The new look: Opinions please.

[trailboss]

Well? What does everybody realy think of the new look board? Here is your chance to have your say in a very unofficial poll.

No one doubts for a minute the imense amount of forthought that undoubtly went into the new look and the huge task of porting everything over to the new version of IPB. It had to happen as support for the old version will cese soon enough so saying "It should have stayed as it was" or flameing the Admin is pointless let alone rude but what do you think of the new look and feel of your home in Repdom? This is just out of personal intrest and also due to the fact that we at RWG1.1 are going to have to do the same sooner or later but I'm shure that the Admin will take on board any constructive comments.

Col.

[phaedo]

Well Col, using the dark side skin, as the new skin just isn't doing it for me. I do appreciate the work that has gone into the upgrade, and that the old skin isn't available in the new format, but the old skin just seemed easier to read, navigate etc. And I'm sure the bugs are still being worked out anyway, so in that sense that part of it isn't a big deal. There are a couple of much improved things I have noticed so far, and i am sure in time will find most of them.

[hank7502]

When you go to general discussion, there used to be a column on which topic each thread came from. It was easy to see which topics came from the watch for sale catagory etc...

[Samurai]

Hmmmm....am not a big of the new look as of now......may start to grow on me....not sure.

[Mickey Padge]

Too early to say really, as the team are still working on things behind the scene, but really and truthfully, at the moment this does not feel like home.....

[chiefwiggum]

Old Skool - Hate change, but I am sure it will grow. How the feck do you apply this "dark side" or am I simply a moron? (Rhetorical, rhetorical!! )

[Mickey Padge]

Old Skool - Hate change, but I am sure it will grow. How the feck do you apply this "dark side" or am I simply a moron? (Rhetorical, rhetorical!! )

At the bottom right of the page, there is a drop down menu

[chiefwiggum]

At the bottom right of the page, there is a drop down menu

Cheers Mickey - Dinosaur or what?? LOL.

Dark Side is much easier on my eyes and works for me - If the feedbacks are sorted, I will be a very happy bunny.

[Mickey Padge]

Cheers Mickey - Dinosaur or what?? LOL.

Dark Side is much easier on my eyes and works for me - If the feedbacks are sorted, I will be a very happy bunny.

Oops, I meant bottom left, but it seems you found it!

[scotty]

Well - to be honest - I'm not really keen yet on the new presentation.

Finding my way about - after a few minutes one adapts.

But as yet I'm not convinced over the new look.

Haven't gotten my head round where all the functions are etc....we'll see.....

[Member X]

I'm still finding my way round so I'm not up to speed yet, but the previous presentation of the forum I found much easier on the eyes and easier to navigate!

But then I always like all the options on one page rather than sub pages, so I'm just weird lol

Congrats to the admin staff for such a smooth transition and the continuing upgrading and tweaking - I know how much hard work it can be! We do appreciate it, even if we whinge a bit lol

[trailboss]

How about that? A 100% yes vote for best rep forum ever

Col.

[offshore]

How about that? A 100% yes vote for best rep forum ever

Col.

But they're all biased Col!

However, maybe it’s time to have a few words to say about the upgrade.

Firstly, I am an old fart who hates change, and who was more than happy with our old colours and skin.

The old layout was constantly being changed and tweaked, to better reflect and present this place, so I don’t think layout is much of an issue. (And it will continue to be fine tuned)

In fact we had looked at quite a number of changes in the last months, but had opted to leave a major redesign of the layout, until this upgrade, which we knew was coming.

I seriously come from the school which says, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”

Unfortunately the software we were working with WAS broke, as was evidenced by the speed of the forum (and the fact the software manufacturer had made a major upgrade available)

We were also doing a lot more "tidying up" behind the scenes.

We even gave consideration (Very seriously) to other software, but the amount of information which would have been lost was finally unacceptable.

Planning for this upgrade has taken weeks/months.

We spent 1 week amongst the admin team, just discussing just which skin we should run with, and do you know something?, we in the admin team couldn’t finally reach a consensus!

So we then realised that whatever was chosen, was not going to be to everyones liking.

In fact we would have liked to offer a larger number of alternative skins, but they are not yet available to run.

As the software matures, I’m sure we will get more options, and we will work to tune what is available.

The admin team, and T in particular, have put a huge amount of work into this upgrade.

We have now arrived at what we have, and will continue to tweak things to best offer our members the finest experience we possibly can.

I would add that in the last day we have had the most members online at any one time-EVER.

We have had the most member visits in one day- EVER.

And we are at, or are about to top a membership level of 21,000.

When you consider that we remove inactive members from this place on a regular basis, you may then understand the level of membership we have, who are actually ACTIVE members here.

So finally, I’m with a lot of you....not all that fussed about all the change..... having to use my brain a bit more to work through all the new and different settings.... which is a PITA....(especially with all the extra stuff we have in admin)...however I do understand that what is being done here, is finally for the best, and shows the teams commitment to continue to offer the highest level of information sharing we possibly can, along with the most up to date forum in the watch world.

Finally, I would like to acknowledge Thomas for his ongoing commitment, and dedication to this place...it sure would be a grubby household, uncleaned, unpainted, unloved, if it wasn't for him running round with the broom, vacuum, and paintbrush.

Offshore

[trailboss]

But they're all biased Col!

Take a look, so is the question

Col.

[JWR]

I could really go for a white/light grey based version of the Darkside skin.

[redwatch]

The speed improvement is so massive for me that I don't really care what it looks like! Yes, there are some changes. Some things are missing. Some things have moved. And yes, it is taking some time to get used to. However, I get around in the new version so much faster now that it doesn't really matter to me!

I love the upgrade!!!

[Admin]

Interesting read. Change is never easy. We have change the look of RWG a couple of times of the past years and it's been the same every time; some mebers like it others doesn't like it and some hate it (Maybe the same members also?? *Running for cover* ). To be honest, I do agree on a lot of the stuff that has been said about the "look" of the forum and I know we have a lot of people here who refuse to admit that they need glasses When selecting the new look for the forum, there are many factors to concider and I think many of you would have just preferd a forum with very "soft" colors and black text all over for readability. But I have to consider more than that when making a selection. I'm not going to go through all the factors here, but in the end, I a also like a forum that is easy on the eyes, easy to read and easy to navigate. This is also what this forum will become over the next couple of weeks. There are many minor tweeks that will be done to the fonts, colors, etc. How many of you have noticed that all the text in the posts have changed from a semi-dark blue to a dark-grey today, to improve readability?

[TeeJay]

I'm using the dark skin, simply because I find it easier on the eye than the other skin... Heck, I remember years back when I was a member of another forum (tattoo and bodymod-based) and that went through several forum designs, but one in particular, the contrast was so 'wrong' that the majority of users were complaining of eyestrain within minutes. At a glance, it looked okay, but trying to actually read anything... Torture. It got fixed pretty soon

I like the dark skin, and like the new layout of the forum, especially the additional lifestyle sections If change was required due to technical issues, then the change was required, and personally, I rather like the results

[docblackrock]

Interesting read. Change is never easy. We have change the look of RWG a couple of times of the past years and it's been the same every time; some mebers like it others doesn't like it and some hate it (Maybe the same members also?? *Running for cover* ). To be honest, I do agree on a lot of the stuff that has been said about the "look" of the forum and I know we have a lot of people here who refuse to admit that they need glasses When selecting the new look for the forum, there are many factors to concider and I think many of you would have just preferd a forum with very "soft" colors and black text all over for readability. But I have to consider more than that when making a selection. I'm not going to go through all the factors here, but in the end, I a also like a forum that is easy on the eyes, easy to read and easy to navigate. This is also what this forum will become over the next couple of weeks. There are many minor tweeks that will be done to the fonts, colors, etc. How many of you have noticed that all the text in the posts have changed from a semi-dark blue to a dark-grey today, to improve readability?

All that accepted and acknowledged T, I must say I hate it. I don't mind change but not when it's for the sake of it and the end result looks worse (in my opinion). Got nothing to do with eyesight, although I wonder if you've not been wearing those Oakley Miner's Goggles a bit too much yourself

First thing was I actually thought the 'dark skin' was the standard one - all the dark grey borders, not sure what purpose it serves except to have an epileptic fit rendering when I scroll down the page. Not great for my eyes that.

Whilst I'm whining, what's with the extra short thread page lengths? Find that really annoying - hopefully a tweak pending there as part of the new build? Also, maybe it's a browser thing (I'm using the latest - July 2009 - version of Safari 4 - but the forum does not adjust to browser window width like before so I miss the ends of posts as they scroll beyond the margins. Shouldn't do that on a 13 or 15" display. Not checked on my iPhone yet.

Apart from all that bitter and ungrateful criticism, great job

[Demsey]

I seriously come from the school which says, If it aint broke, dont fix it

I KNEW IT!! 'OFFSHORE' IS A DYED IN THE WOOL CONSERVATVE !! YES!!

With regard and answer to the original query; "Needs salt"

edit: I don't like the way, 'resized' font runs together. Can anything be done? TIA.

[Admin]

Well, as I have said before; this is not just change for the sake of change. The makers of the forum software we use have released their newest piece of software and this has been rewritten from scratch. There were some security holes on the version we were running, so when an upgrade was due, it was this or change to another piece of forum software. Changing to another forum software soon turned out to be impossible, as none of the "converters" supported the various data we have here. All new the "skinds/looks" that are release to the V3 version of the forum software use the same features and they are pretty much placed the same way things are here. The color schemes and looks are of course different, depending on the designer who have created it. Also, we could of course have gone with the default skin, but we want RWG to have some personality. We have over 21000 users here and there is no way am able to please all of them.

Also, if you want more posts per page (if that's what you are refering to with the "extra short thread page lengths", you can adjust it to your personal liking here; http://www.rwgforum.com/index.php?app=core&module=usercp&tab=forums

[wheaton26]

sorry admin ... i know you are doing this for the benefit of rwg, but this is too much change at one time. i used to spend hours here daily. now, i can only stand a few minutes before frustration sets in. my subscription coincidentally ran out this week so i think it's time to take a break from rwg. the worst part is, i have an offer from someone regarding a watch i have for sale but cannot reply to them. i've written the message but there is no send button among many other quirks? i guess this is what pushed me over the edge. anyway, i'll be sure to check back periodically to see if things get better. until then, you can consider me a part-time lurker. please take this post with a grain of salt as i know it's still early on in the upgrade. thanks for listening and i look forward to catching back up with everyone soon! all the best.

[chubbchubb]

While I do understand the need to move to a new version of the forum software to accomodate increase in membership, security issues et al... I have to say that I don't like the new look & feel at all. Right now, I feel like a stranger in my own house...