I hadn't thought about this for ages. Seeing this thread, I have downloaded 'Stylish' and am viewing it as DS Retro. It's amazing how cramped the forum home pages were. The colours are better though and the blue is much better on my eyes than the current white.
Maybe this would only affect me here, but every time I try to alter or download anything, it wants the administrator's password - which I haven't got because this was my husband's PC, and when he was ill, it wasn't the sort of thing that I was concerned about. (He never kept it from me, I've just forgotten it.)
Thats the only thing i don't like. Plenty of room for avis if people wanted them but keep them small and no bloody glitter fairies and sparky unicorns.
Thats the only thing i don't like. Plenty of room for avis if people wanted them but keep them small and no bloody glitter fairies and sparky unicorns.
That's simple to do, you don't allow *.gif files to used and limit it to only *.jpg and *.png with a filesize of ~50k and there won't be any of that irritating flashy crap.
That's simple to do, you don't allow *.gif files to used and limit it to only *.jpg and *.png with a filesize of ~50k and there won't be any of that irritating flashy crap.
• In the tab, or address bar when browsing the forums, the old DS logo is still in use. It does have the new on when on the main DS site, but for the forums it is still the old one.
• The three smilies you removed (lord knows why) are still selectable, but just show up as blank spaces. If you were going to remove them, why not do it properly, including references to them instead of just doing it half-assed. Also, they were the 3 biggest and most used smilies on the site. What the hell is the cat face supposed to signify anyway?
• I can't be logged in to the main site (not the forums) in two places at the same time. If I comment on an article on my laptop it works, but if I comment when using my tablet it says I am not logged in. Once I log in again there and then try to comment on my laptop later it says I'm logged out there. It doesn't affect the forums, so why does it do it on the main site?
• I can't remember the page exactly, but I was redirected to an error page recently when clicking on articles and it has the old DS logo and look. If I find it again I will post the link here.
The majority of things that people had an issue with were fixed (text not being clear enough - was made black, default font in text boxes, white being too white, unread not being distinguishable enough, smilies, navy load page etc).
Absolutely not complaining, but if you wouldn't mind, fixing the indentation markup would be nice.
I haven't really been too bothered about the changes.
It looks fine to me.
I do miss the rolleyes smiley as it was sometimes exactly what you needed to express what you felt.
I've yet to make head or tail of some of the new ones, like that cat's face? What on earth is it for?
There's a Firefox add-on called 'Stylish' which lets you have the old DS style - instal it and do a search on Digital Spy, there are several old styles available.
I didn't mind the new look, it was the exclamation marks looking like lowercase 'l's which I couldn't live with.
I don't mind it now, but i still think DS's attitude to the initial wave of negativity was out of order though.
Agree, I read their responses and they did not handle that well at all. When people are giving you feedback on using something you've designed it's best to pull out those customer service skills and make sure you're doing something that works for everyone, rather than just getting defensive and displaying a "shut up or put up" attitude.
I couldn't stand it any longer and went back to the original look weeks ago, glad I did, it is so much more comfortable, the choice is out there if you look for it
• In the tab, or address bar when browsing the forums, the old DS logo is still in use. It does have the new on when on the main DS site, but for the forums it is still the old one.
I'll pass on the favicon, that has probably been overlooked.
• The three smilies you removed (lord knows why) are still selectable, but just show up as blank spaces. If you were going to remove them, why not do it properly, including references to them instead of just doing it half-assed. Also, they were the 3 biggest and most used smilies on the site. What the hell is the cat face supposed to signify anyway?
The cat is meant to be a bit of fun - as smilies are supposed to be. Removing references of past smilies like you have suggested instead of the current solution of replacing them with a tiny box no one can see (effectively removing them entirely anyway) would require going through almost 72 million posts. Even if that was an automated process, it would cause performance issues for the duration as well as take an age.
The three removed smilies have gone because they were often used as a way to patronise other users. They received more complaints than any good they caused.
• I can't be logged in to the main site (not the forums) in two places at the same time. If I comment on an article on my laptop it works, but if I comment when using my tablet it says I am not logged in. Once I log in again there and then try to comment on my laptop later it says I'm logged out there. It doesn't affect the forums, so why does it do it on the main site?
The two log-ins use different systems and this is an issue that we're aware of, but there isn't an easy solution because it doesn't happen to everyone.
I couldn't stand it any longer and went back to the original look weeks ago, glad I did, it is so much more comfortable, the choice is out there if you look for it
The bottom line is, Digital Spy is an advertising platform for its parent group. So long as its revenues are healthy, they'll consider its current state to be satisfactory.
It seems to me, the motivation behind the revamp was a perception that the previous layout seemed old and tired, and this was putting off some visitors in this spangly Web 2.0 era. So they tried to modernise it to compete better with their rivals and grow their advertising revenues.
But the new layout is hardly revolutionary, it's just playing around with the colours, fonts and logo. It's still the same old forum software, working the same old way. Spectacularly botching the relaunch hardly helped either. Given how bad things were, I wondered whether it was deliberate to stir publicity for the site.
Either way, if it hasn't helped generate more money, there will be further and bigger changes. I often wonder why they haven't long since deliberately tweaked the site to break if you use ad-blockers. It's surely only a matter of time?
The bottom line is, Digital Spy is an advertising platform for its parent group. So long as its revenues are healthy, they'll consider its current state to be satisfactory.
It seems to me, the motivation behind the revamp was a perception that the previous layout seemed old and tired, and this was putting off some visitors in this spangly Web 2.0 era. So they tried to modernise it to compete better with their rivals and grow their advertising revenues.
But the new layout is hardly revolutionary, it's just playing around with the colours, fonts and logo. It's still the same old forum software, working the same old way. Spectacularly botching the relaunch hardly helped either. Given how bad things were, I wondered whether it was deliberate to stir publicity for the site.
Either way, if it hasn't helped generate more money, there will be further and bigger changes. I often wonder why they haven't long since deliberately tweaked the site to break if you use ad-blockers. It's surely only a matter of time?
What amazed me was a big company like DS/parent company rolling out a new site live when it wasn't near finished and seemed to continue testing/tweaking on the live site.
Could you elaborate more as to which links are broken and where the logo is outdated?
Browser Favicons, for a start, aren't updating to match the new logo (on Firefox at least). I'm still getting the old, lower case white "ds" logo on cobalt blue.
Another issue that never seemed to get fixed is the "squishy-vision". On my widescreen monitor, the forum still only manages to make use of 1/3rd of the width of the screen with the other 2/3rds taken up by the side-advertising bar then further pale-blue side panels.
AFAIK, this can be easily fixed by setting the width of the actual forum bit from "fixed" to "percentage".
Comments
So for that reason, I'm stuck with colourless DS!
Thats the only thing i don't like. Plenty of room for avis if people wanted them but keep them small and no bloody glitter fairies and sparky unicorns.
That's simple to do, you don't allow *.gif files to used and limit it to only *.jpg and *.png with a filesize of ~50k and there won't be any of that irritating flashy crap.
Oooh they should do it then
They replaced them with the three seashells instead.
• The three smilies you removed (lord knows why) are still selectable, but just show up as blank spaces. If you were going to remove them, why not do it properly, including references to them instead of just doing it half-assed. Also, they were the 3 biggest and most used smilies on the site. What the hell is the cat face supposed to signify anyway?
• I can't be logged in to the main site (not the forums) in two places at the same time. If I comment on an article on my laptop it works, but if I comment when using my tablet it says I am not logged in. Once I log in again there and then try to comment on my laptop later it says I'm logged out there. It doesn't affect the forums, so why does it do it on the main site?
• I can't remember the page exactly, but I was redirected to an error page recently when clicking on articles and it has the old DS logo and look. If I find it again I will post the link here.
Absolutely not complaining, but if you wouldn't mind, fixing the indentation markup would be nice.
This is not indented.
It looks fine to me.
I do miss the rolleyes smiley as it was sometimes exactly what you needed to express what you felt.
I've yet to make head or tail of some of the new ones, like that cat's face? What on earth is it for?
Much preferred the old one.
Ohhhhhhhh yes. Welcome back DS.:D:D:D
lost them in the mode im in but its easy to use for the sight impaired
Agree, I read their responses and they did not handle that well at all. When people are giving you feedback on using something you've designed it's best to pull out those customer service skills and make sure you're doing something that works for everyone, rather than just getting defensive and displaying a "shut up or put up" attitude.
I'll pass on the favicon, that has probably been overlooked.
The cat is meant to be a bit of fun - as smilies are supposed to be. Removing references of past smilies like you have suggested instead of the current solution of replacing them with a tiny box no one can see (effectively removing them entirely anyway) would require going through almost 72 million posts. Even if that was an automated process, it would cause performance issues for the duration as well as take an age.
The three removed smilies have gone because they were often used as a way to patronise other users. They received more complaints than any good they caused.
The two log-ins use different systems and this is an issue that we're aware of, but there isn't an easy solution because it doesn't happen to everyone.
Aware of this and passed on.
How do you do it in Chrome?
To the OP, I posted a thread the other week about the design in IE8.
Have DS finished tinkering?
My main issue is the header & footer and how they display in IE8
Now I need to get a life!
It seems to me, the motivation behind the revamp was a perception that the previous layout seemed old and tired, and this was putting off some visitors in this spangly Web 2.0 era. So they tried to modernise it to compete better with their rivals and grow their advertising revenues.
But the new layout is hardly revolutionary, it's just playing around with the colours, fonts and logo. It's still the same old forum software, working the same old way. Spectacularly botching the relaunch hardly helped either. Given how bad things were, I wondered whether it was deliberate to stir publicity for the site.
Either way, if it hasn't helped generate more money, there will be further and bigger changes. I often wonder why they haven't long since deliberately tweaked the site to break if you use ad-blockers. It's surely only a matter of time?
Same here.
Browser Favicons, for a start, aren't updating to match the new logo (on Firefox at least). I'm still getting the old, lower case white "ds" logo on cobalt blue.
Another issue that never seemed to get fixed is the "squishy-vision". On my widescreen monitor, the forum still only manages to make use of 1/3rd of the width of the screen with the other 2/3rds taken up by the side-advertising bar then further pale-blue side panels.
AFAIK, this can be easily fixed by setting the width of the actual forum bit from "fixed" to "percentage".