Why Neowin 5 is important for us

[spacer]

The ad in the middle of the main page doesn't bother me at all.

What does bother me is that the new layout severely reduces the amount of text each article gets. Make no mistake, this is a complete downgrade from how it used to be. Reduce the amount of articles on the page if you have to, but bring back the multi-paragraph article previews instead of the multi-line.

[Eric Veteran]

*shrug* I've asked about readability and color choice quite a few times and nobody's said anything... I guess since it's not important I'll let my subscription lapse. :(

[Roger H. Veteran]

The ad in the middle of the main page doesn't bother me at all.

What does bother me is that the new layout severely reduces the amount of text each article gets. Make no mistake, this is a complete downgrade from how it used to be. Reduce the amount of articles on the page if you have to, but bring back the multi-paragraph article previews instead of the multi-line.

It' already stated that more info on the main page is a bad idea. I'll see if the full reasoning was posted in the thread about the feedback changes.

[Rob Veteran]

*shrug* I've asked about readability and color choice quite a few times and nobody's said anything... I guess since it's not important I'll let my subscription lapse. :(

At the time of this post there are 571 posts located in 3 different threads regarding Neowin 5. That's a lot of posts to read, consider and respond to. I've asked politely before to refrain from making idle threats like 'I'll leave the site if you don't change this' or 'I'll let my subscription lapse if someone doesn't respond' - it's impatient, impolite and unhelpful.

[Digitalx]

Ads bring revenue to Neowin and help defray the cost of running this site. I don't believe that the ads will go away any time soon. The ads are placed where they are to catch the eye of someone browsing this site. The more conspicuous the better. I believe it is just something that we have to live with.

Considering we've paid our way with subscriptions i don't believe we should be bombarded with them or big spaces for them which are annoying.

[Wodin]

You say you're phasing out C&P, but that's what I liked. I came to Neowin for all the latest tech news, and your readers were contributing articles from all over the web. It's really hard to get all of your tech news in one place, and Neowin seemed to be the best place, that's why i've been coming back here for over 6 years. It's the only tech site that is one of my home pages (yes, I have more than one, opened in tabs) Just to be clear, I come for the content (news), not the looks. If the content goes south, I'm flying with it. I'm not trying to be a flamer, and the site does indeed look very nice. But I did make a post earlier that its not very readable, and I hope you address that. And keep the tech articles coming from around the web, thats what brought most of us here to begin with. Just my 2 cents.

[gnuman]

Considering we've paid our way with subscriptions i don't believe we should be bombarded with them or big spaces for them which are annoying.

I HIGHLY doubt Neowin makes enough money with subscription unless Neobond is charging people $100 a year if not more. As far as paid our way with subscriptions, think of it as a bus pass sure you pay $x/mth to go on the bus but you think there isn't someone else pumping in money to keep it operating?

I respect Neobond for keeping the site up for all this time and I remember a time that this site was nearly shut down due to bandwidth and costs issues. (This was years ago)

Why is it so wrong of Neobond to put ads? It's his site, he's not running it off of some cheap co-location and he has bills to pay. The added money from the ads will get him more servers or maybe more things for us there is a reason why he has 8 million+ posts and thousands of visitors.

All things aside I respect Neobond for doing what he does (wish I'd have a site this popular) and he has to do what he has to. He was nice to remove the IntelliTXT ads on the front page and taking an earnings hit just to please most of you.

[joeydoo]

Where is the list view with categories in the three colours? There's that little "news filter" box/widget on the right but there is only 6 recent entries in that... how do you expand that to a single page?

I don't need a scatter gun of news text (that I may have no intention of reading in most cases) to dig through.

Just the titles please.

edit: I've just counted, there are 18 words (3 lines) for me to read on the page before I have to start scrolling. I do not like this, it's just not useful.

Edited October 17, 2008 by joeydoo

[Krome]

NO, the homepage is a poor reflection of the old one. The old one was THE BEST one-stop-shop for the days tech news. Easily readable, well laid out. The new one is crowded and the stories truncate mid sentence. What is the point of copying all the other (poorer) news sites?

Anybody agree with this?

Nope. I don't agree. This version of Neowin looks much sleekier (oops no such word) and much more sharpened than the last one.

I wonder why people complain about the "full-screen" view and at the same time complains that the page looks bad when in that mode. I really have a thing for people who expand their browser to full screen view mode. Expanding browser does not reflect the magnifying view! By doing that you are disabling yourself to full access of your desktop. If full-screen view actually zoom in on all contents, including the right variable font size, then yeah I can understand why it's a functional option. For the time being, I can't conform to that type of logic. And it pains me to see many people would want to do that. It's so dam annoying when I can't seem to grasp that logic. Would someone explain to me why doing such thing is an absolute feast to their cranium?

Back on the direct route of this conversation. I love this new design. It looks so dam good. I give A+ for work the Dev team on this new design. I love it!

[Eric Veteran]

At the time of this post there are 571 posts located in 3 different threads regarding Neowin 5. That's a lot of posts to read, consider and respond to. I've asked politely before to refrain from making idle threats like 'I'll leave the site if you don't change this' or 'I'll let my subscription lapse if someone doesn't respond' - it's impatient, impolite and unhelpful.

I haven't seen a response to the question in any place I've posed it, and I still didn't. The new design is very hard for me to read. Are you planning on making other colors? It's not a threat, it's a fact. If this new design is 'it' and the forums will look the same, I have no reason to resubscribe as I don't want to read an entire site of eye strain.

[MillionVoltss]

How do i setup the board to be wider ie, fits 1680 by 1050 better as now its ony half the screen with Massive borders. Would ne nice if like BBC.co.uk you could maybe put games and software news in those spaces by dragging them Title across, Does look nice mind.

[sullysnet]

I usually hate change on many things but this is one of those changes I love :) thanks for the hard work

[naap51stang]

Same here! If there are other main page color options, I sure can't find them either.

Will there be other color options besides the blue? It really does make it hard for me to read the page.

[Skulltrail-old]

Very nice preview. Explains wells.

I agree with most of the users in this thread when I say, thank you! The new design looks splendid. I'm only waiting for the redesign of the actual forums rather than just the home page.

Until then, keep up the good work!

[Simon Veteran]

I haven't seen a response to the question in any place I've posed it, and I still didn't. The new design is very hard for me to read. Are you planning on making other colors? It's not a threat, it's a fact. If this new design is 'it' and the forums will look the same, I have no reason to resubscribe as I don't want to read an entire site of eye strain.

How will it strain your eyes? It still has white as the background for most of the content, the font size is slightly bigger and we've adjusted the line height. It should be much easier to read, and as someone who is overly sensitiive to light (and thus contrast), I find it infinitely easier to read.

[anonymous_user]

How do i setup the board to be wider ie, fits 1680 by 1050 better as now its ony half the screen with Massive borders. Would ne nice if like BBC.co.uk you could maybe put games and software news in those spaces by dragging them Title across, Does look nice mind.

Neowin Finity 100% Width

@namespace url(http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml);

@-moz-document url("https://www.neowin.net/") {
/*resize*/
.page,body>div{width:auto!important}

body>div>table[width="942"]{display:none!important}
}

Put in Stylish or userChrome.css

[shockz]

*shrug* I've asked about readability and color choice quite a few times and nobody's said anything... I guess since it's not important

I'll let my subscription lapse. :(

Considering we've paid our way with subscriptions i don't believe we should be bombarded with them or big spaces for them which are annoying.

Sorry to be blunt.. but Yes, you are a subscriber. But you are not "better" than other other member. Get off your high horse.

Staff also have to see ads... and we aren't even paid to mod.

Subscribing supports the site... and we thank you... but subscribing doesn't give you a get out of jail free card, immunity, or better treatment than anyone else... your opinion isn't better than any one elses.

Rob also made an excellent point that there are a ton of opinions and ideas to sort through... you aren't going to get an immediate response.

Edited October 18, 2008 by shockz

[+shift. MVC]

Basically means instead of Neowin sourcing other sites for information, other sites will be sourcing us?!

[ikonizer]

We all know the regulars come here for the forums. ;)

[Nashy]

It's really nice. Just wish subs didn't have to see that god awful big ad in the middle.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

What's with the permanent moaning about the front page being 'not wide enough'? Simple solution: Stop maximising your browser.

Why do you think newspapers use columns rather than wide text going over the whole page? Because it is easier to read text that way.

It's not like most of you are using screen resolutions of 1024x768 and below where maximising was an option.

[MillionVoltss]

What's with the permanent moaning about the front page being 'not wide enough'? Simple solution: Stop maximising your browser.

Why do you think newspapers use columns rather than wide text going over the whole page? Because it is easier to read text that way.

It's not like most of you are using screen resolutions of 1024x768 and below where maximising was an option.

Thats hardly a helpful comment, i prefer to be able to maximize the screen usage, so asked and someone helped.

Thx.

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Thats hardly a helpful comment, i prefer to be able to maximize the screen usage, so asked and someone helped.

Thx.

My point is that being able to see several running windowed apps at once instead of maximising them is - in my opinion - the only way to maximise the screen usage.

kthnxbai.

[+Gary7 Subscriber²]

If you use the <> it is maximized. I do not understand all of The whining about the Main Page.

Why do you think newspapers use columns rather than wide text going over the whole page? Because it is easier to read text that way.

They do it to get more content on a page and if they didn't your newspaper would weight about 25 LBS. The main page here is not a newspaper. If you want to read more just click on the Read On link.

[Marshalus Veteran]

Basically means instead of Neowin sourcing other sites for information, other sites will be sourcing us?!

That is correct.