i not only dislike these new forums, i find they actually repel me from your site. i have to force myself to stay to look for pertinent information, where previously i would have a window open to your forums all day and poke around while i render. i frequent many other poser sites, but this was my favorite because of the people but also because of the format. 1. I hate the override of my personal preferences. I had a nice black background I had intentionally chosen. This background literally induces migraines if I stay at a screen for a half-hour or more (my head is beginning to throb as I type). The change is like having my comfortable dimly lit bar turned into a fluorescently lit computer lab. The right hand nav I find truly irritating to use. If others like it, fine, but I really hate being forced to use something most other designers eschew with reason. 2. Please get rid of the visual noise. The yellow stars are useless. No matter what I do, they don't go away. E Even if they worked properly, this is too high frequency a site for the stars not to be so ubiquitous as to be functionally meaningless (same goes for the bolding of all titles). And even if they weren't meaningless, they should be more subtle and less intrusive and take up less space. Also, I do not care when you last posted or when you became a member if I'm just reading your post. If I could IM/PM you from said post, then it might be relevant. If I could visit could visit your website or your store, again relevant. Since all I can do is go to your profile (which was possible before, only all it required was the poster's name and not a separate link), there's no real benefit. 3. Sort by recent post. If that was the main request that instigated this change, why isn't it the default? And why does it seem I need to set it each time I visit? 4. The speed has definitely decreased. Is this because you placed the forums on the same server in charge of distributing all the products? Whatever the reason, it's adding insult to injury. 5. The search is much less useful than the low usefulness it had before. If it wasn't within the past week, I have no idea when I last read a post. And sometimes people simply refer to posts, as in Anton posted how to use the gather node for lighting. I couldn't tell you how long ago that was, and I shouldn't have to guess whether my search didn't return anything because I was using the time period, the wrong keywords, or what have you. And I really need to be able to search by username. i really am sorry for being so cranky, but i keep wanting the old forums back, visiting the forums, and leaving with a smidgen of the information I used to get, the beginnings of headache, and some annoyance at sudden changes made without any "beta" period. and this just looks unprofessional. it looks like someone looked at phpBB, didn't understand that their interface choices were actually functional, and skinned a less functional forum tool. all i can say is that i won't be frequenting the site unless some changes are made. i don't say that as a threat at all, and not as a declaration of purpose. it's just i literally find myself repelled from your site where previously i found it welcoming. which is why it was my main stop. not poserpros (since you seem to be trying to borrow their forum design). oh, and where i used to look at the product forums once a day, i just visited them for the first time in several days. so i'm sure i'll be buying less. not that i'm a big spender here, but if i'm not the only one, it'll hit your pocketbook.

i not only dislike these new forums, i find they actually repel me from your site. i have to force myself to stay to look for pertinent information, where previously i would have a window open to your forums all day and poke around while i render. i frequent many other poser sites, but this was my favorite because of the people but also because of the format. -"- DITTO -"-

cobaltdream, I wouldn't hold out much hope that you, as an individual will make much of a difference. They didn't care about my opinions or complaints. BTW, I do spend quite a bit on 3D stuff. But none here anymore.

I spend far less time here than I once did. I think the new forums could be okay IF THEY WORKED PROPERLY, but they don't appear to work. The two BIGGEST issues I (currently) have are: Threads don't automatically revert to "read" when you read them, you have to manually mark them as read. Old threads with new items don't move to the top of the forum, what kind of nonsense is that? I wouldn't say it's unusuable, but the usability has actually gone DOWN. Please fix. bonni

Well...as soon as I get help with a couple of software issues, I am outahere...if enough people leave maybe THEY WILL GET THE MESSAGE? As JD said in his reply to my thread on my SPEAKING WITH MY MONEY...no one will probably care....and it's true..but gosh, you would think when I spend upwards of $400 a month...!?

What was wrong with the way the forums were?

I find I've been shopping at other sites more often than this one since the change in the MP.

I used to come to these forums at least twice a day sometimes more. Now I dread when I come to the forums. I don't even go past the first page now and I'm gone as fast as I can.

The Forum change isn't going to keep me away from the marketplace. But I can see I'm already spending far less time in he forum than I used to. Or rather, I'm spending MORE time here actually. But that's on useless things like waiting for the pages to load. Renderosity has never been fast. But now it's like a frozen slug crawling across salt...

it's not going to directly keep me from the marketplace. it's more that, unlike many i'm sure, i actually frequented the product showcase, which led me to products in the marketplace. also, frankly, as all department stores know, the more you spend time around stuff the more likely you are to buy it (that's the strategy behind the non-standard sizing of women's clothes- you have to try them on, spend more time in the store, yada yada yada). my browsing path throughout the day used to be poser forum > product showcase > marketplace > gallery. since i'm being driven to other sites at that first step, i doubt i'll end up in the marketplace as frequently and therefore buy less if at all. and know about less in the future, because i'm probably going to miss out on the product showcase gallery as well. again this is neither logical nor intentional. i'm just not planning on forcing myself to go to the marketplace whose design i dislike (see above about personal prefs and add the inability to add merchants to my favorites list). and since all the other sites i now like better have their own stores and various storewide incentives...

Okay, I dislike the new forums, but come on, they aren't THAT bad. Though the dumbass stars really are useless and do nothing but waste bandwidth. If you're so brain damaged you can't remember which threads you've already read, you don't need to be here anyway.

for me they are THAT bad.  hence post.   if they don't bother you much, more power to you.  i wasn't trying to speak for anyone else but myself, and neither should you.

and for me it boils down to this: i can force myself to stay and be uncomfortable  or just transfer my time and money to one of the many other poser communities/stores i'm a member of.  i'm giving them a chance to respond rather than just leaving.  i don't think my opinion will mean much, but i really hate it when people complain about how they're being treated to everyone but the person who they need to.  so i've stated exactly what i didn't like where i was told to voice such complaints.   how they deal with this is their business and their decision.

cobaltdream, The PTB do not care what we think. As long as the money keeps rolling in. Each of us as individual members mean nothing.  The only reason I drop in here is to view some of the artwork. I have purchased nothing for over a year, and will not support a site who cares nothing about it's members. Notice the silence from anyone "official".  It's a real shame, as this could be a great site, but instead, the PTB are content to ignore us when we raise concerns.

Wizardtim,

We do listen and care about our members. That is why we have implemented some changes to the new forums brought up by the community.  And I can't respond to every post but I most certainly read them all and pass on problems, suggestions, issues to the programmers.  We do understand that not everyone is going to like everything as I'm sure you would agree.  That just isn't realistic when you are dealing with a large group. Everyone has their likes and dislikes, thats what makes us all unique individuals.  Even for us on staff, change is sometimes difficult and it takes some time to get used to everything new. But we do listen and we do care, most definitely.

I haven't got any figures to prove it, but I daresay that it's only
a very small percentage of marketplace customers who ever
look at these forum threads.
e.g. only a few hundred forum readers out of 250,000 members
it may even be less than 1%

Miss Nancy, what's your point? I am not certain of your getting at.

Where's the Product Showcase forum? It's not on my main page anymore, and I can't find a jump in the box for it.

@elizabyte
By copying and pasting the following line into the new "My Styles" box on your "My options" page, you can have the links you've visited automatically change colors. That was something I missed from the old forum as well. This will turn them 100% red. If you want another color you'd change the FF0000 at the end to another value. it's a temporary fix but it's a fix none-the-less.

a.forum_threadname_link:visited, a.forum_threadname_link:active { font-size:12px; color:#FF0000; }

A number of things mentioned in this thread have already been fixed. Hang in there everyone!