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VitalMTB slideshow layout

Does the VitalMTB website layout suck?

  • Yes

    Votes: 25 61.0%
  • Undoubtably

    Votes: 8 19.5%
  • Mike Levy for President

    Votes: 4 9.8%
  • No, I love terrible user interface design

    Votes: 13 31.7%

  • Total voters
    41

Udi

RM Chief Ornithologist
Mar 14, 2005
4,915
1,200
Does anyone actually like this?

Scrolling has been a quick and easy thing on computers for many years now, I'm not sure why they persist with the painful slideshows (along with "interstitial ads" that stop the page from loading - whatever those are - thanks ABP).

The content is good but the layout sucks - curious if it's just me. Before someone says "if you don't like it, don't read it", I usually don't (thanks to aforementioned terrible browsing experience) but the content is original and worthy of a better layout.

Pinkbike nails it in my book.
 

EVIL JN

Monkey
Jul 24, 2009
491
24
Personally I prefer it for the wc coverage, makes it feel more like someone is telling a story. For other content it sucks, like interbike, since that type of content is more of a blah blah blah wow something interesting. So yeah for race coverage its sweet for mass coverage not so much.
 

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,192
19,158
Canaderp
I enjoy it too.

As for the ads, what is up with the RockShox ads? I can't count how many times I've watched Cam Zink crash land, followed by some cryptic message. :crazy:
 

troy

Turbo Monkey
Dec 3, 2008
1,006
739
Vital takes ages to load (compared to other sites), and scrooling is freaking terrible. Too much mumbo jumbo scripts and other s**t.

Littermag FTW!
 

4130biker

PM me about Tantrum Cycles!
May 24, 2007
3,884
448
I feel like the format makes me slow down and actually look at the photo, instead of just bombing through looking for captions and photos that immediately jump out. It also presents them in a way that makes the photos seem more "special" or formal, and in my opinion looks better than scrolling through a giant white page of captions and photos.

Maybe not practical for all things, but I dig it.
 

fred.r

Dwangus Bogans
May 9, 2006
842
0
The WC slideshows are my favorite coverage of the races by far. If, and that's a big if, I ever check PB's coverage I find I scroll past all the words and just glance at each photo.
Off season I play old slideshows just to hear that background music.
 

gemini2k

Turbo Monkey
Jul 31, 2005
3,526
117
San Francisco
I think what I hate, is that with any normal screen resolution, you have to scroll down to see the photo, so much crap at the top of the page. "Hit next, scroll, hit next, scroll, etc". It needs to be one or the other.
 

trib

not worthy of a Rux.
Jun 22, 2009
1,458
388
it used to bug me, but then I figured out you can just use the cursor keys to navigate to next and previous pictures.

PB have had some really good photos of the WC events but being able to see half of the upcoming photo normally means I just scan them all rather than actually looking at them and reading the caption.

Vital rocks.
 

Mo(n)arch

Turbo Monkey
Dec 27, 2010
4,441
1,422
Italy/south Tyrol
I clicked on yes.

I absolutely love the WC and Enduro slideshows from the vital guys. It just makes the photos and short clips so much more enjoyable. It soaks you in the pictures really. And you can watch the pictures in fullscreen format.
However, the format of vitalmtb is definitely not the bees knees and could get an overhaul.
Especially product picks are a real pita to get trough.

Pinkbike is way better in these regards.
 

wydopen

Turbo Monkey
Jan 16, 2005
1,229
60
805
Big vitalmtb/mx fan..

It would be nice if the slideshows worked better (ie dont have to scroll down each slide) when not in fullscreen mode but otherwise I cant complain...love the background music too...
 

William42

fork ways
Jul 31, 2007
3,908
634
I really dislike it for everything but the WC style slideshows with background music and narrating. Those are my favorite parts of WC coverage and are the reason I refresh that website constantly during a WC
 

supercow

Monkey
Feb 18, 2009
969
128
I like to watch the world burn

For what it's worth, I love their content more than any other site but the media navigation is dated. It's particularly irksome when you need to scroll past an image, just to be able to skip it on page load.


 
Last edited:

Sandwich

Pig my fish!
Staff member
May 23, 2002
21,031
5,921
borcester rhymes
well now you haven't changed anything, you've just bumped everything over a bit. If you were a true first world anarchist, you'd have left one box unchecked, then we'd never know.
 

canadmos

Cake Tease
May 29, 2011
20,192
19,158
Canaderp
I think what I hate, is that with any normal screen resolution, you have to scroll down to see the photo, so much crap at the top of the page. "Hit next, scroll, hit next, scroll, etc". It needs to be one or the other.
Once a normal gallery loads, you actually don't even need to hit next. All you have to do is hit the right arrow key.

Not sure about scrolling down though, on my monitors the image is usually viewable without doing it. Laptop is a different story. Only viewing the caption and comments requires scrolling.
 

landcruiser

Monkey
May 9, 2002
186
40
San Jose, CA
I think it's important to distinguish between the feature slideshows (with the background music) and their normal slideshows/galleries.

The former are great at telling stories and mixing in audio video content.

The latter are painful in both efficiency and content quality, especially when some "slides" are actually multiple photos and captions while others aren't.

Usually they're pretty good about only calling the former as slideshows in the headline, but every now and then they'll call the latter a slideshow in the headline just to trick me.

As for Pinkbike, their photos are getting better and better, but their captions are often some of the worst contrived shit ever.
 

yd35

Monkey
Oct 28, 2008
741
61
NY
As for Pinkbike, their photos are getting better and better, but their captions are often some of the worst contrived **** ever.
My theory is that the photo captions are user generated. Pinkbike takes the first few comments and then attaches them to the pics.
 

shirk007

Monkey
Apr 14, 2009
499
354
I love the WC and Enduro style slideshows. They tell a story.

For product / Interbike / Euro bike stuff I think the layout sucks.
 

csermonet

Monkey
Mar 5, 2010
942
127
I love the way they do the World Cup coverage, tells more of a story, and I take my time looking at the photos longer. Their captions are both entertaining and informative as well, something Pinkbike sucks at. The Interbike type "slideshows", now those I can't stand.
 

davetrump

Turbo Monkey
Jul 29, 2003
1,270
0
Since I shoot photo and write captions and comments for both Vital and Pinkbike depending on whether its and EWS or WC event I'm curious how on one sight they can be viewed as awesome and insightful and on another you say they are contrived shit.

Both sites are rad and both bring the best photos and story telling on the web from the premier events. I agree Vital has crushed the WC coverage for years, but look back through the PB stuff from the WC this year and tell me it isn't rad.

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/finals-world-champs-2014-hafjell-photo-epic-day-5.html

Maybe just I'm biased.... to both sites

Cheers
 

EVIL JN

Monkey
Jul 24, 2009
491
24
Its free, its rad and it gets out fast what on earth more could we demand? I mean we get the daily slideshows in time for breakfast the next day, sure is awesome imo. Sure its a little annoying scrolling through pages on Vital galleries from Eurobike etc but they are there covering it and giving us content for free. Constructive feedback is something that might be a good idea instead of "it suck".

Albeit "free" in the sense we pay or it later when we buy stuff from companies we like.
 

Udi

RM Chief Ornithologist
Mar 14, 2005
4,915
1,200
Well, it looks like a whooping 113.8% of you have voted that Vital's web designer needs to sit through interface design class again.

Meanwhile, with only 8.3% of the vote, Levy's chances at the presidency are looking slimmer than ever.

An honorable mention goes out to the new RM forum software which has folded under the challenge of multiple vote percentage calculation.:panic:
 

ZoRo

Turbo Monkey
Sep 28, 2004
1,224
11
MTL
I must say, Vital has probably the best content out there, but there site is HELLA klunky. That extraterrestrial ad is just the icing on the cake. PB is royalty compared to this.
 

joeg

I have some obvious biases
Jul 20, 2011
198
137
Santa Cruz CA
After you filter out the persistently cynical, always douchey, already-buying-bikes-at-cost, and random trolls, there isn't a ridemonkey participation rate
 

supercow

Monkey
Feb 18, 2009
969
128
After you filter out the persistently cynical, always douchey, already-buying-bikes-at-cost, and random trolls, there isn't a ridemonkey participation rate
Are you the same Joe, who wanted to rip off the Bikemag journalist guy's head, poke out his eyes and skullfuck the empty socket, when he dared ask about the Bronson wheelsize?

I did suspect that your (if it is you) response was aimed at us Rodemonkey lot - found it amusing. Love the anger! :D
 

dan-o

Turbo Monkey
Jun 30, 2004
6,499
2,805
After you filter out the persistently cynical, always douchey, already-buying-bikes-at-cost, and random trolls, there isn't a ridemonkey participation rate
RM is the magnetic drain plug of the cycling internet.
By consolidating all the webgineers and interdouches in one location the general public is left pure and open for uneducated consumption.

I have yet to meet a non-RM member who didn't think their daily ride was improved by some assholes riding donkeys up a hillside, for example.
 

slyfink

Turbo Monkey
Sep 16, 2008
9,289
5,029
Ottawa, Canada
Both sites are rad and both bring the best photos and story telling on the web from the premier events.
how can they both be the best?! if there is a best, it has to be in opposition to something else.

:D

love the coverage, captions and especially the photos btw... I think there's a place for both Vital and PB. If they were the same... well then they'd be the same, and what's the point of that?!
 

joeg

I have some obvious biases
Jul 20, 2011
198
137
Santa Cruz CA
Are you the same Joe, who wanted to rip off the Bikemag journalist guy's head, poke out his eyes and skullfuck the empty socket, when he dared ask about the Bronson wheelsize?

I did suspect that your (if it is you) response was aimed at us Rodemonkey lot - found it amusing. Love the anger! :D
image.jpg
 

dump

Turbo Monkey
Oct 12, 2001
8,195
4,419
After you filter out the persistently cynical, always douchey, already-buying-bikes-at-cost, and random trolls, there isn't a ridemonkey participation rate
Where do you fit in Joe? Already-buying-bikes-at-cost?
 

kidwoo

Artisanal Tweet Curator
RM is the magnetic drain plug of the cycling internet.
By consolidating all the webgineers and interdouches in one location the general public is left pure and open for uneducated consumption.
My god, have you seen the general mtb public?

www.forums.mtbr.com

They will consume ANYTHING :D


I have yet to meet a non-RM member who didn't think their daily ride was improved by some assholes riding donkeys up a hillside, for example.
Booyah!