Site redesign preview

[UPDATE] - the modern site is now live

Hey guys,

It's been a while since I last posted I've been pretty busy with my full-time job, personal life, and US camera shows 🙂. Recently though, I spent some time updating the look and feel of the site after 20 years. The goal is to make it feel a bit more modern and improve how it displays on mobile browsers.

It's still a work in progress and not fully finished yet, but you can check out a preview here:

https://ussrphoto.com/modern

I know everyone is used to the old layout, so I tried to keep the changes more like a light facelift without altering the overall flow too much. Let me know what you think! Some pages might still show the old style as I continue working on it.

Best regards,
Vlad

Hi Vlad,

That seems fine. To get USSRphoto on mobiles was not very easy; that should be more simple now with that new look. Hope it will improve the frequentation of the site...
Anyway, I am too very happy to see that you are always the first, with us. Thanks![;)]

Amitiés. Jacques.

Vlad,

that's a really nice facelift. I like the old design too, but the new one looks better without being too different :-) I like it.

Ulrich

http://fotos.cconin.de

thank you Gentlemen! I am still tweaking things (like making mobile version site font bigger so it's easier to read, streamlining closed registration, adding better contact us page, etc..) but I'm glad you don't find it radical and still familiar to use, that was my goal!

The new site is now fully live!

If you prefer the Classic site, you can still access it using the link at the bottom of the page. This will save a cookie on your device so the Classic version opens by default unless the cookie is cleared.

If you encounter any issues with the new site, please report them here. Hope you enjoy the redesign!

Best regards,
Vlad

👍

I've been making more improvements to the new site and will keep posting release notes here.

Major new features added in the modern site:

Mobile-friendly version of the site for phones and tablets.
Combined search across catalog entries and forum topic titles.
Recent forum post hover previews, showing the latest reply without opening the topic.
Faster loading for large forum topics through paged topic viewing.
Inline forum image upload from the reply form.
Improved forum image rendering, including uploaded images and forum image tags.
Lightbox viewing for forum and catalog images.
Forum post reactions with multiple reaction types: like, love, care, laugh, wow, and angry.
Reactions update without reloading the full page.
Member default avatar for users without profile photos.
Easy avatar upload directly from forum posts.
Country flag badges on forum avatars when a member’s country is available.
New registration approval workflow.
Registration now asks applicants why they want to join and a little about themselves.
Admin approval links are emailed for new registrations.
Users receive an approval email once their account is activated.
Modern Contact Us form with CAPTCHA protection.
Modernized email formatting for registration, contact messages, and forum notifications.
Better support for Cyrillic, other languages, and emoji in outgoing emails.
Modern subscriptions page and notification handling.
Mobile-collapsible catalog navigation.
Modern wiki/catalog editing flow with in-page tools.
Wiki revision history available inside the modern interface.
Classic site remains available as an optional fallback.

My sincerest congratulations. That's a whole bunch of improvements, very useful. I only have to adapt to the new design after so many years...😉

thank you xya, it's mostly just modern improvements but keeping the flow the same.

Best regards,
Vlad

A few more improvements/updates:


- Wiki/catalog reactions now use the same emoji reaction system as forum posts, including reactions on catalog listings and the homepage tile gallery.
- Added a Sad reaction option to the reaction set.
- Updated email formatting so outbound site emails use the cleaner modern template and the footer now says "Visit the site."
- Improved handling for forum subscription email content, including emoji/entity rendering work.
- Added the Camerosity podcast to the Supporters area on the homepage.
- Added the USSRPhoto channel on the Camerosity Discord Server to the homepage Socials area.

Yes, the redesign is really good, thanks for all the hard work!

Sorry about the downtime in the forum, I am still improving the site, as much as I test it, it can still break when updated. It should be all fixed, thank you guys for bearing with me here, and I appreciate you reporting the issues, I try to fix them as fast as I can, hopefully the modernization of the site is worth it 🙂
Best regards,
Vlad

Latest updates to the site:

[list]
[*]Forum reply and topic posting now use a richer editor with preview, image thumbnails, drag-and-drop upload, and paste-from-clipboard image upload.
[*]Large forum topics now use traditional paging, so long threads load much faster.
[*]Forum post images now render more consistently inline, in printer-friendly pages, and in notification emails.
[*]Member avatars were improved with default avatar graphics, country flags, and easier avatar upload/editing.
[*]New user registration now goes through an approval workflow: applicants explain why they want to join, accounts stay inactive until approved, and admins can approve or reject from a modern review page.
[*]Contact Us was added with captcha, reply-to support, and modern email delivery.
[*]Member-to-member contact was added for logged-in users, including a report/block spam flow.
[*]Wiki request workflows were modernized for category changes, entry removal, image removal, linked copies, and relationships, with login gating and approval/rejection flow.
[*]Wiki image/file uploads were modernized with drag-and-drop upload and session-only delete controls for newly uploaded files.
[*]Lightbox viewing was improved with navigation and watermarked download support.
[*]Recent forum post hover previews were added on the homepage and forum landing page.
[*]Resources/seller reviews were modernized with star ratings and notifications for new reviews/comments.
[*]Mobile navigation and mobile forum layouts were improved, including collapsed navigation and mobile-friendly notification behavior.
[*]Classic-site redirect controls were added so old links can route to the matching modern page while still keeping the Classic Site footer link available.
[/list]

Oh I fixed French letters for you, Jacques! 😃 Now you can type Amitiés again! 🤩

I'm aware of image upload issues again in the forum, trying to fix it, please bear with me, thank you!

Ok, it should be fixed now (I hope 😀), with some other minor visual items on a home page.

Some more additions if you notice, a new "social-network" style forum view feed that's now built into a home page that lets you quickly reply and post, forum-style pages are still active, available and work in tandem, so anything posted to feed appears there and vice versa. It's still in beta version so I'm still improving things, so any observations, suggestions, annoyances as a feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Latest round of improvements:

Forum & Feed[list]
[*]Choose your view, and it sticks. You can now switch between the classic Forum view and the modern Feed view from your account menu, and the site remembers your choice. Every forum link takes you to whichever view you prefer.
[*]@-mention people in posts. Type @ and start a name to tag any member; they get notified. Works in both the feed and the classic forum editor.
[*]Notification shortcuts. Notifications now have a Feed/Forum toggle so you can jump straight to a post in whichever view you like.
[*]View counts are shown on posts in the feed.
[/list]

Wiki Catalog[list]
[*]Edits to "Member Articles & Blogs" now go through the original author for approval. When someone edits an article they don't own, the change is held and the author is emailed to review it on a side-by-side "before vs. after" page where they can Approve or Reject. Until then, everyone keeps seeing the current published version.
[*]You'll know when an admin handled it for you. If you open an approval link that's already been decided, you'll see a clear message ("An administrator already approved this edit for you on …") instead of a confusing "not found."
[*]Image & file uploads on catalog entries are fixed — uploads no longer produce blank/broken files.
[*]Nicer entry layout — article text now wraps around the image gallery; a lone single image no longer shows a redundant thumbnail; the "Hide Image Gallery" option works correctly; and Related Entries / Linked Copies display cleanly stacked.
[/list]

Hello again! I've decided to add some advertisements to the site, but only to NON-LOGGED-IN public users, so if you are are registered and logged into the site you should not see any ads.. my site host provider has doubled it's monthly fees in past few years so I would like to at least get some of the hosting covered for this website, but our members will be ad-free. I am considering making it "active" members, that is if you at least have 10 forums posts or activity you will be ad-free..

Please let me know if you have any thoughts

thanks!

Vlad

[list]
[*]Site-wide Light/Dark mode — a new sun/moon toggle in the top bar (visible to everyone, even logged out) switches the whole site between the classic dark look and a new light/cream theme. Your choice is remembered.
[*]Recent Posts column returns to the home page on the right, alongside the Forum Feed. It can be collapsed, and stays collapsed/open per your preference.
[*]@-mention tagging now works in the rich text editor (previously only in plain-text mode) — typing @name pops up the member picker.
[*]Forum vs. Forum Feed are now distinct menu items that always open the right view; the only board↔feed toggle left is in the notifications panel.
[/list]