Changes to the ATAR Notes Website

[Joseph41]

Hey all!

As you may or may not know, ATAR Notes recently celebrated its tenth birthday - very exciting!

If you think about where you were ten years ago and where you are today, I'm sure heaps has changed for you - and it's the same for ATAR Notes. From what was originally a niche website called "FreeStudyNotes", AN has since become the largest online high school student community in Australia. We now offer:
* Free lectures multiple times per year across several states
* Free study notes
* Free forums
* Free articles and other content
* Australia's most innovative and affordable tutoring program (TuteSmart)
* Low-cost study guides

And, in the future, a whole lot more.

That's all been developed from scratch in the past ten years. But the thing is, over that time, the website itself has become dated, and hasn't actually changed that much. Plainly, it hasn't received the love and attention it deserves. Why? Because time and effort has been thrown toward other projects, such as the free lectures etc. outlined above. That's obviously not a good reason to let the site become dated, though, so things are going to change!

With the site as is, functionality is limited, and we're actually really confined in terms of what we can change moving forward. A lot of the site is custom-coded; different developers have done bits and pieces over the last decade as needed at the time. This has been all well and good up until now, but as you can imagine, it's simply not a sustainable system. What the custom code means is that, if we try to change anything a little too much, it could break the entire site - and that's obviously not what anybody wants haha.

In short, we've come to a point where change is both appropriate and necessary. And I can promise you this: the changes to the website will be very, very, very exciting.

Sweet - so what's actually gonna happen?

As a belated tenth birthday present to the entire ATAR Notes Family, I'm happy to announce that the ATAR Notes site is going to be re-built - from scratch (don't worry: existing stats and posts and stuff will remain).

Now, this is going to be a big project. Like, really big. People have literally been hired specifically to oversee the process, because as I'm sure you can appreciate, it's super important for us to get this right. At the end of the redevelopment, what we foresee is a completely modern, intuitive site that simply allows you to do way more than you can do now - and more easily.

We're undertaking this project because we recognise the current site has flaws. In some cases, very considerable flaws! And that's inconsistent with what we want to provide (namely, the highest quality resources available). Trust me when I say that everything - from the smallest details to the biggest changes - will be carefully considered. Literally every single element. For that reason, we want - and need - you to be involved in this. Who knows the site best? You. Who uses it the most? You. Well then, who should be involved in the redevelopment? Quite obviously, you - and you will be.

I joined ATAR Notes in 2012, and in those 5-6 years, have seen a lot of changes happen to AN. With some of those changes, I was frustrated by a lack of transparency - things seemed to happen out of the blue, or without much consultation etc. I now work for ATAR Notes, and part of my role throughout this project is to connect the AN Fam to this redevelopment. It just makes sense on every level, and that's what this thread is ultimately for - to provide updates, get feedback, field questions and so on.

Of course, it would have been really easy for us not to mention this until the launch of the new site. We're still talking a long time until anything noticeable changes, such is the scale of the project; indeed, we're pretty much at the starting line of a 42km marathon. In fact, the new site probably won't even be live this time next year. But there's no good reason to keep users in the dark (as a fairly prolific user of the site, perhaps I'm a little biased hahaha ), so here we are!

tl;dr: ATAR Notes will be changing over the next year or two. It's a long project, but I'm making this thread specifically to keep the ATAR Notes Community involved. If you think about it, this community is the crux of ATAR Notes - it's at the very heart. And, as such, it's the community who needs to drive the change.

[RuiAce]

Hey Nick!

One thing I want to ask about the project - How will what's already happen be stored? Just interested in what will happen to the hyperlinks because I've found that all the freestudynotes hyperlinks in old posts no longer work

[Aaron]

Are you wanting suggestions in this thread right now or is it just purely a FYI?

As long as SMF is banished forever, never to return, i'll be happy. Also a fresh lick of paint wouldn't be the worst idea

In terms of ideas.. I think it'd be pretty neat if there was a revamped chat of some kind. Something that doesn't require an external connection such as an IRC. That way, we are identified by our forum usernames/colours etc and the permissions are integrated within.

I have always liked the idea of a 'practice space'... essentially a system with short videos/text-based guides relating to a given topic. Practice questions on demand, instantaneous feedback. Big idea, take it all or take a concept from it.

Better integration needed between notes, articles and forum. I see articles and notes as separate entities at the present (even though they are all under AN).

Hoorah for huge (and lengthy) changes

[EEEEEEP]

tl;dr: ATAR Notes will be changing over the next year or two. It's a long project, but I'm making this thread specifically to keep the ATAR Notes Community involved. If you think about it, this community is the crux of ATAR Notes - it's at the very heart. And, as such, it's the community who needs to drive the change.

What will happen to the threads with hyperlinked threads to AN? (internal hyperlinks)

Will those break?

[Joseph41]

Hey Nick!

One thing I want to ask about the project - How will what's already happen be stored? Just interested in what will happen to the hyperlinks because I've found that all the freestudynotes hyperlinks in old posts no longer work

G'day Rui!

I don't know for sure, but gut feeling says this will be okay. I'll check with the developers, though, because it's a good question, and obviously we don't want those internal links lost!

Are you wanting suggestions in this thread right now or is it just purely a FYI?

As long as SMF is banished forever, never to return, i'll be happy. Also a fresh lick of paint wouldn't be the worst idea

In terms of ideas.. I think it'd be pretty neat if there was a revamped chat of some kind. Something that doesn't require an external connection such as an IRC. That way, we are identified by our forum usernames/colours etc and the permissions are integrated within.

I have always liked the idea of a 'practice space'... essentially a system with short videos/text-based guides relating to a given topic. Practice questions on demand, instantaneous feedback. Big idea, take it all or take a concept from it.

Better integration needed between notes, articles and forum. I see articles and notes as separate entities at the present (even though they are all under AN).

Hoorah for huge (and lengthy) changes

If you don't want to give suggestions, it's purely an FYI. If you do, then we'd love suggestions.

Yeah, I feel confident in saying that SMF will be done. And there'll be more than a fresh lick of paint - the entire site will look different. Of course, I'll share screenshots and options and testing and stuff like that when it happens - we'll need to get the community's collective take on things.

Nice ideas - the chat I particularly like. Are you thinking forum-specific or site-wide for this?

What will happen to the threads with hyperlinked threads to AN? (internal hyperlinks)

Will those break?

See response to Rui's question above.

[keltingmeith]

In terms of ideas.. I think it'd be pretty neat if there was a revamped chat of some kind. Something that doesn't require an external connection such as an IRC. That way, we are identified by our forum usernames/colours etc and the permissions are integrated within.

Bring back the cbox - make forums great again.

[Aaron]

Are you thinking forum-specific or site-wide for this?

Whatever floats. You could have account integration that covers the entire site, rather than just the forum. So when somebody creates an account, it is an ATAR Notes account, not a forum account. They can make comments on articles etc. using their account in addition to post/make replies on the forum.

It wouldn't be that difficult to make either from scratch.

My vision:
* Natmods/admins automatically inherit privileges to do op/mod things on the chat.
* Users can create private chats with each other. This does not mean get rid of the inbox/PMs, they can be side-by-side.
* No logging in - all they need to do is be logged into their AN account. So nobody can change their username etc on the chat. They are who they say they are.
* Username colours in-chat reflect the forum (e.g. red = admin, blue = nat, purple = hon, green = state mod?)

I have a very specific picture in my head of this that is very difficult to explain properly.. so just take these apart and choose the best bits

Ideally this would mean the IRC would be totally redundant and we can therefore get rid of this outdated piece of garbage forever.

....and please, when you redo the registration... make the captcha more difficult or implement a email verification requirement to stop the spammers. Would reduce our bans by about half I think!

[RuiAce]

Occasionally, after a while of being logged in the forum (or really any random situation) just automatically kicks me offline. If we could rectify this problem that would be great

[sweetiepi]

Occasionally, after a while of being logged in the forum (or really any random situation) just automatically kicks me offline. If we could rectify this problem that would be great

100% agree on this- I've randomly had to log in twice today (admittedly on two different devices), even though I have it set to always keep me logged in.

[Yertle the Turtle]

Occasionally, after a while of being logged in the forum (or really any random situation) just automatically kicks me offline. If we could rectify this problem that would be great

Me too, I have had to randomly log in on my laptop today, after I couldn't find the reply or upvote buttons on a forum. I haven't had to log into the website on my laptop for ages, but today it randomly decided to do it to me again.

[sudodds]

Making the edit post button more obvious (and just making that process easier on new users in general)

[Vaike]

Making the edit post button more obvious (and just making that process easier on new users in general)

Great idea! Along the same lines, I think it would be useful to make it more intuitive (somehow) to quote multiple posts; I'm sure new users (and the mods that have to merge posts) would appreciate it

[sudodds]

Great idea! Along the same lines, I think it would be useful to make it more intuitive (somehow) to quote multiple posts; I'm sure new users (and the mods that have to merge posts) would appreciate it

YES! This took me forever to work out how to do - great idea

[Joseph41]

Heeeeeellllllo hello hello! Bit of a quick update here on the new site - very exciting!

First of all, sorry it's taken this long to get things underway. Will definitely be sharing more screenshots and the like to get your feedback as they come through, because that's obviously a big part of why we're doing this in the first place - to make ATAR Notes easier to use/better to use for all of us here.

The first update might seem like a pretty small one, but it's one I'm amazingly enthusiastic about haha.

Obviously, this is an idea for a new main toolbar. It's got all the same stuff as normal, but also a notifications system (see far right of the screenshot above), which is something I've personally wanted on this site for at least half a decade haha. What this will mean is like, if you get quoted, you get notified - stuff like that. Muuuuuch easier to use the forums that way, at least based on my experience on other forums with similar systems.

What do y'all think? Improvement from the current?

[RuiAce]

Heeeeeellllllo hello hello! Bit of a quick update here on the new site - very exciting!

First of all, sorry it's taken this long to get things underway. Will definitely be sharing more screenshots and the like to get your feedback as they come through, because that's obviously a big part of why we're doing this in the first place - to make ATAR Notes easier to use/better to use for all of us here.

The first update might seem like a pretty small one, but it's one I'm amazingly enthusiastic about haha.

Obviously, this is an idea for a new main toolbar. It's got all the same stuff as normal, but also a notifications system (see far right of the screenshot above), which is something I've personally wanted on this site for at least half a decade haha. What this will mean is like, if you get quoted, you get notified - stuff like that. Muuuuuch easier to use the forums that way, at least based on my experience on other forums with similar systems.

What do y'all think? Improvement from the current?

I REALLY like how it’s a lot more compact