new tour - your feedback? (tech only)

[garionhall]

Normally Abby'd make this kinda post, but it's my job now. Hope I don't mess it up!!

We have a new tour! A bunch of our guys have been working on it for the last month to make it the best we can. Before we go live with it (which means, any people who come to abbywinters.com, this is what they'd see, instead of our old tour), we'd like you guys to help us make sure it's compliant, and that it works. We'll start another thread later covering image and video selection, text wording, punctuation and so on - right noiw, we're only interested in technical issues - browser compatibilities, JS or flash issues, naviation, broken links, logic errors etc.

We have been through it many times to make sure it's perfect, and we reckon we're there... but we hope that you guys can help us make it have even less errors!

When reporting a fault, please let us know:
(1) operating system name and version
(2) web browser name and version
(3) screen resoloution
(4) if flash video issue, flash version

A few known issues:

(1) if your screen res is 1024x768, you will not see the navigation tabs on the right
(2) the VNL streams as soon as you hit the front page of the tour. ATM, it opens with the VNL intro, but future ones will just slam straight into the host talking

the URL is: http://www.abbywinters.com/tour_svn/tour01.php

thanks!

[MightySpork]

Hello, I went through all the pages using both Mac Firefox and Safari, and the layout is consistent in each. I didn't open all of the pics and vids, but everything I did open was there and played properly.

I wanted to make a suggestion regarding the naming of the downloadable image and video files. It might help the viewer if all of these files had a consistent text string -- like "abbywinters" or "aw" -- at the beginning of their filenames. Many viewers will download these into a folder with a lot of other files (probably the Desktop), so making the files easy to spot later on helps everyone. Also, it puts the "abbywinters" brand name in one more place, and that never hurts.

[casgrain]

Window XP Pro, Window IE 7, 1024X768, flash 10.1 or 9.0 not sure.

All the pictures works, and all flash streaming except on page 17 where it's all blurry on not viewable, even seems to be a repeat of the one on page 5.

Haven't read the text though.

Hope that helps.

I seen many things that are not on the site yet, even a possible old one like Carla & Matilda (DIM), and a few others that looks interesting.

[Frans]

At what resolution should the tour be viewed (minimum) ?

Oh.. there is a spanish tour as well

I know you wanted only techy stuff but I have a short memory so I'll mention it now; I noticed that your refer to ggt1 as 'Girl on Girl Play' on page9 and as 'Girl on Girl Fun' on page10? Good idea to get rid of the numbers though

Flash works fine for me, Opera9, WinXP. You might want to increase volume on the bellydance flash (page10).

Other clicks/links appear to work fine as well, including bio-pages and such.

You sure Anneke&Jilly is a good example of tier two though??

Where did that Matilda & Carla DIM come from btw? It looks a bit grainy (both flash and wmv), I wanted to see if the on-site vid was better but it's nowhere to be found?

Page19 'Testomonials' doesn't have any testomonials (or review links and such) ? It's a nice page on ethics/AW-corp but not on testomonials so much

Is 'Intimate Masturbation' the new term for 'Intimate Moment' btw?

p.s. what javascript is there to test?

[Webdude]

Window XP Pro, Window IE 7, 1024X768, flash 10.1 or 9.0 not sure.

All the pictures works, and all flash streaming except on page 17 where it's all blurry on not viewable, even seems to be a repeat of the one on page 5.

Haven't read the text though.

Hope that helps.

I seen many things that are not on the site yet, even a possible old one like Carla & Matilda (DIM), and a few others that looks interesting.

Thanks for pointing out the flash issue on page 17, it seems to have been isolated to just the 900k version, you will be happy to know it's fixed now.

[arsby]

(1) WinXP v5.1 SP2
(2) Firefox v2.0.0.11
(3) screen resolution 1440x900
(4) flash 9.0 (I think, or 3.6)

I opened it without sound, I'll bet some of the punters will do that, too.

I did NOT read anyone else's notes.

Everything went swimmingly, no glitches or hangups. Love the navigation down the right side.
A couple of notes:
- I don't think that picture of Maddy is good for the front page. She looks like she's wearing white-face makeup on a page where we're talking about "natural".
- "Girl on Girl" - Which of these images don't belong? The Yoga girls should be on next page.
- "Girl on Girl Fun" - I think this should be called Girls Naked Together, or Naked Girls Having Fun. Girl on Girl doesn't describe it well.
- "Masturbation Video" - Call up a video, the 'x' to close it is on the left! In my version of Firefox where I'd expect to find the 'x' in the upper right is the "block this window" option. Confusing.
- "It's Your Site" - I glanced over it and missed the part about making your own lists. I think you should start the paragraph between Site Lists and Custom Zips with Make Your Own Personal Lists.
- "Testimonials" - ...are other people telling you how wonderful you are. This section should be called something like We're Hard-Working and Honest. A real testimonial page with people saying things like "This place is awesome!" would be a good idea.
- Does it say anywhere that all of the photographers and videographers are female? And thus can make the models comfortable and thus do better as models?
- Does it mention the forums anywhere? Didn't see it.

[doinel]

Only a question out of curiosity: why do you offer a tour in Spanish as only alternative to English? Do you hope to attire new members in South America?

doinel

[Abby]

we would like to get members in spanish speaking countries. Later, we plan to do other translations.

[MightySpork]

As a Web designer myself, I'm always leery of pages that play sound immediately upon loading, as your new tour start page does. When this topic comes up in online conversation, the consensus seems to be that automatic sound is not popular (see links). Automatic sound can also draw unwanted attention, which might startle some users into ending the tour before it's even gotten started.

http://selfhelpsalon.typepad.com/painless_self_promo/2007/02/do_people_like_.html

http://jyte.com/cl/websites-should-never-ever-ever-under-any-circumstances-play-sound-without-my-permission

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=2557912

http://webdesign.about.com/b/2007/04/26/poll-do-you-have-sound-on-your-web-pages.htm

http://www.cre8asiteforums.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=42572

[Frans]

we would like to get members in spanish speaking countries. Later, we plan to do other translations.

Ermm.. but most models don't speak spanish? Or do you plan to provide subtitles? What about all the other text on the site, profiles, today-raves and such?

[bookmanz]

Windows Xp SP2
Firefox/2.0.0.11
reso 1152x864
Tour screens and navigation worked great for me too!

Mightyspork, normally I would agree 100% with your comment about playing sound immediately being jarring. On most sites that is true. But the video newsletters that AW are producing are wonderful, I personally can't imagine a person not giving the site a try, from just watching a VNL. Since this in an entertainment site, I don't think it jarring at all, but to be expected. I know all the sports sites are playing sound immediately when you arrive to a page.

[arsby]

Anyhow, the people who get jangled by unexpected sounds usually learn to keep their sound off. Like me.
I can't imagine someone surfing for porn with the sound on getting startled by the sweet voices of our models.

[Abby]

Ermm.. but most models don't speak spanish? Or do you plan to provide subtitles? What about all the other text on the site, profiles, today-raves and such?

No subtitles for videos, but all the text would be translated, is the plan.

[Abby]

I wanted to make a suggestion regarding the naming of the downloadable image and video files. It might help the viewer if all of these files had a consistent text string -- like "abbywinters" or "aw" -- at the beginning of their filenames.

A great idea, we'll do that for sure - thanks!

[Abby]

At what resolution should the tour be viewed (minimum) ?

We have coded it to work at 1024x768, which is the minimum, but it looks a hell of a lot better at higher res's. At that minimum, the tabbed nav does not appear properly, but the tour works fine without that.

Is 'Intimate Masturbation' the new term for 'Intimate Moment' btw?

It is on the tour.

thanks for the rest, we'll address them.

[Abby]

arsby, great feedback, thanks. We'll implement most of it.

[oncall]

(- "Masturbation Video" - Call up a video, the 'x' to close it is on the left! In my version of Firefox where I'd expect to find the 'x' in the upper right is the "block this window" option. Confusing.

Not on the tour but same thing happens when I open up the Video Newsletter every week. It is hard to quickly close the video if you are watching it where little one's can walk into the room, as I always go to the top right to click on the closing X

oncall

[sue-ann]

I know you said technical only --but I can't resist sharing that it's 10:30pm here and I just came twice while flicking through this HOT tour!! Love your work garion!

[Frans]

Some verrrry minor techy errors;

page1, video-newsletter div (line 246) needs px specified for both width and height (strict mode wont default to that) :

<div id="video_newsletter_container" title="Video Newsletter" style="width:345px; height:194px">

And a tiny spelling mistake in flv.css (which is fixed on the mainsite already I think);

CSS - http://www.abbywinters.com/tour_svn/cms_files/flv/flv.css
Line 46:
   margin-right; 2px;

(need a colon instead of semi-colon after 'margin-right' there)

And 'zoom: normal' isn't a standard CSS property, nor is the class it's in (fixbug) used at all?

[yusanord]

New tour works very well for me.

I was about to say that when watching flash videos in full screen mode, sides get "cut off" a bit, but then I noticed same thing happens in every flash video, not only on this tour alone.

Is it only me or does this happen to others too ? I have a wide screen monitor so it isn't the reason.

yusa

[Deustopaz]

Excellent tour

Windows XP
Cable Modem
1280 x 1024 screen size

I had no difficulties with any of the links/pics/vids on the tour pages, and as always the picture/video quality was excellent. I realize its probably to technically complex, but i thought it would have been nice if i could flip through the different pages of the tour while the newsletter was playing. just a thought.

[Frans]

but i thought it would have been nice if i could flip through the different pages of the tour while the newsletter was playing. just a thought.

There is quite a lot of information on those tour pages. Are you really able to both follow the (spoken) Video News Letter and read the densly packed tourpages? I'm honestly wondering, because I don't see myself doing that easily

[arsby]

There is quite a lot of information on those tour pages. Are you really able to both follow the (spoken) Video News Letter and read the densly packed tourpages? I'm honestly wondering, because I don't see myself doing that easily

That's why the highlighted words on each page are important. Give yourself 5 seconds to read the following paragraph:

All the prospect really wants is lots of free pictures. If they start getting interested, then all they really want to know is whether there's lots of stuff behind the password wall, how much it's updated, and whether it's not a bunch of junk like so many other sites he's gotten ripped off by. Abby and the gang have to assume the prospect will give each page about 15 seconds. So what's highlighted on each page becomes really important, because that's how they'll decide whether to subscribe.

All the unhighlighted stuff is for those careful customers who'd like to see how the site treats its subject.

[Frans]

Few pages have those highlights and I don't find them all the clearly to see. Not really sure WHY, the bold in your message stands out more to me compared to page1 for example. Possible 'cos of the slightly darker blue used as tour background?

Using a yellow (aka color-marker) background would fix that, but might be a bit too bright? Not sure, just that those bold parts don't stand out enough.

[Frans]

Something I read in the New Member thread, here to be exact.

Be sure not to make the new tour active before all shoots featured in it are online/released.