In the thread below, entitled The new Renderosity: slow and wasteful, tammymc answers a user complaint about the reduced functionality of the new design like this:

We will be monitoring this as well. Look for us to come back to you with several weeks asking how you like the drop down for forums. Also we will be monitoring the color changes and most likely if there is a majority color scheme, we may consider this to be our default colors.
Asking for patience in trying something new for the next 2 months.

Sorry Tammy, two months is much too long. I've been using it periodically for six hours today and I'm already sick of the sight of it.It's ugly, old-fashioned, physically hard to look at, and it has less functionality than the design it replaced. God alone knows what it's doing to users with reduced vision. I'd be surprised if they can see half of what they need. And to put the cherry on the cake, you took away our ability to customise our own colour schemes! So that's bye-bye to anyone with a visual disability, Oh, and bye-bye to anyone with dyslexia, who often find customised colour schemes necessary to enable them to read at all. Not to mention the well-tested principle that putting the user in control of their own experience of a site means that they enjoy it more and spend more money. Oops! I said the C-word! Sorry, I know that control is something that only owners are allowed on this site. Moving quickly on...

When will you people learn? Get a web designer to design the site. Or at least do a
modicum of research! The flood of complaints in this forum today have one thing in common: they're all about simple aspects of good design that you've failed to take into account. The web is full of pages that tell you how to avoid all the elementary mistakes you've managed to include in this design scheme. Web designers (real web designers, I mean) already come equipped with this knowledge. Not to take advantage of one or the other is inexcusably lazy.

I've had cause to complain about the unprofessional running of this site before. Last time, it was about the cavalier attitude the staff seem to take toward user confidentiality. As I recall, Tim didn't even bother to answer my e-mail asking serious questions about his company's procedures regarding the personal, business, and financial details of members and merchants of this site. That gave me a clear idea of exactly how seriously confidentiality was taken here.
Since I joined Renderosity, I've always encouraged my design students to become members too. My guess is that about sixty or so have. After Tim refused to reassure me about the safety of personal information, I had to start warning my students about it. I know of at least eight copies of Poser 5 (and many more smaller items besides) that would have been bought through this site if the PTB had been bothered to answer my legitimate worries.
So here's that same lazy, unprofessional attitude again. First of all, the shabby way in which the contest for the new logo was run. Declaring beforehand that it will be a stitch-up doesn't make it any less cynical. The customers want one design, the PTB choose something else. It's dated as hell, and the colours don't match, but WTF? It's a slick job, makes no reference to art, and there's none of that scary originality about it. (I'm trying so hard not to use the C-word again.)
Hot on it's heels is this sloppy 'design' job. Throw any old crap at them and pick some improvements from what the plebs whine about most. Talking of which, how brave of you all to hide behind Tammy again. I'm sure you're right: the complaints will die down. Don't kid yourself that's an endorsement though. People will learn to tolerate it as they get on with their business here. Perhaps that's good enough for you.

What a dreadful mess you've made of the site, and what a terrible shame that is. I logged on this morning and thought, "There's no way I can stand looking at this for long." So I won't. I'll probably check back in a couple of months to see whether Hideosity is any easier on the eye. Or maybe not. You know how easy it is to get out of the habit with web sites.

With regret,
cam

"I'm sure you're right: the complaints will die down. Don't kid yourself that's an endorsement though. " I just can't help feeling amused that the President is currently kicking Iran's ass for doing something quite similar... :)

"What a dreadful mess you've made of the site, and what a terrible shame that is. I logged on this morning and thought, "There's no way I can stand looking at this for long." So I won't. I'll probably check back in a couple of months to see whether Hideosity is any easier on the eye. Or maybe not. You know how easy it is to get out of the habit with web sites." Cam - you summed it up exactly! I wonder what the 1700-odd "surfers" (by the onpage counter) think of the changes. Too bad all 1700 don't post to this Forum! Renderosity please come home...

You can change your background and text colors to your preference.

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12357&Form.ShowMessage=1293986&Reply=1294082#12

Attached Link: http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12357&Form.ShowMessage=1293777

also.. check these threads out... http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=1292395&Reply=1292521#28 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=1292627 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=1292789 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=1292874 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=1293033 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=1293118 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=1294136 http://www.renderosity.com/messages.ez?ForumID=12356&Form.ShowMessage=1293865 now, not counting the 20 odd complaint threads in this forum alone, plus I've not gone through the rest of the software forums, (the above are all complaint threads in the poser forums alone).... 2 months. think there could be a problem there don't you?

i would suggest you switch back to the old site design (even temporarily so), then only take the two months (or however long you want) to reconsider this whole thing .. leaving the site as much as an eye-sore as it currently is, is really really not a good idea, R'osity is my home, and I pimp it to everyone and anyone I know, and already I'm getting emails that go: "what kind of site is this? looks so amateur-ish .. and you say they have a marketplace selling things? is it even safe to buy stuff from here?" image is everything in a business. nobody cares about the contents of the site or how nice the people here are if the first impression they get of the place is "ewww!"

As it happens, I teach HTML and Web Design at a small technical institute. I'm sorry, but if one of my students showed me something like this, I'd be forced to either insist they do it over or else give them a barely passing grade. I have a very difficult time reading white text on a grey background, and I suspect I am not alone in this. The logo looks slick, but it conveys "Machine Shop" (or possibly even "Dentist's Office" much better than it does "Art". Again sorry; I like very much the resources this site provides, but its design at present is pretty dreadful.

" You can change your background and text colors to your preference." No, you can't... You can choose the forum background and text, you can even choose the forum link and visited colours, but the sidebar, that's still white on light brown... Because if you select white text, then the sidebar text is white, regardless of the fact that all the "text" is actually links, except for the static user count at the top of the page. If you're going to come in here and tell us what we can and can't do, at least get your facts right! later jb

Internet explorer: Tools>Internet Options>accessibility>ignore every color specified in the page. That made my browsing eyes feel much better :-)

Tammy its not just the text and background colors, It's also that God aweful (I am told its brown although it looks greyish purple to me) color with the white text that we can no longer change. I have to say I did agree with Cam on one point, I personally for the past two years have stayed a member at rosity for a number of reasons, and one of those being that I could set the pages to my own prefs. You guys really should bring that back. :)

cambert is right. it looks like some borg fan site. the logo conveys arrogance and hostility. and what is this marketplace logo? car radio?

It's easier on the eye too if you set rendo to user, not author CSS in your URL bar. Tammy - How long was the new look in Pilot ? ~S

Spinner - Approximately a month, but we could not live there ... if you know what i mean - so we are living there now and seeing how it feels. It is taking me some time to get use to a lighter background after being on a dark background for so long. I am keeping my default colors so that I can see how it feels all day long. I have not really decided how i feel yet... trying to be objective with this to make sure that i am not responding to change. We are watching the feedback. thanks tammy

*nod - I can understand that. I have to admit, I don't like the colours either - and the base colour on my website is white, blue and grey, so it's not a habit thing. Also - I prefer to use browser settings for custom colours, so it's not that much of an issue for me - I did share a CSS in this forum for those who want to tweak. Maybe you could watch the feedback by asking for a limited set of volunteer pro and anti new look-testers who got a 5 or 10 dollar gift certificate for their effort - and they could be your guineapigs in a closed pig-pen under NDA. Could be worth a try if you're tired of flak after a rollover you needed to make. ~S

we have some that like it and some that don't - probably would be this way no matter what, since we made a radical change from dark to light. i agree this is a big change. hoping with the color preferences that many can change to their likes. we are just asking for some patience. tammy

Tammy, I'm running Netscape 7.02 and still can't change these colours!

"A rollover that they needed to make"? Am I missing something here? Was there something drastically wrong with the way the Site used to be? If so I wasnt aware of it at all. Anyways again I think the answer is to just give us the freedom to set our own prefs again. And tammy if you guys do need "guinea pigs" please keep me in mind as I visit the site here fourty or fifty times a day :) As always, Peace!

I think the point is someone higher up is slowly attempting a muzzle-job on us. BOOO!!!

goto the profiles page. go to change colours. see whats missing? yes.. the 'Old Default Colors' has been removed...

I'll give it sometime for my eyes to get used to it but as a lot of folks are saying , it looks pretty crude