I thought my browser was going bonkers as I have been visiting on and off all day. Went to a different machine and the same thing.

Tell Jon to quit messin' with it. IT"S PERFECT!

RG

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What do you guys think of the new Stereophile.com? Jon Iverson has been working like mad to make our website easier to read, navigate, and enjoy.

Surprised, mostly, as I wasn't expecting the new design to go live until Saturday, which is www.stereophile.com's 10th anniversary.

I love it!

John Atkinson
Editor, Stereophile

Jon is sneaky.

He'll be making tweaks for the next couple of days.

What's different?

It's nice. It's much easier to read. I like the fonts, it's not as cluttered. I wish it would scale with screen resolution. Even at 1024x768, I have to scroll horizontally to get the whole page. I wish the site would dynamically adjust to window size.

I was having similiar problem earlier today, but it's displaying perfectly at 1152 X 864.

Buddha...That's just mean

RG

My laptop doesn't display any higher than 1024x768

The site links on the left side is a nice addition. The font does seem easier on the eyes. Having the Stereophile logo so far to the right seems distracting (I'm not fond of having to scroll sideways, but, that's a personal web peeve).

Being on the west coast, it didn't show up until three hours after you guys got it.

Looks nice!

LOVE IT!

... meant in the spirit of constructive criticism...

Additions to heading area have increased its vertical depth with result that the featured photo gets pushed down the page. It ends up only in partial view whereas previously was fully in view (or perhaps it was just mostly?). The result is a less professional presentation IMHO.

Obviously some aspects are a work in progress, e.g. the empty space at top of the left most column area (beneath header).

Perhaps that area and the existing Sponsored Links beneath can be developed to be more attractive to advertisers. Advertisers will be want greater visibility which should allow them to use images (which link to slick Ad copy, home site, or whatever).

...

I'm not convinced that Site Links is a good idea. Basically it is a equivalent of the Site Map feature on many web sites. In essence I have always thought of Site Map as indication of a flaw in a site's navigatability. That is, one resorts to the flattened Site Map page when normal controls fail, or simply make it combersome, to find something.

That said providing access to a Site Map (which can be searched, e.g. Ctrl-F in Internet Explorer) is a good thing, all site should have one IMHO. Often it provides a quick way to find something the design has intentionally made difficult to locate. For example many service sites attempt to walk the user through online help areas before presenting service telephone numnbers. A Site Map is also a good place to put links to obscure stuff that users would only infrequently access; and experienced web users will naturally seek out a Site Map when looking for hidden/obscure stuff.

I guess what I'm saying is I don't see a real benefit of a permanently displayed site map, it eats up valuable space (hint more Ad space) and although I haven't explored the header menu in detail it does seem to provide efficient access to site resources, e.g. Equipment Reviews.

...

On the header/menu shell added to the forum ... Love it!

Quote:
It's nice. It's much easier to read. I like the fonts, it's not as cluttered. I wish it would scale with screen resolution. Even at 1024x768, I have to scroll horizontally to get the whole page. I wish the site would dynamically adjust to window size.

Same here.

Quote:
It's nice. It's much easier to read. I like the fonts, it's not as cluttered. I wish it would scale with screen resolution. Even at 1024x768, I have to scroll horizontally to get the whole page. I wish the site would dynamically adjust to window size.

Me too. Tally another vote for 1024x768.

Your dark grey on black search box with black lettering is a mistake - contrast is way to low !!! please fix it ...

Remember, the average age of your readers is what ? and with how many pair of glasses ?

For what it's worth:

When I use a Windows 2000 Pro with Service Pack 4 machine running Internet Explorer 6 browser, I get the "script errors" whenever I go back or forth through pages. However, I did not need to scroll horizontally to see the whole page.

When running the FireFox browser on that same machine, the forum displays too wide and needs me to scroll horizontally to see all of it, with some vertical columns of nothing. I have not used this browser recently, and do not remember if there were script errors or not.

I have not yet used the Win 2K machine with the new format of this site.

On a Windows XP with Service Pack 2 machine running Internet Explorer 7, the forum displayed properly at all times in the past. The current one is a little bit too wide and needs horizonal scrolling, apparently on some threads.

Both machines are set to display at 1024 x 768 resolution.

When I try to view the site in IE 6, my browser crashes. This might have to do with some script or HTML 1.1 issue I was never able to resolve. As a result, I switched to using Firefox for the site months ago, and I do need to scroll horizontally.

Netscape (the original browser)

Happy as a clam at high tide.

I'm now signed on from the Win 2K system, and using IE 6.0.2800.1106IS with SP1. The new site does not generate script errors so far, and I do not need to scroll horizontally to see the full width.

Followup: This thread can be viewed in full width. The thread regarding whether you have ever been fooled by a system, won't display it full width without horiz scrolling.

I very much dislike having to use a scroll bar for centering the page. I like the general look of the pages, but simplicity in usage is a big deal to me. I would liken it to reading a magazine that continues articles 35 pages later in the issue...and then again 74 pages later.

Please fix this.

It's getting wider and wider on my screen, and insists on centering any text.

Now, when I open a discussion page, my screen doesn't even go to the "reply" button.

Maybe they're trying to tell me something?!

This is alot like our computers at work. If they "improve" them one more time, they won't work at all!

Did you guys go and install Vista or something?

I like the work so far. I know it's not easy, with my limited history as a programmer. (not much high level stuff like this, mostly assembler and C) Thanks for the effort so far.

Colors are fine. Slightly easier on the eyes, IMO. Slightly easier to 'ignore' with a more 'natural' feeling. If one notices things about the forum, then they are too prominent. Other than noting how nice the site is, in a general way, the average user should have no other 'grip' on things. ie, too slick to stick to. If the vast # of folks have no opinion at all, then it's heading toward perfect.

The site seems fine, but what's up the Center Justified forum posts? Weird- just happened since Friday I think. Must be a mistake- Just FYI.

Sorry folks - I was playing around with templates this weekend to fix some browser bugs - should be better now - also lightened up the search field. Let me know if there are other issues that stand out.

Hey Jon,

If you can kill the horizontal scrolling, and make the site scale with the resolution, that would be absolutely ideal. I don't think there's anything worse than horizontal scrolling.

Thanks.

I agree...and it's still doing it.

Jon,

I navigate the forum using the "view recent messages" past 24-48 hours page. When selecting a topic it highlights. I believe in the past it used to remain highlighted so when you reterned to the page you knew where you were. I'd love to see this feature return.

It would also seem inserted links in posts are no longer a different color thus making them a bit difficult to ascertain, another feature I miss.

Site looks great. Excellent work.

RG

EDIT: OK, one last request. Would it be asking too much to get a "Todays Posts" button at the top of the Forum Main Page? Ya know...for us regulars? I understand the marketing concept of having the customer stroll the entire store but jeez, it's a full 6 aggresive spins of the mouse wheel to get to the bottom of the page. Maybe I've missed the jump to bottom shortcut? Man we can be a picky bunch!

Anybody else getting pissed off by that rollover ad that drops down as you're bringing your mouse down from a tab to click on the forum link? I keep clicking it and getting taken to another page. Oy.

I have adblocker running, so I don't have that problem since I don't even see the ads.

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Anybody else getting pissed off by that rollover ad that drops down as you're bringing your mouse down from a tab to click on the forum link? I keep clicking it and getting taken to another page. Oy.

asterisk: as traditional media advertisement because more and more null, online advertising is going to get more and more annoying until they find a healthy medium between pestering and enticing