Noonsite 2023 Edition

The team at Noonsite.com are pleased to unveil the latest updates to our website, the ultimate cruiser’s planning tool. In the first major change to the current edition of Noonsite, we have rolled out a host of updates and design improvements to enhance the site user experience, based on feedback from our worldwide user community.

Published 2 years ago

Why make these changes?

Since our last major update in 2019, we have become a victim of our own success as visitor numbers and memberships have increased month on month. Over the winter period our development team has worked hard to improve site speed and page load times, which have been slower than we wanted.

Noonsite is a big website, with more than 60,000 pages of content and nearly 30,000 registered members. In the past, our pages were huge, with a lot of data on each page. We would often load 100, 200, 300 or more pieces of data to load one page, causing slowdowns and timeouts with the database and the web server. There were also problems identified with parts of the JavaScript that powers some of our advanced features, which would fail to load on time, causing a poor user experience.

In this latest release, we have reduced the content on each page, reducing both the database and web server load. In cases where we need to load more content, we have moved to an on-demand process. For example, when viewing ports, related businesses load on demand now. Behind the pages we have optimized our database queries and storage and used server-side query caching where possible and rebuilt all our advanced features for a smoother visitor experience.

And there is more….

We have also used this rebuild to add many “quality-of-life” changes to make the site easier to use and navigate.

The key changes include:

• Simplified site navigation, which uses icons to improve layout.

• Easy access to comments on all pages with the simple bubble icon.

• We took a strict mobile-first approach, as 60-80% of the time members spend on Noonsite is on a mobile device.

• Our map feature has been rebuilt to be faster and easier to use and to facilitate full-screen usage, plus we incorporated clusters on the map to improve render times.

• The popular Noonsite Offline Access/ Port Download feature has been redesigned to be easier to use and understand with a dedicated icon on port and country pages, plus we have also split the offline access for each port into several smaller downloads.

• We have improved the formalities restriction limits, so viewing a formality you have already viewed that month no longer counts towards your fair-use limit.

• We have switched some content from auto-load to load-on-demand and enhanced the login screen.

And coming next…

We are busy planning and working on our next round of improvements which will focus on enhancing or extending existing member-only features, plus we want to add new member-only features.

Our members love to share their feedback, which we use to improve the site and user interfaces based on their real-world usage, and of course, our editorial team continues updating our site content daily.

If you have a feature that you would like to see added to Noonsite, let us know by contacting editor@noonsite.com.

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  1. June 2, 2023 at 5:49 PM
    Ian Hay says:

    This is info on Penrhyn island in the Cook Islands chain:

    We arrived in Penrhyn (Tongreva) early May, 2023, came through the easy, short pass named Taruia, on the NW side and picked our way through the bommies in good sunlight and anchored in front of Omoka village. (Recommended spot 8.58,700S
    158.3,100 W). The checkin people (customs, immigration, bio security, health and agriculture) came out to us within an hour and were super friendly organized and professional. For our 43’ monohull and two people the cost was $150NZ plus $2.50NZ per day. We did not have to check in beforehand with the central government in Rarotonga as Penrhyn has removed themselves from that process, nor did we need to inform Penrhyn of our planned arrival date, just show up. Sundays are for church so there is no checkin or work of any kind and Saturday atyou may or may not get checked in. Presently there is no ATM so you have to bring foreign currency in cash. We had $US which they would only trade 1:1 as it is difficult for them to get rid of the $US themselves.
    There are WiFi hotspots and you can buy vouchers with a password to get you connected. The Vodaphone guy is a mile or two out of town but you should be able to catch a motorbike ride down to him pretty easily.
    Presently there are 189 people living in Penrhyn with 28 of them living across the lagoon in Tetautua. We are the first cruising sailboat to stay awhile in 3 years (there was a guy, Tom Robinson, who is rowing his way across the Pacific, who stayed 4 months and had left before we arrived) and we have found this place to be very special. Maybe because there is so little tourism (15 sailboats visit in a “busy” year) we have found the people to be so open and enthusiastically welcoming. The lagoon is vibrant with life (great spearfishing) and the NW pass, the only one we have dove here so far, has some of the best marine life that we have seen in the Pacific although most of the coral in the pass was dead. And lots of sharks of course.
    We sailed across to Tetautua and anchored in the very calm sandy waters in front (you are only allowed to anchor in front of the two villages but you may possibly ask permission to anchor somewhere else). They love it when kid boats show up and all the children can interact. Unfortunately they are not so enthusiastic about dogs as they are not allowed on the island anywhere.
    There is no pearl farming or pearl diving happening here these days and we have not really done much trading with anybody.
    There is a yacht book that sailors have been signing for 40 years that is interesting to read through.
    This is my second time across the Pacific but first time to Penrhyn, and I have to say it is our favourite island (and we loved French Polynesia, especially the Marquesas). It is not on the straight line path towards Tonga if you are coming from French Polynesia but it is so well worth the few days north to get here, it really is.
    Ian and Ann
    SV Afrikii

    Tom Robinson’s (the rower) lengthy 4 part blog on his stay here is a very informative read:
    https://www.tomrobinsonboats.

  2. May 31, 2023 at 8:53 AM
    stephan strobel says:

    I have paid now for several months for a USD 2.99 subscription BUT I am still registered as a free/basic level.
    Can you Please change this asap?
    Where is your accounting and where is your support??
    stephan0@mac.com

    1. May 31, 2023 at 10:36 AM
      Ashley Goodman says:

      Hi Stephan, Our support can be reached at support@noonsite.com. You can find all of our contact details on our contact page here: https://www.noonsite.com/contacts/

      Regarding your membership level: Basic and Free membership are two different member levels. You did have the Basic member level, but on May 7th, you downgraded your membership to the Free level.

      You can manage your membership here: https://www.noonsite.com/membership-account/ (required being logged in)

      You can see our membership levels and what they include here: https://www.noonsite.com/membership-account/membership-levels/

      Ashley
      Noonsite Support Team

  3. March 29, 2023 at 10:50 PM
    mlaskow says:

    If you offer membership you need to have some kind of support!! You are telling me that as a free member I can view 3 Formalities, while in fact it is only one. After logging in I want to review an Ecuador formality this annoying bottom Error message pops at the page bottom telling me that I viewed 1 formality this month and I should login in to view more. Butr I’m already logged in!! Where’s the site tech support to fix it?? This page bacame unsuable! Congrats! How do you want me to go with payable upgrade when I’m not sure I will get what you promise and no place to complain!!

    1. March 30, 2023 at 3:31 PM
      Ashley Goodman says:

      In the top right of the popup is an “X” that dismisses it; providing you are at or below the 3 views limit.

      Ashley
      Noonsite Support Team