While I did not start the thread entitled "Oh Dear What Have You Done" I have contributed to it and since Mike has taken exception to some recent posts to it by another user on various grounds including that the thread is poorly titled, I will start this new one with an unambiguous title and which only addresses the issue at hand.
That issue is that a couple of weeks ago aircraft titles changed from a transparent background to a mid grey. Some users, including myself, objected to this change because it makes labels very difficult to read when many of them are close to each other, particularly around busy airports. Other users equally expressed no objection to the change. A couple suggested that the option should exist to choose the type of background if there is some compelling reason for the grey to exist.
Moderators have posted that changes are being made to the site and to be patient as the issue will be resolved. Other changes have now appeared in the last few days - they too are not universally popular - but not a word about fixing the background colour of the labels. Various "work-arounds" have been suggested including switching off labels and using alternative versions of the map. None of these are satisfactory to all people, particularly turning off the labels which deprives the user of an important part of the site's functionality. I would also point out that it is an accepted principle in graphic design that where large amounts of text in individual text boxes (for that is what the labels are) need to be overlaid on a graphical base, the maximum amount of text remains legible in the smallest possible space if the text boxes have a transparent background.
Those of us who have posted about this matter deserve a response from FR24 which is uncoloured by personal umbrage taken at the tone of a user's post without addressing in any way the obvious issue that prompted that person to write it in the first place. If it's going to be fixed tell us and give some indication of when because this does not seem a hard thing to do given that the feature used to be there; if not tell us that too.
That issue is that a couple of weeks ago aircraft titles changed from a transparent background to a mid grey. Some users, including myself, objected to this change because it makes labels very difficult to read when many of them are close to each other, particularly around busy airports. Other users equally expressed no objection to the change. A couple suggested that the option should exist to choose the type of background if there is some compelling reason for the grey to exist.
Moderators have posted that changes are being made to the site and to be patient as the issue will be resolved. Other changes have now appeared in the last few days - they too are not universally popular - but not a word about fixing the background colour of the labels. Various "work-arounds" have been suggested including switching off labels and using alternative versions of the map. None of these are satisfactory to all people, particularly turning off the labels which deprives the user of an important part of the site's functionality. I would also point out that it is an accepted principle in graphic design that where large amounts of text in individual text boxes (for that is what the labels are) need to be overlaid on a graphical base, the maximum amount of text remains legible in the smallest possible space if the text boxes have a transparent background.
Those of us who have posted about this matter deserve a response from FR24 which is uncoloured by personal umbrage taken at the tone of a user's post without addressing in any way the obvious issue that prompted that person to write it in the first place. If it's going to be fixed tell us and give some indication of when because this does not seem a hard thing to do given that the feature used to be there; if not tell us that too.
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