I don't like the new popup windows

[winkle]

I don't like the new popup windows for news / tournament results.

 

The main reason I dislike it is because resizing doesn't work. When I click the corner and drag, half the time it is unresponsive to the mouse movement. Then I release the mouse button but that doesn't stop the resizing. I have to click again to stop resizing. I've tried this on chrome, IE, and firefox and I get the same behavior.

 

I find the news popup windows too big, no doubt exacerbated by the inability to resize.

 

I also dislike that the windows are now inside the BBO client.

[barmar]

This is how it has always worked in some browsers (IE and Safari, I think). We changed it yesterday to work consistently across all browsers.

 

To drag it, you have to use the title bar, not edges. You can resize it by grabbing the bottom right corner.

[barmar]

I now see the resizing problems you're describing, we're working on it.

[jdgalt]

I hate having them inside the BBO client. They're an interruption to doing other things on BBO (with the old version I could move the main window in front of them).

 

Also, the down arrow on the scroll bar can't be used at all. Clicking anywhere near it gets interpreted as a resize attempt instead.

 

Please roll back the whole thing to the previous version and don't restore it until you make it possible for individuals to opt out (and the same goes for any more gratuitous UI changes ever).

[mink]

Some BBO news are a little bit longer and require some attention. I used to logout from BBO prior to working through them. When I try this now, the window with the news disappears. I cannot see any advantage of these new windows. Please change it back to the old windows that were independent of the main BBO window.

 

Karl

[barmar]

The problem with the independent windows is that popup blockers may block them.

[barmar]

We made improvements over the weekend that should address the resizing problems.

[GreenMan]

The problem with the independent windows is that popup blockers may block them.

 

The problem with the non-independent "windows" is that they're a lot less useful.

 

I've got popup blockers all over the place and never had a problem with the old windows. At what point do you decide the least common denominator is too low and start expecting people to have some minimal level of competence at configuring their browsers? Frankly, I'm less likely to enter tournaments now because the new popup window is more annoying than helpful, and if it's a close decision I'll just say the hell with it.

[uday]

Frankly, I'm less likely to enter tournaments now because the new popup window is more annoying than helpful, and if it's a close decision I'll just say the hell with it.

 

You're talking only about the popup at the end of the tourney?

 

In an ideal world, would you rather

 

1. Have a user preference to use an external window as opposed to these 'internal' windows we're now using on Chrome and the secondary browsers (used to be this way only on IE/Safari)

 

2. Assume that Chrome/FF users are more sophisticated, and will know how to handle blockers?

 

3. Not have a popup after tourneys at all, and click on the tourney results button in 'Hands and results' or 'completed tourneys'

 

4. have a text message sent to you via chat, which you could click on or not, post tourney, instead of the popup?

 

There are a couple of issues w/external windows. The blockers are a big part of it. But also that if you click on the main window, it is easy for the tourney results window to get lost behind the main window, esp. if we're in full screen mode. I know how to find it and I assume you do too but it is hard to know exactly where our lowest common denominator lies.

 

Uday

[GreenMan]

Thanks, Uday, for the thoughtful and helpful response. I guess my priorities would be 4, 1, 2, 3.

[Siegmund]

Long as we're having a poll... 4>3>2>1 for me. I would rate #4 better than going back to the old way.

 

The popup blockers are really very straightforward, in my experience - a nice "do you really want this to pop up?" query from your browser the first time and it remembers the answer - so worrying about people having trouble with blockers wouldn't have been on my radar screen. Except, perhaps, as a reminder to the programmers not to use extra windows (of either type) in the first place if it can be avoided.

[barmar]

We have a lot of users who are not very computer literate (consider what the median age of bridge players is). I'll guess that very few of them subscribe to the forums, so a poll would be very skewed against them.

 

I happen to have one of them in my family. I showed my mother Video Bridge last night. She couldn't find the bidding diagram until I told her to look at the top right. If it were to display something about a popup being blocked, she'd be lost.

[GreenMan]

We have a lot of users who are not very computer literate (consider what the median age of bridge players is). I'll guess that very few of them subscribe to the forums, so a poll would be very skewed against them.

 

I happen to have one of them in my family. I showed my mother Video Bridge last night. She couldn't find the bidding diagram until I told her to look at the top right. If it were to display something about a popup being blocked, she'd be lost.

 

This is the sort of thing I was thinking of when I mentioned LCDs -- how many of this sort of user there are vs. the more tech-friendly ones, and the relative merits of catering to one level over another. Information is always appreciated. :)

[diana_eva]

Some BBO news are a little bit longer and require some attention. I used to logout from BBO prior to working through them. When I try this now, the window with the news disappears. I cannot see any advantage of these new windows. Please change it back to the old windows that were independent of the main BBO window.

 

Karl

 

For news that are not just a one-paragraph system notices we added a shortcut to "open this article in your browser".

[palabreur]

I have another issue with the new style. I'm in an old version of Firefox for windows (3.6.28) (there IS a reason I'm not updating, but that's not important). In my version, the title bar doesn't appear for the "popups"; so I can't close them (AFAIK) and have to restart the client each time one shows up. Annoying when I'm in a robot speed game.

 

When I first saw the new style, I did search through for an option to change back. I think any of Uday's 1, 3, or 4 would be a good solution. Tough to know what will satisfy the most people; my personal ordering would be 1>4>3>2, but I recognize that 1. creates issues for computer illiterate users.

[cloa513]

Why not just have the news in a standard website format- not through the BBO client?

[barmar]

I have another issue with the new style. I'm in an old version of Firefox for windows (3.6.28) (there IS a reason I'm not updating, but that's not important). In my version, the title bar doesn't appear for the "popups"; so I can't close them (AFAIK) and have to restart the client each time one shows up. Annoying when I'm in a robot speed game.

I was able to reproduce this, but not figure out what's causing it. We're probably going to implement a user option for popup style, you'll have to wait for that.

[palabreur]

I was able to reproduce this, but not figure out what's causing it. We're probably going to implement a user option for popup style, you'll have to wait for that.

 

Thanks for looking into it; I can just use IE in the meantime.

[barmar]

Thanks for understanding. FF 3.6 is a small fraction of a percent of our userbase, so it's hard to justify spending much time trying to fix it.