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Open Room Flash Interface Support Will Be Removed 07/14/14

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News & Announcements: Open Room Flash Interface Support Will Be Removed 07/14/14

Created by: ronnie-uk

7/14/14 @ 6:05pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Location: London, UK
Posts: 2,381

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@ronnie-uk In terms of emoticons, you mentioned that they are less accessible in the new interface. Would you mind elaborating a bit on this point?

In the flash version I built the emoticon menu in columns vs rows so within the flash, the result was that the most common emoticons populated the left most column first and moved out to the right. Now it populates the top row down. Would you say that is what's messing you up?

Thanks for responding here, Doug.

Yes - the problem is that the most common emoticons are on the top row.

I have been trying the new interface again over the weekend. When I click to look at the emoticons box I often only see the bottom half of the box. So I have to scroll before I can even see the smile, laugh, kiss, thumbs up etc emoticons. I then have to move the cursor further to access those emoticons. That is a lot of effort for an "instant" response - each time!

The handiest emoticon to use at the moment is a guy in a leather jacket. I don't think I will ever want to use that

I think that reversing the top to bottom order will be a great start, and may be all that is needed.

On a positive note: I am glad that in the new interface there are no large emoticons which take up most of the screen and wipe out the chat. That was always a problem in the old interface.

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Created by: ronnie-uk

7/14/14 @ 6:18pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Location: London, UK
Posts: 2,381

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For you guys talking about the split chat justification and chat bubbles, you can change all of that within the font size menu.

You have two options in there. You can set the chat to be left justified and you can also turn the chat bubbles off with these settings. We introduced these settings a couple months ago for these exact reasons. Many of our customers still prefer the old way of displaying chat.

Once you make that change, those settings will be saved in cookies for you.

Thanks for responding on this point too, Doug.

As I clear my cache fairly regularly, I find I have to keep resetting these settings.

Having set them in open chat, I was disappointed that they didn't apply when I did a private show. I don't think there was an option to change the setting within the private show.

You say that many of your customers prefer the old way of displaying chat (ie left justified and no bubbles). Surely the best way of making the new interface acceptable is to make this the default.

It will also be a great way of showing that you are taking note of what "many of your customers" want.... :bulb

Those who particularly want split text and bubbles can choose that option from the font size menu.

You could still have split text and bubbles as the default for grays who haven't logged on, if you think it makes the site look newer and more attractive to first time visitors

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Created by: zyxwv098

7/14/14 @ 6:25pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Posts: 883

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Thanks for responding on this point too, Doug.

As I clear my cache quite regularly, I find I have to keep resetting these settings.

Having set them in open chat, I was disappointed that they didn't apply when I did a private show. I don't think there was an option to change the setting within the private show.

You say that many of your customers prefer the old way of displaying chat (ie left justified and no bubbles). Surely the best way of making the new interface acceptable is to make this the default.

Those who particularly want split text and bubbles can choose that option.

Again, I wonder how many new members prefer the new interface display to the old with the split text instead of left-justified. I accept that the proponents for left-justified may be more vocal, but is that because those who are comfortable with the split chat have no problems with it and thus have no need to speak up?

As for the emoticon issue, I find it easier to simply type out the characters for the emoticon than select the icons. It is less of a hassle to do so, rather than typing and then moving over to the mouse to choose the emoticon.

I guess that's my :twocents

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Created by: sly_old_fox

7/15/14 @ 12:49am (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Posts: 4

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On Monday morning, July 14th, VS Media will officially stop supporting the flash version of the open interface.

The move to the HTML5 interfaces was not an easy or quick decision as our flash interfaces have served us well for many years now. Though to ensure that we are providing the best experience for our customers, we decided to embrace newer technology and move forward instead of clinging to the old technology, possibly finding ourselves increasingly outmoded and unable adapt to the rapid and constant evolution of the web.

As a result, the new interfaces are much more intimately integrated with the rest of our site, allowing us to do new things which we weren�t able to do with a flash based interface that was isolated from the rest of our technology.

It has never been more convenient to start a private show than now with instant show logins and it wasn�t possible using flash. We were able to add side bar navigation so that we could consolidate all of your commonly used tools and enrich the interface with a more conducive experience. We made improvements to the way we communicate with our servers, allowing our customers much quicker access to live video and chat. We even got chat rooms to load quicker because the interface isn�t comprised of a single flash file anymore; the elements can be loaded at different times when they are needed instead. The list goes on, and it will continue to grow because we have many new features coming in the near future.

Some of our customers have expressed frustration with the change in our software and that is to be expected any time change is introduced. We have faithfully addressed your concerns so far and we will continue to address your concerns with the same urgency going forward. As always, our users are our best source of feedback and we place a lot of emphasis on your opinions. We have worked hard over the past few months fixing bugs, modifying features to better suit our users� needs and introducing new features that mark the beginning of our move forward with this technology.

We want to make this transition as convenient for you all as possible, so I encourage you to use this thread as a means to express your concerns, your problems and your ideas. We are going to do some great things with this interface and we want you all along with us on this journey.

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Created by: sly_old_fox

7/15/14 @ 12:52am (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Posts: 4

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cant you just change it so it does not look like a comic strip from a newspaper. juvenile looking.that is my big complaint. plus on my pc it makes the video 25% smaller.

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Created by: its__me

7/15/14 @ 3:49am (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Posts: 1

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Dont like the new interface at all
Have been on the site for over 10 years but thanks i am leaving it for what it is.
WHy don't you just let people have the choice of using the new or the old one.

I dont want the new one . its the end of f4f for me.

Bye bye

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Created by: sammiee

7/15/14 @ 7:01am (EDT) | UTC - 4:00

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new interface sucks. Unless can see options like, could using old interface, guess is latter for
you. :P

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Created by: ronnie-uk

7/15/14 @ 9:01am (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Location: London, UK
Posts: 2,381

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Doug - I have realised that the Need More Credits advert at the bottom of the open chat page is making the new interface experience worse. Rather unnecessary at this critical time.

For part of yesterday there was no advert, and the experience was distinctly better.

The Need More Credits advert affects the way that scrolling works, and makes the chat screen smaller and harder to follow. It is also the reason why I can sometimes see only half of the emoticons box.

Can I ask if this advert can be removed quickly and permanently, please? An advert which spoils the Flirt4Free experience causes members to spend less. That is surely self-defeating.

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Created by: loveable_1

7/15/14 @ 1:06pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Posts: 1

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Dear, mam, or Sir,
Flirt 4 Free has recently changed there interface. I was wondering if there is any way of going back to the old interface? Reason being, I have several of the models marked as favorites, and was able to view who was on line of my favorites, if I was in another models room. With the new interface I cant do that. It was nice they way the old interface was, as to where I had the choice to choose either the old interface or stay with the new one, but the new one, doesn't give me the option., So please either tell me how to get my favorites to show up, or give me the choice of using either the new interface or the old one.

Sincerely
loveable_1

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Created by: zyxwv098

7/15/14 @ 3:37pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Posts: 883

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Created by: wonderboi2009

7/16/14 @ 12:14am (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Location: Kansas, US
Posts: 417

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The new interface version of the offline room page still bounces to another random room.

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Created by: vs_doug

7/16/14 @ 1:12pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Location: VS Media Inc.
Posts: 196

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@ronnie-uk The advertisement hanger only appears for guests and users that haven't spent money or added a CC to their account. If you were logged in the first time and not the second, that would result in the ad showing up for you.

In terms of emoticons, rearranging them is a nice idea. Reversing the order so that the popular emoticons are at the bottom of the menu would ensure that popular emoticons could be accessed quicker.

@wonderboi2009 There is nothing within the javascript anymore that will automatically bounce a user from the offline page. I'm going to see if maybe another process outside the javascript is doing this. Thanks for reporting this.

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Created by: vs_doug

7/16/14 @ 1:28pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Location: VS Media Inc.
Posts: 196

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@Steve1222 We of course want you to stay and we do care that you're upset. So far you've mentioned a few things that you don't like as reasons you are going to leave:

The font colors are bad and it is difficult to read what the models and members are posting

Would you mind elaborating on this a bit? The font colors are very similar to the ones in the old interface, especially if you turn off the bubbles. Also, you have the ability to set the text to be left justified like in the old interface by changing the settings in the font menu. So I'm not sure what aspect of the new chat is making it more difficult to read the chat.

The new interface is user unfriendly

Please let me know what areas need improvement in your mind.

The new interface looks like a cartoon show

The artistic direction is different than the previous interface but you may be noticing that the entire site is shifting its design style and the design of the new interface complements this shift.

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Created by: vs_doug

7/16/14 @ 1:53pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Location: VS Media Inc.
Posts: 196

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@ronnie-uk I said many of our users like the left justified layout of the chat, not most. This was the reason for the addition of the chat format settings but it was also the reason for leaving split chat as the default.

I can understand with the nature of F4F why you would want to clear your cache often, especially for people with families.

I'm going to experiment a little bit and see what I can do about this so that your settings don't get killed every time you clear your cache.

I could use flash cookies to do this, though I would have to think about how I want to go about this.

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Created by: zyxwv098

7/16/14 @ 2:03pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Posts: 883

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In terms of emoticons, rearranging them is a nice idea. Reversing the order so that the popular emoticons are at the bottom of the menu would ensure that popular emoticons could be accessed quicker.

I am not certain that this makes sense. Ignorant though I am, I cannot think of any culture that reads things from bottom to top. Right-to-left versus left-to-right, yes; bottom-to-top versus top-to-bottom, no (I don't get why the chat display on my iPad stacks at the top despite the chat box being at the bottom, but that's beside the point). Rather than reversing the order of the emoticons, perhaps if the emoticon menu opened down instead of up, so that it drops down over the text box instead of up into the chat display? Someone adding an emoticon by clicking does not need to see anything typed in the chat box for those few seconds.

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Created by: ronnie-uk

7/16/14 @ 6:25pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Location: London, UK
Posts: 2,381

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@ronnie-uk The advertisement hanger only appears for guests and users that haven't spent money or added a CC to their account. If you were logged in the first time and not the second, that would result in the ad showing up for you.

Thanks for your comments, Doug

I'm pleased to say that the advertisement hasn't appeared on the open chat pages today.

I experimented yesterday, and found that it didn't appear when I used Firefox or Chrome instead of Internet Explorer. I have seen it several times when I was logged on as a VIP user (with credits in my bank and wallet). Perhaps you could make checks to ensure that it doesn't reappear.

In terms of emoticons, rearranging them is a nice idea. Reversing the order so that the popular emoticons are at the bottom of the menu would ensure that popular emoticons could be accessed quicker.

That is great to hear, Doug. I hope the change can be made quickly :thumbsup

I have seen zyxwv's alternative suggestion - which gives some justification for your original design choice! However, the tip box and the emoticons box both open in the same way and everyone is used to that. I don't really think this would be a good time to make them open downwards instead of upwards...

@ronnie-uk I said many of our users like the left justified layout of the chat, not most. This was the reason for the addition of the chat format settings but it was also the reason for leaving split chat as the default.

I can understand with the nature of F4F why you would want to clear your cache often, especially for people with families.

I'm going to experiment a little bit and see what I can do about this so that your settings don't get killed every time you clear your cache.

I could use flash cookies to do this, though I would have to think about how I want to go about this.

Good to know that you are considering the text justification and bubbles options further, Doug.

There are so many brilliant, and very complex, personalised features here (Screen Names, My Favourites, My Shows, My Lists etc) which we can access as soon as we log on. So I hope there is a way of remembering My Chat Settings ....

Cheers :drinkup

Ronnie

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Created by: vs_doug

7/16/14 @ 7:07pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Location: VS Media Inc.
Posts: 196

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@zyxwv098 I am considering a reverse order approach because the emoticon menu is displaying images versus letters or numbers that need to form an organized pattern like 1,2,3. The only thing I really need to do with the emoticon menu is make the most common emoticons as accessible as possible and the rest can be placed anywhere.

So when you start to think of it on those terms, making the order conform to the traditional standards (left>right | top>bottom) may not be the best solution.

Some users don't know or use emoticon text designators and instead, rely on the menu UI every time to get those emoticons, even the common ones.

When you start to think about it from this person's point of view, what's going to be easier for them when it comes to common and consistent chat around the site? Moving the mouse 100 pixels every time to get to the most common emoticons at the top or moving their mouse cursor 10 pixels when they're at the bottom, right above the emoticon menu bar button? On top of that, the user is then going to have to either move their cursor back to the input bar or to the send button, which is even further away from the emoticon they just clicked.

There's a precept within ergonomics called Fitts's Law. If you aren't already familiar with it, check it out when you get a chance, it's pretty interesting. The general idea is that the further a user has to move their mouse, the harder it is for a user to target and click on something, especially if it's small like one of our emoticon menu items.

The ways that you normally improve this situation is to either move a resulting target closer to the initial click or keep the resulting target at a distance but make it larger. Since I'm not willing to make the menu items in the emoticons menu different sizes, I am definitely considering putting the most common menu items at the bottom of the menu, right above the emoticon menu button.

For people like you and I who type many of our emoticons and don't use the menu as much, it isn't going to make much of a difference because we rarely open that menu to use the common ones when we already know them. We mostly use that menu for the uncommon ones that we don't know and in those cases, the location of the uncommon emoticons in the menu doesn't matter that much.

Though for heavy users of the emoticon menu UI, it will likely make a world of different because their chat experience would be more fluid and a lot less frustrating.

That ends my verbose response :thumbsup

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Created by: zyxwv098

7/16/14 @ 7:46pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Posts: 883

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@zyxwv098 I am considering a reverse order approach because the emoticon menu is displaying images versus letters or numbers that need to form an organized pattern like 1,2,3. The only thing I really need to do with the emoticon menu is make the most common emoticons as accessible as possible and the rest can be placed anywhere.

So when you start to think of it on those terms, making the order conform to the traditional standards (left>right | top>bottom) may not be the best solution.

Some users don't know or use emoticon text designators and instead, rely on the menu UI every time to get those emoticons, even the common ones.

When you start to think about it from this person's point of view, what's going to be easier for them when it comes to common and consistent chat around the site? Moving the mouse 100 pixels every time to get to the most common emoticons at the top or moving their mouse cursor 10 pixels when they're at the bottom right above the emoticon menu bar button? On top of that, the user is going to have to either move their cursor back to the input bar or to the send button, which is even further away from the emoticon they just clicked.

There's a precept within ergonomics called Fitts's Law. If you aren't already familiar with it, check it out when you get a chance, it's pretty cool. The general idea is that the further a user has to move their mouse, the harder it is for a user to target and click on something, especially if it's small like one of our emoticon menu items.

The ways that you normally improve this situation is to either move a resulting target closer to the initial click or keep the resulting target at a distance but make it larger. Since I'm not willing to make the menu items in the emoticons menu different sizes, I am definitely considering putting the most common menu items at the bottom of the menu, right above the emoticon menu button.

For people like you and I who type many of our emoticons and don't use the menu as much, it isn't going to make much of a difference because we rarely open that menu to use the common ones when we already know them. At that point, we are only opening that menu for the uncommon ones that we don't know and in those cases, where the uncommon ones appear in the menu doesn't matter that much.

Though for heavy users of the emoticon menu UI, it will likely make a world of different because their chat experience would be more fluid and a lot less frustrating.

That ends my verbose response :thumbsup

Thank you for offering that explanation on the alternative perspective. It is clear and very helpful in allowing me to understand the reasoning behind this prospective change. And as you say, ultimately it makes no difference for me, really, since I type my emoticons.

But I do wonder, though, and here I am playing devil's advocate: in most aspects of the site--the rankings of the performers in the top 20, the organization of models' thumbnails by highest power score on the front page, and the way the performers' thumbnails display in room pages--everything is listed from first to last, from highest to lowest, and all displayed from the top to the bottom. Will apparently reversing this trend for the emoticons be helpful or hurtful? And especially for those who cling to the history of the old interface, where the emoticons were displayed in a certain way that had nothing to do with frequency of use but (if I recollect correctly) more with size, and I think it was top-to-bottom, left-to-right, will another change to the new interface trigger another round of protests and complaints?

Again, just playing devil's advocate. I know what you and the techs do is for the improvement of the site, and I am satisfied and comfortable with the way the new interface functions. Thank you for all your hard work.

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Created by: ronnie-uk

7/16/14 @ 8:19pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Location: London, UK
Posts: 2,381

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Though for heavy users of the emoticon menu UI, it will likely make a world of different because their chat experience would be more fluid and a lot less frustrating

Absolutely, Doug :thumbsup

The emoticons were easy to use in the old interface. They are much harder to use in the new interface. When you make the change you have proposed it will make the new interface more acceptable. The sooner the better ....

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Created by: suggs

7/16/14 @ 8:39pm (EDT) | UTC - 4:00
Location: Left of centre
Posts: 6,768

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1 of the few issues I have with the new interface is having to switch between the chat pane and online models pane to see ehen 1 of my favourites is online as I dont bother using the email notifications as they sometines don't appear to be sent until hours AFTER their shift is over.

Same goes for bio. Prefer to open that in a 2nd window so I can read whole still being able to chat.

On the whole the new interfaceis good especially as the option to disable the chat bubbles and make it all left justified but still a few wrinkles that I am not a fan of. But I guess I will find wok arounds for them.

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