I don't like the new rosity much (although I must admit I wasn't much of a fan of the old version either).
Cons
- The site is still slow (and unreliable). I think this has been beaten to death already.
- I have a hard time navigating the site. There are way to many links on each page. Any intro web design course will tell you not to have too links on a sidebar. It makes it harder to navigate the site.
- Things should be catagorized. I have "My Account", "My Options" and a "My Profile" page. These should all be grouped together in a "settings" so everything can be easily found. I also have a "community homepage" and a "homepage"?!
- It would be really nice to have a human friendly url that I can share with friends and family! Currently my gallery address is a long URL with just a gallery ID number. Sure, someone can copy and paste it into their browser, but my mother doesn't know that. I tag my images with my deviantArt address because it is simple and easy to remember.
- The galleries have a very small next page link. Again, an intro web design class will tell you all about making common links such as a next page link bigger than less common links (such as "7" for page 7).
- I don't want to get emails through Rosity. Messages are fine, but leave my email alone! Spammers can very easily use this to collect email addresses to send spam!
- A small thumbnail links to a larger thumbnail!! It is just an annoying way of Rosity to save bandwidth. An option to disable this 'feature' would be great!
- The large thumbnail uses javascript to open a new window. I have two problems with this: 1) The new window is smaller than my screen so I either have to scroll to see the whole image or resize the window every time. Very annoying. 2) I can't middle click on the large thumbnail to open the image in a new tab in Firefox. Grrr.
- Emoticons or smiley faces may make everyone's post look like they were writeen by a 13 year old, but they are very good at helping convey humour, sarcasm and other emotions that are not easily expressed in writing.
- "Renderosity Art Community" should be "Renderosity Online Art Store". I know they have to make money somehow, but the "MarketPlace" is being shoved in the forefront.
- There are many links that no longer work and thumbnails that don't show images. (Like the weekly window).
- Can't reply to comments on a gallery item. Being able to reply to each other's comments (like a threaded conversation) enables two way discussion rather than the current one way communication.
Pros
- Better statistics! Yay!
- Automatically generates my thumbnails!
- 200x200 thumbnails are bigger than most sites.
Overall, Rosity is better than what 1998 had to offer, but for 2006, it is subpar. Great fractal community though :o)