[janus]

not the site - the design!

about the only forum I go in here is the DVD Bargains forum...

but even on my 19" screen, I only get to see the first two bargains (along with 3 stickies) without needing to scroll... if I turn the ad blocker off, I don't even get to see any bargain posts on the screen!

it's bad enough we've got that stupid logo taking up 25% of the screen.... then there's another menu... then there's a huge banner (not I see it with the blocker turned on)... then the most ridiculous of all - a posting competition(!)... surely the only people interested in that would be those involved?!? why put it above the posts - if you're going to put it anywhere, put it at the bottom, put it in the comp section - but don't plonk it there!

anyway, just letting off steam - not criticising the effort put in (i've found a few bargains thanks to this place), but the design is so annoying/frustrating/pointless (delete as applicable)...

</rant over>

JD

[wilko]

Originally Posted by janus

not the site - the design!

about the only forum I go in here is the DVD Bargains forum...

but even on my 19" screen, I only get to see the first two bargains (along with 3 stickies) without needing to scroll... if I turn the ad blocker off, I don't even get to see any bargain posts on the screen!

it's bad enough we've got that stupid logo taking up 25% of the screen.... then there's another menu... then there's a huge banner (not I see it with the blocker turned on)... then the most ridiculous of all - a posting competition(!)... surely the only people interested in that would be those involved?!? why put it above the posts - if you're going to put it anywhere, put it at the bottom, put it in the comp section - but don't plonk it there!

anyway, just letting off steam - not criticising the effort put in (i've found a few bargains thanks to this place), but the design is so annoying/frustrating/pointless (delete as applicable)...



JD

• Posting competition - agreed, I'm in the process of removing that box.
• Menu - unfortunately the link bar needs to stay
• Stickies - I'm going to reduce them to one (affiliate links)

As far as the logo goes - OK, in hindsight it may be a little too large. But it cost a lot of money to be designed, and therefore it needs to stay in the short term. We simply cannot afford to pay to have another one designed, and a site needs an identity.

Ads - we run on a dedicated server, and these don't come cheap. This site barely generates enough income to support itself, and without the additional tiny revenue generated by the ads, it would cease to exist. Lets put it this way - I'm certainly not going to get rich from this site.........

[janus]

Originally Posted by wilko

• Posting competition - agreed, I'm in the process of removing that box.
• Menu - unfortunately the link bar needs to stay
• Stickies - I'm going to reduce them to one (affiliate links)

As far as the logo goes - OK, in hindsight it may be a little too large. But it cost a lot of money to be designed, and therefore it needs to stay in the short term. We simply cannot afford to pay to have another one designed, and a site needs an identity.

Ads - we run on a dedicated server, and these don't come cheap. This site barely generates enough income to support itself, and without the additional tiny revenue generated by the ads, it would cease to exist. Lets put it this way - I'm certainly not going to get rich from this site.........

• posting comp - thanks for removing...
• logo - i'm tempted to say "you was robbed!" it's a shame the identity chosen was a man with a cheesy grin, man boobs and three wrinkles on his popeye arms! but i'm no good at graphics, so can't help you...
• ads - not bothered about them as I don't see them... only found them when I was curious to see what it was like with the blocker off....

anyway, thanks for taking the comments in the way they were intended.

JD

[wilko]

No problem.

Personally, I think the site looks a million times better than it did under the old name of cdanddvdbargains. However, as with everything in life, there are things that haven't worked out as planned.

We will probably look again at giving the site a facelift at some point in the future - maybe we can keep the logo, but work on the size and placement. That would probably be the preferred solution all round.

[jas]

What screen res are you running your monitor in, even with the posting com I could see about 6 threads before scrolling and now that it`s gone I see 9. I`m running in 1280*1024

[janus]

Personally, I think the site looks a million times better than it did under the old name of cdanddvdbargains. However, as with everything in life, there are things that haven't worked out as planned.

i'm struggling to remember what it was like, so I can't comment - I don't think the original design was brilliant though...

We will probably look again at giving the site a facelift at some point in the future - maybe we can keep the logo, but work on the size and placement. That would probably be the preferred solution all round.

I actually don't mind the blue cd background of the logo, it's the unnecessarily huge bloke in the corner...

I think if it was half the size it would be more acceptable.

here's a couple of ideas...

couldn't the text links at the top (amazon watch etc) be moved and made graphical links like "news", "reviews" etc ? I haven't looked at the source code, but surely there's enough room - also "forums" and "homepage" text links are dupes anyway of the graphic links at the top!

if you're going to have some a large logo, couldn't the big banner ad be placed on top of the logo (on the big blue empty bit on the right) - perhaps using an ilayer or similar (don't know if that's possible - should be working on my own php source code atm, so not going through your code to find out!)

Originally Posted by jas

What screen res are you running your monitor in, even with the posting com I could see about 6 threads before scrolling and now that it`s gone I see 9. I`m running in 1280*1024

same as you - i'm seeing about nine now too if u include the sticky & announcement...

and four of those six threads were stickies anyway!

I can live with this - as I said, I usually only come in to have a look at that forum and then move on... these recent changes will save me some time, so thanks Wilko.

JD

[wilko]

Originally Posted by janus

also "forums" and "homepage" text links are dupes anyway of the graphic links at the top!

if you're going to have some a large logo, couldn't the big banner ad be placed on top of the logo (on the big blue empty bit on the right)

To be honest, much of what you are saying makes sense and we have been considering some changes for a while anyway.

Yes, the banner ad will be moving to the blue space in the logo. My PHP isn't the best, so it'll take me a while to get it right so bear with me.

The duplicate links in the link bar are there because, quite simply, people don't see the ones at the top. In fact we used to get a huge number of people who visited the front page of the site and never went any further - because they weren't aware that the site had a forum. By introducing the link bar, our bounce rate has reduced dramatically.

[janus]

Originally Posted by wilko

To be honest, much of what you are saying makes sense...

you're the first person to tell me that in years!

Originally Posted by wilko

Yes, the banner ad will be moving to the blue space in the logo. My PHP isn't the best, so it'll take me a while to get it right so bear with me.

if you need a second pair of eyes on the code when the time comes, let me know.

Originally Posted by wilko

The duplicate links in the link bar are there because, quite simply, people don't see the ones at the top. In fact we used to get a huge number of people who visited the front page of the site and never went any further - because they weren't aware that the site had a forum. By introducing the link bar, our bounce rate has reduced dramatically.

i'd be tempted to make the site open up with the forums - I assume its the heart of the site anyway...

JD