of the exit "will you try it again" Y/N answers.


Attachment: It_could_taste_beta.jpg

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Poster: Mandojammer Date: May 13, 2015 9:08am
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site and the data

Awesome.....more bandwidth for me when I come back.

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Poster: Mr Cranky Date: May 12, 2015 3:02pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site and the data

Thanks for the chart image. Is this concurrent or stacked data? If this is stacked data then it looks like two to one against retrying. Do you have access to the numbers?

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Poster: stbalbach Date: May 7, 2015 8:02pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

In the "classic" site, search terms are highlighted in the results. This is missing in the new site. It's the main reason I have not switched as it helps in visually filtering false positives.

Search terms are how the "relevancy" sorting is done by the search engine. Just as the search engine determine relevance, so does a person. But without highlighting it's impossible.

Stephen

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Poster: ARossi Date: May 8, 2015 6:11am
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

Hi Stephen,

Yes, we'll be putting that feature back in to the list (text) version of the results - look for it coming soon!

Thanks,
Alexis

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Poster: stbalbach Date: May 8, 2015 9:26am
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

Wonderful! Thank you

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Poster: garthus1 Date: May 7, 2015 9:07pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

Even though I do not like the new site, I can understand some of the changes for the 'normal' users. But why change the upload part of the site. We do not need a fancy web page to do uploads and this will only slow things down. Also, the problem with showing videos, audios and the book reader on the same page was never addressed, will that feature be added back into the new site? This functionality would be much more useful than say the infinite scrolling thing.

Why not just leave the classical site there for those who want to use it, you do not have to support anything, just leave it the way it is..

8,190 lines of code on a page; can I just create my own front-end and access the archive database directly, this would eliminate much of the problems and criticism about this so-called new look?

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Poster: micah6vs8 Date: May 4, 2015 12:08pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

Please restore full functionality of a users past posts. One used to be able to access all of of ones past posts. Now, you can only go back three months. Going further results in a "missing argument" error. Jeff gave me a work around, but it should be fixed for all. Many users have posts going back five or ten years that they can longer access.

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Poster: ARossi Date: May 4, 2015 2:20pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

Hi,

Thank you for reporting this, the bug is showing up in both versions of the site. We'll get to fixing it as soon as possible.

Thanks,
Alexis

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Poster: T.Collins Logan Date: May 22, 2015 9:43am
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

Hi Folks,

I am really at a loss here. All of the books and articles in my Library were uploaded in DjVu format. This was for many reasons (DjVu portability across all platforms including Droid and iPhone; searchability; better handling of images than EPUB or Mobi; low file size; etc.), but the BIGGEST reason by far was that Archive.org had a server-based DjVu reader option and NO NEED TO DOWNLOAD the file.

Now, not only has the DjVu reader option been eliminated, but DjVu files cannot be directly downloaded. Why? What possible reason could there be for this decision? PDF, Text, EPUB and a host of other formats CAN be directly downloaded with one click, but DjVu content is only available via Torrent unless a user clicks on the "SHOW ALL" link. This creates two extra steps for downloading DjVu files.

So again...why the penalization? What possible justification is there for doing this, other than to discourage folks from submitting files in DjVu format in the future???

I actually like the new interface...it seems well conceived and attractive to me. But the sacrifice of core functionalities for DjVu files seems arbitrary and punitive. DjVu is an excellent format...so why can't users download it in just one click? Or better, view the files online...?

I look forward to your response.
-T.Collins Logan

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Poster: Jeff Kaplan Date: May 22, 2015 11:29am
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

it actually is downloadable in the ALL FILES page at https://archive.org/download/PolEcoUnitive we're aware of the failure of the djvu applet. right now staff constraints prevent us from addressing every bug. not saying it's not important, just saying that we'll fix it when we can.
This post was modified by Jeff Kaplan on 2015-05-22 18:29:00

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Poster: T.Collins Logan Date: May 22, 2015 11:30am
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

Thanks for the quick reply, Jeff. And yes I'm quite aware of that link and I actually referenced it in my post. Here's the problem: when I refer users to the root page of any DjVu works (i've uploaded many over the past 10 years), they cannot find the DjVu files, and are, apparently, intimidated by Torrent. They report back to me that the files are simply not there. This is the experience of the average user (because they don't know where to look...or how to dig). So...why not list the DjVu files along with EPUB, PDF, etc. on the root menu of the resource? Why must users dig for them instead? I'm bewildered by this choice...Would it require more staff time to list a DjVu link on the root page than it does to list an EPUB or PDF link? Please advise.

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Poster: Jeff Kaplan Date: May 22, 2015 12:43pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

well, i'm not on the design team but i'll mention it to them. i agree with you, it should be on the details page.

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Poster: T.Collins Logan Date: May 22, 2015 12:47pm
Forum: texts Subject: Re: The new archive.org site

I appreciate the advocacy. Thanks Jeff.