[Simon]

Originally Posted by gorgonzola 

Because the coarse scale discourages post whoring while still recognizing important contributions over time. The original reason for removing the post counts came mostly out of that. But we didn't want to do away with the whole concept of recognition for contributions, so we kept the status ranks and doubled the number. It seemed like a logical compromise. You don't get visible recognition for making just 1 more post, you get recognition for making contributions over an extended period of time, and as you do so, you get more stars.

That's a good point. Thanks.

[slpdLoad]

What happened to the nice grey/white/grey/white scheme that seperated each row? You know what I mean? Like in iTunes. Everything is so hard to read now that it's all just on a solid white background. Harder on the eyes to find things.

Edit: Okay, so I guess it's not ENTIRELY gone. If I invert the colors on my monitor I can make it out. The grey is just so incredibly light you can't normally see it.

[gorgonzola]

Originally Posted by slpdLoad 

What happened to the nice grey/white/grey/white scheme that seperated each row? You know what I mean? Like in iTunes. Everything is so hard to read now that it's all just on a solid white background. Harder on the eyes to find things.

Edit: Okay, so I guess it's not ENTIRELY gone. If I invert the colors on my monitor I can make it out. The grey is just so incredibly light you can't normally see it.

In the thread listing or inside a thread?

[slpdLoad]

The thread listing. Inside the thread everything's spaced out so it's not a problem.

That's the only thing that's bothered me. Other than that, it's great.

[Kevin]

Originally Posted by seanc 

Does it really matter if it's relevant? It wasn't impeding on any space that was needed, why get rid of it? I can't understand it. What I use it for really isn't important, it's just a useful short statistic to have and I would like it back. Please.

MacNN might get you a postcount patch to ween you off it.

[- - e r i k - -]

Originally Posted by slpdLoad 

What happened to the nice grey/white/grey/white scheme that seperated each row? You know what I mean? Like in iTunes. Everything is so hard to read now that it's all just on a solid white background. Harder on the eyes to find things.

Edit: Okay, so I guess it's not ENTIRELY gone. If I invert the colors on my monitor I can make it out. The grey is just so incredibly light you can't normally see it.

Either your gamma is whack or your eyesight is.

[Kerrigan]

Frankly I think the join date is a lot more important than post count for determining one's rank (as though rank really mattered in a forum).

[- - e r i k - -]

I'm stoked that everyone (ok, most) love the new theme. I'd think there be a few more hard-ass kick52-ish haters around here that simply resist all change. Proud of you effgee!

(Oh, where's our cool-kids™ beta-badges? )

[Parvez]

The forum looks more professional now. Awesome layout.

[centerchannel68]

Originally Posted by Rumor 

Too many people are obsessed with thier post count and those of others.
Almost have 5 full stars...

Agreed. F*ck post counts.

[Rumor]

Originally Posted by centerchannel68 

Agreed. F*ck post counts.

Spoken like a true Grizzled Vetern.

[sweatervest]

Just wanted to mention that I love the new look of the forum... absolutely gorgeous!

[Cold Warrior]

Outstanding

Default text size in Firefox is now perfect. Before, it was a bit too small, and hitting Cmd+ made it just a bit too big.

Now it's juuuust right.

[Andy8]

Super Fantastic!

[vmarks]

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

Originally Posted by vmarks 

[Kerrigan]

Goes nicely with your sig, Cat.

Wait, so is vmarks demograph68?

[imitchellg5]

Lol, ya never know around here!

[slpdLoad]

Originally Posted by - - e r i k - - 

Either your gamma is whack or your eyesight is.

Probably both. Oh well. Wasn't a problem before though.

[beadman]

It appears I'm in the minority, but I don't like the new formats. There is way too much white space and the font's too large. Not a step forward, in my opinion, at all.

beadman

[gorgonzola]

As we have pointed out, the font can be changed using the style switcher in the top right (on the button bar).

[Gamoe]

Well, I'm glad the "going to your last read post in a thread" feature is just broken and not omitted. I hope to see it fixed soon.

So far, the good:

The Spoiler tag is great! A very elegant solution.
The editing tool bar in Quick Reply is also very handy.
The board is much "classier" in appearance.

But:

I still think this theme is just very lacking in color. I like colors, and I think colors are good indicators and guides, apart from the fact that they liven things up.

And, I'll echo the post count comments, because most of the "star levels" are such large ranges that, for example, I might literally take years to "earn my next star", even though I try to put out somewhat quality content, rather than posting "+1s" or one-liner. So, to me a 100 or 200 post difference is important, not to mention a 1,000 post difference.

Also it seems that two posters can have the same amount of stars with different "status", but I don't think it's immediately clear which one has more posts.

That said, the whole matter isn't incredibly important to me, and I sympathize with the whole post-whoring discouragement argument also.

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

Originally Posted by Kevin 

I never realized people looked at postcounts that much. Is is really relevant?

Originally Posted by Kerrigan 

Goes nicely with your sig, Cat.

Wait, so is vmarks?

What goes good with my sig? The sheep? And, no, demograph68 isn't vmarks. demograph68 posted that in another thread.

[TheoCryst]

Mmm, it's sexy... Granted, it'll take a bit of getting used to, but overall I give it a big thumbs-up! But your timing is terrible: I was SOOO close to getting my green stars...

EDIT: Grizzled Veteran? Bleh.

[gorgonzola]

Yeah, I understand that the ranks get hugely spaced out after a little while. It takes a lot to get 5 now (in fact I barely qualify for 5 myself under this new scheme, and I think I've had 5 since early 2001). On the other hand, it helps separate people a little more; there were gobs of people with 500+ posts, and all of them had 5 stars. A huge number of Addicts too, some with 1000 and some with 7000 posts. I'm still thinking of putting the counts back. I dunno.

[Person Man]

Originally Posted by gorgonzola 

I'm still thinking of putting the counts back. I dunno.

Can you make it an option?

If some people want to see post counts displayed they can set it to display post counts, but if others don't want to see post counts they can turn that option off.

If it can be turned off, then it should be off by default, and then if someone wants to see post counts displayed, they can turn that option on in the user control panel.

EDIT: That way, both sides of the post count debate are happy: The ones who want them displayed can have them displayed, and the ones that don't can have them not displayed.

[C.A.T.S. CEO]

Originally Posted by Kevin 

I never realized people looked at postcounts that much. Is is really relevant?

crap........I jest realized something.....I'm back to a Elite Member (Elite Member ~ Mac Elite)

[UNTeMac]

Anyone else think the smilies look dated now? With all this pretty antialiased redesign, those smiles are a bit 2004.

[voodoo]

I don't care much about the post count. If it is visible or not, that is.

The smileys could need a makeover.

The links on the left in the user control panel shift when moused over.

All in all this is a welcome upgrade to the interface of the forums. Great work everybody involved (effgee, adam betts and beta testers)



V

[Weezer]

Was there any response to the green stars at 1000 and multi colored at 10,000? That was a very useful visual cue I thought...please?

[Eug]

Originally Posted by vmarks 

...for comparison's / nostalgia's sake.

[im_noahselby]

Overall, I think the forum re-design looks very nice.

- I think eliminating the post-count from the left side column was a good idea (the great part is that it's still available if you really need to know these things). MacNN seems to be the only forum I visit on the web where members are insanely focussed on their post counts and I personally find these type of discussions distracting and annoying. People will bitch and whine about it at first, but over time, I think it will make this place more pleasant.

- The side column is far too wide. I think it needs to be a little narrower, as it is the most distracting part of this new design for me.

- Signatures on the right hand side give the new forum a very clean and modernized look. I think it will take some getting used to, but in time I think people here will really grow to like it.

[im_noahselby]

Also, new smilies I think the AI ones look great!

[gorgonzola]

Yeah, it's kind of interesting that so many people are commenting about having alternating colors in either the thread listing or the threads themselves when the previous theme didn't have either.

[Stogieman]

Originally Posted by im_noahselby 

Also, new smilies

I agree. The current smilies don't mesh well with the new design. Let's get something a little less jaggy. Adam Betts did a great job on the stars. If he's willing, I say let him redesign the smilies too.

[Maxwell Smart]

I love the look of the new theme, there are only 2 things that I think degraded from the old theme, they are:

1) The status area is now on the left and not very well defined, I miss it being on the right and easily identifiable as to whether there were new messages etc. etc. I think it should be moved back to the right as is the default on most forums

2) Maybe I'm missing osmething, but there is no real easy way to just simply click reply to a PM. Has this functionality been removed or moved or simply hidden? In any case I think it should return, and be in a clearly visible place.

Overall though, they look great, congrats.

[Rumor]

Originally Posted by gorgonzola 

Yeah, it's kind of interesting that so many people are commenting about having alternating colors in either the thread listing or the threads themselves when the previous theme didn't have either.

I think it's because the old style had more distinguished lines in between posts.

Originally Posted by Maxwell Smart 

2) Maybe I'm missing osmething, but there is no real easy way to just simply click reply to a PM. Has this functionality been removed or moved or simply hidden? In any case I think it should return, and be in a clearly visible place.

Hmm, that was supposed to be fixed. For now, just use the Forward button to reply to post.

[jokell82]

Any word on new post indicators inside the threads?

[Oneota]

Originally Posted by gorgonzola 

Yeah, it's kind of interesting that so many people are commenting about having alternating colors in either the thread listing or the threads themselves when the previous theme didn't have either.

As mentioned, I think it's because the old design made it abundantly clear where one post ended and the next began (they were each enclosed in their own little box, as I recall), and in the thread listing, there was a grey line separating each thread.

Now, there's just a little bit of contrasting background color (and not much contrast) in the thread listing, so they all just kind of meld together. There's not enough of a visual cue for the eye to focus on, IMO.

Again, though - I like the new design overall. Take this as constructive criticism!

[rickey939]

Originally Posted by Rumor 

Hmm, that was supposed to be fixed. For now, just use the Forward button to reply to post.

Why not hit the "Quote" button when trying to respond to PM's?

[Rumor]

Originally Posted by jokell82 

Any word on new post indicators inside the threads?

The Caffeinated Theme Master won't be back until after the weekend. There is also a list of other things too. Just a little bit of patience is required.

Originally Posted by rickey939 

Why not hit the "Quote" button when trying to respond to PM's?

That works too.

[SierraDragon]

Overall, great. However the extra-wide text space is too wide for ideal readability. It measures 8 inches on my screen, very distracting. Just narrow it a bit please; 6-7 inches is fine (e.g. Adobe Forums - Copyrighting photographs). More than 7 inches is too wide. (Yes, I know I can narrow the window or make other local changes; I am discussing the layout on a full window.)

Note that the news text width on the MACNN main page is a very readable six inches.

Thanks!

-Allen Wicks

[CaseCom]

Looks really nice. The threads look great. The directories need a little something, maybe the thin gray lines like the ones that separate posts within a thread -- using those to separate the threads within a directory. Just a thought. Good work.

(... but really, I'm posting this to see what my new post-count status is. )

[gururafiki]

All of this excitement is a bit overwhelming!

[schwachs]

good job.

[dcmacdaddy]

General Comments
Excellent job! Thanks to all who did all the hard work. Looks like a nice, sleek 21st-century forum . . . all neutral color tones and soft contrasts. Kinda like the design aesthetic of an Apple store when you think about it.

Specific Comments-Likes

• spacing of everything looks good on my 15" PowerBook
• delineation between user box and post box is nice in individual posts
• I like the new stars and ranking system: Perhaps instead of an "empty" transitional star you could have a yellow star with a color gradient of 50% between the empty star and full star. That would seem to me to be a better visual indicator of a transitional status--from one full ranking to the next highest full ranking--while still using color as an indicator of status. (There is something visually dis-jointed about using both colored stars and non-colored stars to indicate status. The "degree" of color should be the visual cue to the level distinctions, and progress between them--like with the thread indicators--not the presence or absence of color.)
• sigs on the right IS nicer. While I, like many others, use them as a indicator of who is posting I think the advantage of a continuous "flowing" thread--no major visuals between the text of sequential posts--makes for a better reading experience.
• placement of controls and options at the top is nice
• call me indifferent to the issue of showing post-counts. If you were to add them though I would put it between the stars and "Join Date"; That seems a good location for including this more granular information. Visually you would scan down and go from general indicator of stars to specific indicator of post-count to specific indicator of longevity. As a clue to a person's status with the forum hierarchy I think the combination of post-count and join date is a good indication of "stature". (When I see someone with a high post-count and a recent Join Date I tend to give less weight to their opinions as I assume a lot of their posts are "Me too" or "+1" posts.)

Specific Comments-Dislikes

• definitely needs more contrast between thread listings on the individual fora pages. (I have mucked around with gamma settings on my PowerBook but to see a sharp distinction between threads requires radically modifying the color setting on my laptop. Perhaps a slightly sharper contrast is in order. But only slightly. Otherwise the neutral color tones and soft contrasts that I like will go away.)
• thread participation indicators need stronger contrast. I am not color-blind but, after changing my screen to grayscale as one poster suggested, the visual cues from color intensity of the blobs is lost.
• the Forum Links section at the bottom of the page is a MUCH nicer way to see and navigate to the various other fora than the popup forum selector with accompanying GO button. Please make the latter feature go away.
• make the Display Options box at the bottom of the page go away and include its functionality under the user control panel "Setting and Options" section. The current Edit Options link could be changed to User Options with the Login & Privacy, Messaging & Notification, and Date & Time options under it. A newly added Display Options link could have the existing Thread Display Options, Editor Interface Options, and adding in the functionality of the Display Options box for number of threads per page, thread ageing, and the various thread sorting options.

[ArcticBear]

'bout time!

[delete]

I think there's too much leading between forum subjects and even in posted comments. Otherwise pretty cool.

[tboparis]

I think the new design is pretty cool... This forum needed an update so bad.
BTW I love the sig-on-the right thing.

[Oneota]

Originally Posted by tboparis 

BTW I love the sig-on-the right thing.

BTW - I think your sig is violating the size guidelines.