Welcome to Neowin 5

[Lt-DavidW]

My constructive feedback:

1. Make it wider.

2. Replace the dropdown arrows beside 'control panel', 'main', and 'irc'.

3. It's too dark and contrasting. Use lighter shades of blue.

4. 'Neowin' in 'Neowin.net' looks stretched vertically.

5. Try rounding off the top right and left corners a bit more.

6. The divide between news items is too subtle when compared to the rest of the contrasting design.

7. There's no contributor or comment count for news items.

[+BeLGaRaTh Subscriber¹]

As I mentioned earlier in the deluge, is there going to be an option to have the forum posts updated real time again on the front page like the last design, that was invaluable to me. Currently I have to refresh the whole page just to get recent posts :(

[SlimShady]

I miss the article title in my browser (tab) title. If I open multiple articles, there's no difference in titles.

What's the opinion of the team about this?

[Smigit]

OK, shall we remove "recent forum posts" on the right and place the ad there then? Where else do you think the square ad should go? It doesn't distort the content it wraps around it

I say get rid of it or allow the page to scale to people browsers. It's simply far too big. The fact that the vertical google one to the right is also level with it means your losing about 50% of the page width where that center ad is. ATM it's literally the size of 2.f of the news post alongside it. It wouldnt be so bad if the page was making use of the real estate of a wide screen display but it's taking up a huge amount of a column many people think is already too small.

You could always put those two news and content filters back to the top left as they were in v4 and put the ad at the right above the "around the web" where those content filters and forum links are now. It'd be out of the way at least but still ultimatly there.

I just really think your hurting yourself in regards to this. Theres been a deliberate move to cut back on how much text is shown in each article and then in amongst it is a huge animated ad. It's counter productive to the goal of getting people interested in the content there as the ad takes your attention right away from the content which makes it harder to get to the stage where you want to read anything else. All in all I'm finding it harder to focus on the front page content than with version 4, not easier. It's ok the times the ad is static, but about 50% of them are moving about every 2 seconds. The huge boarders on the site is only serving to further narrow your eyesight to the very centre of the screen and thus past the news posts themselves.

edit: I realise you need to make money here, but if you sacrifice useability your going to scare users away. Also I would really be interested in why the fixed width approach was taken and what benefit it actually offers.

[Guest jgrodri]

I can't believe none of neowin's staff agrees that having an ad in the middle of the website is a bad idea.

Neowin is a content-oriented website, as such the most used features should be most prominent. Forums + news is why 95% of the people come here, so why does this update reduce the space for news and pushes forums to the side?

Anyone who understands a bit of design will tell you that you want to put important things in the center, not ads!!!

Can't you see that your idea of the new design is flawed? why do you either ignore posts here or refuse to admit it can be improved? I'm sure you guys work hard to provide us with this new skin, almost everyone agrees that the colors look nice, but limiting functionality because it interferes with your "idea for the theme" is not the stance you should be taking.

Refusing to give the users the possibility of going back to the older design when so many people don't like this new one as it stands is also a step in the wrong direction.

I'd like to ask you guys to listen to what so many people here are saying and perhaps make a few changes to keep your userbase happy :)

[spacer]

I don't like how each article now only gets a line or two on the main pages, where as before they would get a paragraph or two. Give back the page realestate to the articles, and give them more room for their content.

The old color scheme was better, the new navy blue menus and headers do not go well with the matte blue backgrounds.

The new 'recent forum posts' list is worse than before. Not only is its placement on the page a little strange, but the number of items in the list was reduced to 6, and it doesn't update automatically anymore. The new one is a 100% downgrade IMO.

Also, whenever I mouseover the "Main" button in the navbar, the drop down menu appears but never goes away. It only disappears after I refresh the entire page. (IE7)

Edited October 15, 2008 by spacer

[Ollie64]

The new style is too crowded and too similar to sooooo many other news feed pages.

I don't like the narrow columns. I liked the old style because all the info was so easily readable. I just scrolled down the page and opened the items I was interested in a new tab.

[+Ryster Subscriber²]

OK, shall we remove "recent forum posts" on the right and place the ad there then? Where else do you think the square ad should go? It doesn't distort the content it wraps around it

Actually it is distorted since you remove the post icons.

Also for the record, I'd prefer no square ad at all as I'm a subscriber but thats an entirely different topic of conversation. Failing that I'd prefer it in the right hand column. But that's just me.

[Smigit]

I don't like how each article now only gets a line or two on the main pages, where as before they would get a paragraph or two.

Exactly. ATM theres an article on the front page where not even a whole sentence is able to be displayed with the limited amount of text showing. I mean theres cutting it back and theres cutting it back.

[ViperAFK]

It was never supposed to be the regular subscriber package. The idea was put out for a higher-costing subscriber package that removed ads, and as far as I know that idea is still on the table, it just hasn't been worked out yet.

What I don't understand is why people complain about ads in the first place. If they weren't there, we wouldn't be here either. They're not hurting you by being there. All you have to do is ignore them, which is extremely easy if you ask me. It's not like we have sound-enabled ads or anything.

I NEVER complained about the ads until now.

the flash ad in the middle of the page is just unacceptable.

[shakey_snake]

I NEVER complained about the ads until now.

the flash ad in the middle of the page is just unacceptable.

As I said before, it's WAY better than the intellitxt ads.

I don't see how anyone (who doesn't use an adblocker) could disagree.

I have a secret feeling that the reason the square ad is "unacceptable" to so many people is that it doesn't collapse when using an adblocker. ;)

[ViperAFK]

As I said before, it's WAY better than the intellitxt ads.

I don't see how anyone (who doesn't use an adblocker) could disagree.

I have a secret feeling that the reason the square ad is "unacceptable" to so many people is that it doesn't collapse when using an adblocker. ;)

I have neowin whitelisted I see all the ads.

I'd rather have the intellitext ads and I hated those too.

THIS POST WAS BROUGHT TO YOU BY PEPSI

I think the reason it's annoying to most people is it's in the middle of the page!

Edited October 15, 2008 by ViperAFK

[RawGutts]

My constructive feedback:

1. Make it wider.

This is the only thing I have a beef with the new site. I have a 24 inch wide screen and I am seeing 3-4 inches blank space on either side of the neowin home page. I have a real state monitor.

I just wanna see it all!

[shakey_snake]

I have neowin whitelisted I see all the ads.

You're not the only one to complain about it so far. ;)

[Mainer82]

Can I just ask what the thought process was behind the news section menu.

Apple -> Microsoft -> Linux, doesn't seem right to me, its not either alphabetical, or Microsoft first (as this was originally a Microsoft centric site).

It may seem a little pedantic, but it just confuses me...

I agree....

[Panacik]

I have a secret feeling that the reason the square ad is "unacceptable" to so many people is that it doesn't collapse when using an adblocker. ;)

WRONG! :)

I have never used an adblocker ever. I have never really noticed the ads on Neowin, nor found them irritating in any way, but suddenly there is a big square block, diverting my attention away from the top news artical on the site... i predict it will stear new users away from the site, rather than bring new users.

[Rahul]

As I said before, it's WAY better than the intellitxt ads.

I don't see how anyone (who doesn't use an adblocker) could disagree.

I have a secret feeling that the reason the square ad is "unacceptable" to so many people is that it doesn't collapse when using an adblocker. ;)

Well actually anything can be blocked

What is irksome is actually the placement of the advert.

[Reacon]

It was supposed the subscriber package. I guess not, after all. I won't be renewing if ads aren't removed for subscribers :crazy:

Is it just me, or is the Neowin site/forums slower today? Its my internet, damn!

Is there a reason why the front page 'recent forum posts' don't auto cycle/refresh anymore? I really liked that :(

Well, I am a subscriber apparently, yet there are 2 HUGE banner ads on the front page. As for the cycling new posts... OH NOZE! UR RIGHT! That was the best part of the web page! I will not live without my new posts!!!! Fix it now - or else!

Well actually anything can be blocked

What is irksome is actually the placement of the advert.

How did you do it! Thats amazing!

[ahmz]

I like the new look, but the layout looks a bit cluttered, it's a bit confusing or "over-whelming".

[Rahul]

Im not telling anyone, I love Neowin & i appreciate that it has adverts on it because of which it provides us a much more richer & fuller internet experience . Go Neowin

[Panacik]

Im not telling anyone, I love Neowin & i appreciate that it has adverts on it because of which it provides us a much more richer & fuller internet experience . Go Neowin

I know how you did it, but dont do it myself.

I wont be going to the front page any long though... ill be heading straight for the forums in future.

[Reacon]

I know how you did it, but dont do it myself.

I wont be going to the front page any long though... ill be heading straight for the forums in future.

Sadly enough - Same. :/

I just hope to god that the forum themes are changeable as always. This is really sad, you know. Neowin was my #1 source of news, yet now I find myself with something that's nor easy to look at, or has any content. I miss the old Neowin very dearly. I hope a compromise eventually comes.

At the moment, the Latest Community Activity is just about the most useful thing on the main page, yet sadly it doesn't even work. I don't see the point in renewing my subscription if I'm going to be rewarded with this.

[Gabureiru]

thread is sorta long, but is there anyway to auto-refresh the recent forum posts?

[se7en.hu]

it looks fantastic and tbh the forum skin now looks 'old' looking back at it

[Deathray]

While there are examples of other fixed width websites, well known websites, that doesn't really mean much to me ... I'm at 1920x1200 and all I see is wasted space and cramped up text

I took a look at ars technia and the first thing i noticed is that the spaces/columns are much more defined... Neowin basically has thin blue lines separating things, which really isn't doing a great job... On Neowin, everything looks blended together into a pot of mashed information

I'm not a web designer or anything, I'm simply a user that views this site a lot. Currently I'm using the greasemonkey scripts to make this site take up more of my screen space, and it makes a remarkable difference...

I guess for me... Neowin was unique, that's why it was my homepage, but now in this pursuit for god knows what, I feel it has lost its uniqueness... hopefully the forums survive this new direction