I don't know if there is already another thread about this (I didn't see one), but if not let me be the first to congratulate Chris and the rest on a excellent and much more effecient looking forum layout.

I'm already liking it more than the other...

yeah - nice design, but my Firefox browser dies instantly when trying to open this section of the forums. Maybe the news are so shocking that the browser decides it too hot for me.

However IE handles it just fine.

But Chris couldn't you enable smilies? They are sort of nice in discussion, when your native language isn't english. 8^)

If you like what you see -- or if you hate it -- let me know right here please. Thanks,

The new look is different. Right now it seems darn hard to read, but maybe that's just because I'd spent so much time looking at the old format I knew where to scan on each page to quickly glean the content I wanted. It'll take a few days of adjustment.

Other than just being the latest version of vBulletin, what enhancements did this change bring?

Lost my tag-line: now I'm just another 'Registered User'. Count myself lucky to be that in this community. Now y'all that are at NAB just fill the forum with posts of what's showing out there!

But where did the "Mark All Forums Read" button go. I can't live without that! I'll never be able to keep up with what's been posted. HELP!?! Disregard last: "Mark All Forums Read" is now under the "Quick Links" pull-down menu. Chris, any chance of getting that as a button actually ON the New Posts page as before? Was mighty convenient there. And the whining stops...Now.

Chris:

As long as dvinfo.net continues to be such a great source of information then the upgrade is fine with me :) On my mac its a little of the stark white but hey Im just glad for this spot in cyberspace so.....I will get used to the change!

Have fun at NAB

M

Why is there so much white space on the right and left of each post? Is there a way to make the text wider ? It seems to be formatted for 800 across. I'm using firefox 1.0.3 in case it matters.

Chris, you plan on offering styles? Does VBulletin even offer that? Might solve people's issues with the new format?

Aaron

Right now it seems darn hard to read,
-----------------------------------------------------------
Yeah, it seems a lot harder to read.

Upgrading from 1.0.2 to 1.0.3 made Firefox work with this version of Vbulletin.

Sometimes I really dislike computers.

Smilies, laugh out loud, rolling on floor short forms ... my vote is to keep this kind of juvenile instamessenger goo away from this professional forum.

It's just not the same kind of communication.

Just like when you see the odd post that contains no capitalization or punctuation. We're pros here and that will differentiate us from the regular web boards.

That said, I think the new look is a nice refresher from the previous version. Well done Chris!

Ok, there must be a reason for this change...so, I'm poking around looking for it. lol

My first immediate response:

It loads faster on my Mac, so that's good. But, the white is blinding my eyes...I've got a 23" Cinema display and the white covers about 50% of my screen now. Before the grey was nice because it was not really noticable.

The whole forum area is dead center and tighter...not sure if I like that more than having it spread throught my whole screen. I like reading long passages left to right when possible...it's less eye movement.

I wish there was an option for easily adding a hyperlink...I've mentioned it before and seen it on other forums. Is that forthcoming??

Is there an option to change the specs? I'm going to search my preferences now.

Maybe it's my middle aged eyes... but I cant seem to scan the icons on the left side to determine which ones I've posted to. The old icons, had a nice dar dot in the middle of the little envelope, that I could easily spot.

Other than that, finding out where the usual buttons are, it looks okay.

Looks good, reads well on my system.

Wish the 'new posts' button was still on the top/main page for one click access -- I find it now in the Quick Links>New Posts location but that adds one click to the process ...

Cheers,
GB

Whoa...

There's some neat stuff in this new forum software...

I "hover" over a thread and yellow pop up shows a preview of the message...

Nice.

And some nice pop up menus choices...so far so good.

Looks good, reads well on my system.

Wish the 'new posts' button was still on the top/main page for one click access -- I find it now in the Quick Links>New Posts location but that adds one click to the process ...

Cheers,
GB

There is an extra button there ... "New Posts"

Right now it seems darn hard to read,
-----------------------------------------------------------
Yeah, it seems a lot harder to read.

Is much harder for me to read, almost half my screen is white. May be just me, but it seems no where near as easy to navigate. Do not see any new pop-ups or anything on my screen and the previous features are absent.

Maybe we will get used to it, but what new features does it have? If it is better then great! If it was change for the sake of change, then I like old format better.

Thanks for the great work Chris, and I'm sure you'll do what is best. This is the best forum I have ever seen and that is not a matter of format style, it is all about the person who controls it.

Mike

Chris,

I definitely like it overall. I think the navigation is richer, the style is nice, the link parsing is very welcome, the pop-up message text from the thread listing is nice, the hovering mouseover links are good, User CP is great, etc.

My only issues are:

1. I'd like to see the links a different color so they are clear without mousing over them.

2. The pop-up message text is inconsistent for me... some messages have it, some don't.

3. It does seem vaugely tougher to read, but I'm not sure why. I am open to the idea that my eyes were just so used to the other format.

4. The new format on the summary pages allows fewer lines per screen...

All-in-All is is certainly a welcome change for me. Good job on this and the overall continued running of the site.

I felt more comfortable with the old format, and it seemed to work fine. Speaking of which, I'm using firefox and the site still works great.

As other have said, it may simply be that I'm not used to it yet....
but I'm finding it hard to read.

I also feel a bit taken aback...as though I just came back home to find that someone had replaced and rearranged all my furniture.
:)

I feel like there is way too much white on the screen, and the fact that there is no division between posts makes it more difficult to scan the topics quickly.

I have to be honest, I sort of feel like..."if it ain't broke, don't fix it"
My initial reaction, honestly, is that I really don't like it.

but I'm sure I'll get used to this.
It would take more than a facelift to keep me away from DVinfo

I'm a bit dismayed at how unsettled I was---how much a creature of habit have I become ...?

Chris, I like the shorter text-lines in posts; most magazines & newspapers know this makes text generally easier to scan. I'd love it if the lines were a bit longer. I'd like to see less margin to either side of the central text column.

I love that posts are numbered now!

I rather liked the pale grey background of the previous design. If possible, could you split the difference between that and this new b.g. of near-white? But these are cavils ...

Just wanted to echo a couple other critiques:

“Icons to[o] small”--Richard Alvarez

“I'd like to see the links a different color so they are clear without mousing over them.”--Barry Gribble

“The fact that there is no division between posts makes it more difficult to scan the topics quickly.”--Luis Caffese

Haven't explored the organization changes yet. I can find all the buttons I need. Hmmmm. All in all, I think maybe I kind of like it, sort of ...

I'll judge the site not by the color of its pages but by the content from its characters.

Keep the comments coming, folks... your input makes a difference!

There's a "style chooser" at the bottom left corner of the page; pick a full-width option for this skin, or revert to the standard "vBulletin 3" skin (please ignore the big vB logo; I'll have a DVi logo in there tonight.

Within the next day I'll have a couple of other skins available for you including the old purple-ish DV Info theme from before. Thanks for bearing with our dust... I know it's a bit of a surprise; only our moderators knew it was coming. Hang in there and give it a chance to stabilize... many thanks,

Chris, to my eyes, the "Blue White - Wide" style is a less-jarring visual compromise. Thanks!

(Guess you decided to nuke the old "Welcome, [Joe Schmoe] and Relax ... You're Back Among Friends" opener.)

Richard Alvarez: See what you think of the "vBulletin 3" skin; it changes the icons' appearance.

I think that the 'width' of the pages are a downside.
If I look for new posts, the Forum column is pushed together, not funny.
Furthermore...it looks ok.

I really like the new design Chris.

Functionally I think it works much better as well.

I think the old one was easier on the eyes, if I have to be honest. I had the feeling with the old one I could read hours and hours, and with this one, I don't know, I don't think I could bare it that long.
Maybe if you can have more dark colours it would be a little more easy to read...

But, thank you for doing so much effort!
I agree with the others: long, wide sentences are much easier on the eyes too, but I fixed it already with that Quick Style-thing.

Thanks for the tip on changing the width Chris, it works a lot better for me on the 'wide' setting.

I just found another detail that I think is pretty unintuitive.

In the old format, when we made a link, the link would automatically be underlined, to let people know it was a link.

But now it just looks like regular text.


Can you tell which one of these sentences is a link? (www.dvinfo.net)

It is either this one, or the one before it. (www.canonxl2.com)



Did you guess correctly?
:)
(okay, that was a trick question...but you get my point)

So now there is no way for people to know when something is a link, unless the poster tells us directly "Click Here"

I checked the "V3" option, and like the layer much better. I'll be using that one to read the board.

Also, how come I'm now a 'registered user' instead of 'insider'... nobody likes a demotion :(

I really, really don’t like the new design. It's more clinical like lots of other forums. I guess its because I spend so much time here, it’s like someone has come round and ripped up the carpets and painted the walls. Really big surprise, I’m glad you will have the old style as an option soon.

Yeah, and what happened to that title that I worked really hard for??!!

"I had the feeling with the old one I could read hours and hours, and with this one, I don't know, I don't think I could bare it that long."


That's a great point, and I'll second that.
I don't think it's really the layout itself for me, as much as the high contrast in the colors, and the brightness of the background.

The 'shades of grey' on the old layout made it easy to read and read and read...
this is very stark, contrasty, and kind of tiring on the eyes.

There are things I like better in terms of functionality on this layout...but in terms of color, I think the old color scheme was more inviting and made it easier to read.


And, I have to admit, I am a little sad to see the name titles go away.
"Registered User" just seems so cold compared to "Inner Circle" (which sounds like I'm part of a secret society)
:)

Then again, I'm a shallow guy.

I worked hard for my "inner circle" dammit! And I want my decoder ring too! (At least, you can't take back the secret handshake...)

Don't worry about user titles; I'll have those restored shortly.

This is a work in progress folks! We'll also get the "real names" greeting restored among other things... please bear with us!

My only problem is that I am having to login each time I visit. Didn't see a "cookie" option in the Control Panel and I'm checking "remember me" at login. Other than that I've encountered no other problems.

I like the new format and look. Good work to Chris and to the Mods.

User Titles are back. If you have a specific technical problem (cookies not sticking, etc) please be sure to mention your browser and OS in your post. That way it'll be obvious if it's something systemic.

Jimmy,

You know how common it is for misunderstandings and poor choices of words to erupt into flame wars. Imagine how hard it is to be diplomatic in our own language, much less in another language. That's all that Jos meant. No need to be insulting toward him.

Jos, I'm sympathetic to the plight of non-English writers but I think the overall view of smilies over here is that they make a forum appear amateurish. Believe me, I use smilies constantly when writing to my friends overseas... never know how what I'm writing is going to be received!

I really like the fact that people use their real name and that the forum software is very functional; no smilies and avatars for me. That said, I have to admit I am also finding it hard to read at the moment, but I will bear with it for a while. I wonder whether it is possible to select which forums I want to read and not display the rest?

Emre,

Have you tried the different layout options in the bottom left corner of the page?

I posted earlier on the wrong page so I'll repost, I'm sorry for any issues that may cause.

I think the choice of styles is good though personally I don't liek to ahve to make decisions and like it better when they are made for me, as long as that decision is the old style look I'm happy.

Anyhow I agree the site feels a lot more clinical now and I'm lookinf forward to see the "you're among friends" written underneath my name.

I alos think it would eb nice to have a little bot more noticable hyperlink. But I'm just glad the forum is still around.

mike...i had the same reaction when i first looked at this new version (hard to get used to but really looking good).
There is an option at the bottom left for a wide version. Looks a lot better on my 19" monitor. :) (i have two of them!!!! and yes they are new! lots of space!!! yeeepie!!!) :)

I've had a chance to customize my layout - it's more similar to the old school way. But, I've definately gotten used to a few of the new things.

I LOVE the fact that URL's automatically hyperlink themselves...COOL! I love it, I love it, I love it!!!!

The pull downs are great!

Thanks for having the option to stretch the screen out - I was really hoping it would do that. I'm full screen now on my Cinema display.

Overall - excellent job!!!

Agreement with Richard Alvarez that the new thread icons on the left hand side of the post listings fundamentally change the way I browse the board. I used to be able to pay special attention to threads I had already posted to and threads I hadn't yet read--or at least do so with greater ease. The different-colored icons made that easy. Now they seem to be smaller and monochrome.

Everything else is nice, though. I like that I can choose the "wide" setting from the dropdown in the bottom left to get rid of the fixed-width display.

User titles are now restored (thanks to our hero Jeff K.)

Slowly but surely we're getting things taken care of... just hang in there... thanks,

hey guys i like it looks sweet.

OK, the note on the width took care of most of my concerns! I'll learn the rest in due time. I still don't seem to see the links others have mentioned, but that may be my choice of browser, Netscape. The blue was a little easier on the eyes, but I can live with this.

Great work Chris! Like I said, the best.

Mike

Oh NO, I thought I was at the wrong place!

Now that I made it wide it's much better but the white is still really hard on the eyes (I actually had to turn my monitor brightness down). It also feels like there isn't as much information on each page because the text looks bigger or something about the way it's formatted now.
It certainly does feel quicker though! Pretty nice job.

oops, I forgot, I don't really care for the little yellow idiot boxes that pop up though, they tend to block the stuff I'm actually trying to read as I use my mouse as a visual pointer. (just my 2 cents though)

oops, I forgot, I don't really care for the little yellow idiot boxes that pop up though, they tend to block the stuff I'm actually trying to read as I use my mouse as a visual pointer. (just my 2 cents though)

I beg to differ :-)
They're better called "intelligent" boxes since they allow you to quickly see the next layer of detail without having to open the whole thread. I find this very helpful since often times the thread subject is meaningless or misleading.

If they get in your way, just hold your mouse pointer a little further to the left or right.

Best Regards,
Pete

Howdy from Texas,

As requested, the "Who's Online" info is now back at the top of main forum index page. If you don't like the extra clutter, then simply collapse that section using the "-" tick boxes on the right side of the page.

Expand or collapse any section you want using those "+" and "-" boxes; the board will remember your prefs next time you visit... so if you don't give a hang about HDV then you need not even see that section...

;-)

Hope this helps,

Fantastic Job!!!!!!!!

It would be nice, if the default setting was no e-mail. I didn't discover several settings until my mail box was full of response notifications.

Oops -- sorry about that, Keith -- I'll work on that.

Y'all can manage your notification prefs and other nifties using the "Controls" link in the nav bar going across the top of any forum page.

Chris, any news on getting the old DVinfo skin back as an option?