I hate to be "that guy" but here goes anyway.

Is anyone else around here kind of turned off by the new look and feel?  I mean, don't get me wrong - I'm finding little functional changes here and there that I really like.  I think it only makes sense that there is an integration between this site and C. B. Gitty since both of the sites have become so comprehensive in their respective areas.  I like the idea that a newbie can stumble across this site and that C. B. Gitty is only a click away.  It reduces some of the leg work for someone who decides he or she wants to get started.

I also like how the photos that everyone uploads now has a running slide show on the home page of the site.  Looking at the photos is one of the main reasons I come here as I can see what everyone else is doing.  Everyone keeps reminding me through their work that there are so many things that I haven't thought of and I continue to be inspired by everyone's ingenuity.

But the visual theme of this site is sort of a downer.  It looks flat and 2-D-ish.  It seems impersonal; like Tron had gotten hold of the site and redesigned everything.

What does everyone else think?  Just me?

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CH...CH...CH...CHANGES!


A few bipartisan comments!
Maybe I should use david bowie's outfit in that picture for a new color theme!!!

Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars

That would be a great banner!

(Sorry...I will stop now)

Back to the serious stuff.  

I was there for the old Yahoo group.  It's one of the reasons I signed up for the new Ning group as fast as I did and never looked back :)



Shane Speal said:

Old school, mutherf***er!!!  Bring back the old Yahoo!  (...or not)

Josh Gayou (SmokehouseGuitars) said:
Please tell me that there's nobody using that thing anymore...

I wanna see Gitty dressed up like Ziggy Stardust!

Gitty made guitars

Jammed 'em good with weird appointments

Like a spider soundhole

He could make 'em left hand

And he made them for Gwar

He took it all to far

But boy, could he make guitars

 

(ok, somebody get the next verse)

Ziggy sold guitaaaaaar paaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrts!!!

Shane Speal said:
I wanna see Gitty dressed up like Ziggy Stardust!
You guys crazy ;)

Didn't much like the old one, but the new one is no worse (some slight improvements, some losses). It's structure and coding that trouble me more than graphic design. The Nation hasn't been particularly good for mobile devices and I know it's had a tendency to crash some browsers. And you need to make sure the homepage isn't so huge in data terms that it takes ages to load.

Most important thing of all is the content - it's been the place to come for CBG info, if it remains a source of good objective information and a definitive meeting place then it will live on.

Um.  I would like the groups section to reflect the groups in order of most recent activity, sir.  Please.  So we know when there is activity in an area of interest.

 

Otherwise, I am just happy that something like this exists at all.

Mark - I have definitely been working on streamlining, slimming down and reducing the total data payload of the homepage. The new banner that CBJ dislikes so much is about 1/5th the size (in KB) of the old one. Also fewer groups displaying (to Diane's chagrin) and fewer graphical ads help that too. Some of the structure/coding stuff is just inherent to Ning and we don't have a lot of control over it. Another thing I have tried to focus on is removing any blank space... if you recall with the old banner which was a good bit thicker to begin with, there was a lot of blank space so you always had to do some scrolling to get to the content.

 

As for latest group activity, for now I intend to leave the front page showing the featured groups. To see the most recent activity like before, go to the groups page (from the main menu or from the View All link) and choose to sort by Recent Activity. I realize it's 2 more steps/3 more clicks than just having it all on the main page, but my feeling is that a cleaner main page is a greater value at this point.

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