The new gallery format .. hmmm ... (warning - big whinge approaching!)

Firstly some questions:

WHY WHY WHY is there a link "DELETE MY GALLERY" just above the thumbnails on my gallery page? Does this mean that in one accidental click I might delete my entire gallery, built up over several years? (For obvious reasons I haven't dared test this theory, but I have this sinking feeling that one day I might ... If I remember rightly this link has been placed in the same position that the old "return to gallery" link was ..)

Where has the link to the artist's website gone? (used to be under the thumbnails as part of the r'sity webring thing) Actually I can't find the link the webring info any more either.

Where are the next / previous image and return to gallery links? Are you really expecting people to rely on their "back" button?

Is it possible to update the links down the right hand side to how they were on the front page before (i.e. with the drop down choices etc etc - they were so much more user-friendly)

Where has the upload date on the thumbnail page gone? I don't know what date it was 9 days ago, let alone 999 ...

And my BIGGEST gripe:

Why must our artwork - carefully and painstakingly rendered, resized, sharpened etc etc by us for optimal web viewing be squashed into a space 700px wide? Whoever made the decision to do that on an ART website surely needs their heads examining! (I can forgive IKEA this faux pas, but not administrators of a site like this). I feel like my work is just being rubbished.

What is happening with the homepage? Is that still in the pipelne or has it just dissappeared?

Secondly some comments / opinions:

The css is awful - and yes, I know it can be changed, but, really, the default is truly awful, considering this is an art site. Now the images are being displayed as if they are items in the Argos catalogue and have nothing to do with art whatsoever :-(

Too many horrible bordered boxes around everything on the page - it just looks a mess.

The mouseover popups are ugly and intrusive.

The avatars beside the comments are ghastly - I know I can turn them off for my own viewing but not everyone will, and really they totally detract from the image being displayed. I find them only just tolerable in the forums, but totally pointless on the gallery comments.

The statistics are a nice addition, but look nasty where they are - a simple link to the stats would surely be better?

Sorry to be so negative about all the new stuff - but quite frankly, I am negative about it all. I appreciate that changes and updates are necessary from time to time, but not when the end result is that everything looks and feels all wrong.

Tina

aartika! fractal art by Tina Oloyede :  http://www.aartika.co.uk