A few days ago in a Club 7 post, the site's owner Andrew Conru unveiled his plans for a new site - see 30 years ago today, I started Friend Finder.. In his post, there's a link to the proposed new site - see (https://adultfriendfinder.com/beta/passion/#/). I hope the link works; if not and if a Level 7+ member, the link can be found in Andrew Conru's Club 7 post.
Only gold members are invited to give feedback to the proposed new site; in return they'll be given an additional one month's gold membership.
If a gold and Level 7+ member, have you left or do you intend to leave feedback on the proposed new site?
If you've seen the proposed new site, what's your general impression?
The owner's plans are for a new site rather than new code for existing features on this site. The site is to rebranded under the Passion brand - no more Adult FriendFinder. (I wonder whether this move is an attempt to slightly de-pornify operations.) The proposed new site, as far as I can tell, contains new features and doesn't replicate all existing features. It's effectively a new site. The proposed new site hasn't yet been fully tested.
I found it quite difficult to navigate myself around the proposed new site. That's perhaps not surprising because it's all new, but it does look unnecessarily complicated, which is something that Andrew Conru specialises in!
I left the following 12 bits of feedback or at least observations and questions:
Because I'm not the most IT-proficient and because I didn't look into every nook and cranny of the proposed new site, my feedback is very generic and possibly misplaced. I'm aware many others (such as @JN63JPN, @MsSkinny, @NakedSenses, @OddsAgainst and @smartasswoman) are in a much better position than myself to give constructive feedback. I'm also presuming that the ambassadors are busy encouraging members to provide feedback and to give feedback to the site's owner on behalf of members!
I don't dispute that new code is needed for the site, particularly its Dating side though less so its Community side which was launched with new code over four years ago. However, I can see advantages in merging the Dating and Community sides of the site. It's a pain having to move between sides!
Having said that, I have two major concerns about the launch of the new site. First, though good that gold members can provide feedback on the proposed new site, I fear such consultation has come too late. Members should have been consulted at the design stage. As things stand, there's a danger that what's been presented is a fait accompli. The site owner, along with the site's development team, has gone too far down the road to turn around and maybe start again.
Second, the launch of the Community side was a clusterfuck. The site doesn't have a good reputation in rolling out new features without harm being done. I'm particularly worried that not everything will be migrated to the new site. The launch of the new site potentially has the makings of being a major clusterfuck, though I hope I'm proved wrong. (I realise I'm on a major downer about the site's owner after witnessing many stunts he's pulled over many years, but I'm trying hard to remain hopeful - @shydivorced2, I've got my Crocs on! But it's the hope that kills sometimes.)
In many Club 7 posts about the proposed new site, I didn't spot one bit of positive feedback about the proposed new site. There was plenty of constructive feedback, plenty of hope but very little positive feedback that I could find.
In a very recent blog post I HAVEN'T BEEN ALERT FOR SOME TIME HERE, my poll found that not one member who voted thought the site communicates well with its members and not one member had confidence in the site becoming a better site!
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I wasn't impressed with what I was able to see, I didn't see a lot. I hope we don't have to get reverified because that would just be ridiculous as we had to go through quite the process here to become verified. And will we keep all of our points and other things we have earned over the years too.
Thanks for sharing this with us my friend, and they should just leave well enough alone. I hope your Monday continues to treat you well..
I too hope we don't have to get re-verified etc. That would be ridiculous.
I take it that there's no split between the Dating and Community sides.
No, they're all mish-mashed together, while there is a button to go to the Community in the header, but the page isn't as intuitive as the currently live Community
... having looked at my Community blog page, I can't see my alerts nor a list of my blog posts. Are these features here?
Recent activities seems to have replaced Alerts, but there's no way to clear them individually or all at once.
I can't see a feed for my followed bloggers or a feed for new blog posts.
Go to Community - Blogs. You'll see tabs for Popular, Following, New, Growing, New Me, Categories. But this is a list of bloggers rather than blog posts.
Go to Community - Posts. You'll see tabs for For You, Following, Nearby, and 3 vertical dots for more options (Newest, See Trending, Most Active, etc).
I can't see a list of the groups I'm a member of.
Go to Community - My Groups (first block of icons)
... when clicking on a member's thumbnail, will their location and number of blog posts be shown? I hope so.
Depends on where you're hovering the cursor. In some places in the Community, hovering over the thumbnail shows the same kind of profile preview you'd see on the dating side, on other places, hovering over the thumbnail shows an AI overview of the blogger's blog.
I recommend you get rid of kudos as they meant very little and even perhaps nothing.
Need to keep that system since it's linked to levels and Club7
I'm presuming that a member will be able to easily search for a member or blogger.
Yes, search for bloggers and members works
I'm hoping that to block a member on the 'new' site, one block will work site-wide. At the moment, two blocks are needed, one for the Dating side and another for the Community side.
Good point.
... can you assure that members that everything posted on the 'old' AFF site (eg blog posts (including images), comments/replies on blog posts) will be migrated to the new 'Passion' site? This is what concerns me the most as I remember that not everything was migrated successfully when the Community side was launched.
As far as I can see, posts and photos have been migrated, although I haven't checked everything
I hope that the 'new' site will only be rolled out after and not before it's fully tested, and that the testing is rigorous.
Highly doubtful. Remember how Andrew pushed the release of the (then new) Community although we didn't feel it wasn't ready?
This post, days after submitting, finally got approved. Someone is being a bit sensitive!
Thanks for your answers. I'm disappointed that alerts aren't an explicit feature of the new site as I'm only to blog.
@spunkycumfun
I've asked for the Recent Activities to be replaced by the Alerts feature we're currently using. The more feedback Andrew gets wanting Alerts instead of Recent Activities, the better.
@JN63JPN Thanks. As far as I can maintain, alerts are how bloggers navigate themselves around blogland.
@spunkycumfun
Alerts are my to-do list. I delete them as I respond to the alerts.
@YourSassyPussy
That's not how it's supposed to behave.
@JN63JPN Alerts are essential, at least for me.
@spunkycumfun
Me, too. I've been asking for Andrew to replace the Recent Activities with Alerts.
I've only had a quick look at the new version of the site, but I haven't paid attention to the details, so I haven't sent any feedback. The points you've raised all seem very good to me. Thank you for your effort.
I found the new site difficult to navigate, make that very difficult to navigate. I soon gave up which is why much of my feedback are questions!
It says the Community side is there ....
25+ features rebuilt from scratch Profiles, search, messaging, live broadcasting, community, and settings. Every page is faster, cleaner, and works on your phone.
Not that I believe everything I read on the internet.
You go live, invite people and TIPS WILL COME IN ..... They are making it for money?
The proof of the pudding will be when the new site is launched!
I worked with a lot of engineers in my career and it was abundantly clear their brains just don't work like the rest of ours do.
Perhaps the brains of engineers need to be studied more!
@spunkycumfun I appreciate the update and of all the reviews I have seen one positive, the rest not so much. I understand very few people like change but the experience most have had with even the smallest change on the site does not give does not give one a warm fuzzy feeling.
It's a shame that members weren't consulted at the design phase of the new site and not just at the technical phase.
@SiteSupport My post hasn't been approved despite being submitted yesterday to be released over two hours ago and despite other blog posts submitted afterwards being approved. I hope it will get approved very soon.
Hello,
Thank you for your patience. I have checked your account and can confirm that your blog post has now been approved and published.
Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns.
Thank you!
@SiteSupport Thank you. I'm still amazed why it took so long to approve.
It seems my first image, a screenshot of the Passion website, has been taken down. That says it all. I can't even advertise the site! I can't be bothered to reinstate the image. Instead I'll try and post an image of passion fruit. It's less of a clusterfuck that way!
Sometimes incompetence is best left to speak for itself.
We reviewed the screenshot you shared. While the domain name appears similar, it is not one of our websites. As a result, the image was not considered to be promoting one of our services and was therefore removed in accordance with our content guidelines.
We appreciate your feedback and understanding.
@SiteSupport No problem.