What? There are advantages to the new look? Colors designed to match the logo instead of good design taste, wasteful mouse-clicks, slow page loading due to "indexprocess" being called in each pull-down box, can't open forums in a new browser window, can't change all the colors, and you say there are advantages?? That's right: this "new look" is bound to make people leave the site. And, as more people leave, there will be less people online at the same time... which means faster page loading for the rest of us! Hoo-ray! What an innovative way to speed up the site: don't improve the page code or server speed, but instead, reduce the number of users! There's also side-benefits: while everyone is complaining about the new look, no-one's asking for a Poser 5 serial number or how to get a free Vicky or why double-clicking replaces a figure or the other same questions that are asked every week. And before anyone complains that I'm being mean, remember: "We are Renderosity. We are the biggest Poser site on the Internet. Choice is irrelevant. Freedom is irrelevant. Resistance is futile."

Advantages? It's caused me to get to grips with IE's font and colour handling, anyone know how IE's stylesheet function works? I've got the colours down, (it even does the mouseover/hover colour, woohoo!) But frames aren't green... I figure if I can get the frames grren I'll be happy man. Luckily I've a few saved pages that I can use to lookup the actual colours I used to use from the source :) Mean! Mean? I have no idea what you mean... :P later jb

Clicking on the Forum link at the top of the page just below the "banner ad" will display the entire forum list on a single "page". You can then see the number of new messages per forum, open a forum in a new window, and get a short description of each forum.

All of a sudden, the options for links and visited link colors are now in my profile page. Hmmmmm..... Laurie

Getting better! Yay to the link and visited link colors! My BG is #F1F0ED (yes the new default) My Text is #524745 (the brown on the right) My Link is #483D8B (the new default for visited) My Visited is #FF2222 (I guessed here but it's fine. Red)

Renderosity, Thanks for quick response on Link/Visited Link colors. Much better, but there is a bug in Visited Link BTW. If you select via the color swatch, the selected color doesn't propogate to the color swatch, for Visited Link. (Still possible to change colors by via the Hex data entry field.)

I liked it the way it was.

I've been using this color scheme for a while and I find it pretty comfortable. Give it a try if you're going blind with the new default. ;) Background: #000000 Text: #F0F0F0 Link Color: #DCB294 Visited Link: #FCCE9C Take care! SnowS

Im really bumming :( I hate this new color scheme ..I want the black Bgs back , I tried to change the colors but for some reason its not working ! I so cannot deal with the beige or whatever it is :( . The old way was much better .

I kinda like the new look. The text in the drop-down lists is a bit small though.

Thanks, SnowSultan. If the $#%$#%^%$#^% aren't going to restore normal operation, your "hex" casts a pretty good spell to survive the idiocy.

Good start. I went to my profile and changed the link colors. Came back here and scrolled down and of course was teleported to another area because the *&%$# dropdown still had the fffocus and my mouse wheel scroll is now a dangerous weapon. Please, kill the dropdown menus. The shortcut or alternative off clicking on the forums link etc. may work but why should you have to do that?

Does anyone happen to know the hex colors of the old color scheme before the changes? I'm one of those odd people that doesn't like familiar websites to change colors and this is really annoying to me. :P

you mean the old, old colours? (Green) or the new old colours? (Purple) If you mean Green, then yes, Purple, no :) later jb

The dropdownmenus really have to go. Were they designed by somebody who used to work for Microsoft?????? It's utter counter-intuitive (like most microsoft products) to hugely increase the number of clicks/steps it takes to get somewhere. For years I've complained that MS's guiding principle in software design seems to be "Who on earth would want to do anything with 3 clicks/keystrokes when it COULD take them 12 or maybe even more?" The new dropdowns sure seem to be a living manifestation of that philosophy. THe color scheme is HORRID, that's bad enough in itself - the damnable dropdowns just rub salt in the wound.

Given that some like drop-downs, and some feel that the sidebar gets too long without then (always seems shorter than the main part to me, but still if some like it...), how about this? Leave the menus as they are now (if that's what is wanted) but add a feature to My Preferences that allows a Registered User to add a few Forums as normal hard links to the side menu. About 5 or 6 or so should cater for most. Then only those who really want hard links need be "bothered" by them, and they can all be in one place even if they come from several pull-downs - and just those that at important to that individual. If vertical space is an issue - shouldn't be, but if - then make the Weblinks part a pull-down too ratehr than links (that one would even make sense because you could display them all at once then).

You can already select what forum you want to see on "Welcome to the Forums" page. Is it that difficult to click on the Forums links at the top of the page and go to the page that has only those forums listed that you want to view? Maybe you shouldn't answer that question.

Soo much for my attempt at compromise... Just trying to come up with a solution that will still work for Mozilla users who use tabbed windows, while keeping those who want Drop-down/Pull-downs happry. But otherwise my vote would be to go back to links which work efficiently, easily and actually make the site look more attractive - as in depth of topics covered - for potential new members.

"Is it that difficult to click on the Forums links at the top of the page and go to the page that has only those forums listed that you want to view?" Difficulty is relative. Relative to the old format, having to go to the top of the page, click, wait for a new window to open and then click again is more difficult than the old system. Is it a tragedy, a soul destroying experience, no but if possible, changes should make life easier, not more difficult, even if only by a little.

Well, it's been two days aince the "new look" and I can safely say that it is working like a charm: normally at this time of day, there are about 1650+ users online. Yesterday, it was around 1550. Today, it's around 1500. Slowly, but surely, the new look is having its desired effect: get people off the site so those that are left have a faster experience. Why fight with a site when there are plenty more that are easier to use and have a cleaner look? Cheers to the admins for their bold plan to speed up the site by forcing people to leave.