Fluid engine is trash

9 hours ago, MarcWatson said:

I've been working and using SQSP as a designer since 2008 when it was version 5. I am in agreement with everyone here that this version is not ready for prime time. I thought I would immediately convert a project I was working on for a new client, into fluid engine page layouts. OMG! This is so not fun to work with and has literally made me noxious trying to figure out how to work with it. It's mind blowing that SQSP released this and even more that there's a whole army of people trying to make it seem like everything is totally cool and awesome! Not cool and definitely lightyears from awesome. 

100%. I have 5 websites on SS, been using since version 5 and this is the worst SS has ever treated their customer base. I never even got an email letting me know about fluid engine, let alone asking for my input about new features. Nope! Just roll it out on everyone with no way to revert to the classic editor. I would like to permanently block it from touching my sites. The headaches this has caused me and many others is simply unforgivable. We now have so much more to worry about, and working with this fluid editor is just plain awful. The mobile editor is a joke. I guess now that SS is a publicly traded company they don’t care as much about us. It’s a shame. They arent even on these forums and call it “community”. Its really a board to help us cope with their bad decisions at this point. I have emailed my complaint to them but can guarantee I’ll get a canned response like “we’ll forward your feedback to the right people”…sure, because you’ve proven my feedback is so so important to you. 
 

and to add insult to injury they just raised their prices across the board. Unreal. I am angry. 

As can be seen in the attached thread, fluid engine is not being received well by myself and many others. I am starting this thread as a sort of coping mechanism for users. I am considering changing platforms after using SS since version 5. This fluid engine update, with no reversion options, is unforgivable. The engine is not ready for public use at best and at worst should be abolished. It goes against the original philosophy of SS - keep things simple and idiot-proof. Well, they have successfully alienated that mission and all of us as well. https://forum.squarespace.com/topic/221449-new-fluid-engine-section-block-update/

On 8/16/2022 at 10:05 PM, vjtk said:

As can be seen in the attached thread, fluid engine is not being received well by myself and many others. I am starting this thread as a sort of coping mechanism for users. I am considering changing platforms after using SS since version 5. This fluid engine update, with no reversion options, is unforgivable. The engine is not ready for public use at best and at worst should be abolished. It goes against the original philosophy of SS - keep things simple and idiot-proof. Well, they have successfully alienated that mission and all of us as well. https://forum.squarespace.com/topic/221449-new-fluid-engine-section-block-update/

 

I tried using it yesterday. Started out cool.  l positioned everything, even the text boxes. Then I started adding my text and everything kept moving around. Did I miss something or do you have to redesign a page 20 times?  

I agree it's terrible. Why do I have to make separate designs for desktop and mobile? Mobile version is terrible, never looks as intended. I don't want to move boxes all day like a warehouse employee. I bought Squarespace for my website because ut was simple, looked great. Now it's more clunky than Wordpress that I hate with passion. 

Yup. A shocking change and it was out before I had the slightest idea it was coming or how to use it. It's the kind of idea that I was amazed SS didn't have when I started to build my website. Now they've got it, I don't want it!

It's horrible and now my site is completely screwed and I've spent hours trying to fix and chatting with associates trying to make me feel like i'm the problem. It's bad enough they don't have live customer service phone numbers which I bit the bullet on. I've been using squarespace for years and have multiple sites with them. If this isn't fixed, I will definitely be switching platforms before my renewal. I understand what they were trying to do but they obviously did not run enough test because there are sooo many bugs.

I agree. The fluid editor is absolute trash.. Clearly not ready.

We just paid to have our websites re-done and now they look someone with no skill has designed them. 

Every website we run now looks horrible, none of the text fields align correctly, spacing is all out -  it makes our businesses image take a huge dive.  

Nothing worse then going on a prospective client's page and their website looks slightly out.

One of our operational values  is 'an eye for detail' ... great..

Has anyone found a way to revert any 'upgraded' sections back to the old editor? 

Another issue if it hasn't been mentioned yet is you need to make sure you update the mobile view by dragging the new content to it's given position after adding it in-between already existing content.

Garbage - absolute garbage.  I spend so much time getting it right, and then my site changes.  Things just disappear.  And when I send screenshots to customer support of before and after (it's happened multiple times, so I started screeningshotting right after I made the edit and then a few days later), they just send me links to how to use the editor.  Things are literally shifting and disappearing on my page, and somehow it's not their problem - it's mine.  Seriously considering leaving Squarespace. 

@ShaneGardner I asked customer service if I could revert and they said no.  Luckily, I only "upgraded" one page.  They did tell me I could recreate the page with the old editor, but when I went to do it, it defaulted to the fluid editor.  So I'm stuck with one of my most important pages being something I can't rely on... I have to check it regularly to see if the content has shifted around or deleted itself.  

Personally I really like fluid engine, and my websites look amazing as a result. My only two issues I'd like to see refined are:

- Blocks do shift when I edit other ones. I've been able to work around this, but I worry for my template buyers who may not be as confident in manipulating the blocks, nor understand why that's happening.

- I would like to see more control over mobile breakpoint / tablet view or another way to ensure that someone with a small laptop and who does not have a full-screen window open won't see a strange version of the site. Ideally there would be a setting that shrinks site width proportionally and locks in formatting as window gets shrunk until a mobile breakpoint is triggered.

I appreciate Squarespace, and their updates, and really don't think such extreme backlash is warranted. If you can't work with the platform, spend this energy improving your skills instead. 

Echoing. Fluid engine is a nightmare. I've built five sites using the new interface, and have wasted hours troubleshooting problems with navigation, placement, and TONS of utterly maddening glitches. Images don't load into frames. Adjustments to styles revert at random. I frequently have to repeat steps - placement of frames, addition of images to frames, altering colors - because they revert at random. There are days when I walk away from a job because I am so upset at having to complete simple operations three or four times to get them to stick. The navigation icon randomly squishes and then reverts to proper dimensions. We have a running joke about it. We call it The Nubbin Nav. None of this is user error, and what I am describing barely scratches the surface of issues tormenting me since the switch. I'm shopping platforms and allocating the time I save to publicly clowning on this busted joke of a site builder. 

Doesn't even work for me. I open the fluid editor and it shows a grid and freezes the webpage. Can't click a damn thing. Now it sounds like even when it is working, it's absolute trash. Squarespace, listen to your customers and fix this nonsense before there's a mass exodus, if there hasn't already been one.

But how can we switch platforms, like, and take all the clients with?

And which other website builders do you recc?

7 hours ago, FabiSantiago said:

But how can we switch platforms, like, and take all the clients with?

And which other website builders do you recc?

I would go back to WordPress with a good template and is cheaper, also pretty good for blogging. Like squarespace I would fo for 7.0 or 7.1 no fluid engine yet

This is a nightmare. I was able to bring a client to Squarespace because it was more efficient for the cost. Now I am spending twice the time to do simple edits. Boxes moving around in the editor when I re-accommodate elements is driving me crazy and is making me look real bad with my client.  At this point I might need to lose profit and move into another platform to keep them safe from this mess.

Fluid Engine is some kind of sick joke on Squarespace users. It takes us back to the dark days of separate desktop and mobile sites. It's absolutely dire. AND its a trap, because once you switch there's no way back!
WTAF?

Chat with Squarespace support:

Me: I have issues with blocks moving randomly.
SS: It's ok on our end, check this video capture.
Me: Look at second 4. It's moving randomly
SS: Oh no, you are wrong. It is supposed to work like that.
Me: Like moving randomly?
SS: yes.

I am about to loose a client because I vouched for using Squarespace instead of Wordpress and now they are mad and frustrated because they cannot edit the site I made. I am never, ever using this platform again.

I absolutely love Squarespace but absolutely despise Fluid Engine. 

Everything moves around & changes order. It's a nightmare.

Everyone - the key is to not make an entirely fluid engine website. Just make the sections you need fluid (so maybe JUST the hero section), and the rest are regular sections. So much easier this way. And they have implemented a lot of fixes to the early FE issues. 

I love the direction FE is headed. Gotta start somewhere. Thanks Squarespace, I appreciate that you stay competitive and seek new solutions for website building. 

I would love to see new solutions for tablet view - ideally, just a higher mobile breakpoint (in the 1100's or so), rather than a separate tablet formatting option. Though would settle for either.

No no no no no. I also thought fluid engine would be better but it's NOT. Why are desktop and mobile different? I make a layout in desktop and then I go to look at it on mobile and it's all broken. How about just making something responsive and letting it stack? I thought fluid engine would allow me more flexibility, but instead, I never know what will be broken on other view, what is the point of this when we are trying to make sites that will be viewed on different devices? fluid engine clearly does not know what to stack too. Please fix fluid engine before releasing something so broken out to paying customers. Now I have to spend hours upon hours trying for work arounds that I just want to find a different product to use!

On 9/17/2022 at 1:56 AM, BethHou said:

Garbage - absolute garbage.  I spend so much time getting it right, and then my site changes.  Things just disappear.  And when I send screenshots to customer support of before and after (it's happened multiple times, so I started screeningshotting right after I made the edit and then a few days later), they just send me links to how to use the editor.  Things are literally shifting and disappearing on my page, and somehow it's not their problem - it's mine.  Seriously considering leaving Squarespace. 

@ShaneGardner I asked customer service if I could revert and they said no.  Luckily, I only "upgraded" one page.  They did tell me I could recreate the page with the old editor, but when I went to do it, it defaulted to the fluid editor.  So I'm stuck with one of my most important pages being something I can't rely on... I have to check it regularly to see if the content has shifted around or deleted itself.  

Several times now I've abandoned entire pages built using FE and completely rebuilt pages from scratch using the old editor because it was impossible to work with FE. Squarespace is causing me to try SeedProd on WordPress for my next project. If it works better and costs me less time than FE, I'm gone - and I doubt I'll be back.

Well this is embarrassing. I've made so many sites over the years on SS. This time I did Fluid engine and literally just sold my boss and the dev team on this. Made a beautiful page and then go to design for mobile. BAM that is when the nightmare begins.

I don't even know where to start to rectify this. It should not be this hard to adjust for mobile. I wish they would let us change font sizes, alignment etc. without letting one affect the other. It's supposed to be that way, but it's obviously not.

Also everything on mobile is skewing to the right? If I center it, it doesn't work and then jacks up desktop formatting. Any ideas on how to fix this?

SS is the laziest, greediest platform... they had it good for too long. New iteration is dreadful...fire everyone involved in greenlighting it...what a joke.

SS templates are so old hat, not integration between old and new. SS is a tired old horse that needs a trip to the glue factory. BTW...I have 5 sites here and am done.

Like everyone else I am here to cope. I googled "squarespace is a literal nightmare" and this page was the first link that came up. I could go on and on especially about the time it takes me to drag things to the top of the page when Squarespace reorders them. The most recent thing Squarespace is doing is making the section HUGE and I mean HHUGE when I resize a picture. Usually I have to clear my cache and it's fixed but not this time. Guess I just have to deal with it?!?!?! 

Sometimes when I save changes, it scrolls to GOD KNOWS WHERE, and all I can see is a blank gray screen. I have to zoom out, scroll up and zoom back in. If I don't clear my cache first it will scroll back to the ether though. 

I will be pushing for WP conversion ASAP.

Thanks for the space to vent, I don't feel so alone or frustrated now!

After finding this page after an Internet search for "Squarespace randomly changes layout grid with Fluid Editor," and then feeling both buoyed and discouraged that so many others are having similar problems, I am compelled to echo everyone else's sentiment on this thread: Fluid Engine is a disaster and nightmare. Having been a Squarespace fan for years now, I am seriously debating going back to Wordpress, even despite how vulnerable it is to hacking.

On my coaching course's program page, every time I make a change, say, add a module or video, after carefully arranging blocks and setting spacing, when I revisit the page later on, nearly everything has shifted randomly (the neatly spaced line dividers now run through the middle of images, random spacing has been added, the block's height has changed, etc.). It looks worse than amateur, like possibly a blind man did the layout. And like others have noted on this thread, it has NOTHING to do with user error; I'm a competent enough website builder. Adding insult to outrage, the fact that the mobile view requires an entirely different configuration is yet another nightmare! It's such a cockup, in fact, I've told my clients apologetically that the course page doesn't work in mobile view due to Squarespace's new editor – because I'm not willing to entirely rebuild that page separately, AND continually monitor and adjust it due to the "phantom menace," as I call Fluid Engine.

Hello, Squarespace – not that anyone is listening – FIX your disastrous upgrade!!!