Website facelift - opinions please

[Steve St.Laurent]

I've been working on a facelift for the forums over the last few days. I should have it finished tonight or some time tomorrow and we'll probably go live with it tomorrow. Take a look at it please and let me know what you think about it - http://216.235.147.116/forums . That is just a test site where I test changes before I make them here so please don't post anything over there. Right now only the forum list page, and the thread list page are updated with the new look. I'll be finishing up the other pages tonight and tomorrow. If you have any problems with the forums list page or the thread list page not loading right on your browser please let me know no need to check the others yet as they aren't done. I've tested it on IE and on Netscape Navigator so far and it worked fine on both of those for me.



-Steve St. Laurent

Webmaster

 

[E7mack96]

it seems too"busy" to me. I like what we have now.

 

[illflem]

Just get rid of the slow loading banner ads and it will be perfect.



I know other vBulletin sites allow individual users to choose from a list of around twenty board styles as far a colors, buttons, etc. does this one?



You could also leave the old style and new so users have the option, instructions here http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=61563

 

[Ram4Sam]

Looks good!

Steve, it looks good. Are more colors possible? I think the buttons across the top would look cool if they were the same blue as the other headers.



Sam

 

[csevers]

I am no expert

and not big on change but it looks good. Only one question what about easy outs to other parts of the site? readers rigs and such? I didn't see them or I missed something. Keep up the good work. Thanks



Craig

 

[willyslover]

Steve... Change for change sake / new look ??



I'm in the if it ain't broke why fix it league... . but that's only one guys opin'ion

 

[LSMITH]

Kinda reminds me of the board look a couple years ago. Looks OK.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I've added a second style sheet for anyone that would want to stay without the borders. You can click on edit profile and then edit options and change your style to the "No Border" style and it will look much like it does now. The exception is the new spinning turbo logo, the sliding banner at the top, and the new buttons - it is also more compact than it is now so more will fit on a screen.



I will be redoing the rest of the site in a month or so. You will be able to log in on the main page and then have all the member exclusives items at your fingertips. We'll be adding some new features at that time as well. The front page will be tied into the forums and the rest of the site more. I plan on having it show a feature rig each day. You'll also be able to select a skin on the front page for your generation of truck.



I'm finishing up tieing in the rest of the member exclusives stuff to the forum database for the username and password and the cookies. Everything on the site now uses the cookies and usernames and passwords from the forums with the exception of the travel companion and the classifieds. I should have those done this week. After that's done and some time passes to work out any bugs with the redesign I'll be working on the rest of the site redesign.



One of the things I'm doing in the redesign is trying to make the pages load faster to help out the guys that are on dial up connections by doing the graphics better, removing unnecessary graphics, etc. Most of the borders you see on the new design are almost zero load on the transfer and the page size has actually been reduced from what it's at now even with the fancier graphics. The current look has been around for a couple of years now and we felt it was time to make it look a little better .

 

[Deezul1]

Looks good as long as there is not a speed penalty I like it.

 

[Whitmore]

I like it Steve Keep up the good work



Looks like the best site on earth is getting better.



cheers, Kevin

 

[TURBOs4LIFE]

Hey! I like the new spinning turbo logo!! Oo. Oo.

 

[Paychk]

Hey Steve looks good, will the 1st Genner's get to keep the "Support For Discontinued Parts" forum too?

Keep up the good work!

 

[Fireman Dave]

Hey Steve,



Will the "Other" forum be included in "Today's Active Threads"?

 

[Deezul1]

A nice feature would be to be able to "Opt In" for the "Other" forum on "New Topics". I always forget to check Other forums for Docs posts and miss many a laugh.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Alan - definately. That forum is there even on the test page, you just weren't seeing it because you weren't logged in. It's setup as a members only forum so you can only see it if you are logged in.



The other forum will still not be included in todays active topics as it is now. I will put on my list to talk with Robin about making it an option. It will be up to her whether or not she wants me to spend the time to add that feature which will take several hours to complete. If it is added it will be a while down the road as there are other things on my list with higher priority.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

I have almost everything done now. The only screens left to deal with are the user control panel/edit profile screens. If you see any errors while you are popping around let me know.



-Steve

 

[jbolt]

How about putting something at the top of the forums page to let us know when we have a PM or have I missed something.



Maybe next to our log in name.



Jay

 

[tarussell]

I may have missed something , but what about the " user cp" option thing to click on ?

It looks good. I vote for keeping it uncluttered. Some of us ( ME ) are still stuck in the stone age and are just getting use to all this electronic stuff. But than, no matter what you do I will do what it takes to learn it... ... ...

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

When you get a new PM a pop up window comes up telling you that. There's also a place at the bottom of the forums that says how many new PM's you have - which is the same that it is now. We renamed "user cp" to "Edit Profile" - it's the same thing behind it. We had many people email us not knowing what user cp was and couldn't figure out how to enter their personal information - hence the name change, hopefully that will help.



Update - we decided to change it to User Control Panel. Edit Profile didn't really include everything that was there. Hopefully by spelling it out it will make more sense than User CP

 

[jbolt]

I see I missed the pop up option. Thanks.



Jay