Website has been revamped

Information regarding The Narrow Path Ministries.
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Sean
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Re: Website has been revamped

Post by Sean » Thu Apr 21, 2011 9:56 pm

Looks very nice! :D
He will not fail nor be discouraged till He has established justice in the earth. (Isaiah 42:4)

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backwoodsman
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Re: Website has been revamped

Post by backwoodsman » Wed Jun 01, 2011 12:45 pm

Ran across another issue with the new website. There doesn't seem to be a way to get to the low-bandwidth version of the afternoon radio show. Only the high-bandwidth files are linked. The files are there if one knows how to get to them, but most don't. Those are fine for most broadband users, but the larger size makes them less convenient for those with slower broadband connections, and anywhere from very inconvenient to simply undoable for dialup users. I hope this will be fixed.

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VIDesignz
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Re: Website has been revamped

Post by VIDesignz » Wed Jun 01, 2011 3:22 pm

backwoodsman wrote:Ran across another issue with the new website. There doesn't seem to be a way to get to the low-bandwidth version of the afternoon radio show. Only the high-bandwidth files are linked. The files are there if one knows how to get to them, but most don't. Those are fine for most broadband users, but the larger size makes them less convenient for those with slower broadband connections, and anywhere from very inconvenient to simply undoable for dialup users. I hope this will be fixed.
Hi Backwoodsman, I appreciate your concern with the low bandwidth files. A decision was made to phase out the low bandwidth files and stick with just one file per show which makes it easier for the volunteer who records each daily show and uploads them. Also, the archive has been expanded as a whole to include more than just the past year of programs as well as an archive for the morning show. All in all it helps reduce the daily upkeep and continuous file linking needed to maintain the archives. Also, from the statistics I found on the web, it seems under 10% of U.S. internet users still use dial up, and that was in 2008...

James

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backwoodsman
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Re: Website has been revamped

Post by backwoodsman » Wed Jun 01, 2011 4:56 pm

James,

I don't know where your stats come from, but 10% seems low, based on what I see. But let's call it 2%; that means you're making it more difficult, or maybe impossible, for 2% of users to benefit from the resource. Maybe 2% doesn't seem like a big deal to you, but for those who are one of the 2%, it's a big deal.

For a personal website that exists solely for the entertainment of the owner, losing 2% (or 20%) of the market might not even be on the radar, and that's just fine. But for a ministry website that exists for the benefit of its users, or for a commercial website, it's short-sighted, at best, to make choices that unnecessarily make it harder for even a small percentage of users to use the site, when there are perfectly good options that don't exclude anyone for some arbitrary reason. The same reasoning is valid for the width issue that was discussed earlier, which negatively impacts around 25%-30% of users (and has remained unfixed). Neither of these issues is a "someone or another is gonna have to suffer" problem; both could just as easily be done in a way that works well for everyone, and has no downside.

For the going on 20 years that I've been around the web, it's been standard web-designer thinking to just assume everyone has the same fast connection, fast hardware, high-res screen, etc. that they have themselves, and they design sites without regard for usability by those with lesser resources. During that time I've had many comments on my website from both web designers and customers. The web designers say, "You know, I could really increase your sales by sprucing up your website a little." The customers say, "Thanks for making your website fast loading and easy to navigate, without all that fancy stuff that gets in the way and slows it down."

It seems a good choice to have only one version of the audio files, instead of two. But the wiser choice would be to go with the one that's more accessible to more users.

-Dan

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VIDesignz
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Re: Website has been revamped

Post by VIDesignz » Thu Jun 02, 2011 10:15 am

Dan,

I took a look at the audio files on The Narrow Path...

The Topical Lectures are 24kbps, Mono, 24khz

The Morning Show is 32kbps, Stereo, 11khz

The "So Called" High Quality Version of the evening show is only 16kbp, Mono, 11khz

With that being said, If for some reason a user can not listen to the high quality evening show mp3's, then they will not be able to listen to any content on the narrow path since the evening show mp3's are by far the lowest quality files on the website.

This seems like a moot point, 6.5mb for an hour program should be downloadable by nearly everyone, it even downloads relatively quick on cellular phones.

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backwoodsman
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Re: Website has been revamped

Post by backwoodsman » Thu Jun 02, 2011 1:18 pm

VIDesignz wrote:This seems like a moot point, 6.5mb for an hour program should be downloadable by nearly everyone, it even downloads relatively quick on cellular phones.
Well, as good as dialup gets, that's about a 25-minute download. At best, that's very inconvenient, and for some it's just not doable. Move a few miles farther from the phone substation, and it becomes a 40-60 minute download, and much more inconvenient or impossible. There are still a lot more folks in that situation than some seem to realize. So you see, it's not a moot point at all.

For speech files that are going to be listened to on a computer or MP3 player, there's no reason they need to be higher than 8kbps, which makes the 1-hour show 3.1MB. For speech, the difference in audio quality between that and a higher bitrate is barely distinguishable on typical computer speakers. I routinely speed them up 20%-35%, and they're still perfectly intelligible. All a higher bitrate does is make bigger files, which makes them more difficult or impossible for some to download.

So let me try a different angle: Why do you want to limit these folks' access to Steve's teaching, considering that doing so provides no benefit to anyone? Maybe you haven't thought of it that way before, but that's the only effect of making the files larger than they have to be.

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VIDesignz
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Re: Website has been revamped

Post by VIDesignz » Thu Jun 02, 2011 3:25 pm

Dan, I'm sorry that this is such an issue. All the archive files from mid 2010 and earlier are hosted at other websites and linked through the narrow path, and all those files only have one quality, and that is 16kbps. I can do nothing about those.

Also, all the "verse by verse" and "topical lectures" are 16kbps or higher, which again, I can do nothing about.

By your comment about a potential 40-60 minute download for a 6mb file, then even at 8kbps (3mb) the user will still be waiting 20-30 minutes for the download.I can only assume users with a dial up connection understand that the connection is slow and downloads take time. :roll:

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