FlightSim Debacle

[Mick]

Been to FlightSim yet today? Wait 'til you see it - it's a total disaster!

They have totally redesigned the site and made it incredibly user-unfriendly. The biggest screw-up is that they seem to have left off the new downloads page!

The changeover was sometime since I checked there yesterday and already the forum has scores of posts complaining about the changes. Not one singe person has made a positive comment.

If they stick with the new site I think FlightSim will quickly fade into obscurity. They've turned one of the most useful FS download sites into a worthless POS.

[huub vink]

That is what some people call progress . I noticed it yesterday evening (my Central European Time).

Luckily Google still brought me to the old library search page: https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/fslib.php

But I can't imagine I will get used to the new lay-out soon.....

Cheers,
Huub

[Navtech]

Hi,

Same here ... downloads screw up !!
And no anouncement from the staff
A shame

[Priller]

It is very different to the old format indeed.

They changed software, I imagine there's a reason for that. (security, updates/patches to the software, pricing, could be anything)

I was able to find the download sections quite easily. It just takes a bit of searching and then more time to get used to it.

But they do have a bit of work on their hands trying to convince the user base of the necessity of the change and to refine the new setup.

Just my two €cents worth.

Priller

[MrZippy]

Nels is no longer the site owner and like some of the comments I made there, it has gone to hell in a hand basket! I will let my first class membership expire and continue on here and over at AVSIM.

[huub vink]

The reason is indeed most likely a software change. I noticed that the flightsim.com site now works correctly on my phone as well. So they have introduced a "mobile version" as well.

But as the site lay-out is quite differnt and the library is organised in a different way (and perhaps still a bit difficult to find).

It is a bit like MS Office, once you know how it works they release a new version. Thing largely stay the same, but menus and functions are just organised in a different way. And as soon as you know at the new trick again, MS releases another new version. I understand there are reasons and it is not really a big deal, but just a bit annoying.

Cheers,
Huub

[Priller]

They're having a discussion about it:

https://forums.flightsim.com/topic/5...orum-software/

Priller

[Shessi]

Strangely strange??

FS.com is exactly the same as it has always been for me, no changes I can see. I'm not going to log out and in again just to try it..ha ha.

And yes I've just changed my IP address and it's a new layout. IMHO looks good, much clearer, seems easy to get around?

So I may log-out-in, we'll see!

Cheers

Shessi

[huub vink]

Strangely strange??

FS.com is exactly the same as it has always been for me, no changes I can see. I'm not going to log out and in again just to try it..ha ha.

And yes I've just changed my IP address and it's a new layout. IMHO looks good, much clearer, seems easy to get around?

So I may log-out-in, we'll see!

Cheers

Shessi

Don't worry. In a week or two the update will also reach South England .

Cheers,
Huub

[AndyG43]

Don't worry. In a week or two the update will also reach South England .

Cheers,
Huub

Sadly it already has. But, as with yourself, I spoke to my friend Google who was able to point me in the right direction.

Mind you, if this software update stops the recurring Cloudfare issues I'll be more than happy.

[ian elliot]

Like Shessi, im still on the old site too, but i guess change is heading my way

[MrZippy]

Like Shessi, im still on the old site too, but i guess change is heading my way

Yeah, I'm still seeing the old site even after logging out then back in! Looks like it will take a user and password for the site and then another one for the File library.

[WarHorse47]

What a mess.

I typically visit once a day to see what's new and was confronted with the changed site. I had registered with the site years ago and could not remember which e-mail address I used. Regardless, it would not take any of my e-mail addresses although my password was correct. On top of that the site (or my stupid browser) kept changing and saving another password so nothing worked. I left them a message hours ago and have not received a response.

Thanks to Huub's earlier post I found the prior search page and located my profile, so now I know which e-mail address was used to register. Still, no response from the administrator on the inability to log into the site. I just tried to login with the proper e-mail and password and after so many tries, I'm now locked out of the account I could not access.

Time to seek another hobby.

--WH

[MrZippy]

If you try a download from the library, there, it should ask you to login to the "New Site" Email is the one you used to create your account back in the old days and use your same password.

[WarHorse47]

If you try a download from the library, there, it should ask you to login to the "New Site" Email is the one you used to create your account back in the old days and use your same password.

Been there, done that. If I try to login as an Existing User with email and password, it will not let me log into the site. I have requested a "lost password" with the proper email address and have received nothing.

If I use the link to the older search page (posted by Huub), I logged in as usual.

[Mick]

...Time to seek another hobby.
WH

Not an new hobby, just another FS download site. We still have AvSim, SimV and right here, the site that gets more unique uploads than all the others out together.

[Mick]

Nels is no longer the site owner and like some of the comments I made there, it has gone to hell in a hand basket! I will let my first class membership expire and continue on here and over at AVSIM.

Yep. Me too.

I'm just gobsmacked that they would design a flightsim site without a new downloads page! If you already know what you're looking for you can search for individual files. And if you have all day with nothing else to do you can, check out the latest files one sub-category at a time. FS9 aircraft, FS9 scenery, FS9 utilities, FSX aircraft, FSX scenery, FSX utilities, etc., etc., etc.

Unless one is terminally bored there's just no reason to go through all that when we can just go to Avsim instead to see all the latest releases on one download page. In recent months uploads to FlightSim have dropped off pretty drastically compared to AvSim and SimV. Sometimes they go several days without a single new file to display. Unless they drastically revamp this POS I think a whole lot of people will just stop visiting FlightSim. There really is no reason to go there anymore and put up with that travesty.

[ian elliot]

Just had a try at downloading, all looked normal to start with, then i had to enter my detail's which i know are correct, only to find a "page dos'nt exist" notice, i could contact the site, but i cant be bother'd at the moment, im not at my best jumping through hoops.

[ViperPilot2]

Interesting!

When I use the Bookmark on my Tablet it takes me to the old site, and I can access the old File Library page.

But, if I clicked on Priller's Link, it takes me to the 'new' Site.

I use my Tablet to read the Forums here, there and at AVSIM. I'll peruse the File Library at FlightSim if I'm looking for something I need, and will fire up the Sim laptop to download it.

Change is inevitable; but these days does more harm than good.

[Naismith]

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/conte...loads-And-More

works

[leuen]

https://www.flightsim.com/vbfs/conte...loads-And-More

works

Really? And what about this, if you want to download something?



Bernard

[MrZippy]

Probably don't have the File Library transferred over yet!

[Shessi]

Leuen,
Go to FS.com home page, top right 'search' box (which by default is for 'everywhere'...so will include 'files' AND 'forums' etc), if you want to just search the 'files' section, hover over the search box drop-down menu and change to the search location to 'files' and type in the word(s). No more work than before...just a little different.

Would be good to be able to customise the look, and certainly the size of icons etc, at the mo, everything is way too big, which means you have to scroll around the page some what.

Cheers

Shessi

[Mick]

Well, if someone has nothing to do and can spend all day looking at every possibly relevant sub-section that they might find something new in that they can use, great. For most of us that would be FS9 aircraft, FS9 scenery, FS9 utilities, CFS2 aircraft, possibly FS2002 aircraft, and that's just for folks who only have FS9. If you also have FSX and/or CFS2 then double or triple that many sections to peruse and try to figure out what's new.

Why bother? Since sometime early last year the number of uploads to FlightSim has dropped fairly drastically and everything they have and much more are available and easily identified on AvSim and SimV. There's really no reason to jump through hoops to find things on FlightSim.

I gathered from some comments by the new management over there that much of the reason for the new site is that it makes their job easier. How not having a new release page makes their job so much easier escapes me. I could see making changes to make the admins' jobs easier on a non-commercial, volunteer-run site like this one. FlightSim is a commercial site supported by advertising. FlightSim in business and if they put their own convenience above that of their customers, well, there's no reason for their customers to continue supporting them.

And yes, even though FlightSim can be visited for free, they charge for premium membership, so premium members are customers in every sense of the term. But free visitors are also customers in an important sense - every page they visit, every download they make, contributes to generating the numbers that determine what FlightSim can charge for advertising.

[leuen]

Leuen,
Go to FS.com home page, top right 'search' box (which by default is for 'everywhere'...so will include 'files' AND 'forums' etc), if you want to just search the 'files' section, hover over the search box drop-down menu and change to the search location to 'files' and type in the word(s). No more work than before...just a little different.

Thanks. I found the way to the libraires already a while ago. Simply I wanted to point out that the link above leads finally to nothing. Just for those who think to get things as they were before. That's over.

Bernard