I am seeing a lot of the same questions arising in the Sites Issues thread and while I could address them there, my answers would get lost among legitimate issues. With that in mind, I want to provide some insight into why we made a number of the decisions we did in regard to this upgrade. I am not looking to debate them as I cannot argue with someone’s personal preference. My only goal here is that by explaining our thought process you will gain some understanding as to why we have made the decisions we have, and even if you would not have made the same decision, you can respect the direction we are going.
I am generalizing questions or concerns that I have read in the Site Issues thread and am responding to them in no particular order.
The new style is boring. Why is there so little color?
We refer to the wrapper around the content of a site, as the “chrome.” In vB it is generally referred to as a “style” or a “theme.” Many sites feel a strong need to focus on the chrome of their site in order to “jazz it up” and make it feel compelling. However, we feel that the chrome of a site can actually become overwhelming and quite distracting. The chrome should not be the focus of a site, especially a site like the RPF. No one comes to the site to see our amazing chrome. They come to see our amazing content, the cool things that you create and collect. We very purposefully decided to go for a very clean and simple look with elements in the chrome that created a minimal distraction without simply being solid colors (truly boring).
The repeating background was inspired by the menuing system on the Prometheus Blu-Ray which was compelling because it has a modern, even futuristic feel to it why being completely non-descript (if we didn't tell you it was from Prometheus, you would never know it).
We also wanted to create a slight bit of depth, so we made the body of the site (the dark grey main content area) slightly transparent. This look was inspired by the menuing system from Mass Effect and Star Trek… but again, is so non-descript that without us telling you what our inspiration was, you would never guess it or say “Hey, that is a Mass Effect theme!” We also nailed down the background so the foreground elements move over it, but it never moves. This also lends to the feeling of depth as you scroll the page.
I somewhat got off track here, but the main reason we went with so little color in the chrome was so that the content of the site POPS and many of you have even said something along the lines of “all I notice are the banner and the featured areas.” Good! That is a success in our book! That is what you should be noticing! And, when you move into a thread, the photos that members include with their build or showoff threads are going to pop in the same way. Your attention is drawn to the content of the site, not the chrome. The chrome should simply fade away and disappear into nothingness. Can you describe the chrome of Google? Of Facebook? Of eBay? Probably not, because they have gone for the same, very stripped down look that focuses on content, and not a fancy sugar coating that all too often is the hallmark of a site that lacks any true substance.
Why are you using dark text on a light background instead of light text on a dark background?
First, let me be clear that we have had dark text on a light background as our default theme for over a year now, so this is nothing new for our new members. We continued to include two other themes that had light text on a dark background simply because deleting them would have served no purpose but to look like asses. However, when moving to vB4, we could not migrate the themes and had to rebuild them. As we have done considerable research on this issue and are satisfied, despite some members’ belief to the contrary, that dark text on a light background actually does cause less eye strain over time and is easier to read. This is why any truly large site uses dark text on a light background instead of the inverse. We also feel (and yes, this is just a feeling on our part) that a dark on dark theme gives a vibe that is not inline with who we are as a site in that it primary tends to be used by horror sites, goth sites, and sites that want to create a sense of dark brooding. Our site is a celebration of creativity and amazing artistic endeavors and we simply don’t need to use black on black to be “cool.”
Will you provide multiple themes?
In a word; no. We have had multiple themes for years and they are an absolute nightmare to administrate and no matter what you create, if you have multiple themes someone always wants one more than you have created… so it is an endless line of disappointment when you have to tell someone that you are sorry, but we simply can’t justify creating a “Stop or my Mom will Shoot” theme. Again, we have looked to the most successful sites on the internet and very few of those sites provide different themes, again, because the look of the site is not the focus, but the content.
We also won’t create multiple themes because this site has gone from a primarily Star Wars-centric site to cover virtually every property under the sun and we aren't going to focus on a few while excluding others. However, we recognize that our members do like to see their favorite properties represented which is why we created the rotating logo and header banner (thank Gino for that ingenious idea). In this way, we can represent virtually any property without having to change the entire site to facilitate it! This ties back into why we went with a monochromatic look… it matches every header and makes them pop! In the future, we are going to provide members with a template that will allow them to submit suggestions for new banners to be included into the mix.
If you want to know how successful this has been… be honest, how many of you simply refreshed the site over and over to see what all the banners were? I’ll bet it was a good number of you. This banner system allows us to continually add a fresh and relevant look to the site, without having to create an entire style to support it!
OMG, why is there a huge ad below the header/navbar (Jason, this one is for you)?
This is not an ad. It is our “featured” area. One thing that we have struggled with in the past has been how to put some of the best content on the site in front of you. To date, the only way to do that was create a large “Notice” which appeared and disappeared and annoyed a lot of members. However, we find ourselves with really good content very often and don’t like the transient nature of the Notice system, so we had a featured area built for us (much like you see on superherohype, craveonline, ign.com, or any number of blogs) that will allow us to make sure you don’t miss out on cool discussions, articles or opportunities. If you want to view it as an “ad” it is an ad to promote ourselves and our own content or content that we feel is extremely relevant to what we do here at the site.
Why do I have to scroll so far down?
Because we have a large text notice below the featured area right now. While the new featured area and banner SEEM large, because they are big and bold graphics, the overall height is only 100 pixels taller than the previous iteration of the site… not much at all.
Why all the ads?
There are actually only a couple more ads per page than there were previously and some of those are our own ads. In general, we previously had 4 ads per page, 6 per page for non-members. We now have an average of 5 per page, 6 on some pages, and only 4 on others. It seems like there are more ads because their placement has changed and some have changed in size, from horizontal ads to rectangular ads, so you do see them more as you scroll vertically… but then, we aren't going to be coy… that IS the point of ads… to be seen and clicked on. I am not going to go into the whole “why we need ads” argument because you either get it or you don’t, but we have seen a number of people complaining about “more” ads when there really aren't more. Also, there have been some complaints about the ads in the sidebar and how much real estate they take up. You will notice that we ONLY have the sidebar on the index and thread-list pages. Why? Because again… our entire focus for this upgrade was content. On the index and the thread list pages, you simply have a table of contents type list of links… nothing more. They do not require a lot of space to be properly displayed and read… so a sidebar is justifiable. You do not see the sidebar in the threads themselves because they would compete with the content of the threads and they WOULD make the threads feel compressed and maddeningly jammed, especially in a thread that contained images. That is why we moved the ads to the 2nd post of a thread. Yes, you have to scroll past them, but they aren't ruining the content of the thread.
I could go on and on, but I have already written more than most of you are going to be willing to read, and I don’t want to beat the idea to death. There isn't much I can do in regard to those who simply don’t care for the new look, but for those who are willing to be a bit open-minded about it, I hope this has helped explain our decision making process.
I am generalizing questions or concerns that I have read in the Site Issues thread and am responding to them in no particular order.
The new style is boring. Why is there so little color?
We refer to the wrapper around the content of a site, as the “chrome.” In vB it is generally referred to as a “style” or a “theme.” Many sites feel a strong need to focus on the chrome of their site in order to “jazz it up” and make it feel compelling. However, we feel that the chrome of a site can actually become overwhelming and quite distracting. The chrome should not be the focus of a site, especially a site like the RPF. No one comes to the site to see our amazing chrome. They come to see our amazing content, the cool things that you create and collect. We very purposefully decided to go for a very clean and simple look with elements in the chrome that created a minimal distraction without simply being solid colors (truly boring).
The repeating background was inspired by the menuing system on the Prometheus Blu-Ray which was compelling because it has a modern, even futuristic feel to it why being completely non-descript (if we didn't tell you it was from Prometheus, you would never know it).
We also wanted to create a slight bit of depth, so we made the body of the site (the dark grey main content area) slightly transparent. This look was inspired by the menuing system from Mass Effect and Star Trek… but again, is so non-descript that without us telling you what our inspiration was, you would never guess it or say “Hey, that is a Mass Effect theme!” We also nailed down the background so the foreground elements move over it, but it never moves. This also lends to the feeling of depth as you scroll the page.
I somewhat got off track here, but the main reason we went with so little color in the chrome was so that the content of the site POPS and many of you have even said something along the lines of “all I notice are the banner and the featured areas.” Good! That is a success in our book! That is what you should be noticing! And, when you move into a thread, the photos that members include with their build or showoff threads are going to pop in the same way. Your attention is drawn to the content of the site, not the chrome. The chrome should simply fade away and disappear into nothingness. Can you describe the chrome of Google? Of Facebook? Of eBay? Probably not, because they have gone for the same, very stripped down look that focuses on content, and not a fancy sugar coating that all too often is the hallmark of a site that lacks any true substance.
Why are you using dark text on a light background instead of light text on a dark background?
First, let me be clear that we have had dark text on a light background as our default theme for over a year now, so this is nothing new for our new members. We continued to include two other themes that had light text on a dark background simply because deleting them would have served no purpose but to look like asses. However, when moving to vB4, we could not migrate the themes and had to rebuild them. As we have done considerable research on this issue and are satisfied, despite some members’ belief to the contrary, that dark text on a light background actually does cause less eye strain over time and is easier to read. This is why any truly large site uses dark text on a light background instead of the inverse. We also feel (and yes, this is just a feeling on our part) that a dark on dark theme gives a vibe that is not inline with who we are as a site in that it primary tends to be used by horror sites, goth sites, and sites that want to create a sense of dark brooding. Our site is a celebration of creativity and amazing artistic endeavors and we simply don’t need to use black on black to be “cool.”
Will you provide multiple themes?
In a word; no. We have had multiple themes for years and they are an absolute nightmare to administrate and no matter what you create, if you have multiple themes someone always wants one more than you have created… so it is an endless line of disappointment when you have to tell someone that you are sorry, but we simply can’t justify creating a “Stop or my Mom will Shoot” theme. Again, we have looked to the most successful sites on the internet and very few of those sites provide different themes, again, because the look of the site is not the focus, but the content.
We also won’t create multiple themes because this site has gone from a primarily Star Wars-centric site to cover virtually every property under the sun and we aren't going to focus on a few while excluding others. However, we recognize that our members do like to see their favorite properties represented which is why we created the rotating logo and header banner (thank Gino for that ingenious idea). In this way, we can represent virtually any property without having to change the entire site to facilitate it! This ties back into why we went with a monochromatic look… it matches every header and makes them pop! In the future, we are going to provide members with a template that will allow them to submit suggestions for new banners to be included into the mix.
If you want to know how successful this has been… be honest, how many of you simply refreshed the site over and over to see what all the banners were? I’ll bet it was a good number of you. This banner system allows us to continually add a fresh and relevant look to the site, without having to create an entire style to support it!
OMG, why is there a huge ad below the header/navbar (Jason, this one is for you)?
This is not an ad. It is our “featured” area. One thing that we have struggled with in the past has been how to put some of the best content on the site in front of you. To date, the only way to do that was create a large “Notice” which appeared and disappeared and annoyed a lot of members. However, we find ourselves with really good content very often and don’t like the transient nature of the Notice system, so we had a featured area built for us (much like you see on superherohype, craveonline, ign.com, or any number of blogs) that will allow us to make sure you don’t miss out on cool discussions, articles or opportunities. If you want to view it as an “ad” it is an ad to promote ourselves and our own content or content that we feel is extremely relevant to what we do here at the site.
Why do I have to scroll so far down?
Because we have a large text notice below the featured area right now. While the new featured area and banner SEEM large, because they are big and bold graphics, the overall height is only 100 pixels taller than the previous iteration of the site… not much at all.
Why all the ads?
There are actually only a couple more ads per page than there were previously and some of those are our own ads. In general, we previously had 4 ads per page, 6 per page for non-members. We now have an average of 5 per page, 6 on some pages, and only 4 on others. It seems like there are more ads because their placement has changed and some have changed in size, from horizontal ads to rectangular ads, so you do see them more as you scroll vertically… but then, we aren't going to be coy… that IS the point of ads… to be seen and clicked on. I am not going to go into the whole “why we need ads” argument because you either get it or you don’t, but we have seen a number of people complaining about “more” ads when there really aren't more. Also, there have been some complaints about the ads in the sidebar and how much real estate they take up. You will notice that we ONLY have the sidebar on the index and thread-list pages. Why? Because again… our entire focus for this upgrade was content. On the index and the thread list pages, you simply have a table of contents type list of links… nothing more. They do not require a lot of space to be properly displayed and read… so a sidebar is justifiable. You do not see the sidebar in the threads themselves because they would compete with the content of the threads and they WOULD make the threads feel compressed and maddeningly jammed, especially in a thread that contained images. That is why we moved the ads to the 2nd post of a thread. Yes, you have to scroll past them, but they aren't ruining the content of the thread.
I could go on and on, but I have already written more than most of you are going to be willing to read, and I don’t want to beat the idea to death. There isn't much I can do in regard to those who simply don’t care for the new look, but for those who are willing to be a bit open-minded about it, I hope this has helped explain our decision making process.
) It seems like everything you pointed out should be apparent to most. Thanks to you and the staff for making the RPF a great place to share the hobby! :thumbsup
