2000 AD Online Forum

Any news and comments about the new look?

I get vertical scroll bars in the message board.

And I'm not too keen on the underlining of every link, but I guess that's something I'll have to get used too (I prefered the old orange links that switched colour with a mouse roll over)

Nice but i'm going to miss the SCREEEEEEE bit of Jock's artwork at the top - something nice to look at while something was loading.
Be better if the full piece of Kev Walker art was along the top.

This messageboard's too big for my screen, which is a right PITA...

I like it a lot.

Yer Slips

Dud: So, same problem as me then.

My other dislike is the huge advertising banner in the header. When it was at the bottom of the screen, it didn't bother me, because although I knew it was there, it took nothing away from my inital page view... I had to scroll down to see it. Now, it fills a fair portion of my initial viewing page. And that's annoying, as it means I have to scroll further down in order to view content of interest to me. And like a vast majority (I forget the actual percentage) of internet users I dislike and can't be bothered to scroll down.

One of the things I do like, is the actual background look of the header, which ties in nicely with t he current look in the nerve center.

Doesnt fit to my screen which is going to annoy me more and more.
And I know I havent looked around a great deal yet but on my old front page of the site I'd built up quite a list of links to other parts of the site and now they're gone.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

I like the general style - seems to make everything a lot more compact. Certainly a nice surprise this morning!

A few comments...

The Home Page doesn't fit into 800x600 and even in 1024x768 the 'Latest News' still isn't visible without scrolling. Arguably, the most up-to-date part is the most important element of the Home Page.

And it's a shame Dante's face is cut off(!)

Also, the navigation menu is maybe not in the most obvious order. Finally, the 'twisty' menu titles could do with an arrow or something to suggest that they reveal more headings when clicked.

M@

"One of the things I do like, is the actual background look of the header, which ties in nicely with t he current look in the nerve center."

...although the colours behind the menu bars down the left and across the top don't match this background - they're a noticeably lighter shade of purple.

Fits alright on my (work) screen (dunno yet about my home PC) - but I dunno... I fear change.
I really did like the previous design & could see no need to re-vamp it. But what the hey, it's still good.

I like it, and it fits my work screen and the laptop.  Miss the Jock art though, and are the easter eggs gone as well?

on my old front page of the site I'd built up quite a list of links to other parts of the site and now they're gone.

Your bookmarks are still in the database, and I'm going to have a think about how to reintroduce them into the new design.

In the meantime, if you can find the old home page at the following link

Link: Old home page

are the easter eggs gone as well?

For the moment, but I'll put them back soon.

Wake

Re: The front page...

Isn't the E-cards link a bit too prominant?
With that picture out the way, the 'current issues' would fit in one line across the page, & the first news item would be visable without scrolling.

Hide em Wake.....just tell everyone you've put them up and not tell them where...hours of fun for everyone, until we realise that you haven't actually had time to update the site yet.....

arghhhh, i am a ludite, i fear change...

The new 'my ebay' bit has slowed down my ebaying quite a bit which is a pain, but so far so good here....

bah, evolution whats that all about.

I just did the graphics and the original page mock-ups, and Wake the implementation, so he really needs to comment on the bulk of the queries. However, I'll do my best to respond to some of the points outlined above.

Regarding 800 x 600, I notice that this is the case on Windows IE. However, the original mock-up works fine in that resolution (as does the current front page if taken offline, oddly), so I'm guessing something happened during the implementation phase to widen the design. With regards to the message board, I'm guessing a fixed table is causing the board to stretch to a certain size - these tables should be scalable, but there will always be a few hiccups when moving to a new layout. The original mock-up was tested in a range of Windows and Mac browsers and confirmed at 800 x 600 up to 1280 x 1024.

:: Nice but i'm going to miss the SCREEEEEEE bit of Jock's artwork
:: at the top - something nice to look at while something was
::  loading. Be better if the full piece of Kev Walker art was along
:: the top.

I am a big fan of Jock's art, hence choosing it for the original design. However, it's been there a fair while now, and the site was in need of updating. A part of the current redesign's brief that I was given was to make the site a liquid design and also to fit more with the current 2000 AD feel. Therefore, the Nerve Centre background was the obvious choice, because it's suitable for a scalable site and, being largely mono, it loads rapidly. Also, it provides some texture but doesn't draw the eye. Having Kev's artwork across the top would be confusing and would distract from the main content. I did try that out, though, during the design phase.

:: My other dislike is the huge advertising banner in the header.

Part of the brief.

:: And I know I havent looked around a great deal yet but
:: on my old front page of the
:: site I'd built up quite a list of links to other parts of the
:: site and now they're gone.

I've not checked as yet, but these should end up in the fan zone. Part of the brief from Rebellion was to make the site slightly more corporate and less fan-oriented upon initially opening it, but to ensure all the fan-related content had a coherent home in the fan zone.

:: The Home Page doesn't fit into 800x600 and even
:: in 1024x768 the 'Latest News' still isn't
:: visible without scrolling.

This is a good point. Perhaps Tharg's head should be made a little smaller, which would mean everything could move up slightly. Also, if the publications don't wrap, the news is immediately visible, so perhaps that area should be reworked slightly.

:: although the colours behind the menu bars down the left
:: and across the top don't match
:: this background - they're a noticeably lighter shade of purple.

Otherwise they wouldn't stand out.

Surprised no "smug Bristol git" has yet mentioned Matt Smith's speech on 2000adonline.com winning the best website award.  Basically, "Thanks, but we think it's not all that and are relaunching it as soon as possible".

Duds, someone has already covered that one..

Is it just me - or is the "Search messages" not working?

2 things.

1) The new site is very, very, broken in Firefox.  Thought it was a joke from Friday until I happened to look in IE (spit).

2) The email password don't seem to work.  I am cookied on Firefox and don't have my password on IE (spit)

3) Looks nice on IE though...

"Otherwise they wouldn't stand out."

Fair enough. I'd prefer to see the menu bars blend with the background, as they seem slightly out-of-place at the moment, but it's not my design :-)

Ny only other criticism is the repetition of the "fan zone" phrase across the top of this section. I've seen the same trick used at dozens of other sites, and it's never struck me as particularly attractive. I'd rather see something a bit more subtle to indicate to users that they were now in a particular section of the website.

Apart from those two niggles, the site *does* look good, and I'm particularly impressed with the new navigation system - the old one was bloody awkward, IMO. The new one makes it far easier to browse through site contents if you're a new visitor, as well as making it a piece of piss for regulars to find the exact page they're looking for within a couple of clicks.

Craig: yeah, I thought the advertising Banner was part of the brief. Shame.
I think you've done an excellent job in the respect that the site does indeed feel more corporate.

I have to agree with Oddboy, that getting all the current issues on one line would be preferable, especially if that means that the latest (first) news item then becomes visible. So either sacrificing the ecards link (*sob*), or just making it smaller would be great.

At the very least, reducing the images to two lines "Rebellion Products (2000ad/Me/EE)" and "Tie-ins (Titan/Black Flame/Big Audio)"

When clicking on a character profile image, I'd like to see the 90x90 image of them appear in the "Zone Image" instead of where it currently appears, and maybe place the character image on the right, where the current 90x90 is located.
 

"The new site is very, very, broken in Firefox"

Really? Bollocks - what build are you running? Does this mean it's back to my (bloody unstable for no apparent reason) version of Opera, or do I have to use IE on my home computer?

Using Firefox 0.8 the site work, but there is no formatting at all.

It's all in unformatted text, no backgrounds, really, really old skool (hence I thought it was a joke...)

Probably looks the same in Safari - but won't be able to check till the evening...

Dan
(Running the site on 2 browsers)

Shit. It might work in Mozilla, I suppose, but I switched to Firefox because I was fed up with the size & awkwardness of Moz. Ah, well - looks like I'll be trying it out in Opera then...

Seeing the new board for the first time I thought,"Oh bollocks what have they done now!" Strangely though, after using it for half an hour I'm now struggling to remember what the old board was like. Only niggles are:- I too prefered the old style highlighted links and the 2 inch purple bar down the side of my screen seems a bit unnecessary/obtrusive when I'm reading a thread. Otherwise seems OK.
Cheers Jim.

:: The new site is very, very, broken in Firefox

God knows what's going on there. The mock-up was tested and confirmed in: Firefox 0.8, Mozilla, Opera/Win, IE 6 and 5.5/Win, IE 5/Mac and Safari - see the link below. Judging by what's happening now, the CSS is not being picked up in Firefox.

Link: The original 2000 AD Web site mock-up

Oh dear. This thread was ill-advised, wasn't it?

In my experience, if you create anything with detailed content (such as a newspaper story) and ask people what they think of it, they always concentrate on the bits they don't like.

I'm not attacking anyone by saying that, BTW.

Let's just be glad we still have our thriving community.

We'll gradually grow accustomed to the new look.

- Trout

>Is it just me - or is the "Search messages" not working?

Not working for me either.

La Placa Rifa,
W. R. Logan.

Like the new design.

One niggle: It's hard to tell the threads I've read from the new posts due to the colours used. But that could just be the colour settings on my monitor.

Otherwise change is good. To quote P Milligan "The more we stay, the more we change the sane"

Yep, that one works.

Hopefully something can be sorted, as atm the moment I can't sign into IE, so need to post from here.

At least I can have the site as my IE homepage as I use that so little ;)

Dan

Heh, good point. I sometimes assume that others will take it as read that if I *don't* say anything about a certain aspect of the comic/site/whatever, it's because I think it's perfectly fine. I tend to comment only when something is particularly good or particularly bad (or, in this case, just a bit irritating)

:: Ny only other criticism is the repetition of the
:: "fan zone" phrase across the top of this section.

This might change in the future (it's simply a case of a graphic swap-out); however, the intention was to make it VERY obvious which portion of the site was not considered "official", if you know what I mean. It's a decent compromise of sorts - after all, I remember some fears (unfounded, it has to be said), that all unofficial content was going to be booted off the Web site.

:: I'm particularly impressed with the new navigation system

An interesting comment, given that Dom's main concern (other than a liquid design) was to improve ease of navigation.

:: I have to agree with Oddboy, that getting all the current issues
:: on one line would be preferable, especially if that means
:: that the
:: latest (first) news item then becomes visible.  So either
:: sacrificing the ecards link (*sob*), or just making it smaller
:: would be great.

I've sent over a "plan of action" to Dom for discussion with Wake. This should address all of the concerns with the home page.

:: Using Firefox 0.8 the site work, but there is no formatting at
:: all.  Probably looks the same in Safari - but won't be able
:: to check till the evening...

Oddly enough, it still works fine in Safari (and Opera). However, the site currently fails in all Gecko browsers. Like I said, the original mock-up doesn't, so this must have happened during the implementation phase. Having just done a shed-load of tests, Firefox simply doesn't like the includes folder on this domain - strange, but true. Locally, the site works if I point the CSS link locally, or even to Snub Communications (my site).

Can anyone point me to where the list of registered users is now?

Cheers

And it's worth noting that new polls no longer appear anywhere except on this page...

I can see the poll on the fan zone page. They're no longer on the home page because they're not official.

Link: Fan Zone page

I like the "fan zone" graphic. I know where I am.

Trout: this thread might be "ill-advised" but it serves a number fo purposes. It allows praise to those responsible, and it lets them know when things aren't working (as proven with the various browser/screen size issues). Wake, Craig, Dom and the others involved in the redesign could choose to ignore this thread and the comments, but I think they are more likely to welcome any criticism (good and bad) so that they can make the site as effective and efficient as possible.

the search engin works for me.

Max

That's exactly right, and, as a Web designer with almost ten years of experience under his belt, I am well used to people focussing on the negative, so it doesn't really bug me. Also, many of the comments highlighted things that need changing with immediate effect. Having said that, it was nice to see the odd positive comment in this thread!

Doesn't fit my screen either...
What was wrong with the old one?
And i got lost coming in...but that's just me!

Mind you, a lot of work has obviously gone into sorting it out, and kudos is due.

Nice one! Luv Tanky x

I've just tried altering the way the css is picked up, as per Craig's email. Is Mozilla still failing.

Also, there's another problem.

I've had a Mac user and an NT user who can no longer log in, and I'm not sure why yet.

Wake

I use 800x600 at home, so I'll certainly be looking into why the design isn't working at that resolution. The message board index may be unsalvagable at that resolution, since I can't dictate the maximum length of the longest word in a thread title or a username, but the rest of the site shouldn't have horizontal scroll bars at 800x600

Wake

At least we've still got the little thumbing dude, you know, the real controller of the site.

Wake,

Thanks for the fiddling.  Firefox still not playing happy with the new site though.

Will stick with IE for the moment...

Dan

I can't dictate the maximum length of the longest word in a thread title or a username

Don't thread titles wrap automatically?

What about making the time date of the last post wrap so that the date was above the time.

When users register, can't you limit their user name to X characters (as I look at the index now, superherostore.co.uk seems to have the longest username.) A 15 character maximum name, shold be more than sufficient for most people.

Also, this doesn't explain the horizontal scroll bar on the home page the only other page (other than message posts)where I get it.

With regards to the home page (and I think all the other pages) one the left of the page, there is a vertical bar (of various shades of purple/blue) that seems irrelevant. If this was removed, the home page would fit 800x600 resolution, and the menu on the left would be flush to the side of the browser.

I'm delighted to see that my comments - intended as positive - have upset you, Dane.

My evil pervades all, even my good intentions!

Hooray for the evil fish! ;-)

- Trout

Firefox/Mozilla users - please report how the site looks now. It seems to work for me (Firefox 0.8/Mac and Moz 1.4a/Win).

By the way, if people have seen some, erm, odd stuff going on (red backgrounds and so on), that's because I've been tinkering with the live site.

Not really had a chance to go over it properly yet, but at first glance, I think it looks lovely!

'Course, I'll be back later to moan about everything I don't like...

Too big for my screen, also. Hate having to scroll across to read posts. Perhaps the contents links on the left side of the screen might work better elsewhere, considering the space wasted once one has scrolled down below 'em. It's a grey area.

Don't like the way every time I go back to the board from posting a message I have to scroll down to see the board again.

Nice Lilac though, very soothing, nav's OK but there are more clicks to get to the pages I want to see from the last site, nothing a bookmark cannot fix.

Oh and another thing, there's no direct link back to the message board from this section (post a reply), which seems a bit odd...

I like the new site design, nice layout, nice cool colours, makes the site feel more welocoming.

Incidentally, the server seems intent on deleting the fix file I created, so Moz users might have to wait until Wake uploads it in the correct manner for the site's set-up. At the time of writing (1.20pm) it's working fine though.

Lilac? Tch. I guess ye just don't get the same effect with a 60 watt light bulb.

Been at lunch and the site is now lovely and working!!!

Looks good.  Now don't break it again.

Cheers to Wake and IP for sorting this - and sorry for being a PITA for using "another browser" ;-P

Dan

Yup, just asked the bird and it's def. lilac

I've just logged on and seen the new design for the first time. I've got to say on first impressions I like it.

Like it so far but:

The 'highlights' arnt much of a contrast so it's hard to see which threads you've read/which have been updated.

You can see if anyone (or how many) people are in the chat room from the outside

OK... the chat DOES show when people are in it (must have not updated

The 'read' Highlight is ok for thread titles but still a bit hard to see if it's a page number

Don't like it. Text doesn't read any nicer in battleship grey than it did in black. Don't like the margin down the left hand side. Too big for my screen. Everything everyone else has said too.

Trout: I'm not upset... Although I did have a weird dream last night and you were in it. Strange given that I've never met you!
Oh, and you had lost your crown ;-p

First impressions, very nice. I'm sure I'll come up with plenty of grumpy niggles once I've had a proper look though ;)

15 per cent of people use something other than IE, and I actually develop all my sites using Firefox as a base browser. Therefore I was also rather surprised when people said it didn't work in that browser!

I actually have to agree with the gunmetal grey margin down the page.  On long threads like this, it seems both pointless and unattractive.  Maybe embedding some very light white-on-gray artwork into the margin would improve it?

Overall, though, I do like the redesign and think it looks very professional and appealing.

--Grant

Or keep the left hand side nav bar from scrolling when you move the page down to read. Kind of like having it in another window on the same page.

And have the read text in a lighter colour.

Apart from that, looks good.

My views are pretty much what everyone else thinks.

1. GET RID OF THE UNDERLINES ON THE CLICKABLE LINKS. They are very annoying.

2. Latest publications shuld be smaller and on one line.

3. Personalise your phone and ecards, who cares.
A prime spot on the page should be put to better use.

All in all I'm happy enough with the change, just fix those few things.

Looks much better on my 21" screen at home compared to the 15" screen I was using at work.

I rarely post here, not because I'm an unsociable soul, but I only really signed up so that I could check out the sites other features that non-members seem to be unable to access.

I'm now in a state of shock, as after many months of trail-blazing through this site I'm now back to square one!

Just kidding. I really like what I've seen so far and find the site is now more user friendly and has less of a "fan club" feel to it.

I think this is important because although I was lurking here for over a year before I joined (and so did "know" many people here already) I felt that the strong community spirit here could be a little daunting to new members at times and perhaps off-putting.

I can understand some people being unhappy about the new site. People by nature are comfortable with familiarity, but a change can also prevent stagnancy so I'm not going to gripe about it.

Not just yet anyway :)  

 

Hi there Noah Angel!

The strong community spirit here was built up by the people here talking to each other & getting to know each other - not from the colour scheme/graphics, and that's not going to change with the new design...

Very slick but a little confusing.

The link underlining IS making it seem a little busy, especially in the messageboard area. A little CSS wizadry to only show the underlines on roll-over on some of the links might do wonders.

I`m not crazy about it. (obscure Marvel reference follows). It reminds me of the time the Sub Mariner changed from a pair of green fish-scale bathers to a blue jacket with shoulder pads and blue bathers - the intention was to make him look harder or something, but it made him look like he was trying to look harder and was dropped soon (obscure Marvel reference ends)
 anyway, maybe I`ll get used to it

Hi there Oddboy.

I'm sorry if I came across as implying that the  site design was solely responsible for community spirit. I was trying to say that the site did have too much of a warm, homely feeling about it, which unfortunately may have felt a little like a country pub to those approaching the site for the first time.

The new site does have more of a functional and business-like look to it and I remember a thread a while back about the upgrades in which it was mentioned that the fan stuff would be segregated from the main site so perhaps that is what Rebellion intended.

That asides I apologise if my post came across as attacking the community spirit in any way. This wasn't my intention as I rate this site and its members as one of the best places on the net.

Happy vibes to everyone.

Noah

im impressed
it does look even more professional then before.

very good upgrades as for bits i dont like i have not had time to look into that yet.

but first impressions.
very pleasing.

is it me or is the font slightly smaller then formerly.
teh icons seem a little smaller by the same measure also.
not a complaint more of a question.

I pretty much share the views of everyone else, the site looks very nice and professional.
Although I do miss the artwork at the top of the screen, it looks a little bare and half-finished as it is now.

One suggestion though - Can we please have the "Return to Message Index" link at the top of the page as well as the bottom (for some reason I just don't seem to use the link on the left panel) .

Also there appears to be a slight glitch with this thread.  Go to page one then scroll down and click on the "Page 4" link below all the messages and you're magically transported to the old look board!

Aquaman still has a hook and a beard though doesn't he?

Any chance of using a stronger 'highlighter' colour for the threads that have been read? It's hard to make out which ones you've seen if you like to read most of them...

Was well impressed when it first appeared.

But want the full image by Mr Walker to be available somewhere - and I think the Jock art was much more fitting.

And does anybody actually use that awful menu on the left hand side?

The ad at the top makes it look like it's a locktide site sponsored by 2000ad.

Any chance of using a stronger 'highlighter' colour for the threads that have been read?

Yes. What colour would you like to replace the brown? There was no provision for this in the new design, so I just carried over the same colour from the old one.

Cheers,

Wake

Didn't they used to be red? Anything contrasting really...

Light Ash Grey. Good call.

I've tried grey. The links used to be red, with brown for visited ones. Putting red as visited ones would highlight them too much. They need to be duller than the ones you haven't read.

Cheers,

Wake

Not too impressed with the new look.

Why is the return to message index link at the bottom of each page? Sorry, but that is silly. Should be at the top.

Scrolling left and right, and up and down to read the sentences is a little annoying. To be honest, I prefer the old board. Remove the left info-bar, and that will make the text lines longer. Makes more sense, no?

The actual content on this site is excellent.

I can read this thread with no vertical bars but then I go back to the main message board page I have to use vertical bars to access the entire page. That is crazy.:( Change should improve things, not make them worse. Sorry to sound like a ranter, but the new board is worse than the old one.

There is now a link back to the message index from the top, as signalled by the underlining of the title.

I did ask if I could remove the left bar from the message board pages....

If you are viewing the message board at 800x600 you should be able to scroll to the right and then read the message threads without having to scroll back left again.

Cheers,

Wake

I mean horizontal bars.

You had me worried there, since ukdane also complained about vertical message bars.

Wake

Overall, I think this is a significant improvement on what used to be here.  Thanks to IP and Wake for all their hard work... even though, obviously, they were doing it for Rebellion and Rebellion's money rather than for me...

 .if the navigation bar was at the right rather then the left then we would have less problems with the message board needing to be moved to read many threads.
as you only use that area when you want to go away from the area.

though that may be FAR FAR to much work to do so.

I think the only real improvement would be to put the info-bar at the top. Then you have more space for text. The old message board had the links at the top of the page.

Grey for the links looks good.  Anthough possibly a tad too close to the background colour...

Keep up the good work Wake.  I'm sure most of us are trying to help make sure you win the "Best Website" next year as well...

Dan

good point.
well done wake and team behind 2000ad online.
a well deserved win at the awards there.

Thanks for the kind words. I realise that change is always hard to deal with, so it's nice to know that you're happy with the changes. (Hands up who remembers the furore regarding the changes when the previous design went live. But, soon enough, all were happy bunnies once again - more or less.)

It's kind of light on TFT screens. Wake - it might be a good idea to ramp up the grey very slightly, although not too much.

No worries Noah... it just always confuses me when people say stuff like "we're all too intimidating for newbies"...we were *all* newbies once.

Welcome to the fold, anyway!

I prefer the new chat room.  

Ooh, hadn't looked there.

Ah,

Umm,

Wake,

You don't want to know this really...

Same trouble with Firefox and the Chatroom...

Looks nice in IE though (couldn't check before as I couldn't get my password to sign in on IE)

Dan

Try the chat room in Firefox again now.

Cheers,

Wake

nope,

still bust...

Dan, apologising again for being a pain.

Afraid the chatroom's layout and everything is messed up in Netscape on both PC and Mac, and IE on the Mac doesn't refresh it.

Looks nice, though, and already getting used to the new design. :)

Grud saw the new site and saw it was good.

Good work, mortals!

First chance I've had to check out the site since getting back from Bristol.

Haven't fully explored yet, but so far I don't seem to be having the problems that other peeps are having, and I think it looks fooking schmool. :)

Joolz

Grud also saw Joolz's avatar...and saw THAT was good!
Then Grud got slightly envious. Expect a plague of locusts soon...BWAH HAHAHA!
(Ahem).

The new look forum is pretty cool, no problems here.



Ed :-)

Feeling nostalgic at the minute.

Is there anyway I can access the website with the old look or is it just the home page still available with Jock's great art?

Well, you can still access the old easter egg at the top right with the old style homepage.

To view version 2 just put v2.php inbewteen / and  ? on any site URL, e.g. http://www.2000adonline.com/v2.php?zone=fan&page=messagethread&choice=9617&skip=100&Replies=108#post

Cheers,

Wake

Are there any easter eggs on this design of the site?

The current one, that is

That's great thanks Wake. Using the same principle I put in V1 to see the old old look. I'd forgotten all about Thargs wandering eyes.

Link: Old Old Site