Remember: even the ugliest of ducklings has the potential to blossom into a swan. Or, in other words: quit your bitching change-fearers.
The new, improved, more-boxed DiS has been a long time coming; the old design, which can be seen pictured there for you nostalgic sorts, had outstayed its welcome rather, and you know what they say about a change being as good as a rest, right? Exactly: we’re all nicely rested now. Save for all the sleepless nights and meetings… and meetings… and meetings. Anyway, the new DiS…
Features! We’ve some new ones, the most obvious being the option to vote for articles and threads. This allows users to rank their favourite content, and the more votes an article or thread receives the higher it will rank when viewed according to ‘most voted’ on the site-flanking columns. See the question mark beside each voting button? Click it for a full explanation.
Scroll right to the bottom of the page – any page – and you’ll find a randomly plucked from the past article for your reading pleasure (or not – depends what it is!). This ‘from the archive’ feature will enable you to dip in and out of our extensive history. And boy oh boy do we have a lot of stuff there for you to stumble across.
You’re probably wondering what that ‘Drownloads’ link is, too. Currently, that’s for us to know and you to find out, but it’s exciting, that’s fo’sho.
Yes, we know there are a few bits that don’t quite work properly yet, and that the new design isn’t to everybody’s taste. But, the bugs will be flattened and time’s a healer. Besides, we really like the new design, and the flexibility of the newly formatted front page will enable DiS to feature a much broader array of content.
If you’re really struggling to come to grips with the new-look DiS, bear in mind the words of board monitor fishplums:
Essentially, the DiS users have looked at their toilets after sitting down for a poo and gathered round to scream "OMFG, HOW UGLY IS THAT?? OMG I WANT MY TOILET HOW IT WAS BEFORE".
The toilet will be flushed in due time.
That is a worrying analogy
I mean it's comparing DiS to a fresh dump.
the layout is cack
the colours are cack
it looks like pitchfork, which is why i joined in the first place.
nice work dis.
it doesn't look like pitchfork
pitchfork doesn't have a community, does it?
is the search function
improved at all? because that was awful.
explain the godawful colours please.
the layout i'll get used to. but the colours?
fuckssake people.
That was quick to set up
Remember when the old design was just being brought in? That took agggggggges
The original site was blue
Just like this.
yes, i remember.
the blue is fine. but theo, unless you're colourblind, there are other colours.
looks good
nice job
meh..
..it's all about the content surely?
but
when the design gets in the way of the content, it becomes a problem.
Yes it's nice.
There are some obvious problems though.
It's gone from having about 50 links to new reviews, chronologically ordered, to having 15, the content window is only about half of the width, and very narrow. The new font is too small to read comfortably, and the names thing on the boards is weird, links on the boards now look like normal text instead of bold, and the colours are pastelly like a baby-gro or hospital colour scheme.
Not that I'm pointing at poo or sitting on a metaphorical toilet or anything.
Oh wow.
The background has just gone all white. This is better.
I also like the fact you can now see who has written which article, without clicking into it.
Overall - yes!
Messageboard - Undecided.
reviews being chronologically ordered
instead of ordered by the date of post is a problem.
Any review of something that isn't new won't get noticed !
this
right here
please tell me the user votes is just a stub
because they are quite bad as they are now :(
a list with numbers?
This middle bit
is a bit too narrow. A long article will require about 3.56 miles of scrolling. I'm a busy man.
Too much...
Theres too much crammed onto one screen, you dont know where to look. Font is definately too small. I honestly cant see how this is an improvement. Maybe i will get used to it though.
Font is tinnnyyyyyy ^^^
Well...
I'm sure we'll get used to it and it certainly seems more professional. One thing though is that the banner at the top looks bare, and as said, the main text area is a little anorexic.
the new font is very small
otherwise i like it.
So, like, this voting bizness. I did think you meant that it would effectively give readers control of what the lead items are - which i thought would be a rather radical move! but not. and probably for the best, too...
's ok
you know, it's not bad, alright, no complaints.
actually, i've just remembered the layout before the last, which i liked. you grow into them, don't you?
It's shit
at first I thought it was a piss-taking reference to the fact that people are constantly saying DiS has 'turned into Pitchfork'. Which would have been funny.
It just looks like it's been designed by an amateur. If you're gona make it all white and naked, at least get a better logo coz the current one doesn't work with the whole 'minimilism' thing. But bring back the old border instead, that'll make it half-decent.
didn't
you pay some designer to do the old layout, Simon Meninihck or something? Has he had anything to do with this new design?
Yeah
I'm all for minimalism rather than overly fussy websites, but this just looks unfinished to me. And the white background is killing my eyes.
As previously mentioned
It is currently far too narrow - 3 columns plus a 4th for ads is too many
Background question...
Is it meant to be blue at the top before fading to white at the bottom (ala the old site?)... Or is it meant to be completely white?
This morning it started blue, before going white for an hour, and now it is back to blue again. Which is rubbish when trying to read stuff... Is it a case of clearing my cache or something?
I like it.
Screw you all. Do you know how long I spent testing this bollocks?
Ungrateful peasants.
No one's complaining it doesn't function, though
Anyway, one could answer with 'not long enough'
And do you have a monitor that's very narrow and long or something? How could you let them make the middle column ever smaller???
for us on widescreen laptops
there's even more white space, strange design
anybody? Simple question?
There was
a massive uproar when the site changed last time. It's basically the same though, really. I say simmer down yer meffs.
Meh, things change.
Could The Powers That Be not just make the content column variable width though? Keep columns 1, 3 & 4 how they are, and flow this one to fit screen width.
Then everything would be lovely, and it wouldn't look silly on anyone's monitor, regardless of width.
i have already forgotten
what dis looked like last week, this makes me sad
wow, it's like my first graphic design
or maybe Web -1.0
everybody
migrate to http://www.audioscribbler.co.uk
it still looks like old DiS :P (mostly due to my lazy design-theft)
it's a beautiful thing
I reckon it looks alright.
Bit like Pitchfork but not as intimidatingly dense.
Wow
It's the same as Pitchfork. Again.
nice
job with the new layout. Although I didn't see much wrong with the old one.
Now that...
...it's got adverts at the top AND in the right hand column, it looks like the kind of site you'd come up with if you were using a free webhost. I mean, fair enough, you gota get a bit of ad revenue, but this just black hole sucking brown hole.
Although...
...I do like the 'vote' mechanism and the forum side bar. They're good.
Can't say I like it much
Centre column too narrow, text too small, sections poorly defined, blahblahblah. Having to scroll to reach the new reviews could have a negative effect on the number of page views. Seems like a backwards step to me.
i do0n't like it one bit
not sure if maybe its my computer but it just looks like a load of words splattered on a page
just do a myspace
and give us both the old AND new layouts at the same time - sorted!
or am I being narrow-minded and not understanding how difficult it must be to have two different websites?
I think i like my new toilet!
drop a log.
I think i like my new toilet!
drop a log.
I rather enjoyed
those DiS speakers *staring* at my soul. 'Twas comforting to know they cared.
The new layouts alright...
I'll get used to it..... but that new beefed up logo... yikes!
I'm not sure I like it.
I'm not sure why. It all seems to work, but whereas before you were assaulted with content choice on the homepage (which was ace), now you're, well, not. So it may seem to the casual browser that there's not much to look at, like pretty every other webzine (except that with pretty much every other webzine, there really isn't much to look at).
And it really does look like Pitchfork. Sorry.
talkin of pitchfork... kinda
is it all screwed up for anyone else?
Its been messed up for ages in both Safari & Firefox...
or maybe its just me?
Yeah...
I'm not liking this new design at all. As soon as I saw it my brain screamed 'Pitchfork'. The layout of the previous design was brilliant, I don't know why anyone thought a redesign was in order! The reviews bit on the front page isn't as easy to digest as it was previously either. Sorry, can't say I'm a fan!
All that said...
I do like the Community being down the left hand side. Albeit at the expense of more articles and reviews. It's Hobson's choice. And that Hobson's a RIGHT BASTARD.
DiSenchanted
So Drowned-In-Sound is now part of Rupert Murdoch's 'media' empire and the establishment it has always rallied against so splendidly. Cash is King, eh. Forgive me if I have missed something really huge, but is this not the total antithesis of everything DiS always stood for? Will someone please explain because I am very confused not only by what is happening, but why no-one else seems to be at all bothered?
Hello, who are you, then?
What establishment are we meant to have railed against, exactly? Profitable businesses? You do realise DiS is a business, yes? People have wages that need paying, rent to cover, food to be put on plates. This isn't a bunch of kids in a bedroom tapping tirades against major label cannon fodder.
The deal with Sky offers DiS a number of opportunities to work on other projects; it does not, though, affect this site. Nothing changes, save for the number of doors and frames we can potentially stick a toe ‘tween.
Ifyou’ve genuine concerns here, I’d be interested to know what they were.
FYI: this redesign was happening deal or no deal.
Oh please!
Yes I do realise all of those things - I run a very similar business myself, in fact probably the most similar one that exists on the web in terms of content, history, size and structure to DiS. It's just a bit odd that after all of those years of refusing to entertain banner ads anywhere but the bottom of the page, there seems to have been rather a dramatic 180 degree turn here and very little credible acknowledgement. A simple "Sorry guys, we've warmed to commercialism, especially since we now need the money to sustain this site" would be better than what was released. Just an honsest "yeah the money was too good to refuse, what would you have done?" would have been more noble and shown more respect to the users. My main point was not that you did anything wrong by taking the money - I'm currently negotiating an absolutely disgusting sum of investment for my own business - it was the choice of backer that I was highlighting. After all the blood, sweat and beer that has gone into DiS over the years, it would be a terrible shame to see it go the way of MySpace. I just want you guys to be careful and not naiive.
Said backer and the deal with them...
...was subject to many, many months of scrutiny. We've not walked into anything eyes closed.
And like I said, the deal doesn't affect DiS in terms of presentation/content; this aesthetic alteration was planned ages ago. The deal will see new projects launched in a joint venture capacity, though.
More news on that: through the proper channels as and when.
Mx
Cool
I know you guys know what you're doing and I'm really thrilled for you that you've got this great opportunity to take the DiS to the next level. Best of luck with it and just don't take any Sh!t from Murdoch!
fantastic analogy at the end