Future Timeline – General Updates

[wjfox]

A thread for mostly general stuff about this forum and the website as a whole.

Right now I'm updating our RSS feed, which is currently down, as Feedity has now changed to New Sloth.

I don't use RSS myself, so I'm not 100% clear how it works (!). However, below are the details if you need to update your feed.


OLD feed:
http://feedity.com/futuretimeline-net/VVFXVFdV.rss (no longer functional, as of 28th July 2021)

NEW feed:
https://app.newsloth.com/futuretimeline-net/V1dV.rss

[wjfox]

Below are some ideas for general useability improvements on the main site. Not only could these improve the user experience, they could also boost our search engine optimisation (SEO).

1. "Back to top" buttons
We already have a link at the bottom of each page, but I think it would be useful to have an actual button that appears when you're scrolling, with an option to return to the top at any time. Many of the timeline pages are incredibly long now, and badly need this.

2. Latest updates - section links
On our main updates page, below the large white heading, I want to create four buttons (each 25% width), linking to each of the main update types, i.e. predictions, blogs, features, plus a "view all" tab.

3. Dropdown sub-menus for timeline sections
This is mainly for mobiles/tablets, but I think the section navigations at the top of the page could be improved with dropdowns, instead of the current (static) boxes and links. It would make the timeline pages a bit slicker, less cluttered, and requiring less scrolling.

If you can think of anything else, please let me know. Thanks!

[wjfox]

1. "Back to top" buttons
We already have a link at the bottom of each page, but I think it would be useful to have an actual button that appears when you're scrolling, with an option to return to the top at any time. Many of the timeline pages are incredibly long now, and badly need this.

Right, that's done now (for the timeline pages. I don't think blogs or anything else needs it).

[wjfox]

2. Latest updates - section links
On our main updates page, below the large white heading, I want to create four buttons (each 25% width), linking to each of the main update types, i.e. predictions, blogs, features, plus a "view all" tab.

That's done too now. (you might need to refresh the pages).

[wjfox]

Just experimenting with some new ads. Sorry if they're too intrusive. It might take a few days to get the balance right (it's run by AI).

[Ozzie guy]

Just experimenting with some new ads. Sorry if they're too intrusive. It might take a few days to get the balance right (it's run by AI).

I noticed when you use the website with an adblocker it now tells you to turn it off.

My feedback is at least for me this was good I obviously love the site and it has always slipped my mind to whitelist it after getting an add blocker a couple of months ago. It may have slipped my mind as I have mostly just used the forum of late which I don't believe has adverts.

Edit: I am mentioning it as I think a ton of people would be happy to get adverts and just naturally have an add block on.

[wjfox]

Yeah, I noticed that message appearing the other day, even though I never asked Ezoic to include it.

Nobody has complained, so I guess I will keep it, for now.

Btw - the reason I switched to Ezoic is because our Google ad revenue basically dried up. It was getting to the point where this site was costing more to run (hosting, bandwidth, stock images, and other costs) than the revenue being generated.

Thankfully, Ezoic is much better, a lot more customisable, and with great customer support/advice too. I will never go back to AdSense.

I also had concerns regarding Google's data privacy and GDPR compliance. For this same reason, I'm also in the process of changing our traffic monitor, which is now almost complete.

[wjfox]

Temporarily disabling adverts on the main site, as they're hammering our SEO/traffic.

After a great start, Ezoic has turned out profoundly disappointing.

I might ditch adverts altogether and just try donations for a while, e.g. Patreon, or a PayPal link. If anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

[wjfox]

Also, I'm looking at merchandise again. I think a good option might be Printful UK (with global shipping).

[Time_Traveller]

Also, I'm looking at merchandise again. I think a good option might be Printful UK (with global shipping).

Look forward in buying a tshirt/hoodie or 2 when you do get it up and running.

[wjfox]

3. Dropdown sub-menus for timeline sections
This is mainly for mobiles/tablets, but I think the section navigations at the top of the page could be improved with dropdowns, instead of the current (static) boxes and links. It would make the timeline pages a bit slicker, less cluttered, and requiring less scrolling.

Working on this today/tomorrow. ChatGPT is helping me with the coding!

[wjfox]

All done.

https://www.futuretimeline.net/videos/m ... design.mp4

That's for mobiles, but I made a slight improvement for desktop, too. You'll see little white "previous" and "next" chevrons, along the dark blue menus – see e.g. 2030. The 21st century years all have this now. I'll do 22nd century/far future and beyond at some point, when I get time.

[wjfox]

I tried changing the word filter so "X" links are converted to Twitter, but it doesn't seem to auto-embed the tweet.

Here's a test...


https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1792894082060087601


And here's another, this time actually typing the word.

So it seems you have to manually type it to embed.

[wjfox]

Tweets don't seem to be embedding at all now... wonder what's going on.

[Powers]

And here's another, this time actually typing the word.

So it seems you have to manually type it to embed.

I can see this.^

I tried changing the word filter so "X" links are converted to Twitter, but it doesn't seem to auto-embed the tweet.

Here's a test...


https://x.com/Rainmaker1973/status/1792894082060087601

Can't with this.^

[wjfox]

This site might be down for 30 minutes at some point, either today or tomorrow, while we upgrade to AlmaLinux 8.

[wjfox]

I found a way to reconfigure phpBB so that links from X.com will now embed the same as Twitter.com.

So, from now on, you shouldn't need to manually change the URL before you post.

Below are two examples. The first is using X.com, the second is Twitter.com. It's working for me, anyway. Let me know if any problems.

[wjfox]

Gonna try to add Bluesky embedding when I get time.

[wjfox]

Increased the height of mChat from 300 to 500px, and the maximum displayed messages from 10 to 15.