Not a fan of the new forum look...

[Muhammad]

In the spirit of trying to make helpful suggestions instead of just complaining, here's some stuff I noticed.
I recently loaded Firefox 13. It has some new feature that shows thumbnails of the pages previously loaded. I captured a snapshot of them and it shows how much more content was on the older format of the page.

Things I notice:
1) the title bar is larger (although the TBN logo is smaller)
2) the forum title font is much larger
3) lots of white space in the middle could show me more threads that it does
4) unread thread highlighting is easier to spot on the old screen (pale yellow instead of white and gray)
5) it doesn't show in this snapshot, but every thread used to be the same height, now the height varies a fair amount, but all of the threads take up more space than they used to

View attachment 269250

In my opinion, things like graphics (blue title bar) look cool the first time you see them. However they take up more space on the screen and once the visual factor wears off, they get in the way. I come here to read stuff. I don't spend time staring at the R4 tread.

Thanks for taking the time to make suggestions. :thumbsup:

And to address your specific points:

1. The title bar is larger because it now incorporates an ad in it. So we actually reduced the size of the header/navigation including ad by more than an inch.

2. We can address that.

3. The fundamental issue I noticed is that you are running an ad blocking script. While we understand that people run ad blockers (myself being one of them), we design the site based on there being one ad on the top of the page, one on the right, and contextual links above each post and list of threads. Right now it seems that those spots are all creating white space since there are no ads there, whereas because the old forum used a different code for the formatting, the spaces were filled in with site content when ads were blocked. I have forwarded this particular issue to our designer in hopes of resolution.

4. Will add this to the to-do list.

5. Each thread should be the same height, but I'll check into it.

Thanks!

 

[troutsqueezer]

It's fine. Bugs and tweaks expected. If you started with this look and feel ten years ago and then changed to how it looked a few days ago, you would get equally as many complaints.

Hey Kubota owners, what'cha gonna do when Kubota changes the paint color next year to turquoise?

 

[RaydaKub]

Thanks for taking the time to make suggestions. :thumbsup:

And to address your specific points:

1. The title bar is larger because it now incorporates an ad in it. So we actually reduced the size of the header/navigation including ad by more than an inch.

2. We can address that.

3. The fundamental issue I noticed is that you are running an ad blocking script. While we understand that people run ad blockers (myself being one of them), we design the site based on there being one ad on the top of the page, one on the right, and contextual links above each post and list of threads. Right now it seems that those spots are all creating white space since there are no ads there, whereas because the old forum used a different code for the formatting, the spaces were filled in with site content when ads were blocked. I have forwarded this particular issue to our designer in hopes of resolution.

4. Will add this to the to-do list.

5. Each thread should be the same height, but I'll check into it.

Thanks!

I've run with the blocker so long, I don't even realize it's there. I turned it off (momentarily) and see what you mean. Somehow it doesn't look as wasteful as it did before. But I'll still go turn it back on.

I'm sure you expected lots of comments pro & con when you changed this. And while I may disagree with any given implementation, know that I appreciate the work you all do just keeping this site online every day.

 

[von-mil]

If you started with this look and feel ten years ago and then changed to how it looked a few days ago, you would get equally as many complaints.

Very true

 

[Muhammad]

Here's a suggestion, go back! As the old saying goes, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" To the new and improved look: :thumbdown:

Oh trust me... if it wasn't broke, we wouldn't have fixed it. :laughing:

 

[LD1]

Oh trust me... if it wasn't broke, we wouldn't have fixed it. :laughing:

Could you have fixed it but left it looking the same???

Without the white-space ofcourse

 

[gwdixon]

Hmm..."Reply to Thread" button on the top of the page works but not on the bottom. Just a bug.

Oh, and using "Mark Forum Read" returns to the main menu rather than the forum being read - a new feature that will take some getting used to.

Tundra Solutions went to this exact same forum format and lost many users - me included. Hope it doesn't happen here.

 

[aczlan]

I agree with this. Not having the direct link on the page to go to various levels within the site is a pain in the azz.
Before, you could go either to the main forum page, or the sub-forums with a single click, now you have to muck around with navigation.

You mean like with the "breadcrumb trail" that is just below the main row of icons at the top of the page?
The one with "

Forum

Other Forums

News/Feedback

Not a fan of the new forum look..."?

Aaron Z

 

[Dr_Zinj]

Weird

I thought it was due to my installing the MS Silverlight add on yesterday.

 

[284 International]

I normally entirely avoid the non-technical parts of the forum, but I had to chime in here.

I hate this new format.

The minor bugs (like the non-functional "Reply to thread" button at the bottom, where one is after finishing reading the thread) don't bother me, those are things that will get worked out and just need polishing.

What I cannot stand is the, for lack of a better term, "graphic design" of the layout. The same thing makes me hate Gmail, when they changed to their new format from the old. The color contrast of blue on yellow was superior here on TBN to all other fora I have ever been involved using. The density was just right, too. The new Gmail and TBN board have too much space. Things are too spread out. The patterns in the background, both the tractor tread and the shaded graduations are distracting. I am fairly young (32) so do not suffer the same eye trouble some older users do, and still find it obnoxious.

The top area below the title header/ad is far too big. (The "Home Forums Reviews" etc) portion. The "Home page Today's posts .... My Profile" area is absurdly large. Neither of those sections are being used for ad space, and could be condensed such that the quicker, handier tabs through the forum sections could be larger font and easier to click. There is no reason for the "Log out" button to be twice as large as the "Search" section. We want people to stay, I think! :laughing: Removing or reducing the icons' size would allow expansion of the forum tabs to a friendlier size, and actually enable larger ad space at the top.

I understand the need for additional ad space. The forum is free, and it must pay for itself and turn a profit for the operators. I am content with that.

Apart from minor design issues like the relative size of links as mentioned above, basically all of my complaints can be found in all of the Gmail complaints posted everywhere about their new layout. The "too much white," lack of density, and other similar complaints are virtually universal. There must be some way to preserve the earlier style, and still allow for ad space.

Some things I find promising, and look forward to trying out. I like the new availability of Word-type paragraph and layout buttons. The ability to align-center, left, or right, easily change font color, size, and style, and add superscripts is something I have wished I could do. The easy buttons to wrap quotes, HTML tags, and the like are going to make doing these things easier. Again, style preferences occur. I think I'd rather have a drop down menu for the fonts and paragraph functions. That would also free up space to make the text panel larger. These are, however, stylistic preferences, not fundamental usability shortcomings. The eye-blasting white flash that appears when trying to "insert image" is of the latter type. Ouch.

Thanks for being an involved and attentive site host. This still is my most frequently attended forum, and I hope it can be made as user-friendly in site format as it is in content and presentation.