I guess I'll update my "blog" now.
I'm extremely disappointed with the new website redesign. I still really haven't found anything that's terribly evident as to why they changed it. Sure it looks spiffied, but does that actually make the site better? I think the color scheme is quite garish; the heavy reliance on flash and graphics for common headings and features really slows down the loading of pages. One person commented on how each page looks quite "modular." I agree with them, and I also agree with them saying that if it is going to look modular, it ought to be modular and one should have the ability to control what modules go where and how big they are. Right now, a lot of the features that I and apparently a lot of other people desire are buried under menus and down at the bottom of the page. It's very frustrating to have to scroll down every page to get to the actual substance. For example: there are about 400 pixels taken up by the top menu bar, the "check it" bar and the profile picture and description. That leaves about 350 pixels on my laptop for actual substance (and, not to forget, the overhead of the browser window and taskbar). So, pretty much for any page, I've gotta scroll down.
Also, the picture interface is done in such a way that the menu is just thumbnails, which is nice, as one can figure out which picture is which without having to just guess at the numbers. However, the thumbnail frame doesn't advance when one manually clicks through, so if you want to actually see the thumbnails of the pictures around picture 25, then you have to (first scroll down), and click to advance, twice. It also takes way longer to load both the the pop-up and the pictures on the SGs site itself.
I don't really need to see calendar as to remind me of when I posted. Can I just get an icon that I can click on to bring it up? I think there are way too many tabs for the site's good. One of which is "Faves." Can I just have Favorites back? or was there too much dissention between the US users and the UK users? Speaking of which, why just five friends? I know that there are now pictures (which I have to scroll past) of those five friends again, but still, it's rather cumbersome and just pushes content further down.
I particularly dislike the fact that the bookmarks are so much more smaller now, giving only a handful of characters before abruptly cutting it off. Also, with only three per page, I have to click (and scroll) many more times than I think is necessary to read all the updates of my friends.
The homepage is dominated by Messages and a GiantFreakingAnnoyingAnimated Advertisement, can I just trade that screen real estate back for just banner ads? Aside from the annoyance of having the ad placed there, it shouldn't be there because I'm paying for membership. That usually counts towards something, I didn't know SG was subsidizing membership costs with advertising costs. Okay, back to messages. So there's a tab for that, there's a message box in the top right corner, too. I don't believe that should be the first thing in the home page. There are too many ways to get to your messages with one click to have it also take up quite a lot of space on one's "home"
I don't like how my groups are just big giant pictures now, which means I have to scroll to see all of them, as they are just so large. I dislike how if I go to them, I get the five active threads, which actually shows no real content at first. So I either click a topic or click "topics" and (scroll) to see actual posts about stuff and what's actually going on.
I don't know, maybe I'm just more of a text-oriented person. I really was content with how content (no pun intended) was displayed before. There were enough images to make it look interesting, without bogging down the whole interface or load-speed. Content was easy to reach, easy to manage and screen realestate was properly managed.
I'm sorry SG, but you guys have built up a great community of SGs and Members alike, and the photosets, interviews and other material are great, but really, if the packaging is unuseable, the it's hard to justify actually exploring that content.
I do like the "attach image" feature, but that feature has been long overdue regardless.
I'm extremely disappointed with the new website redesign. I still really haven't found anything that's terribly evident as to why they changed it. Sure it looks spiffied, but does that actually make the site better? I think the color scheme is quite garish; the heavy reliance on flash and graphics for common headings and features really slows down the loading of pages. One person commented on how each page looks quite "modular." I agree with them, and I also agree with them saying that if it is going to look modular, it ought to be modular and one should have the ability to control what modules go where and how big they are. Right now, a lot of the features that I and apparently a lot of other people desire are buried under menus and down at the bottom of the page. It's very frustrating to have to scroll down every page to get to the actual substance. For example: there are about 400 pixels taken up by the top menu bar, the "check it" bar and the profile picture and description. That leaves about 350 pixels on my laptop for actual substance (and, not to forget, the overhead of the browser window and taskbar). So, pretty much for any page, I've gotta scroll down.
Also, the picture interface is done in such a way that the menu is just thumbnails, which is nice, as one can figure out which picture is which without having to just guess at the numbers. However, the thumbnail frame doesn't advance when one manually clicks through, so if you want to actually see the thumbnails of the pictures around picture 25, then you have to (first scroll down), and click to advance, twice. It also takes way longer to load both the the pop-up and the pictures on the SGs site itself.
I don't really need to see calendar as to remind me of when I posted. Can I just get an icon that I can click on to bring it up? I think there are way too many tabs for the site's good. One of which is "Faves." Can I just have Favorites back? or was there too much dissention between the US users and the UK users? Speaking of which, why just five friends? I know that there are now pictures (which I have to scroll past) of those five friends again, but still, it's rather cumbersome and just pushes content further down.
I particularly dislike the fact that the bookmarks are so much more smaller now, giving only a handful of characters before abruptly cutting it off. Also, with only three per page, I have to click (and scroll) many more times than I think is necessary to read all the updates of my friends.
The homepage is dominated by Messages and a GiantFreakingAnnoyingAnimated Advertisement, can I just trade that screen real estate back for just banner ads? Aside from the annoyance of having the ad placed there, it shouldn't be there because I'm paying for membership. That usually counts towards something, I didn't know SG was subsidizing membership costs with advertising costs. Okay, back to messages. So there's a tab for that, there's a message box in the top right corner, too. I don't believe that should be the first thing in the home page. There are too many ways to get to your messages with one click to have it also take up quite a lot of space on one's "home"
I don't like how my groups are just big giant pictures now, which means I have to scroll to see all of them, as they are just so large. I dislike how if I go to them, I get the five active threads, which actually shows no real content at first. So I either click a topic or click "topics" and (scroll) to see actual posts about stuff and what's actually going on.
I don't know, maybe I'm just more of a text-oriented person. I really was content with how content (no pun intended) was displayed before. There were enough images to make it look interesting, without bogging down the whole interface or load-speed. Content was easy to reach, easy to manage and screen realestate was properly managed.
I'm sorry SG, but you guys have built up a great community of SGs and Members alike, and the photosets, interviews and other material are great, but really, if the packaging is unuseable, the it's hard to justify actually exploring that content.
I do like the "attach image" feature, but that feature has been long overdue regardless.
paolodesade:
I agree, in far fewer words....I'm just not that verbose.