Elizabeth_rb Posted December 24, 2014 at 04:24 PM Report Share Posted December 24, 2014 at 04:24 PM Oh yes, I'll be giving those a go too after I've warmed up with the lower levels. I'm very keen to increase my reading speed, concentration and confidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thechairmansbao Posted January 17, 2015 at 06:07 PM Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 at 06:07 PM Hi everyone, Just to let you know that our website is now live - www.thechairmansbao.com It would be great to hear any feedback you have and we hope that TCB will prove to be a valuable resource to you all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted January 17, 2015 at 07:17 PM Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 at 07:17 PM Merging - anyone checked out the now live chairmansbao? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederik451 Posted January 17, 2015 at 07:58 PM Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 at 07:58 PM I just signed up. the site looks really great. Only thing is that for most articles the "look up words" function where you can highlight words and then their definition will be shown in a box to the right of the article, doesn't pop up. does anyone know if it is something that i have to somehow activate? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederik451 Posted January 17, 2015 at 08:02 PM Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 at 08:02 PM Oh crap. i was not logged on. now it works 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thechairmansbao Posted January 17, 2015 at 08:04 PM Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 at 08:04 PM Hi Frederik, I just replied to your email but having some problems with my email so not sure if you received? To unlock the live dictionary and other features, you first have to sign up. The sign up sheet is on the homepage. I have spoken to the web designer so we can make this more clear on the articles going forward, as I realise it isn't immediately obvious. Thanks for your feedback, hope this helps! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thechairmansbao Posted January 17, 2015 at 08:04 PM Author Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 at 08:04 PM Phew, you had me worried for a moment! I will make sure it's more clearer on the articles going forward. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frederik451 Posted January 17, 2015 at 08:32 PM Report Share Posted January 17, 2015 at 08:32 PM No need to worry, it was me who wasn't paying attention but it sounds like a good idea to maybe write something like "sign in to use dictionary" to make the users aware that they are missing out on some tools when not signed in. thanks for the quick feedback 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted January 22, 2015 at 10:09 AM Report Share Posted January 22, 2015 at 10:09 AM Anyone making regular use of the new site? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsur Posted January 23, 2015 at 12:45 PM Report Share Posted January 23, 2015 at 12:45 PM Hey, I checked it out. Personally I'm focussed on the HSK3 level. Guess we'll all be experts in opening beers with chainsaws soon, heheh.. Can't wait till I have time to have a critical look at it, but so far it looks like it's gonna add a good amount of challenge to my study. Good job! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thechairmansbao Posted January 25, 2015 at 08:30 PM Author Report Share Posted January 25, 2015 at 08:30 PM Thanks for the comments, it's good to hear! We have had good feedback on the site so far and will be making improvements as we go along (and adding some more HSK3 articles, of course ) Make sure you get in touch with any feedback or suggestions! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted January 26, 2015 at 03:40 AM Report Share Posted January 26, 2015 at 03:40 AM Some quick feedback: On the registration and login form, you have very light grey text on a white background which makes it difficult to read. Consider using colours with a higher contrast. In a similar vein, the 'register now' link that appears next to the 'Not signed up yet' text is white on a yellow background. Also not the most visible. Ideally calls to action should be highly visible. Same goes with your article text - light grey on a white background is difficult to read. If the user has cookies disabled, then logging in fails silently. Note: I don't expect the site to work without cookies, but I would expect to be given a message telling me to enable cookies. When reading an article, if I highlight something I think is a word for the 'live dictionary' but the word doesn't exist in the dictionary then I get no feedback. For an example of this, in the 'Restaurant gives free food to beautiful people' article, try highlighting '免单', which looks like a word, but is not something that exists in the dictionary. If I highlight it, there is no feedback given or even any indication that the 'live dictionary' is working. If you haven't highlighted anything previously, then there is still a tip telling you to 'highlight chinese words for live dictionary', and because highlighting the 'word' has done nothing this might make people think the feature is broken. I would suggest for words that don't exist either having a message saying 'xxx not found', or segment the highlighted text and show multiple definitions. Consider putting width and height attributes in your image tags to prevent the text 'jumping' as the main image for each article loads. Consider checking the site with w3c's html validator. Your html currently has a number of validation errors thanks in part to some stray double quote characters ". 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thechairmansbao Posted January 26, 2015 at 07:31 AM Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2015 at 07:31 AM Hi Imron, Thank you very much for your detailed feedback - all of which is extremely useful! I will pass all of your points onto then WD and will hope to have them changed quickly. Thanks for taking the time to comment! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
imron Posted January 26, 2015 at 08:44 AM Report Share Posted January 26, 2015 at 08:44 AM No problem. I think the site looks like a great resource and I hope it succeeds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thechairmansbao Posted January 26, 2015 at 09:33 AM Author Report Share Posted January 26, 2015 at 09:33 AM Thank you very much Imron, look forward to keeping in touch in the future. Good luck with your ventures! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjXueHanYu Posted January 27, 2015 at 09:37 PM Report Share Posted January 27, 2015 at 09:37 PM Would love to be able to have the articles at HSK1-2 levels but maybe those levels are too limited? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thechairmansbao Posted January 28, 2015 at 09:45 AM Author Report Share Posted January 28, 2015 at 09:45 AM We have found that our writers are best able to write at HSK3 for news articles. Otherwise, too much of the key vocabulary is over the HSK level and therefore the article doesn't end up being a true representation of the level. That's not to say in future we won't write below HSK3, but for now we have decided to set that as our threshold. Sorry we couldn't be more of a help! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjXueHanYu Posted January 31, 2015 at 01:00 PM Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 at 01:00 PM Means I will have to study harder so I can enjoy your great looking site! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thechairmansbao Posted January 31, 2015 at 09:32 PM Author Report Share Posted January 31, 2015 at 09:32 PM Make sure you update us on your progress, it would be great to see you progress through the levels! good luck and thank you for your lovely words about the site! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjXueHanYu Posted February 8, 2015 at 12:55 PM Report Share Posted February 8, 2015 at 12:55 PM Maybe I missed it, but it would be great if you had a button to export the words from articles as a wordlist to Skritter (www.skritter.com). That way, it would be easier for readers who are lower levels to learn the required characters and provide them an ability to read some of the articles they would otherwise be unable to read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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