Bocaj

Gordon CSA
If they could stick open, or have a preference where they're automatically open or closed when the site opens, that would be great.

Seconded or third'd or whatever.

I can have it remember whether your menu's are open or closed.

Oh hey, if you're working on it, I might as well say, the favourites, my comics, and news dropdowns aren't working. They aren't opening.
I'm using firefox if it helps.
It's not a big deal for me because I have the alerter, but people without it won't be able to see updates.
EDIT - I'm also unable to edit my signature.
But, I'm able to make edits on my posts. :3

Volte6

Bocaj

Gordon CSA
If they could stick open, or have a preference where they're automatically open or closed when the site opens, that would be great.

Seconded or third'd or whatever.

I can have it remember whether your menu's are open or closed.

I think that would be good!
Also, I have been able to use the dropdowns with firefox and internet explorer.

Dude, HUGE bug right here, I keep getting logged out every five seconds, and the three comics under MyComics aren't mine, I dunno whose they are and what the hell they're doing there, I know that others have this problem, they've made comments across this forum but got silenced by a mod, and incase you didn't see it, yeah, we really need this solved, otherwise we can't exactly make comics.

You should make it without tables. If you re-did everything for web 2.0 it'd easily be the best web comics community. Here's what some CSS websites look like - http://cssmania.com

I must say…I love the new design (yeah yeah I know I'm an admin so I don't count)

but seriously the intent was to make people's comics more accessible from the front page. To be able to “feature” more art so lesser known comics are more likely to be discovered and clicked on. Like while I was testing this I fave'd at least 6 new comics I never heard of *and never would have known about without the new design.

No need to hate or take this personally… f'reals!

oh and one suggestion…volte make the forum font bigger! (graaaaaaaa!)

ok there's my $.10…er buck fiddy!

I have nothing to say that hasn't already been said.

But I'm going to say it anyway:

I don't like the lack of background.

I don't like the long loading times.

I do, however, like the drop-down arrows. Although I really think the news should remain on the front page.

And yes, all the comics on the front page do look cramped.

Also, forums are now very small. It hurts my eyes. And I have 20x20 vision. So, yeah, not good.

Also, in some places, it's hard to see where links are (like the “go to next page”/“go the last page” buttons on the forum: They don't look like links. At all)

Yeah. I was positively surprised today.
However, about the random thingie:
It's really great unknown comics'll be more accesible this way, but PLEASE sort them out a little. I don't know if it's possible, but I don't like to see amazing art, realising it has only 2 pages and hasn't been updating since 2005.

Indeed the dropdown box… it sometimes opens… usually however, it doesn't. It'd be great if it memorized my preference!

And last but not least… (you may shoot me for saying this) but I don't really like the ‘design’ of the frontpage. It looks too static and dashed off.

Wow, I never have any trouble with the dropdowns. They're a bit slower right now than they used to be before they went live generally and I'd prefer if they stayed open, but they load every time.

I'll ask it here so it's official:
How do I remove comics from My Favorites?

I'm not a big fan of this new setup. It feels like a step back. Everything just seems so cluttered. However since you're still working on it then I'm willing to give it a break.

I liked the rotating features and you should bring that back. It would make things less cluttered. I also liked that you could read the comic news on the front page. Now you have to open this collapsed thingy and then click on the appropriate link. I'll never bother reading it now. I say post the news on the front page and allow people to set the collapses so that they stay open at all times. The news doesn't even have to be in the way at all. Just post it in the bottom.

And get rid of the white. I'm very much in favor of the old color scheme.

I know everyone has said all of this stuff before but it never hurts to point it out so you'll see what the general public doesn't like.

Also I read somewhere that the front page doesn't get a lot of hits. Well I was one of those who used the front page allot and I can guaranty that those front page hits are gonna drop even further with this setup.

Ok I think adding color would suck. It would totally distract from the art and make it look cluttered. Honestly I thought the old design looked like..I dunno like the last incarnation of the Anaheim Ducks Uniforms..blech! All dark and dreary or a kids bedroom. I think of this as like a nice clean white (well gray actually) board with lotsa lovely art tacked up on it.

Actually i think the ads fit better in this new design. Before I felt like they were forced in, these feel like they have a place. Like a frame around the outside of the actual content of a page.

also it does tell you in the “bubble” how many pages a comic has. ^_^

You know, I kind of like how the loading times have shortened by this layout change. I'm not sure about others, but it loads faster here.

I like the blank layout overall after all things considered- but I agree on advertisement placements for the same reasons of accidentally clicking it. I haven't tried out browsing/searching yet but I'll post what think of it when I get the opportunity. But overall, it's a change I can live with just fine, if not perfectly.

However, some images are broken no matter how many times I refresh/force refresh- particularily whatever images are supposed to adjacent to MyFavorites/MyComics/MyComicNews.

I find the font size of the body text to be too small. With the new CSS I have to squint to read the comments or bump up the font size a notch in Firefox. But then the input box has HUGE text. Can you restore the font size of body text of the forums back to the old size?
Anyone else have a problem with the font size now?

carly_mizzou
Ok I think adding color would suck. It would totally distract from the art and make it look cluttered. Honestly I thought the old design looked like..I dunno like the last incarnation of the Anaheim Ducks Uniforms..blech! All dark and dreary or a kids bedroom. I think of this as like a nice clean white (well gray actually) board with lotsa lovely art tacked up on it.

I disagree entirely.

If anything, the new color scheme is MORE distracting. When something is calm and soothing it is easily ignored. But if it's bright and jumping up in your face, your eye is drawn to it. Not to mention the fact that the brightness makes me squint, therefore making it even HARDER to look at the art.

I miss the old design
1.it made sense
2.there wasn't a mix of new world and old world
3.it was easier to understand
4.I hate excessive amounts of pull-down menus
5.Way too many ads, like really.

That brightness thing makes me giggle a bit. Monitor brightness only goes to white, you're just fooled by contrast. It's just normal simple brightness that actually isn't that bright compared to other bright things. ;)
-I've had to do a LOT of thinking about that because I play with all colour and light levels in my art so I know the tricks.

————————————————

As for faves:
You CAN'T remove them right now. That still needs fixing.

I know that there are ppl who prefer bright screens and small text. But there are just as many who prefer dark screens and larger text. The difference is, I think, the bright small ppl can accomodate the preferences of the dark big ppl… but the dark big ppl are made physically ill by the preferences of the bright small ppl.

Therefore I think the dark big ppl should have the say.

One thing I am curious about is that if the old colour scheme was applied to the current layout, would there be a colour overload?

I'm not a design major so it's why I'm just throwing this out there. The majority of the elements of the current layout are all uncontrollable variables. The colours of the ads and the thumbnails all depend on what the advertisers and artists use. The colour scheme of the old layout worked out partly because it wasn't so image heavy.

If you were to apply the red, blue, and green (there was green right?) back onto this current layout…wouldn't it look, to put it crudely, like someone vomited rainbow all over the site?

This is a serious question. I'm not a design major and I tend to like things simple.

And I just want to say that I do love the thumbnails. I've favourited more comics in the last week or so than I did in months.

On a sort of admin-ish note: I know this is a very heated issue and in a way, that's a good thing. It means you guys care about the site and the community. While I realize that this is a very small minority of people and that the majority of you are totally awesome, please do keep it civil,

Please also give it some time. I'm sure we all like to think of Volte6 as this coding android with lightening shooting out of him but in actuality he's a human being with a family. I know, I was pretty shocked too! :O

Do excuse me for stating something that has been previously aknowledged but yeah, the layout change makes the whole outlook more simplistic in general- you can easily tell what is what and which is which in a matter of minutes if not seconds. However… I feel that some of the tabs seem to be misplaced with Forums being so far off to the right (I think it should be placed in between Browse and Tutorials).

So yeah, I look forward to this if I didn't say it earlier.

Black_Kitty
I'm sure we all like to think of Volte6 as this coding android with lightening shooting out of him but in actuality he's a human being with a family.

WHAT?!

Oh yeah, the Google Toolbar keeps blocking downloads attempted when browsing through Drunkduck. Not sure what or why, but I think it might be interfering with the images- though I'm not willing to find out.

You know what would be awesome? If we could filter comics based on last update. I keep getting these dead-for-a-year ones on random.

Also, Either bump the background color to CCCCCC or change the forums and the light blue on dark blue is still irritating me.

I think that a light gray would be a huge improvement from the white. It would ease the eyes.

I still really like the idea of being able to chose your own background color, It can't be too hard to program to add a button under my account to change the color. It would make everybody a lot happier!

mlai
I'll ask it here so it's official:
How do I remove comics from My Favorites?

*cough*
this needs to be addressed
*cough*


On the color scheme discussion, it seems silly to have the user box peach orange against this graytone backdrop. Blue and shades of blue work so much better, IMO.

Someone
Under “My Comic” there are three comics that aren't even mine…

When I click My Account" it just goes to the login screen…

that's my problem too. also it doesnt have anything under my favorites. i'm repetedly logged out of…well…almost anywhere realy. it's getting realy annoying and alarming, cuase if i have these comics who dont belong to me, who the fuck has my comic? cuase i sure dont.
i do realise you have a lot on your plate righ tnow, but these are bigger issues then wether there's too many adds right now or not. please hepl as soon as possible.
i've also tried writing to tech support and no one's answered back yet.

ozoneocean
Wow, I never have any trouble with the dropdowns. They're a bit slower right now than they used to be before they went live generally and I'd prefer if they stayed open, but they load every time.

Have you been to many sites that use the same thing? I've never seen “loading…” pop up before, and my web connection blows. It takes a while, and would be nice for it to remain open.

Someone
If you were to apply the red, blue, and green (there was green right?) back onto this current layout…wouldn't it look, to put it crudely, like someone vomited rainbow all over the site?

This is a serious question. I'm not a design major and I tend to like things simple.

Actually it would vary on which template or layout you're using. In this case using those colors would look just how you described it. However, the shades of white tend to be too bright in the wrong places. More gleam or silver would help things out.

DD has usually had a white thing going for it, something I think a lot of people haven't been around long enough to see. I remember the white and orange template was much brighter, so I'm sure the complaints come mostly from a lack of familiarity, and the fact that the swap in colors is drastic. You should never ignore user's input, but in this case the quips about the color should be taken with a grain of slat. I personally liked the other colors better, but I'm not going to deny that I'm easing up on this one.

Right now my only real issues is the font of the forum (both in color and size), load times for the drop downs, and load times in general. The ads are haphazardly placed and obstruct things, but I've seen worse, and the last version was certainly a great offender. Overall I think you guys have something great going with this new look. And I'm not trying to be some sort of ass-kiss about this, I've been very critical on this site before.

I'm just surprised at the drastic design change. We went from extreme color to completely white and grey. I like the new simplicity of this look, it reminds me of the old orange layout. But the load times are just very slow (even with ads disabled). Also, I see little bits and pieces of the old layout (like the PQ Screen) that just don't seem to look right with the rest.
Overall, I think this layout needs a little more work……I can't fully judge it right now.

lefarce
Actually it would vary on which template or layout you're using. In this case using those colors would look just how you described it. However, the shades of white tend to be too bright in the wrong places. More gleam or silver would help things out.

Silver would be cool, I was thinking of gray myself. Basically any kind of neutral colour that would go well with any colour coming out of the thumbnails.

A few people have pointed out that popular sites like Yahoo and Google have used primarily white on their background. So I took a quick look at Yahoo to see why it worked out. I think it's because they used a faded blue gradient and everything was relatively tightly organized. The difference between Yahoo and DD however is that DD have things that expand or pop out in comparison to Yahoo.

One thing I have noticed is that since I have a VERY long favourites list, the amount of white space I have at the bottom is pretty big. If we were to increase the font size (which I fully agree should be done), it would only mean that white space would become endlessly longer (and so would my list but that's just my fault for not clearing it out earlier).

On another note, I've noticed that the smaller thumbnails now have this thing where it's a bit faded and when you put your cursor over it, the image brightens. That seems pretty cool!

I do have other suggestions but I've noted them during the sneak peek of the site. So I'm trying not to be repetitive.

Black_Kitty
One thing I have noticed is that since I have a VERY long favourites list, the amount of white space I have at the bottom is pretty big. If we were to increase the font size (which I fully agree should be done), it would only mean that white space would become endlessly longer (and so would my list but that's just my fault for not clearing it out earlier).

Small font on lists doesn't bother me at all, just in the forums where I'm trying to read stuff.

My only gripe would be load times. It just seems to be loading slower lately. Maybe because of more php calls or something? Or I guess more image– but I'm on cable internet and usually things just pop right open. Odd.

Bug: The comic descriptions are on a lower layer then the ads, so the ads always desplay above them. Consiquently descriptions for columns near ads are unreadable.