Introducing F1 Fanatic’s new community and mobile features

F1 Fanatic updates

Posted on

| Written by

Today F1 Fanatic launches the biggest changes to the site in five years.

The upgrade is designed to improve how F1 Fanatics can interact with each other through the site and provide better site performance on mobile devices.

Your new F1 Fanatic profile

F1 Fanatic user profiles are a much bigger part of the site now.

You can now use your profile to keep track of all your comments on an articles and in the forums. Note this will only apply to comments made from this moment on, though all your previous comments remain on the site.

When replying to another user, you can place an @ symbol before their name so they are notified of your response. You also now have the option to send direct, private messages to other users.

Avatars can now be uploaded and edited within the site.

For the first time you can also declare your allegiance to a particular driver, team, or even racing series – and use it to find other supporters on the site.

Groups and forums

The F1 Fanatic Forum has now been fully integrated within the main site.

Where these were previously separated into “F1”, “F1 Games” and “Not F1”, you’ll now find a much wider selection of Groups on offer.

These include different racing series (IndyCar, GP2 etc..) and dedicated discussion areas for people visiting races.

More groups will be added in the near future and there will also be a space for you to suggest new ideas for groups.

You can still find a list of all the forums in one page but please be aware the URL has changed to https://www.racefans.net/forums (note the plural).

Mobile

Users visiting on mobile devices will notice a number of additional changes and improvements.

First, all the new features are part of the new mobile site.

On top of that, some other features that were previously missing have been added. Comments now appear threaded as they do on the desktop site and the forums are now optimised for mobile viewing as well.

Changes in full

See here for an overview of all the changes made to the site:

The home of racing fans

F1 Fanatic aims to be the best place for motor racing fans to share their passion for the sport.

These enchancements, built using Buddypress and Buddypress Mobile, offer new ways for fans to do that.

There is also plenty of opportunity for new developments in the future.

While incorporating these changes I’ve taken the opportunity to make some changes to the layout of the site. The fundamental structure and basic look and feel remain unchanged, but you will notice wider article pages and comment boxes, a re-organised home page and some other tweaks.

As is always the case these changes will take some getting used to but I hope you agree they add up to a substanial improvement.

Inevitably there were some features that I hoped to include but had to be left out for the time being, such as an editing facility for user comments.

Thank to Andrew Tanner, Magnificent Geoffrey, BasCB, Icthyes, Greg Morland, Tom and Alex Odell for helping to test the developments and their many excellent suggestions on how to improve them.

As always, if you experience any problems with the site please follow these steps to report them:

Please leave any other feedback on the changes below.

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

127 comments on “Introducing F1 Fanatic’s new community and mobile features”

  1. Finally, everyone else gets to play with all of Keith’s new toys!

    Really excited about these new features. I hope everyone enjoys them as much as I have.

    1. Ditto. Exciting, isn’t it?!

    2. Same here, really great to see it live!

    3. This is fantastic.

      1. Wow – this is incredible!!!

        1. A real class act, everything so clean ‘n’ shiny! I like a lot!!

    4. Agree. Keith, I think all the features are absolutely awesome!

      I hate to be splitting hairs already, but the only thing that bothers me is when I try to leave a reply, the text box is now at the bottom of the page and I cannot refer to the post I’m replying to without scrolling up through the page.

      Keep up the good work Keith, I think you have taken a huge step forward in forming the world’s most awesome f1 community.

    5. Its taking a bit of time to get used to, but I’m loving what I see so far! :)
      xx

  2. sid_prasher (@)
    5th October 2011, 20:14

    trying everything out right now :)

    1. sid_prasher (@)
      5th October 2011, 22:24

      Excellent work! The site looks great in both Chrome and IE9 and on so does the mobile site.
      Nice and fluid.

      1 suggestion – can we do away with the bold in the article headers or perhaps a different font (is it Tahoma?)

  3. Love It! This is an amazing improvement. The best f1 site on the net just got better!

  4. Finally I have an avatar! Great job Keith!

    1. I’ll get one soon :)

      I hate yours anyway :)

      P.S.: Just kidding.

      1. And speaking as a Massa fan I love yours @Carlitox !

  5. Well, I’m a Doctor Who fan, so I’ve gotta like change!

    I use the mobile site a fair bit while at college, so I’ll check that out tomorrow, hope it’s good!

    1. @keeleyobsessed The mobile site is good. I put a lot of time into checking it out on Android and think I made Keith aware of everything I could. Works really well and very fluid.

      1. I’ll reserve judgement on the mobile site till tomorrow, but I have no concerns about it..

        Also, the new layout gets my approval aswell Keith, excellent work! And the others, of course. Now I just need to get the hang of it all…

      2. Still working fine on my ancient K800!

  6. Keith, I think there’s a small problem. I’m getting the WordPress dashboard at the top for moderating the site, and I’m assuming I’ve not suddenly become your employee!

    1. Keith will let you attend the flying lap with Peter Windsor

    2. @damonsmedley I see the Dashboard option on the Forums, and if I select the “new post” option, for example, it then tells me I have no permission to perform such action.

      1. Same here.

    3. I got that one as well, when I tried a search for a user it was suddenly on top, see picture link

    4. @damonsmedley Will look into this, thanks.

    5. @keithcollantine i think that glitch with the dashboard comes up on the search results page Keith. See picture posted in the link above.

  7. wohooooo….. I have a new avatar. Keith, new features are great. I’m now trying my hand on the mobile version

  8. OmarR-Pepper (@)
    5th October 2011, 20:29

    Congratulations! good to see the brand new changes on our old favorite site (well mine so far). Thanks Keith!

  9. Thanks for all the updates and the hard work Keith! :)

  10. Very nice Keith. Congratulations.

  11. wow, this is just brilliant haha :D btw, is there any way of associating this account to twitter?

    1. Not yet, but it’s something I’d really like to have. And for other social networks too.

      1. umm..thanks :)

  12. Great job!

  13. I got a shock when I saw this. Great job Keith!

  14. AWESOMENESS!

  15. Amazing,Love every single bit.Keep it up Keith & i really hope & believe that this Website is still big in the coming years

  16. Awesome stuff. Exactly what I’ve been hoping for. Long live F1Fanatic!

  17. Great to see this live Keith, the testing was quite fun :D

  18. Good job Keith!

  19. Looks great Keith! Can’t wait until I’m off work this evening to get a chance to sit down and check everything out in depth.

  20. I think this is really a great change, because it really focuses on the social network aspect of F1, an aspect which is a bit lacking in my opinion in F1. It’s good, because we feel more invested in the sport, because we are actually doing something (and not just passivly wacthing the sport), and it’s really good that there is more interactivity with other users.

  21. Wow! Fantastic job @KeithCollantine! This site is fast becoming (actually already is) the Red Bull of F1 web sites. Congratulations!

  22. @KeithCollantine just one thing, FANTASTIC!

  23. It’s the future…with jetpacks!

    1. And blackjack… And hookers!

  24. This is an amazing job you’ve done. The best f1 website just got even better.

  25. Wooh! Excellent! Mobile site changes are much appreciated!

  26. Brilliant work Keith!!!

  27. Love the changes, this is becoming a true waterhole for F1 Fanatics.

    1. However, it seems it isn’t pulling my avatar from gravatar. It worked fine before the changes… I guess I could always upload it here as well.

      1. My Gravatar avatar isn’t showing up yet, either — I’m assuming there’s a bit of time lag for some, maybe.

      2. I think you will have to upload the picture to your F1F profile for it to be show now.

        Avatars can now be uploaded and edited within the site.

  28. TheScuderia (@)
    5th October 2011, 21:22

    Love the changes. Keep up the great work!

  29. Got myself a profile. I’ll give it a whirl

  30. Well this has made my evening, possibly even my week!

  31. I thought the site was down, when the old forum URL gave me a 404 error, but apparently things are a bit better than that :P

    Thanks Keith, amazing work!

    1. The site was down, … but only to upload these great changes! :-)

  32. Amazing!

  33. This is so much better – well done – already my favourite F1 site and the one I visit the most!

  34. A good site got even better, well done Keith.

    I see we can only choose the current teams and drivers as our favorite(s), which in a way is very logical (since you can’t support someone who isn’t competing anymore). But I bet I’m not the only one here who has a soft spot for historic drivers and/or teams. Will we ever be able to add those too?

    1. Hm, not a bad Idea, I think.

    2. @sempregilles It’s a possibility but that would be several hundred names which would make organising the menu a little complicated. It’s not out of the question, but there are some usability hurdles to clear first.

  35. great job, Keith! considering all the expenses you needed to improve this wonderful site, i’ve just made my first donation for the blog. keep up the good work! ;)

    1. Thanks very much!

  36. Loving the new features!

  37. Really enjoying the new features. It came as a nice surprise as I wasn’t expecting such a big update, thanks Keith!

  38. This is great!

    1. One question though: In the settings>notifications>messages there is an option for notification when, “A new site notice is posted”, what does that mean? Is it when a new post goes up?

        1. @bascb I haven’t got any email though new post have been added to the site so I guess that’s not what it does..!?

          1. @mustalainen You are sure you have the box for receiving those ticked, I guess. Strange. Maybe we should ask @keithcollantine about it.

  39. Would it be possible to mention the region (or country) which we are coming from in the profile?

    I think it’s an interesting idea : that way we’ll be able to spot F1fanatics who live in our region.

  40. Oooooooh.

  41. Maybe the forum post header needs a cosmetic update @keithcollantine , when having very long titles of the topics they blend with the topic header on the right side, see pic enclosed.
    Oh, and that dashboard thing @damonsmedley mentioned above shows up as well there.

  42. I’m enjoying these new features, they’re superb. I actually feel proud to be a member now. (I was before, too, it’s just now everything is much more organised)

  43. F1fanatic is getting close to facebook now :D:D

    1. Watch out Zuckerberg, I’m coming for you :-)

    2. @shrayyef To me it seems like more of a twitter but whatever it is more fun will be here then on twitter or facebook.

  44. Yes Yes Yes!!! Oh, yes! Thank you very much Keith!

  45. Love the new features Keith, thanks also for keeping the great design of F1 Fanatic – I think sites like Facebook can learn a lot from you.

  46. @keithcollantine Just thought i’d mention that the mobile site seems to have a bit of an issue. I click on the Menu button and I’m only presented with a link to my profile. Plus, the notification icon seems to hover over the advert when in portrait mode. I’m using Android stock browser.

  47. I seem unable to change my email address (this was true pre-profiles too, but I thought the revamp might have altered something). I get the correct ‘changes saved’ message after submitting a change of email, but the old address still shows up in my profile. Any idea what that’s about?

    Oh, and otherwise: thanks for an awesome update :-)

    1. Looks like this might have changed now – just didn’t show immediately.

  48. Love the new look site with all of the new bells & whistles

  49. One word – Impressive!

  50. Where’s my avatar gone?

    1. Never mind :)

  51. I was shocked when I opened the site today in the morning I thought “which site did I open up” .Anyways the hard work Keith have given here needs for a pay back.We all love this site mate & we all hope that we will be able to contribute more for this wonderful blog.
    Thanks Keith & all the F1F here.

  52. Thanks to @AndrewTanner,@ Magnificen Geoffrey, @BasCB, @Icthyes, @GregMorland, @Tom and @AlexOdell

  53. Performance is definitely a lot better. It used to take ages to load up each page, now it’s almost instant.

  54. soundscape (@)
    6th October 2011, 4:04

    Overall love it, just a cosmetic comment: The right-hand panel takes up a boatload of screen real estate. Would be great if it was slightly narrower, with more room for the main attraction.

  55. @keithcollantine Tried to edit a forum post I’d just made. A screen appeared with a headline and no editing functionality. Firefox 7.0.1 Win7. But everything else is great. I’m so happy to have an avatar!

    1. You know what, this is no longer “F1Fanatic, the Formula 1 Blog”. Because the word “blog” is inadequate to describe how magnificent and comprehensive this site is. F1 Fanatic, the Formula 1 …Encyclopedia? …Resource? …Fanatic’s Home? …, Formula 1 Central? Whatever, it’s certainly developed well beyond the original web log.

  56. Fantastic upgrades… Great job Keith!

  57. This. is. amazing!

  58. pages load much faster! and a nice touch. Dont like the font made bold of titles on front page, but i’ll grow into it. And finally a way to chat with other members! Great work Keith. really really nice! :)

  59. Wow, new toys and it’s not even Christmas.

    Congrats to Keith and all the hard workers.

  60. Nice work Keith. It’s come a long way since when I first started reading your blog.

  61. Keith, as I use this on IE9, I see that the frontpage layout doesn’t look like how it should. Can you have a look-see?

    1. @Journeyer Looks fine to me, can you perhaps send more details and a screen grab?:

      Reporting a technical problem

      1. Oops. I forgot I set F1F to Compatibility Mode due to the reply bug in the previous version. It works fine now that I’ve turned it off. :)

  62. @keithcollantine Fantastic new features, been wanting a way to track comments for years. Are you planning to extend the functionality of the predictions championship at all? Allowing you to track your rank/points per race by graph over the course of the season and that sort of thing? :D

    1. Also I noticed that there is a checkbox at the bottom of the post comment section for email notifications. Is this superfluous now that my profile notification settings are set to notify me?

      Furthermore, while posting this reply, I noticed it reloads the entire page when you click reply? Surely it can just inject the div into the current page? It may seem like a nit picky gripe, but living in South Africa we don’t always have the best international bandwidth, and having specifically turned off my adblocker for F1Fanatic, the pages can sometimes take an age to load.

      1. @puffy It’s not superfluous as it allows non-registered users to subscribe to comments. However it should probably be hidden from logged-in users.

        The reply page reload thing is a glitch, it’s on the fix list.

        1. @keithcollantine Sorry Keith, I only meant superfluous in the situation of having turned on the notification in my settings. Obviously it’s useful if you’re not a registered user or you’ve turned notifications off by default.

          Anyways, you guys have done a great job with the site, F1Fanatic really is the best resource on the web for anything Formula 1.

          1. @puffy No problem at all, constructive feedback is always welcome!

  63. ooo, much much nicer, hopefully things work as well as they look now :D

  64. The new layout and features look great – good work Keith!

  65. This is great! Thanks for all your hard work Keith, and everyone else involved too.

  66. Keith, how can I see older articles? I entered the Archive but the page is empty.

    1. @klaas Something seems to have gone wrong here – I’ll add it to the ‘fix list’.

      In the meantime you can use the new search box (top-right) to find old articles.

  67. Now I don’t have to be at home to be able to comment, and don’t have to use twitter to talk to @nedflanders…

    1. @mention fail

  68. LOVE IT KEITH

  69. Good job Keith! If anyone would like to help me feel less of a billy-no-mates, add me as a friend here: https://www.racefans.net/members/badgergp/profile/public/

  70. Really big improvement, great job Keith!

  71. Hello Keith. I just wanted to congratulate you on the superb job you have done with the website. It has been my first stop for all things F1 for the past couple of years and it’s clear to see that a lot of work has gone into making this one of the best F1 sites on the net. I use mostly the mobile version on the iPhone and it looks and works great. Thank you and again congratulations!

  72. And much faster!!

  73. I gotta say, great job on all the changes, I’m lovin it! The only minor complaint I have is that I’m not a big fan of the new layout of the home page, but I guess I’ll get used to it and once I do, it probably works alot better than the old one!

  74. Hmmm. Probably great, but am I the only one having problems on IE8 on PC?
    It looks okay on Firefox and Opera though.
    Mind you, I’m a bit surprised that I can sign in via three browsers at once – and on separate machines using the same sign in!

  75. Awesome update to the site Keith! It’s changed so much since I first visited!

  76. Oh my Keith!!! You have outdone yourself!!! I’m in F1 heaven!!! :-D This is amazing!!! :O

    Now this is a real sense of an F1 Fanatic community! Loving it is an understatement!!

  77. @keithcollantine some more ideas for the user profile:

    a) favourite drivers besides the current drivers
    b) favourite championship year
    c) favourite race circuit
    d) most memorale race wins by their favourite driver

  78. I like the new features!

    Just to let you know that the home page looks fine in Firefox, but in IE it doesn’t group the articles in the same way and therefore there is plenty of white space.

  79. I am not sure if it has been mentioned before but it might be nice to have vote up / down on comments feature… based on this it could help you decide if the comment(s) are valid for a COTD ….

    1. You realise how many ‘thumbs up if you agree Hamilton is the best!’ type comments there’d be then?

      1. ah.. yes very good point …

Comments are closed.