Home Page is a Confusing Mess

I'm trying to follow this conversation but it isn't clear as to whether you are the creator of this new free forum (as you use the term 'we') or just someone with strong opinions who should perhaps create their own utopian site using their own resources elsewhere?

I'm trying to follow this conversation but it isn't clear as to whether you are the creator of this new free forum (as you use the term 'we') or just someone with strong opinions who should perhaps create their own utopian site using their own resources elsewhere?

I dont think this has to be a DPR clone as if that place was perfect.

Yes, there will be a dark mode...
Yes, there will be a thread view...
Yes, there will be a 🔔 alerts...

And yes, I agree, maybe the having the same post in 2 forums is not necessary.

Alan’s work and efforts in this project (which is like a month old) are huge and we should be more grateful to him. It must be a pain in the neck reading negative comments about it.

Yes, that's exactly it....

Nothing better than design by committee.

No thanks. I’ll live with whatever is presented.

I like this form design MUCH better. The hierarchy of sub-forums let’s one read across integrations of various discussion trees (eg, all of nikon, not just Z; or indeed the whole site). The structure & function naturally supports taking a broader view of community discussions, while simultaneously supporting quick access to specific sub-forums when desired. IMHO the forum design at dpreview (while having great features like threaded view) lead one to more silo-ed views & reading.

Yep, I greatly preferred DPReview on my machine, not a forum link in sight !! LOL

Hmm ... too late now to buy an 8K monitor and some 5-diopter reading glasses ...
...
... or one could stay here and get used to it (big smiley), eh?

I think you've done a great job Alan. My response was aimed at those who are being critical just for the sake of having an opinion, like ArvoJ.

I can't work out what it is that some people are objecting to. Is it the graphic design they don't like or the organisation/structuring of forums or something else?

Personally, I find the visual design a bit ugly and the colour schemes on offer (good that the options are there) don't help - too crude. I prefer to use the browser plugin Dark Reader for producing a colour scheme I find easier on the eye (everyone will have their own taste, providing a custom option that can be tweaked might be a good idea).

Here's mine produced by adjusting Dark Reader's sliders. Scheme chosen for its readability and lack of glare, not aesthetics. I find it gentler on the eye.

What would improve the usability of the layout would be a way to distinguish the different levels - make the hierarchy more obvious.

For example, the "News and Discussions" top level section has the lower levels "News and Photography" and "Site Discussions". There is no visual distinction between the top level and the two secondary levels. A visual style that makes it clear that the top level is the top level and the secondary levels are secondary levels would help, I feel. I'm no designer but maybe making the top level have a larger font and perhaps a slightly different background colour (darker, using my custom colour scheme) would help make the hierarchy clearer or even just indenting the secondary levels 10px.

I'd also be inclined to reduce the visual prominence of the "Featured/latest post" - it visually dominates too much IMO, and the larger Avatar images make it even more dominant. Make the avatars 1/4 the area so they are more like picture bullet points. I'd also suppress the duplication of the "latest post" - make it appear in the secondary level only. You could probably do this by hiding it with CSS rather than having to rewrite the code.

I had quick play with the CSS using the Inspector tool and it wasn't easy to find a way to target the top level category separately from the secondary categories. Might be worth looking for a way to do this reliably.

Patience may be a dicipline one needs

Structuring is more important than speed of identification. While a good search function is essential for firnding past info buried in a flurry of posts-

In this case of me looking to find info ad the development of the site I found the heading of this category not ovwerwhelmingly precise.

p.

Who exactly are you talking to?

Thanks Alan, good job so far but I bet that todo list is dispiritingly long by now.... 😕

Is enabling CSS styling for BBcode in the feature request list? I don't need to know where on the list, even #29 would be ok.