I still need to sharpen the text (looks pixelated at 800x600). Trying to make it as small as possible, but still informative. The present format makes it harder to update (I had two spelling mistakes :) Feel free to check out the other forums and see what they are doing. Photoshop, lightwave, Rhino, photoshop, photography. smerc

I think it looks good...I see it just changed from earlier today when I viewed the portrait challenge. If someone as un-artistic as me could offer the tiniest of suggestions...it might look more like a set if the ovals on the right side matched the set on the left side...seems like it would be easy to "clone" the part of the wall under the P O S E and make the ovals with it. Just a tiny (tip-toeing) suggestion.

In my opinion, there is too much wasted screen space here. I believe the "real business" of a web page should be seen within the first screen that someone sees. On my 15" monitor, I must scroll down the entire screen before we "get to business." I have 800x600 resolution. The last time I heard, most web surfers have the same resolution. I think webmasters need to "look at the big picture" more often, and not just the individual elements. You can see my attitude reflected on my own web site!

Smerc, you did a good job on this and I like it. I don't mind scrolling down a bit, it's not like you have to go half way down the page to see the messages. At least on my screen you don't :) So I give ya the ole 2 thumbs up!

Looks OK to me now. Thanks again for fixing it!

banners must die. well.... that's my comment, and i'm sticking to it! :) btw, i have 800x600 on a 17" monitor, and i dont see any pixelation. hey ron, you can save some vertical space if you turn all those icons in your browser into text instead ;) you can get more vertical space if you put your task bar on the side, too. but, probably not enough to get you into the zone on your page views, here :/

Attached Link: http://www.ronknights.com/

The top of my browser serves a function for me. All that stuff at the top of the Renderosity screen is needless. We have navigation links on the right.... WE could have smaller titles, and smaller banners.. Or at least only one level of banners. My site has one single banner at top, and a navigation frame on the left. The rest of the page is available for the "real business" of the site!

Unless I've been struck blind, the "real business" of this site is quite visible there at the top of this page and every page. From the owner's perspective it is to sell us stuff and take a commission... the Marketplace is right there with a single click. It is also to sell our eyes to advertisers, and the banner at the top does that. From our perspective we get 3 things: models and such (free stuff, marketplace), ideas, help and inspiration (gallery, tutorials, forums), and communication with our peers (forums, chat, messaging). Again, all accessed right up top with a single click. Our business is to access all this information and use it profitably, either through an increase in wisdom or an increase in skill. If the "real business" of this site is to provide cover for alienists or to smuggle emeralds out of Columbia, it is failing badly. If its "real business" is to provide a setting for a community of artists, it seems to be succeeding. Carolly

Looks fine to me! You can also save vertical space by hiding your taskbar on the bottom, so it only pops up when you run your mouse over it. Keep up the great work guys!

Again...I like it very much. I just don't need it at the top of every thread...:) Beav

It's obvious some of us disagree as to the meaning of the word "business" here. In my estimation, this is the Poser Forum. That means the Real Business here is the Forum and the Messages, not the commercials or pretty, big pictures or banners. Yes, most of us have gotten used to the necessity of having a banner at the top. But one banner doesn't fill up an entire 15" screen's vertical space. We already have the Marketplace for selling merchandise, which brings revenue into Renderosity. The Forums are here to serve customers and potential customers. **** I'm talking about the "big picture" here. You can save a very small amount of space by hiding the toolbar, and the top of the Internet Explorer screen. That's why I giggle when someone makes those recommendations. Ron

hmmm... the purpose of THIS page right here, is to show me the messages in this thread. in my opinion. the rest is just extraneous. now each page needs some naviational stuff, true. the top and side menus i can deal with. okay, it needs ads. i don't see the banner ads (sorry), so i don't care about them. i also confess i don't use the forum annex, but the faq and stuff is interesting and important. the question is, am i going to want to click on that while i'm reading/replying to a message? no. unless the message is about something in the annex (a challenge or faq topic), in which case the message can include a link to the annex. now, when i'm done reading/replying to a message, and i'm looking for another thread to read, or when i first get here and peruse the thread topics, maybe i'll want to jump to the annex. so, in my opinion (and others' obviously), the annex box serves a purpose on the main forum page, but is annoying and in the way on the message pages. thus the suggestion to have it only appear on the former. how hard that would be to code into the site, i have no idea.