1. CrackBerry Kevin's Avatar
    Hey All,

    Well we finally did it! A major CrackBerry redesign!! We hope you like the new look. For the full details, check out this the CrackBerry Redesign blog post.

    We still have a lot of little tweaks and improvements left on our to do list, but we just wanted to push the site live already (you can never get it perfect).

    So please use this thread to report your feedback, and any bugs or issues you may come across. We'll be working hard to get things perfect, so nothing is fully in stone. We're CrackBerry.. we always do tweaks!

    Enjoy the new site!


    ______________________
    Update #1

    A quick update:

    - we added the Today's BB Posts button to the subnavigation on the forums.
    - we fixed the sidebar issue (when you login, it's removed from forums homepage)
    - we went through the forums and cleaned up the forum names and went for more concise descriptions. it's more clean.
    - anybody having template issues with the forums (kinda looked like the old and new forums loading together), that should be fixed now

    Regarding "too much stuff at the top". If you recall, on the old website there was no distinction between the homepage and the news tab. However, on this site there is. If you don't want the featured block, or stickied post, etc., JUST CLICK THE NEWS TAB and it shows you the last ten posts under the header. It's much "less tall".

    ________
    Update #2

    a) we reduced the comment size on the blogs. a little less in your face, but still easy to read. we also made the username bold, so it's easier to pick out who's writing a comment. keep in mind, your own comments show up with the blue bar to the left.

    b) we moved the What's New in the Forums (and ad unit) that was under the first blog post to now be under the third. It reduces the "heaviness" feeling a little bit from the top that some have noted.

    c) I've **temporarily** removed the rotating article featured block from under the header to see how it looks. I'm not a huge fan of how that one was operating (a bit distracting) and it was messing up in IE7 really badly. We'll keep this space reserved... may add back in something similar, or do it more like we did on the old site with three side by side static images (a little less tall). Or we may just save this space for special times - add a banner when we go to show with live coverage, etc. So we'll see
    11-22-10 09:35 PM
  2. SCrid2000's Avatar
    I like the look, but it's NOT netbook friendly (and all I have is a netbook ) - half the screen is taken up by the ads

    Edit: and the ads are gone now. Wonder if that was just a temporary problem? If so, I have nothing to be sad about
    Last edited by SCrid2000; 11-22-10 at 09:46 PM.
    11-22-10 09:40 PM
  3. DenverRalphy's Avatar
    I like the overall redesign.

    Not a fan of the huge bold comments fonts for blog articles. Makes it seem like everybody's screaming, and there's a whole lotta scrollin goin on.

    I preferred how the old forums design would remove the ads on the right side of the screen if you were logged in. (note: I'm not anti ads... I support them. I just liked the way it flowed for reading).

    Other than those two nitpicks... everything looks mui fantastico!
    Last edited by rmjones101; 11-22-10 at 10:01 PM.
    11-22-10 09:56 PM
  4. CrackBerry Kevin's Avatar
    Re: the right hand column going way when logged in on the homepage of the forums, that WILL go away. Will be gone in the morning. We hard coded it in so we could test the right hand column prior to site launch. Forgot to turn that off (and waiting for our coder to get back home.) Stay tuned for that.
    DenverRalphy, pkcable and Ahmed G. like this.
    11-22-10 10:02 PM
  5. decoy72's Avatar
    I love it! The site has a much cleaner look now. Great job.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    gmz73 likes this.
    11-22-10 10:02 PM
  6. aznlgcy's Avatar
    Looks amazing so far... Like the new fresh look
    11-22-10 10:11 PM
  7. theonecid's Avatar
    I love it! The site has a much cleaner look now. Great job.
    I actually think it's less clean... It feels way too packed for nothing, before you could easily notice the new blog info, now it almost feels like your eyes get attracted by everything at once and you get lost.

    Edit: The forums look awesome though !
    syb0rg and Mojave like this.
    11-22-10 10:12 PM
  8. Blacklatino's Avatar
    Looks great!
    11-22-10 10:14 PM
  9. hondateg91's Avatar
    Thought I was on the wrong site too lol but looks good.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    11-22-10 10:17 PM
  10. Rikter's Avatar
    Unfortunately, not a fan of the new look. It is all white and bright... looks cheap like not much effort was really put into the borders and the design. I'm sure a lot of work has been put into making it better but it reminds me of other sites that are painful to browse. Just my 2 cents. I'd like to see crackberry go back to the way it was.
    syb0rg likes this.
    11-22-10 10:20 PM
  11. arsenalsocal's Avatar
    Re: the right hand column going way when logged in on the homepage of the forums, that WILL go away. Will be gone in the morning. We hard coded it in so we could test the right hand column prior to site launch. Forgot to turn that off (and waiting for our coder to get back home.) Stay tuned for that.
    I really like the new look, however, I get this "menu" on every single page while on crackberry. Is this what's hopefully will be gone tomorrow? It takes pretty much the whole page! For a second I thought I was logged on in the wap site.


    I get this all the way at the bottom left


    And this is pretty much how my page looks, (I decreased it). I have always use Chrome


    Edit 1
    I guess wherever the server is at it's already tomorrow and all those extra things that I was seeing 2 hours ago are now gone. I really like the new cb, it would be nice to have a choice of color to have though, some other forums do have that feature. I particularly don't care what the colors look like; I would rather see better moderation and duplication of threads maintained to a minimum.
    Last edited by arsenalsocal; 11-23-10 at 01:22 AM.
    11-22-10 10:22 PM
  12. Fit24's Avatar
    I like the new look!
    11-22-10 10:28 PM
  13. Jimieo's Avatar
    Lookin pretty nice!
    11-22-10 10:29 PM
  14. thegoodboy66's Avatar
    Goood!

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    11-22-10 10:33 PM
  15. jlb21's Avatar
    I actually think it's less clean... It feels way too packed for nothing, before you could easily notice the new blog info, now it almost feels like your eyes get attracted by everything at once and you get lost.

    Edit: The forums look awesome though !
    I have to agree. I think it is too cluttered, for my tastes. Trying to "make sense" of everything that's there......feels hyper to me.

    Oh, and why bother with the little fade in effects when you scroll down to a new blog post/picture/section.....seems like unnecessary compute cycles.

    I do like the amount of sharp color we have now, but just too much stuff.

    Oh, I also do like have the 101's real easy to get to......

    I appreciate greatly all the hard work. I guess I am just an old fart who doesn't like change........

    Oh and the forums do look good.
    Last edited by jlb21; 11-22-10 at 10:37 PM.
    syb0rg likes this.
    11-22-10 10:34 PM
  16. narci's Avatar
    Looks good Kevin but the site is takes some time to fully load.

    Can you do anything about the loading time? The loading time reminds me of the NHL boards when they changed it...loading time went up, users left and went somewhere else. I don't think those new boards did ever recover.
    11-22-10 10:41 PM
  17. BBThemes's Avatar
    ok, so im totally loving the new layout, looks alot more colourful and `fresh`

    the only 2 things im finding are:

    that comments on blog posts have all lost their titles (or whatever ya wanna call it) so now you can only see what was typed in the larger text box. is obv cool going forward but maybe some of the current blog comments may lose a little context.

    and (in firefox and ie8 at least) i dont get the `focus` underline when i hover over a link on the blogs, i get the underline in the links within the blog text, but the main `title` of the blog i get no impression of a link although it can still be clicked, same too for the `latest forum posts` widget too.

    im sure this is only a minor CSS thing or summat tho, and as you say kevin its very much `in transition` so alot of what im saying could be about to be fixed anyways lol.

    as for the text size for the comments, yea ok so it seems a tad large, but hey that might just be a `stuck in our ways` situation, sure would get used to it.

    Overall a double thumbs-up from me

    edit: one thing id love to see (and this could just be me being OCD) is the join date, location etc thats on the right in the forums aligned to the right of the page, as i say thats probably just me but i think it`d look neater
    Last edited by BBThemes; 11-22-10 at 10:46 PM.
    11-22-10 10:42 PM
  18. mcdanielnc89's Avatar
    The new design loads WAY faster for me.
    11-22-10 10:43 PM
  19. Xpimp's Avatar
    It's nice, just wish it was a bit easier on the eyes. Maybe a darker version as an option.
    mcdanielnc89 likes this.
    11-22-10 11:42 PM
  20. idealess's Avatar
    smaller font size in the comment box maybe can make it better
    11-22-10 11:44 PM
  21. Morjesta's Avatar
    looking great from my MacBook/Firefox
    11-23-10 12:08 AM
  22. Ahmed G.'s Avatar
    It looks Awesome .. I love it

    Great Job Guys .. Two Thumbs Up for the New CrackBerry.com
    11-23-10 12:49 AM
  23. Rootbrian's Avatar
    Cannot wait to check it out tomorrow, since family members can be idiots, they won't let me (besides themselves) use my own netbook.

    Both are computer illiterate and 1 thinks they know everything when they don't know ****.

    Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com
    11-23-10 01:02 AM
  24. zoril's Avatar
    Doesn't fully work in Opera (10.63)
    - the '& more' item is hanging off the beginning
    - the forum favicon has a coloured background
    - featured article box text too long

    I'm finding that there is way way too much 'rubbish' before the content (680 pixels worth. That's a lot.)
    - Grey bar
    - Grey bar (looks like a sponsor/advert thing and not a user control)
    - Huge white space with nothing in
    - Massive menu
    - Giant banner
    - Correctly sized menu
    - Ridiculously huge 'featured'(?) box (second item text doesn't actually fit in it using Opera)

    I'd like to see more of a division between articles, although I can probably live with it as is

    I would also have preferred the images in articles to be boxed or something, or have a larger gap, I'm not sure what it is but they are hard to read around

    Comments are huge, also you could put the 'posted by' and '{posted time}' underneath next to the reply button, that would save space and keep the reply button in a meaningful place
    Last edited by zoril; 11-23-10 at 07:39 AM.
    11-23-10 03:33 AM
  25. zensen's Avatar
    I get a bit of slowdown with the images that slowly appear once they are in view. It could just be me and my lack of ram on my computer but I can definitely notice it.

    also Im glad you guys didn't implement Disqus which would mean I'd need to logins for this website, one for the forums and one for comments, kinda feels impersonal when you have to do that and you may find people may log in less into the forums. Comment text could a be a little smaller, feels a little odd with the main text being half that size. Also What happened to the titles on the comment boxes, I quite liked that feature :P
    Last edited by zensen; 11-23-10 at 03:53 AM.
    11-23-10 03:49 AM
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