New DPReview website FAQ

DPReview has an all-new website, our first redesign from the ground up in over 25 years. For the full story, see our announcement article. If you just want a quick answer, you’re in the right place.

If your question isn’t covered here, post it in this forum thread or in the comments below, and we’ll get you an answer. If it’s something others would find useful, we’ll add it here.

General questions

Q: Does the new site signal a change in DPReview’s coverage?
A: Our editorial mandate isn’t changing. We’ll continue to bring you the same authoritative, unbiased coverage of cameras and photography you’ve come to depend on, written by the same people.

Q: Was the old site broken? If not, why change?
A: Not broken, but overdue. The site has been running on the same aging codebase for over 25 years, and maintaining it has become increasingly costly and limiting. Moving DPReview onto a modern platform means we can invest in new features and improvements far more efficiently than we could on legacy infrastructure while keeping DPReview’s editorial identity fully intact. The old system was a ceiling. This removes it.

Q: Does the new site have a ‘light’ mode?
A: No. At this time, the site is exclusively in dark mode.

Account and history

Q: Do I need to do anything to update my account?
A: No, your account will transfer over to the new site automatically.

Q: Will my comments, forum posts and history carry over?
A: Yes, your previous account history, including comments, will follow your account to the new site.

Q: Do I need to log in again or reset my password?
A: No, you should not need to log in again on the new site.

Article comments

Q: What happened to my old comments?
A: Your comments are all being migrated and won’t be lost. Older comments take longer to move over, so they’ll appear in stages: the most recent should return within a few hours of launch, comments from earlier this year within a day, and older comments over the following days.

Q: Why did you change the commenting system?
A: Our previous commenting system was deeply integrated with the old website, and it wasn’t feasible to bring it over to the new one. We know commenting matters to many members of our community, so keeping it meant building a new system on a new foundation. Comments still appear under articles, but they work a bit differently.

Q: Why aren’t comment replies nested anymore?
A: They’re not, and we want to be upfront about it. The old system nested replies one level deep, to indicate which reply belonged to which comment. The new system works differently. Instead, you can quote the comment you’re replying to, so it’s still clear who you’re responding to.

Q: How do I reply to someone now?
A: Click the “Reply” button under their comment to start a reply. If you want to quote the other person for clarity, you can click the “Quote Reply” button and the system will quote the other user above your text.

Ads

Q: How do I get fewer ads?
A: Log into your DPReview account when browsing the site. If you’re not registered, creating a free account and signing up for our newsletter takes a minute and gets you the same benefit.

Q: I’m logged in. Why do I still see ads?
A: This isn’t meant to be an “ad-free” experience. You’ll still see ads, but fewer of them. We still rely on advertising to help fund DPReview, but as a thank-you to our registered users, we’re giving logged-in visitors a cleaner page.

Q: Is there a paid ad-free subscription?
A: Not currently, but it’s something we’re exploring for the future.

Challenges

Q: What happened to Challenges?
A: As we mentioned in April, our old Challenges system was tied closely to the previous site and couldn’t move over as-is. Rather than rebuild it exactly as it was, we’re building a new Challenges system from the ground up that reflects a lot of the feedback you’ve given us over the years. It’s actively in development.

Forums

Q: Does the new website impact the forums?
A: No, the forums are not affected. They run on a separate platform that isn’t part of this migration, so you can keep using them exactly as before. To get there from the new homepage, click “Discussions” in the navigation bar, which links directly to our most popular forums, or select “All Forums” to see the full index.

The Beta label and site speed

Q: Why does it say “Beta” at the top of the site?
A: It’s our way of being upfront that we’ll keep refining things over the coming weeks. That includes addressing known issues and dialing in details as we go. Separately, a small number of features, like Challenges, aren’t live yet and are being rebuilt from the ground up; you can read more about that below.

Q: How long will it stay in beta?
A: We expect the site to stay in beta for several weeks. We’ll drop the label once we’re confident the site has earned it.

Q: Why are some pages loading slowly?
A: In the first days after launch, some pages, especially photo-heavy ones, may load more slowly than usual. The site caches an optimized version of each image and page the first time it’s viewed and serves the fast cached copy thereafter. Right after launch, those caches are still filling in, so the first visit to a given page does more work than subsequent visits, which should load more quickly.

Getting help and bug reporting

Q: I have a question or need help. Where do I go?
A: Please visit the community forums to ask questions and discuss the site redesign. You can also report issues there as well. If you are unable to log in or have other access issues that prevent you from posting in the forums, please email us and include your account username, along with a brief description of the issue, at [email protected].

Q: How do I report a bug
A: If you discover a bug you’d like to share with us, please report it using this forum thread. Note that we will keep an updated list of reported bugs in the first post of the thread, so take a moment to review that list in case your bug has already been reported.

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