Wow

[Joey P]

New board huh! Am I the first to post :p ?

[yosemite]

Perhaps you are! Wow indeed!

[cheddarsnax]

Yay, Dope! I've been waiting for this thing to come back up.

[Q.E.D.]

New board huh! Am I the first to post :p ?
Yep, and I'm the second. Tee hee!

[troub]

Here's hoping some new hardware was installed along with this new interface.

[ErinPuff]

The usernames are huge. O_o And where's the quick reply thing at the bottom? I miss it!

But the colors are pretty.

[Q.E.D.]

Well, feck! :p

[Menocchio]

Interesting. Not sure I like it. I think I like the poster names better on teh side. But I'm cranky like that.

[Toddly]

I'm wondering if this is just temporary. There is no Straight Dope Logo at the top. I will miss that if this is permanent.

[Phelan]

The posts look like they're in seperate sections, and the smilies are different. :cool:

[Jenaroph]

If this is permanent, is there a way to change how it displays on my computer so it's wider? At 1152x864, the board is only about half the width of the screen, centered. A lot of wasted space.

[dragongirl]

It all seems very strange to me. And these smilies look sick.

[cichlidiot]

I think it looks pretty darn snazzy. :)

[Tapioca Dextrin]

These "new" smileys sure are anaemic :(

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

Hey, do we get to use different fonts now?

Hey, hey, hey! Lookee this!

And we gots changes to the smilies! :p and :rolleyes: -- aw, I kinda liked them better when they were green. But I see we have degrees of rage now -- frown: :( and really pissed: :mad:

Okay, let's send this sucker off and see how it looks.

[Miller]

It's different! I don't like it! I fear change!

[vanilla]

ACK! ACK!
I hate it.
Its like coming home to find your wife with a totally different face! :(

[mnemosyne]

It doesnt look good in Firebird - the reply screen is all messed up, half the smilies are cut off, and the text sort of hangs off the left side of this box as I'm typing it. Please please PLEASE see if it can revert back to the old style - that worked so well!

[ultrafilter]

I'm withholding my opinion until the administration finishes making all their tweaks, but so far, I'm leaning towards "not thrilled".

[Angel of the Lord]

Is it just me, or is this layout really, really hard to read? I'm getting a heck of a headache.

That being said, I don't think it's permanent...I have more faith in the SDMB staff than that. But, hey, I could be wrong.

[Bippy the Beardless]

It's new, it's blue, woo-hoo !

[Muad'Dib]

What on earth is going on? Is this a permanent change?

[koeeoaddi]

The rolly-eyed smilie looks a little more benign -- almost bemused instead of sarcastic. But hey, if the thing runs faster, I can live with it. :rolleyes:

[Tars Tarkas]

Yeesh. Depressing colors. Geno smilies. :( :) :mad: and why does the embarassed smilie look like he was eating orange sherbert? :o

And the layout makes my fragile little mind weep.

[SylverOne]

Ditto on the not thrilled... Guess I'll learn to deal with it though.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

Like me! I want the smilies to have their color back!

Although some of the stuff we can do now is kinda fun.

There's also a button for Insert Image. I wonder.....



Ah. On preview I see it just puts the link in. Makes sense.

[II Gyan II]

They've upgraded to the new version series 3.0 which I think is permanent. Hopefully, the layout isn't.

Check out http://www.christianforums.org for a better layout. I'm sure we'll eventually end up with a nice one. I wonder if there could be a friendly layout competiton.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

Like me! I want the smilies to have their color back!



There's also a button for Insert Image. I wonder.....



Ah. On preview I see it just puts the link in. Makes sense.

Hey, I hit "Reply" in the box holding my post, and I got a box to write in with my previous post's text. Wonder if the previous post will be in quote setup when this posts? Also it's odd that the http link I put in the previous post to test the Image function showed up on preview but not in the posted message. Hmmmmm........

[Revtim]

Likely there are "templates" that are applied, and they have to adjust/tweak the SDMB template to play nice with 3.0.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

Hey, I hit "Reply" in the box holding my post, and I got a box to write in with my previous post's text. Wonder if the previous post will be in quote setup when this posts? Also it's odd that the http link I put in the previous post to test the Image function showed up on preview but not in the posted message. Hmmmmm........

Ah, and I see that if you hit "Reply" inside the post you get quoted only the text that was written in that post. If you quoted something else it is deleted. Gotta remember that! :smack: :eek:

[Maastricht]

The boards don't seem any faster, for all these changes. And the flow of conversation is really harder to follow with all the huge posternames in between.

I hope this isn't permanent. I get enough "change for change's sake" at my workplace. :(

[Hanna]

Weird. It has a cartoon-ish look to it. I wish the column was wider, I also have lots of wasted space. BOO-YA

Eh.

[Michael Ellis]

Uck. Awful. Bloody awful.

[Scarlett67]

I imagine the board is slow because everyone is trying to get back in, play with the control panel, etc. I expect that soon we'll be hearing from the admins about the change, reasons, improvements, etc. I'm going to withhold judgment until then.

I also have wasted space on my 21" monitor, but there must be some way to adjust it that I haven't found yet. I agree that the smilies are rather blah.

[GuanoLad]

People people! The boards have been upgraded. When that happens, all the old customised styles are written over. It takes time, sometimes many hours, to repair such things and get them back to the way they were.

Rest assured they will get things looking back the way they were soon enough.

[Tars Tarkas]

well i'm never turning "threaded" on again! That was horrible! Too bad there isn't too many other new things to fiddle around with.

[DirkGntly]

Ok, I like the changes - a couple of them, in particular, like:
Being able to log in at the top of a thread, instead of having to go back to the main menu
The "guided mode" for posting a reply

And has ANYONE noticed yet, that if you are registered with Yahoo IM, AOL IM, or ICQ, that your messenger logo shows up as part of your user data in your post? That's NIFTY

[Ms Macphisto]

Mostly testing, but I'm not sure I like this. Hopefully it'll be looking more like it used to soon, but in the mean time the anemic smilies are freaking me out. :eek: in particular is just wrong - it looks like a ghost that saw another ghost.

[Ms Macphisto]

Huh. And I'd forgotten I had a sig. Time to go play around in my user CP I guess.

[Tars Tarkas]

hey, if i hold the mouse over the post link, it gives the first few lines of the post! neat!

[Melandry]

Umm, what are the differences between Guided mode and Enhanced mode? I can't see any...

[John Mace]

Yeah, the smiles do their colors back, and the quick reply is gone-- when the board is really slow, you won't even be able to set up your reply in anticipation of when it speeds up again. And the username location is gone.

The font selection and smiley tags will make for fewer coding errors. Hopefully we'll get some "width" back. I'm sure that, with more use, the weirdness of the new look will fade.

I wish there was a way to download some of the features to operate locally (like the reply and quote functions) so you didn't need to go thru the servers evertime you wanted to quote a post.

Let's see how this plays out.

[Alereon]

I LOVE the new color scheme. I hope they keep it when we move to the final layout.

[OneYogini]

I love Miller and Vanilla 's posts the best!! LMAO!! :D I'm including those in my interchangeable signatures list. tee hee!

I said this somewhere else, but I'm taking it as an excerise to deal with my issues about change. Harumpff!! :rolleyes:

[Lobsang]

NEW TOY!!


Things that are cool so far... The ability to display an individual post in it's own window (will be useful for linking to posts for the pit). Getting a preview of and OP just by hovering over it's link.

indented text
bulleted list 1
bulleted list 2


right aligned text

centred text

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

All is strange to me!

I must experiment!

IGOR!

Fetch me my 1920's Style Death Ray!

BWA-HA-HA-HA-HAAAAA!

[Melandry]

I do notice, however, that the 'Ignore' function is, IMHO, better implemented, in that replies by 'ignored' folks are much, much, smaller than the normal replies, and thus easier to, well, ignore. My eye skips over them much easier now.

[Lucretia]

Skeek! It's new and different and scary! Okay, I do like the color scheme, but the width (or lack thereof), and HUGE usernames are not nice, and should go away.

[Scarlett67]

hey, if i hold the mouse over the post link, it gives the first few lines of the post! neat!Not in Opera. :(

[sibyl]

The old version was much better. Style > substance is never a good idea.

And these boards need a faster server. What kind of bandwidth does this board push?

[Ukulele Ike]

HUGE username, eh?

WHOA, momma! Lookit me! My name's up in lights!

[Tamerlane]

I like it.

The color scheme/type combo is easier on my eyes and ultimately that is the most important issue for me ( assuming functionality is at least adequate ). I do agree with the somewhat distracting width issue, though I'd still take this over the old version if it proved unfixable. The extra-large poster-names don't particularly bother me.

- Tamerlane

[Lady Ice]

If you click the post number in the upper right hand corner, it displays the post as wide as the page. No use that I can see for that, but maybe its a sign they can widen the threads. The wasted space is irritating.

I like the color scheme though. Nice. I can't believe they haven't disabled the calendar, it seems that it would be a waste of bandwidth.

[AHunter3]

Has anyone noticed any difference between "Straight Dope Message Board vBulletin 3 Style" and "Standard Style" and "Bright Links"?

They all look the same to me (of course I do tend towards the relatively oblivious sometimes)



FWIW, I sure would like it if one of the options was "Make it look like it used to".


Ugh.

[EddyTeddyFreddy]

I think I'm okay with all the changes, except for the username size and the lack of "Location:" -- I really enjoy a lot of the location tags people dream up.

The color, size, and font options are neat.

:p I :rolleyes: want :confused: the :D colors :mad: back, :eek: though, :( if :cool: it's :D possible. :) ;)

[Scarlett67]

Not in Opera. :(Now this is weird . . . I don't see the preview pop-up if I place my pointer directly over the post link (so that it turns into a hand), but if I shift it upward so that it turns into an arrow again, the pop-up appears. :confused:

[Ruby]

Woo-ha. Ain't this purdy?

[Happy Lendervedder]

Jeez, when I first got here, it felt like I stepped into the wrong classroom.

;j

[Loopus]

:p I :rolleyes: want :confused: the :D colors :mad: back, :eek: though, :( if :cool: it's :D possible. :) ;)

The last time we upgraded the smilies were different, but they eventually changed them back. Hopefully they'll do that this time too.

Man, the board looks weird right now. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I hope they get the layout looking more normal.

[Linear Crack]

HUGE username, eh?

WHOA, momma! Lookit me! My name's up in lights!

Kinda Blue Ain't it?

BLUE



-L. Crack

[Amp]

It'll take some getting used to.

[Linear Crack]

Kinda Blue Ain't it?

BLUE

-L. Crack

The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters.

1234567890

[John Carter of Mars]

All I've got to say is.... :wally

[Duckster]

Well there's an awful lot of wasted screen real estate on either side of the posts. Is this a backward compatibility thingie for hardly anyone using 640x480 or 800x600 screen resolutions?

And I see a few web standards compatibility issues as well (I'm using Mozilla 1.5). This reply to thread box is cut off on the right side (not all the smilies visible), and the topic review boxes are skewed off of the right margin, too.

Kudos for upgrading to the newer version. I take it the Chicago Reader didn't spring for a more robust server, eh?

:D

[Eleusis]

I don't think so, because I'm actually typing this at 800x600 (my cat pissed in my other laptop), and your post takes almost the entire page. Everything seems really huge, and usernames are like a half inch tall.

While we're here, can somebody please tell me what's up with the jewish smiley? ;j :confused:

[Squonk]

I haven't been here long enough to be used to the old format, so I haven't suffered much of a backslide on the learning curve.
It's clean and easy to read

I'm willing to give it a shot. Like I have a choice. :)

[Blackeyes]

Holy crappa crap! (I said that in the other thread too)

Change it back!

[Ale]

Oh dear...

Those big user names are quite bothering; the user name, location, posts bar on the left was much better.

[Lobsang]

The last time we upgraded the smilies were different, but they eventually changed them back. Hopefully they'll do that this time too.

Man, the board looks weird right now. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I hope they get the layout looking more normal.

They are starting to get back to normal... :smack: ;j :wally :dubious:

[Lyllyan]

Well generally, I don't like it.

OTOH, new buttons to play with...Weeeeeee :D


How am I suppose to maintain my invisible poster status with those huge frecking names up there?

[leafrog]

Yikes! Kind of a shock there. My heart!

Not sure yet about this layout...could probably get used to it, but won't try until it is confirmed it will look this way for awhile.

I'm basically posting because I wanted to see what the reply to thread window looked like.


**sees it, goes ahead and posts anyway.**

[II Gyan II]

I do like this font though. Wish it could be made my default.

[Mehitabel]

Blue. So very very blue.

Actually, this is the only the third time I've been able to look at the thing without it crashing, and my first post. Mrrrrow. It'll take some getting used to but I think I'll like it. But so blue.

[Ice Wolf]

Another thumbs up from me for the changeover -- it recognises daylight saving differences. Yay! I can see the board in NZ time, now! :)

[Joey P]

Okay, I've decided there are three things I don't like about this.
1. I don't like the user names where they are. It breaks up the flow when you read one post and then feel like you have to 'find' the next one. I like'd one after another with nothing in between (other then a sig)

2. Holding the mouse over the subject gives you some of the content is neat, and would be GREAT since the board can be SO SLOW at times (I hate waiting five mins to find out I'm not really interested in the post). But I worry that it's going to take the servers REALLY REALLY long to grab all that content out of all the posts.

3. I had a three, but I forgot it while I was waiting for the reply page to pop up, when I remembered why I forgot it, I remembered what it was. No quick reply. Again for a board that is this slow, they really should minimize the amount of pages the server has to load. By disabling the quick reply, they have to load another page for each reply. (It used to be two, one to tell you that your post is submitted, and one to load the new page with the added post. Now they first have to load the reply page.)

But I'm sure over the next few hours/days/weeks, they'll see what poeple like and don't like and make appropriate tweaks.

[Bren_Cameron]

Hmm. I don't mind it, I think. I'd like "location" back, for the same reasons others have mentioned, but I think I kind of like the usernames on top of the posts instead of at the side. Which isn't to say my heart would be broken if it got changed back.

I'm going to go play with my control panel now.

[Cugel]

If this is permanent, is there a way to change how it displays on my computer so it's wider? At 1152x864, the board is only about half the width of the screen, centered. A lot of wasted space.
I'm 1280x1024. Another board I read also recently changed to the squashed look. But Proxomitron (http://duke.usask.ca/~macphed/prox/) can make it a little better until sanity prevails.
http://home.arcor.de/cugel04/sd.png

[Revtim]

I LOVE the new color scheme. I hope they keep it when we move to the final layout.I like it too, but some complain that it's hard on their eyes.

[Hedda Rosa]

I like it very much. Gotta agree that the location would be nice to have back, but I prefer the user names this way, big and obvious. Makes it easier to scan for a name you want to find (course there is always ctrl+F).

Having a standard width, doesn't bother me, and is getting pretty darn usual on most websites, yahoo does it, I think google does it.

Great job, the new look and feel is awesome and will be much better than the old one.

Twiddle

[Bosda Di'Chi of Tricor]

Green!
We need the colors to be changed to Green!

Darn Green, Pale Green, doesn't matter.

GREEN IS KEEN!

And very restful on the eyes, too! :D

[«Ðëëp¤F®ïêd»™]

Just checking to see what my lame-ass username looks like all big and snappy...

I am not sure what to think of all this. I feel like I left my apartment for a few days and when I came back it had been re-painted and re-orginized.
So where is my remote?

[Infectious Lass]

I quite like it. The colour scheme doesn't bother me, and the big user names, while a bit jarring initially, don't bother me so much now. I would be happy to see the old layout with the poster name at the side though! I love the mouse preview feature! Another board I sometimes have has that feature and I have thought before now that it would be great if the sdmb would get it!

As was mentioned before, it's really annoying to spend 5 minutes waiting for a hampster-disadvantaged thread to load only to find you aren't interested in it. I really, really hope that this feature will stay!

[Chronos]

I notice that many of the "new features" people like aren't new. So far, I've seen several (didn't keep count) people saying that they appreciate the buttons for the smilies, and for various coding options, and for closing tags, and for changing the font, size, and color... But we had all of those things in the previous version. At least, we had them all on the "reply" screen in the old version. The only reason you didn't notice them before was that all those options weren't on the quick-reply box at the bottom of the thread. Now that we don't have the quick-reply box any more, everyone's forced to click on the "reply" link and see all the features. But you could have seen them before, too.

As for color scheme, I'm more or less indifferent to it. But it's probably something easily customizable in either version, which means that the administration could have changed it to this without upgrading the version, and that alternately they could probably change the current color scheme to match the old one. Most likely, though, that's far down on their list of priorities, so the most likely action they'll take is to just leave the colors on the default scheme (the one you're seeing right now).

[raz]

Okay.

Things I like:
Pop-up thread preview
Color scheme
the AIM and Yahoo icons
The new style of "quote" box
Things I don't like:
Username on top of the post
no user location
no quick reply


Something else I noticed that no one else has mentioned - it automatically puts in your sig! WOO! I always forgot to mark the check box.

[vanilla]

So....why was it changed? if I may ask.
I still hate it. :mad:

[lynn73]

Not sure what I think about it yet. Were they having problems or just wanted a change?

[OpalCat]

Harumph. I liked it better before the pushpins.



;)

[vanilla]

Hi Opal!

Whats a pushpin?

[TheDerf]

Ok, I like the changes - a couple of them, in particular, like:
Being able to log in at the top of a thread, instead of having to go back to the main menu
The "guided mode" for posting a reply

And has ANYONE noticed yet, that if you are registered with Yahoo IM, AOL IM, or ICQ, that your messenger logo shows up as part of your user data in your post? That's NIFTY

Whoo hoo, i wanna play

:) ;) :smack: :eek: :( :mad: :o

[medstar]

My one complaint about this new format is the time and day stamp at the top of each dialog box. Before the change, the actual date and time were displayed so that you could easily find the last message and start reading from that point. Now, the date and time stamp says "Yesterday, 7:30pm" or "Today, 5:13am". For someone who doesn't check out the SDMB every day, this lack of information can cause a lot of wasted work. YMMV

[green_bladder]

This is weird. I can't say I like it much better than the older version, but I guess it takes some getting used to. And this post serves no other purpose than for me to see how it looks when posted. Toodoloo.

[ReBusEniGma]

At first I was shocked, I thought I was at the wrong website. I know that some of these changes are temporary, so that's my disclaimer.

What I Hope Changes:

It seems you can't just subscribe to a thread without posting. I really hope that gets set right again.
Bring back the logo!
No quick reply. That was put in by popular demand anyway so I have no doubt that will come back. What a time saver.
Bring back the location tags, they were fun and informative.
The defined width thing annoys me;
It's like me
typing like this
all the time and
not giving you
an option on
how to display it.
I don't like the poster's banner on the top of each post. I find that it breaks up the continuity of the reading. However, the preview window tells me that it's possible to have it on the side still, so that's encouraging.


What I Hope Stays:

Actually, I really like new interface, Font sizing etc.
The default thread subscription option is good.
The additional User Control Panel features and layout is cool.
Love the color, it's my favorite
The mouse-overs are most groovey
Seems the reply window is more "windoze standards" oriented; The typing area is white, the interface seems cleaner/neater, etc. and I like it.
I like all the extra little manipulations you can toy with. Fun!


Even though my pros and cons are pretty balanced, I still really like the new look. Good on ya SDMB staff! :D

[Lobsang]

One
Two
Three
Four
Five

:wally :wally :wally

The mouse seems to be very erratic when moving over the buttons in the post composition screen.

The wally smiley only has one colon.

[brachyrhynchos]

I like it. It's easier for me to read.

The huge usernames was, at first, distracting. But I find I'm not noticing them as much now. Location would be nice to see. (And «Ðëëp¤F®ïêd»™, I still dig your username!)

The date stamp, as others have mentioned...I don't much care for. But I LOVE the mouse-over preview and the enhanced mode reply (no guide boxes!). Very nice.

[OpalCat]

The old version had "Enchanced Mode" for replies as well. People seem to not be remembering this very well... I guess because it wasn't the default before whereas now it is. Much of the stuff that is here in the reply screen was there on the old version as well.

[mailman]

I feel like the guys from Queer Eye were here, and I'm not hip enough to appreciate what they did.

[AHunter3]

Beatcha to it, Mailman -

Queer Eye for the Straight Dope? (http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=234654)

[shijinn]

... It seems you can't just subscribe to a thread without posting. ... Bring back the logo! ... look under 'thread tools' up top to subscribe/unsubscribe to a thread.

i say bring back the logo only when everything is more or less 'finalised' and ready for more feedback.

[LifeForce]

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.





Testing 1-2-3..

This thing on??

HI!!!!!!!

Hi!!



Hi.

[LifeForce]

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.





Testing 1-2-3..

This thing on??

HI!!!!!!!

Hi!!



Hi.



Wow...everyone is so smart here...Hope Im smart enough to hang... :eek: