A change for Exhale

[Jordan Miller]

 

Hey Exhale! 

The 20-year anniversary of BreatheHeavy is coming up in a few weeks. It's got me thinking about all the changes BH has experienced over the years, and I think it's time for another one. But, I don't want to make any big changes without chatting with you first.

I want to offer you a better user experience when connecting and engaging with one another on Exhale: following, live streams, posting news, commenting etc. 

I've been contemplating switching platforms. 

There's pros and cons to switching, but I think there is a lot of potential here.

If you want to check out a tiny preview, click here and poke around.

If you want to join this test environment, here is an invite link. You can comment, post, do whatever you want.

If you have questions, feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. If we like where this is headed, I'll spend a few weeks building a new site up and launch it in June. 

Visit Exhale 3.0

If you want to sign up and comment / play around click here.

Let me know in the comments what you think, if you care, if this is a good or bad step for you/Exhale. 

Love yall! 

Jordan

[Fita]

Well, it's definitely different. I wonder how's is gonna feel actually scrolling it. It reminds me of scrolling down the BreatheHeavy, the blog.

Edited April 20 by Fita

[LeglessJamie]

Mweh. Not a fan of having to scroll that much.

I like it more divided in a sumarized way with topic title and a discr. 

This looks way too much like Facebook and we all scroll past posts because there's so much. You will definitely scroll over topics too easily to my likings. It's also my pet peeve with social media. 

There's just so much content...

[jordeezy river red]

Ooh I like it!! I just hope the ads don't cause as many glitches as the current ones do. 

[Jordan Miller]

30 minutes ago, Fita said:

Well, it's definitely different. I wonder how's is gonna feel actually scrolling it. It reminds me of scrolling down the BreatheHeavy, the blog.

Appreciate the feedback and registering and posting by some test content!

[Jordan Miller]

7 minutes ago, jordeezy river red said:

Ooh I like it!! I just hope the ads don't cause as many glitches as the current ones do. 

Thinking of going ad free with this new setup 🙃

[Jordan Miller]

Oh also worth mentioning that one day this new platform can be turned into an actual app 🫢

[Frankie8]

Looks like it's a page that requires a lot of scrolling if each post is going to have a huge header image along with the beginning part of that "thread's" first post.

Also, the layout does not "feel" like a forum layout. It's very "busy" looking. Although, the menu on the left seems simple enough to go to another topic forum, which is easier than how it is now having to go outside of the Britney forum to access the other forums. I am not an active poster, but come here daily to mostly read up on Britney news, so this change affects all users, which should be taken into consideration, and not just the views of the active/popular members.

I don't feel a change is needed. This seems to be going backwards. How it is now is simple looking, which is what I like in a webpage. My vote is No.

[Jordan Miller]

12 minutes ago, LeglessJamie said:

Mweh. Not a fan of having to scroll that much.

I like it more divided in a sumarized way with topic title and a discr. 

This looks way too much like Facebook and we all scroll past posts because there's so much. You will definitely scroll over topics too easily to my likings. It's also my pet peeve with social media. 

There's just so much content...

Appreciate the feedback. Even if you browsed the different sections (called spaces) it’s still too confusing? 

You can sort news by popularity, latest, etc. maybe that will help? 

So if something is popular, I doubt you’d miss it cause it will show up first at the top!

[Jordan Miller]

4 minutes ago, Frankie8 said:

Looks like it's a page that requires a lot of scrolling if each post is going to have a huge header image along with the beginning part of that "thread's" first post.

Also, the layout does not "feel" like a forum layout. It's very "busy" looking. Although, the menu on the left seems simple enough to go to another topic forum, which is easier than how it is now having to go outside of the Britney forum to access the other forums. I am not an active poster, but come here daily to mostly read up on Britney news, so this change affects all users, which should be taken into consideration, and not just the views of the active/popular members.

I don't feel a change is needed. This seems to be going backwards. How it is now is simple looking, which is what I like in a webpage. My vote is No.

You’re right that it’s less forum feeling and more social media like. That is intentional. But I hear you. I actually think the current Exhale is way more busy looking but maybe I’ve just seen this too long lolol.

I can look into a way to see if there’s an option to make scrolling to a minimum.

with this new set up, you could still browse only Britney news by the way!

[PlatinumB]

Hi Jordan! How amazing that this place has been around for 20 years! Iconic!!! Congrats on making a legendary community within the Britney and pop culture space!

I'm gonna be honest.... and I don't like the new look of exhale 3.0.. I feel it loses it's forum like appeal and looks like a blog/social media site. Not sure if that's the direction to go in. It also looks less like a community with no personality which I think is what has kept this forum alive for so, so long! My motto is if it ain't broke why fix it?! Anyway just my opinion and appreciate you and this forum.  

[TTrouble]

I have to say, I would propably not use that 

I mainly check this site for Britney news and those are almost non-existant so if a new Exhale like that would take place, I'd propably just not visit it.

I like this version a lot. It's familiar to me and I know how to use it. I don't want to learn a new way of browsing. 

[kdub87]

On one hand I LOVE the simplicity and clean layout, but I think it needs a bit more color. It would be awesome if the site design/aesthetics could match Britney eras, with matching design elements throughout. It could also work better if it was a little more condensed so less scrolling? The main thing that would have me frequent the site more is the ads, if there is a better less intrusive way to generate revenue to keep the site ticking over that would be great.

Lastly, 20 fkn years! Congratulations Jordan, and thank you for giving us oddballs a place to congregate the last couple decades 

[PokemonSpears]

I have some questions

Will we have to create a new account from scratch?

What's gonna happen to all the content from old Exhale, like all of our threads and comments, will we still have access to this site? Will everything be migrated to the other place somehow?

 

[PokemonSpears]

but most importantly, are the emotes gone?

[GirlOnTheMoon]

I just feel like the more changes this forum goes through, the less members stay active. People have stayed here because we’re mostly millennials that grew up with forums and interacting in a forum format is nostalgic… I personally don’t want any other format. There are other platforms where I can  talk about Britney but I choose BH because it’s a forum. I personally don’t like the change and I don’t see how this will grow traffic or engagement.

[RedBloodedWoman]

I’m still missing the forum circa 2012 with the u2u messenger, so many members & the headers were always so hot I think Antidote made a bunch of them

[Mutya]

The important question is: will the ads be gone? 

[pancake]

i joined but i like the format we have now Jordan

well, this is better than the last platform a few years ago...that one was real bad. the new one is ok, but sort of like too much can be lost/too distracting.

this one we have now is iconic and im not sure why it should be changed...ofc i would try to get used to it, but might visit less. maybe.

[RBFLOVESBRITNEY]

1 hour ago, Jordan Miller said:

Oh also worth mentioning that one day this new platform can be turned into an actual app 🫢

I’d love to have Britney news notifications. Also, easier ways to add images.