This new forum design really hurts my eyes.
This is no joke, I can't browse here for more than 5 minutes, it's so exhausting to my eyes.
And even worse, the forum overview is just confusing.
Any "chaotic neutral" guys working here for WotC? ;)
Honestly, do something against the white background,
and put some structure to the forum overview.
Please.
AKW
Yeah, a little too much white...I liked the old parchment look.
Nifft has a signature link to a script for the Stylish plugin that turns it all gray. I went farther and used it to turn the whole site black, with gray text.
Makes it a bit easier on the eyes, though it makes the buttons and toolbars look like ****. I don't plan to post much here anymore, but it is at least readable without headaches. If you use Firefox, seek out Nifft and his sig.
Oddly enough, I think my post count is right. I've only been a member since, oh, August of last year, and I've got 1,280 posts listed. I guess more recent members hadn't had time for their post count to get old.
Oddly enough, I think my post count is right. I've only been a member since, oh, August of last year, and I've got 1,280 posts listed. I guess more recent members hadn't had time for their post count to get old.
post count problem is due to the new software counting only what it knows, which is NOT the archives. (every post got archived some time after noone posted in it anymore, i believe like 2 or 3 years) everything that was in the archives is a) currently missing and b) not counted towards anything.
Nifft has a signature link to a script for the Stylish plugin that turns it all gray. I went farther and used it to turn the whole site black, with gray text.
Makes it a bit easier on the eyes, though it makes the buttons and toolbars look like ****. I don't plan to post much here anymore, but it is at least readable without headaches. If you use Firefox, seek out Nifft and his sig.
I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED, AND THUS DO I APPEAR.
(It fixes the width thing, too, but only for forum content -- the buttons at the top may require GreaseMonkey.)
Cheers, -- N
Yeah I hate the new layout too. I liked the parchment. What's with the vines in the corner? Looks like a beanstalk.
Just to reiterate the thread title:
This. Hurts. My. Eyes.
Seriously, the "all white, all the time" look reminds me of the Paizo forums. And the "all white, all the time" look is exactly why I do not read the Paizo forums. At all.
There needs to, at the very least, be an option to return to something akin to the older looks (or perhaps anything other than white - or yellow, yellow would be bad too).
I used Nifft's script as a guide to butcher it into readability - all black, no images, full width. It makes the "post reply" box look like ****, but I can live with that. My forums now look like this:
wow, I almost felt like the wimpy whiner (that I am... ;) )
seriously, WOTC:
put in some option to change the background color!
PLEASE!
about this code: where do I copy this? (no computer wiz here...)
I hope you'll forgive me if I'm way off base with this, but I find this particular complaint suspect. It seems to me that most of the internet has white backgrounds, including google and wikipedia of all things. Would something else be preferable? Probably, but if you find a white background unreadably painful, one wonders how you cope on the rest of the internet.
"Suspect?" What would I gain by lying?
You make a good point about other pages, but at least for me, with most sites, I'm not there to read. In the one major exception - Wikipedia - there's not nearly such a vast expanse of empty white space, which seems to make a big difference (for me, again). Here, there's a relatively small amount of useful text in a very large expanse of white; wikipedia is densely packed with text.
I hope you'll forgive me if I'm way off base with this, but I find this particular complaint suspect. It seems to me that most of the internet has white backgrounds, including google and wikipedia of all things. Would something else be preferable? Probably, but if you find a white background unreadably painful, one wonders how you cope on the rest of the internet.
there is some truth in it, but also part of the problem: look at google. look at the wotc forums. while both have large portions of white, wotc's page is harder on the eyes due to various issues - font selection, other colors and sizes for text, positioning between the sections and contrasts between different types of information.
also, while google is probably the most used website ever, it is not meant for hours of reading through it, but merely for skimming over it. same applies for e.g. youtube, or amazon - also, the huge amount of images or videos breaks that white up nicely.it's getting better - some features have already been added as they should have always been. still, it's far from an up-to-date, high-feature forum. community features should have been their last concern, and the many, many, many complaints filed all over the forums show that this transition was NOT done well.
I hope you'll forgive me if I'm way off base with this, but I find this particular complaint suspect. It seems to me that most of the internet has white backgrounds, including google and wikipedia of all things. Would something else be preferable? Probably, but if you find a white background unreadably painful, one wonders how you cope on the rest of the internet.
no problem, I can explain.
google, yes, but for how long do you look at a google page?
wikipedia? okay, but longer articles I need to read fully go to my printer.
but browsing and READING a forum can take some serious amount of time.
NO serious forum has white background. none.
maybe it's also the font?
there's something here that makes it really hard for me to stay here more than 5 minutes.
or is it just that I'm used to non-white-DnD-forum background?
Wikipedia is filled with text and pictures, and Google isn't usually used for more than a minute or so.
These forums, on the other hand, can easily take 30 minutes of your time (and usually more!), but there is so much empty white space that isn't used for anything, it's painful to look at.
EDIT: Having the enter key work double doesn't help.
I hope you'll forgive me if I'm way off base with this, but I find this particular complaint suspect. It seems to me that most of the internet has white backgrounds, including google and wikipedia of all things. Would something else be preferable? Probably, but if you find a white background unreadably painful, one wonders how you cope on the rest of the internet.
As others have said, compare it to a wikipedia page. Far more "great white open" which is, for me, the problematic part. Google you've got a better point, but again, as others have said, Google isn't for reading, its for searching.
I agree. WAY too much white. It's painful. I'm a little surprised at the design choice, but at the same time...I'm not. :/
It should be noted that the human eye is automaticly attracted to white empty places... I suuspect the problem that many are having is from "forcing" thire eyes to read the black font instead of looking at the empty white fields.
When you had the choice of a background, you didn't have to worry about "forcing" your eye to the blank font its was easier to do.
Speaking for myself, I have no issue with the whiteness hurting my eyes. *Shrugs*
While the removal of the sidebar is welcomed by me I have to agree with this topic. I can't spend more than a couple min on this forum, it's giving me a headache. Like I said in another topic, it's just too white.
I don't think it's just the white spaces. I think it's the tiny font plus the white that causes people to feel strained.
Cheers, -- N
I agree with all of the above. While I can understand some database restructuring, why take away an aesthetic people use and like? You can change the backgrounds in your profile settings, but they all pretty much suck.
They've made changes to the UI that I'm not a fan of either. Remember when you could set it to go straight to the D&D forum when you logged in? Where'd that go? Now every time I log in, I have to navigate through 3 extra pages just to find the cocked-up forum listing, which is barely readable now that all the sub-forums are jumbled together.
And god forbid I want to click on a reply link in my email and be auto-logged in on the way. Nope, Link >> read new comment >> Click reply >> Have to login >> Get redirected back to community start page >> Re-navigate back to forum post I was trying to reply to (which make take several pages of sub-forums and "Next Page" searching) >> Finally post reply.
Craptastic.
@ WotC:
PLEASE give us options for other backgrounds!
They've made changes to the UI that I'm not a fan of either. Remember when you could set it to go straight to the D&D forum when you logged in? Where'd that go? Now every time I log in, I have to navigate through 3 extra pages just to find the cocked-up forum listing, which is barely readable now that all the sub-forums are jumbled together.
And god forbid I want to click on a reply link in my email and be auto-logged in on the way. Nope, Link >> read new comment >> Click reply >> Have to login >> Get redirected back to community start page >> Re-navigate back to forum post I was trying to reply to (which make take several pages of sub-forums and "Next Page" searching) >> Finally post reply.
Craptastic.
There's a wonky way round the 'you must see the welcome page' problem although it isn't ideal eather. Keep a copy of your forum/thread link and as soon as the welcome page loads, paste the link into your browser. Should take you straight to where you want after that (or does me, anyway)
Good points all around. I stand humbly corrected. For the record, I agree that bigger fonts, less empty space within posts, and darker backgrounds would all be good things, I just thought everyone was kind of overreacting.
It Burnssess us Precious!!!
I agree with all of the above. While I can understand some database restructuring, why take away an aesthetic people use and like? You can change the backgrounds in your profile settings, but they all pretty much suck.
They've made changes to the UI that I'm not a fan of either. Remember when you could set it to go straight to the D&D forum when you logged in? Where'd that go? Now every time I log in, I have to navigate through 3 extra pages just to find the cocked-up forum listing, which is barely readable now that all the sub-forums are jumbled together.
And god forbid I want to click on a reply link in my email and be auto-logged in on the way. Nope, Link >> read new comment >> Click reply >> Have to login >> Get redirected back to community start page >> Re-navigate back to forum post I was trying to reply to (which make take several pages of sub-forums and "Next Page" searching) >> Finally post reply.
Craptastic.
That's strange I haven't had to log in sense the site came back up.
I logged out the first time but haven't since. I just choose the D&D viewing forum from my favorites and go straight to that page already logged in.
*shrug*
Just one more vote for the 'too white' pages. Hoping that the powers that be at WotC will kindly remedy the situation.
I also think the font is too small.
It is WAY faster though, so that's a plus.
Something seems different... Am I imagining things again?
No your not imagining things.
They changed the background color from white, to a light gray.
On the upside, they're plodding in the right direction.
Of course at the rate they fix things (it would take me 20 minutes to fix the spacing and the background color issue) we will see the next (AT) Adventure Tool before they get the basics fixed and this thing actually moves into the real beta stage, as opposed to the alpha stage they started it in.
Thanks for the changes!
AKW