Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

WiseWeasel · Jul 1, 2011, 05:57 AM

Well, I just loaded MacNN to find that everything's redesigned, and it's really looking like cr*p, to put it nicely. The section headers and nav bars/buttons look simply awful, like some amateurs took a baseball bat to the previous design and worked it over, with a sprinkle of worthless Facebook crud to complete the package.

Where the previous design looked polished and well-executed, the site's theme now looks terrible, with cramped text and weird white spaces and visual bugs galore. You guys are a bit late to be making an April Fools joke like this. Seriously, who the heck thought this looks better than the previous site?

The Final Dakar · Jul 1, 2011, 09:46 AM

Not a big deal

- Steve

andi*pandi · Jul 1, 2011, 10:18 AM

"New" ?

Thorzdad · Jul 1, 2011, 10:23 AM

Originally Posted by andi*pandi

"New" ?

His last previous post was in 2003.

imitchellg5 · Jul 1, 2011, 10:32 AM

We're a bit late? You're way late.

MacNN and the forums are not ran by the same team.

WiseWeasel · Jul 1, 2011, 02:30 PM

I'm not late; I load the site daily. Yesterday it was fine, and today it looks just plain bad. Maybe the changes are too non-obvious for most to notice, but for those that do notice, it's hard to imagine they would consider this redesign an improvement.

imitchellg5 · Jul 1, 2011, 03:24 PM

It's been that way since at LEAST August 2010. Look at the Way Back Machine, the layout is exactly the same.

reader50 · Jul 1, 2011, 03:52 PM

Perhaps your browser was auto-completing all this time, to legacy.macnn.com ?

Andy8 · Jul 1, 2011, 04:16 PM

Clicking the "Forums" tab doesn't work now either, the link just goes to:

<http://www.macnn.com/#>

WiseWeasel · 05:21 PM

Nope, I've been loading Apple, Macintosh, iPod and iPhone news | MacNN every day for years, using the 'headlines and summaries' view, and the layout has absolutely been changed. Notice how the AAPL stock price is now in the left side 'top stories' section header rather than the right side content feature area header. Notice the now much thinner section headers, without much padding around the text. Notice the visually glitched 'show all' button in the 'network headlines' section on the right side [Edit: fixed since my post], and the 'FB' buttons added to the right side under each story image (the FB buttons should have been placed between the email and full story link buttons, not in the prime real-estate lower right corner, which should clearly go to the 'read more' full story link). Notice the bizarre white space at the bottom of the 'top stories' and 'network headlines' sections.

There has definitely been a redesign of at least the 'headlines and summaries' view of MacNN.com, and as a site designer myself, I find it cringeworthy. Where the previous site looked like it was done by a competent design professional, this new one is like an amateur hour remix of it.

Lateralus · Jul 1, 2011, 05:35 PM

Eh, it's looked like shit to me for years anyways, not sure I'd notice another streak on the wall.

olePigeon · Jul 1, 2011, 07:45 PM

Can I have a blue dot next to my name, too?

WiseWeasel · 08:16 PM

And now that I've loaded the site on a computer that doesn't have shitty contextual ads disabled, the 'Network Headlines' section header title has the word 'network' picked up by the P.O.S. Tynt or Kontera or whatever God-awful contextual ad provider's script, and turned into a blue-on-blue link that you can't even read anymore, completing the crapification.

-golf clap-

imitchellg5 · Jul 1, 2011, 08:06 PM

Dude, you know and understand that the forums are ran by a completely different team than the MacNN main page, right? Your complaining here won't do anything.

WiseWeasel · Jul 1, 2011, 08:19 PM

Really? Then how come the title of this section of the forum is, "Help us improve MacNN and MacNN forums"?

reader50 · 09:29 PM

Originally Posted by Andy8

Clicking the "Forums" tab doesn't work now either, the link just goes to:

<http://www.macnn.com/#>

Hover over the Forums tab and choose the section from the yellow bar below.

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Can I have a blue dot next to my name, too?

Start a thread. Or mouse over the dot. Edit: you have some dots over here.

Originally Posted by WiseWeasel

Really? Then how come the title of this section of the forum is, "Help us improve MacNN and MacNN forums"?

Someone from the News side used to visit, and was even a listed Moderator on this forum. Then they stopped coming by. I'd suggest using their feedback page.

andi*pandi · Jul 1, 2011, 08:50 PM

If I recall, both this version and the previous were designed by the same person, but implemented by someone else, and sometimes these things do get lost in translation. I don't often visit the news page, but the only thing that seems "wrong" is the lack of padding/margin-right for the images in the left column.

exca1ibur · Jul 1, 2011, 11:37 PM

He is correct. There was a new update yesterday, I noticed as well. Here are screenshots side by side to show it.

OLD

NEW

The headers are smaller.
The scrolling module is different.
The font size, spacing and line heights are different
The buttons are different
The modules are now more squared off on the edges
The top level links are now dead you must click on the sub navigation

turtle777 · Jul 1, 2011, 11:48 PM

Originally Posted by olePigeon

Can I have a blue dot next to my name, too?

Just start a thread. It's the new hampstor with bells and whistles.

-t

olePigeon · Jul 2, 2011, 12:32 AM

I still think special stars for veterans should be implemented.

subego · Jul 2, 2011, 03:03 AM

MacNN has a news site?

Andy8 · Jul 2, 2011, 09:46 AM

Originally Posted by reader50

Hover over the Forums tab and choose the section from the yellow bar below.

Yes, but you used to be able just to click on the forum tab and it would take you there to the main forum page.

Lateralus · Jul 2, 2011, 12:15 PM

Originally Posted by subego

MacNN has a news site?

They view the forum similarly.

andi*pandi · Jul 2, 2011, 12:38 PM

thanks for the screenshots, that makes it clear.