A Shiny New Mac-Forums!

Doug b said:

I think it has been replaced in quick links by "today's posts". Though I much prefer a static permalink such as "new posts"

Doug

Edit: Also, if you hover over "Forum", you get a drop down list, and there we also have "new posts". I would still prefer to be able to do it in one click though.

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Agree, you're already in the forum so why is the extra click needed?

Like it, generally.

pendlewitch said:

A quick question also, why is the Review pane so prominent? I find it distracts away from the forum.

Liam

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If you are referring to the featured articles on the homepage, it is prominent to do a better job of featuring the articles that are written, and encourage more people in the community to share articles. A nice article takes a little longer than an average forum post, so its good to highlight some of the best work of the community there. We've had a blog on Mac-Forums for quite some time, but it never used to be very functional and it wasn't ever featured well - we're looking to kick that up a notch.

iggibar said:

This is weird. I reverted back to the old style, and I thought, "Ooh, this is nice!"
In my opinion, there was never a problem with the way it looked. It was real nice, simple layout, easy to navigate, and easy on the eye with the backgrounds/layers.
I'll probably be sticking to 3.8.4 for a while.

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Everyone has their own tastes, nothing wrong with that! However from a positioning standpoint for the site, updating the design was an important move for the community. Apple products are pretty trendy and hip, while our old 3.8.4 design has been in place almost since the dawn of man - it has a distinct style that is more typical of a site in 2004 than a site in 2012. While the community has grown, evolved, and improved over the years - it deserved an updated style that also keeps up with the times.

MacDude121 said:

3.8.4 switches it back to the old style. Which I think I may keep using until some of the small kinks are worked out of the new one.

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Ditto. Thanks for bringing this up.


EDIT: as an FYI… if you are using the old skin, going to the main Mac-Forums page will give you a blank screen. e.g.:
http://www.mac-forums.com/

To get past this, go to:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/

I.M.O.G. said:

I've talked with the design team a bit already about the whiteness when viewing threads, and they agree and understand the feedback. It will likely be tweaked to refine it a bit more yet to give more differentiation/contrast to break things up.

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I was wondering why white-on-white never bothered me before in the old style, and on closer inspection… the old style isn't white on white. It's very very subtle, but the background behind the fonts is a very very soft blue, while the main background is white. I threw a screen cap inside a graphics editor and confirmed the changes with the color picker. RGB values are 251 each behind the fonts, and 255 each for the main background.

BTW… I never noticed it before, but I see now that the font colors changed to red when you hover over a link in the old skin. That was a nice touch and preferable to having the fonts always red.

Being the "clicker" that I am, I clicked the button that takes you back to the old style forum...

How do I change it back?!

It's been a little while, so I was surprised to see this when I came back! Looks good guys.

Chuckoir said:

Being the "clicker" that I am, I clicked the button that takes you back to the old style forum...

How do I change it back?!

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In your user CP, go to Edit Options. At the bottom is a list of skin options. The new one is 3.8.6 and the old one is 3.8.4.

vansmith said:

In your user CP, go to Edit Options. At the bottom is a list of skin options. The new one is 3.8.6 and the old one is 3.8.4.

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Mint! Cheers, Van!

I promise not to just click on things willy-nilly from now on...

Chuckoir said:

I promise not to just click on things willy-nilly from now on...

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Aww...but then you won't have as much "fun"!

- Nick

Chuckoir said:

Mint! Cheers, Van!

I promise not to just click on things willy-nilly from now on...

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pigoo3 said:

Aww...but then you won't have as much "fun"!

- Nick

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Haha, I was going to say that. Where's the fun in restraint?

I.M.O.G. said:

Everyone has their own tastes, nothing wrong with that! However from a positioning standpoint for the site, updating the design was an important move for the community. Apple products are pretty trendy and hip, while our old 3.8.4 design has been in place almost since the dawn of man - it has a distinct style that is more typical of a site in 2004 than a site in 2012. While the community has grown, evolved, and improved over the years - it deserved an updated style that also keeps up with the times.

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I have nothing against it, or anyone else's opinions...it's just that feeling you get when you get really comfortable with something, and it changes to something else. It's nice that we have the option to stick with the old version

I'm not sure if a new update to the rep meter was posted, but can you explain what the difference between light and dark rep circles? I noticed that some people that had 8 reps, now have 5 dark colored circles, and 3 lighter ones.

nice clean look. Lights up the room here

I know that feeling iggibar.

The option to stick with the old version should remain I think, however I expect it to remain unmaintained. It is just a skin, so that should mean it will probably keep working just fine - but it won't get any improvements or fixes. As we make some refinements and improvements on the new design, I would hope the new skin may grow on you if you check it out down the road.

vansmith said:

Haha, I was going to say that. Where's the fun in restraint?

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Some people do have fun with restraints I hear.

I.M.O.G. said:

Some people do have fun with restraints I hear.

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Haha, touche.

I think iggibar is correct - people get comfortable with a particular design and it can be somewhat jarring to see such a drastic change. I think if we all give it time to settle, we'll find that the design works well.

I.M.O.G. said:

If you are referring to the featured articles on the homepage, it is prominent to do a better job of featuring the articles that are written, and encourage more people in the community to share articles. A nice article takes a little longer than an average forum post, so its good to highlight some of the best work of the community there. We've had a blog on Mac-Forums for quite some time, but it never used to be very functional and it wasn't ever featured well - we're looking to kick that up a notch.

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Hi Matt,
Thank you for your reply. Yes I was referring to this.

It just seems big and is looking like the most important thing about our forum. I did express an interest in helping with blogs but I haven't heard anything and I can't remember who it was who asked for the PM.
Anyway not to worry, more power to your elbow because I'm settling in with the new site nicely.
Cheers,
Liam

Thats a valid concern and one I expressed when we were planning the change. The intent with the homepage was to feature both forum and blog content, so we were going for a balance there without marginalizing either - other than the featured article box, the homepage is nearly entirely forum content. Maybe it isn't a perfect balance, but a very good balance is what we were going for.

What I would really like to see would be for the blog to start covering forum things as well going forward, so that way the featured box for the blog also promotes the importance of the forum. Along with the design changes, we have also integrated forum comments into the blog articles now. Each time an article is published it creates a forum thread for discussion... In this way, the blog and forums will hopefully grow to become more complimentary than separate.

You can view a blog discussion thread here:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/ipad-hardware-accessories/265488-review-cosmonaut-pen-ipad.html

You will also find those comments listed as part of the article at the bottom here:
Review: Cosmonaut pen for iPad | Mac-Forums Blog

The blog is a great avenue to highlight forum talent, knowledge, and skill, so I'm hopeful it catches on with more people. Not everyone is into digging through forums and getting involved the way many of us are, but quite a few people are interested in learning from the skill-sets and experience we've gained if we share some things through the blog. There is a portion of the audience out there that finds a blog format less intimidating than a forum hierarchy - it should extend the reach of the community if all goes to plan.

By the way, follow up with AptMunich or me if you'd like to get involved writing or reviewing. He's the main man, but I can help get people started too.

meh... I don't like it much...yet. It kind of reminds me of TUAW mixed 9to5 mixed with Mac Forums.
I'm not a paying member on here so I guess my opinions may not count as much.

But I'll still come to vist! lol

iggibar said:

I'm not sure if a new update to the rep meter was posted, but can you explain what the difference between light and dark rep circles? I noticed that some people that had 8 reps, now have 5 dark colored circles, and 3 lighter ones.

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I was wondering about this as well.

I missed that question earlier, sorry. I don't know much about reputation dots, Mac-Forums may be the only forum I'm very familiar with that uses the reputation system and displays dots to represent reputation.

However, by right clicking and selecting "copy image URL", it appears the dark color dots indicate positive reputation points. The lighter color dots start after 5 dark color dots, and they represent highly positive reputation.

That is about all I know, but I don't think it means anything else special. These are the image URLs:
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/images/custom/reputation/reputation_pos.png
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/images/custom/reputation/reputation_highpos.png

iggibar said:

I'm not sure if a new update to the rep meter was posted, but can you explain what the difference between light and dark rep circles? I noticed that some people that had 8 reps, now have 5 dark colored circles, and 3 lighter ones.

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MacDude121 said:

I was wondering about this as well.

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I think it means those people are part of an under, very underground society. It's so secretive that its members don't even know they are in it.

I've been trying to get in by bribing the mods but all they do is take my money and never let me in.