New BoonEx.com

Andrew Boon posted 27th of April 2011 in Boonex News. 89 comments.

As you may notice we've just updated BoonEx.com. The change is arguably the most radical we ever had, so don't be surprised if you encounter a few glitches here and there. We have to fix many of them on-the-fly (some things really need live data to be tested).

Anyway, with this update we're merging BoonEx and Unity into one system. There's also a new "Ads" offer that allows vendors to promote their products; "Like" buttons all around; new license management pages and hundreds of other small changes. We'll cover them in more details when dust settles.

 

Price Change

One of the most important changes comes with the new pricing policy. Click that fancy orange "Get Started" button in the top right corner and have a look.

Prime is cheaper and a bit different; Enterprise includes 3 Primes; currency is AUD.

The almighty American dollar failed us, unfortunately. We really tried to hold on to it, but as of late we get about 80 kangaroos for 99 greenbacks after PayPal cuts. We do hope that our restructured Prime and Enterprise offerings would make it up for US clients, though.

 

Other Changes

We will tweak the new setup quite a bit in coming few weeks. Some changes in search and browse functionality and Ads fine-tuning is planned. Feel free to comment if you see something that we should pay special attention to.

We hope you would enjoy the new BoonEx.com. Interestingly, it gives some indication of the "feel" we're trying to achieve in Dolphin 7.1 too.

 
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very nice template...and now the ads are back:)

i just ordered a ad but i cannot find anything where i can post a ad???
AntonLV
You may find your Ads using the following link http://www.boonex.com/ads/view We'll add the link in menu shortly.
ok thx....
i cannot enter my market posts url http://www.boonex.com/market/posts/ue30

i get the error:
You need to enter the correct URL. It should start from http://www.expertzzz.com/
AntonLV
The feature was updated try to use it now.
paansystems
really nice!
i like it ;)
Andrew Boon
Also check out the new commenting system. We're trying a multi-level approach with what we believe a more logical architecture.
VictorT
Great new look and different feel with it! ;)
tomakali
Cool, is this based on Trident by anychance?
I love this
saurav121
SUPPERB.... best part is BOONEX LIKE BUTTON
I want all these in DOLPHIN.. plz plz plz plz... :)
houstonlively
Yikes! Am I the only one that thinks this layout is a navigation nightmare? Do you guys actually think that having to scroll down the page to get to a menu item, is a good idea?
Andrew Boon
Yes, I think it's much better than clicking Unity and then looking for a submenu. All major parts are now instantly accessible.
houstonlively
Show me one popular website on the entire planet where you have to scroll down the page to get to a menu item.
Andrew Boon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolphin

also most Google properties, Facebook (especially if they were to use same font size), eBay, Amazon and many others.

We don't plan to use it for Dolphin, mind you, but it seems to suit BoonEx.com
saurav121
but there shud be an option to use vertical menu too on doplhin.. wat say
I really want this commenting system in dolphin and its really good to call blogs as notes .
dolphin_jay
Why must everything be based on whats popular... Its much better to be a leader then a follower I was told when growing up.
Andrew Boon
Indeed. We should see if this menu works well and if it doesn't we'll make it work better.
Andrew Boon
Play with it a bit more. We've been using this navigation for a few weeks and it seems to be much more handy. Also only the less frequently items like "Websites/Help/Trac/About/Contact" are at the bottom. if you don't see the top ones - you definitely need a new monitor. :)
houstonlively
My monitor is fine. It's a wide screen format where vertical space is at a premium. They are becoming pretty mainstream. You really should tighten up that menu a bit. There's a lot of white space you can get rid of without disrupting the layout.
Andrew Boon
Yes, as an option we could make it much more compact, but this size seems to work nicely for mobile/ipad screens. We'll see how it goes and may shorten it a little later. How much of it isn't fitting your screen?
houstonlively
About half the menu is off the bottom of the screen. This made it fit nicely, and it still looked OK. Besides... you should detect that your site is being accessed by a mobile device, and load different CSS.

div.sys-v4-mm-btn-cnt {
font-size: 14px;
font-weight: bold;
height: 26px;
line-height: 26px;
text-align: left;
text-indent: 0;
text-shadow: 0 1px 0 #FFFFFF;
}

div.sys-v4-mm-subitem div.sys-v4-mm-btn-cnt {
font-size: 12px;
font-weight: normal;
see more height: 20px;
line-height: 20px;
text-indent: 20px;
}
dolphin_jay
Hmm.. running 1920X1080 HD here and the menu seems to fit with room to add a few more links. What res are you running at now ?
houstonlively
It's 1366 x 768, a pretty popular screen resolution for laptops. You can see for yourself here:

http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=17&qptimeframe=Y

It might be a better idea to specify font sizes as a percentage, and line heights in em. I believe the layout will adapt better to different screen resolutions. It's really important for things to look good on, at least, the most popular screen sizes.
dolphin_jay
Ahh yeah i have not cracked open my laptop in almost a year now. I suppose i should just to see what the site looks like.
francisca_carv
:((( not the only one, no...but maybe women are just a bit more complicated...
danielmarseille
BoonEx always in motion - as you say this time - the change is the most radicial - a little surprised at my first visit, but I like
AndrewP
It would be nice to display only unanswered letters in top bar (instead display last 5).
Then, page http://www.boonex.com/market/members/top display 20 members per page. Try to change styles or display 24 members per page - will looks better.
Then same page don`t contain possibility to sort members like at http://www.boonex.com/market page
And, are 'Most Liked' option based on new Like system?
Thank you for your attention (design itself looks very good)
hd4real
Nice design

Bug:
Many forum topics from site search results give following error

404 Not Found
nginx/0.7.65
bojko91
very nice templatem, so simple. You are the best Boonex :)
prolaznik
where's the option to reset the license?...
corykthomas
Wow...this looks very cool. Go Boonex! Go Boonex! Go!
buzz_lightyear
Congratulations... It looks way better now...

I like the:
"The almighty American dollar failed us, unfortunately. We really tried to hold on to it, but as of late we get about 80 kangaroos for 99 greenbacks after PayPal cuts" ;)

Thumbs up..
Adminmysite
Not bad, but please fix up the market for easier navigation .I go to product categories, and the categories are all bunched up together like tags, impossible to find what you're looking for.
Thanks
Andrew Boon
You're very right. We're rearranging it as we speak.
nice template. BUT:
- no logout option, afer I log in
- the scroll downs of messages and notifications hide behind the account
- to get to my own profile is not very intuitive.

I rather ask myself, if there is any QA at boonex.

Best regards,
nilico
Andrew Boon
Logout and your own profile are accessible vie top-right ACCOUNT button drop-down. This method is becoming increasingly widespread.
That may be the case, but atleast wihtin IE9 the scrolldown is hidden behind the content in the foregorund in all views within the account. Sorry, but in that part the old design was better.
I tried it also with Opera and there the options you mentioned were visible. Leaves the question: with what browsers were the design tested?
Andrew Boon
It's still being tweaked, so we appreciate your reports.
DosDawg
where did the management functionality go for the licenses?

also, something is up with the count, it says i have 204 licenses, i can only account for 188 31 rows by 6 --> 186 then two on the last row --> 188
Andrew Boon
We'll check your licenses count. As for management - it'll be added ASAP. YOu'd be able to click on the license and manage in pop-over.
mstreet
Looks like i like ! Clean and fashion )
houstonlively
The navigation menu is the ONE thing that needs to adapt to ANY screen size. This one does not, and it's already driving me nuts.
Andrew Boon
You win :) and thanks for that.

We're making the navigation menu more compact - removing 2 items and making it shorter. Adaptable menu doesn't sound like a much needed feature at this point, though. Hope a shorter menu would work just fine.
houstonlively
Market navigation is awful
Andrew Boon
It is, indeed. We're updating it in short order.
silverado350
Yes the navigation is awful. Maybe consider setting it to a fixed position so we don't have scroll all the way to the top.
houstonlively
Still no page breaks in forum threads
LightWolf
Okay so now the "Blogs" are "Notes"? I'm with HL on this, not liking this new layout much...But am sure my opinion does not matter...
Andrew Boon
Yes, Blogs are Notes. This is more in-line with content type names in other modules.
kernelpaniker
This is a good step in the right direction for you guys. It's more intuitive.
Nathan Paton
With the increase of a like system throughout the site, I'm forced to propose a dislike system, as well. YouTube has a similar system, where you can either like or dislike a video, with statistics for this included with the video. If I dislike something, I shouldn't have a like button as my only option besides commenting (I'd like to both comment and dislike the item, but that's just me).
houstonlively
It's not cool to dislike something.
Andrew Boon
See, you figured how to dislike publicly, anyway. ;)

Seriously, LIKE is an automated way to say "I agree", or "thumbs up", which happens quite often online. If you dislike something however, and dislike it badly enough to want to do something but passing on this content, then the best idea to express your opinion in comment.
Andrew Boon
We plan to give more and more visibility to the most liked items and thus create a natural "dislike oblivion" without actual dislike button.
Nathan Paton
Also, I notice some moderation features are missing, such as hide links in comments, and the moderation section itself.
CALTRADE
I still don't know why you don't use Dolphin for the Boonex site. I didn't think anything was seriously broken with the site, but you fixed it anyway. I hope you will be able to get back to fixing the software we use now.
Andrew Boon
The side was long due for update - new pricing, Android app wasn't featured, new demo site, text updates, etc. We do continue working on Dolphin meanwhile.

As for using Dolphin to power BoonEx.com - this will happen eventually, but BoonEx has some very custom features, like license tracking, Agents, etc... that we are not prepared to build for Dolphin yet. We hope to converge everything into one system with Dolphin 8.
mods4dolphin
The new design looks pretty good. The overall navigation has become difficult especially for the market posts. It was much easier before to go through the market posts and ratings. Right now, it has become a little difficult in our opinion.

The navigation on the left is eating up too much space. It's always good to have navigation on the top in an horizontal fashion as that way the width of the page can increase readability.

Secondly, try to reduce the price for the ad posting i.e. $10/day, see more I think it should be $20/week or something...that would make it more affordable for the developers and help us promote our products.

Just our 2 cents as a mod developer :)
Nathan Paton
I wouldn't mind the navigation menu being on the side as much if it was more compact, and maybe had a drop-down button to quickly expand/close groups of menu items.

I also agree with the price of ads, mainly because I want to pay for ad space for my wonderful profile for an extended period of time.
Andrew Boon
Price of ads is quite temporary now. Eventually we plan to make it either auction or CPC-based.
Nathan Paton
And will I be able to advertise like, say, my profile?
Andrew Boon
any page within boonex.com domain
deano92964
I have to agree. $10.00AUD or over $11USD per day is to high. I will not run ads very often at those prices.
Andrew Boon
As you may guess it's supply-demand question. We will be updating the system to allow some flexibility.
silverado350
In all honesty....I hate it. I like the old layout much better. With this new layout I feel like I have to hunt for everything.The styling is too sterile, it needs some contrast. I really miss having the latest forum activity and Unity Activity Feed in the same page. Having the members displayed on the Unity page also seems like a waste of realestate. The market advertisers ads should be moved to to the right into a third column so it doesn't take up space that would be better suited for useful see more content.
jtadeo
Good to see the new update and looking forward to 7.1.
jtadeo
Been super busy with Dolphin and iPhone development. I put out a game at the App store and it did pretty good. Will ping you later. I was lurking more than anything.
Adminmysite
Please add activity feed in account page like it was.
LightWolf
You know I thought maybe since you all changed the site, you would have fixed the annoying 1 message that has been on my account for a few years now, even when there is NO messages..lol It's a small thing, but very annoying to say the least.
Nathan Paton
This is the first time I've heard of such a bug. Have you reported it before?
LightWolf
Yes I have many many times! Unless you spend a lot of money on this site, I don't think they even pay attention to you.
modzzz
I like the new look. There is one major issue that needs to be fixed quickly. There is currently no link to the product support forum when viewing the description page for a market product. You are able to specify the link for the support forum when add/editing the product but the link does not show anywhere after that.
davidverwayen
Congratulations!

Much better now (;

Great boonex Team
DolphinTemplate
I noticed one thing that in my opinion very unusual: In the new ad boxes you only allow links starting with http://boonex.com and no gif's.. That's to say the least VERY RESTRICTIVE and not many people will continue to advertise after they give it the first try.. I really must think twice before ordering any new ads.. If I want to spend something on advertising than make it worth and let me decide how to advertise. I think Google AdWords is the better option for me right now.. Boonex should try to see more get more clients not restrict their advertising possibilities in every way possible and turn them away..
deano92964
Are you eliminating support forums for the market products? I have set up support forums for pretty much all of my products, but the forum link in the market entry seems to have been removed from the market entry in this recent change.

Is this an oversight? or do you plan to drop support forums for the market products.
Adminmysite
Please update market navigation, impossible to find any products, plus when you click on the category links, you get page not found error.
Some good improvements - some serious bugs in your own administration system - not great for confidence - we upgraded to a 'Premium' account by paying $99 . . . .taken twice out of my paypal account . . . for some unknown reason . . . and then only got upgraded to 'Advanced' account . . . $5 worth of upgrade rather than the requested/paid for/accepted account!!!
. . . assuming this is a bug in your payment application components rather than anything deliberate . . . to further compound the see more problems we are experiencing - two weeks of trying to contact your 'support;' to get a refund of one extra payment and my account correctly updated and . . . . . . . nothing . . . . . thought Boonex was pretty cool until - it seems that you have to support your own clients . . . . you hit any kind of support or payment issue and the level of support is unacceptable to anyone who has worked in a service industry . . . especially IT/software delivery!!!

I turns out to be an almost impossible task just to find a contact email/(no phone number anywhere) or other way to communicate with yourselves, on the Boonex/Dolphin/Unity site. .. . except for a 'pre-sales' enquiry form which still received no reply . . but having parted with money which you have received, it is clear I am definitely not pre-sales - however the suggested alternative was totally unacceptable, . . . . I am not prepared to post my details/bank account/ etc etc on any public 'forum' help desk . . . site . . !!!
Can someone please help asap - please restore my faith in Boonex . . .
Stuart038
I have tried to find the order history so I can download a mod update.... Where is it? Also, I tried downloading an update directly from the authors site and it no longer recognises that I have purchased the product.... Stuart
annabel
I don't like it. Even more ... I hate it when every 3 or 4 months the layout of boonex.com changes. I found my way through the former version, now you come up with a new one.

It's just becoming a Facebook and Twitter generation look-alike.

The multi-level approach of comments is confusing, never liked that kind of approach.

Please spend your time in serious developing and solving problems instead of fancy stuff like this. It's nothing more than that ... fancy.
Andrew Boon
There's an option tab to switch comments to "Flat" view, which is more traditional and works better when you want to track the latest replies. Threaded comments are good for those ho wants to read all the comments the first time and see the conversation hierarchy.

Comments are important by the way and your input on them too, since we're likely to use them as a prototype for Dolphin 7.1 comments update.
blauswede
a few of my licenses disappeared from my account?
Andrew Boon
it's a reported issue - we're working on it and should resolve shortly. Sorry for inconvenience.
mihai
The add friend button - shouldn't be available when you are on your own profile.
:) Now you can be your own friend, and receive notifications for any action:)
please check http://www.boonex.com/mihai
and mihai's Friends - http://www.boonex.com/friends/friends/mihai
DeanMonte
Looks good. Can anyone help me with the video option/live video chat/uploading video in groups/google clock on pers pages don't work properly. I have a website and those features do not work. Is it the hosting company? Or could it be that it is an error in something else, or anything else please help. Website is QueLoQueQasa.com
 
 
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