If you don't like the new look, please post here. One vote per unhappy camper. Happy campers, please vote in the Happy thread. (One vote per in that thread, too, please.) This is a thoroughly unscientific poll, but it may help give a better idea of how many people are satisfied with the changes and how many are not.

Mad would be more like it!

A tad pissed!

Can us inbetweeners post here somewhere?

I like the new logo.
I like the top bar design.
I like the dropdown menus.

I don't like the default background.
I don't like that the link colors can't be changed to adequately go with a different bg color choice.
And to be honest, I'd have prefered the new logo with the option we had before to change background, sidebar and link colors.

You aren't going to please everyone but I'd suggest leave the default colors to whatever you decide and let the membership have back the control to change all colors. That ought to appease enough of the "I'm leaving over this" crowd.

not mad .. I like the logo, appreciate the option to change, but god the link colors .. can you make it a proper plum-purple like the logo artist has suggested? at least that would show up clearly in both white and black backgrounds. I dont like the white background (for default color) change. The brown I can learn to live with it. I love all the other changes, such as navigation, arrangement, etc.

I'm in between too. Like the new logo - don't like the gray. Don't like the default colors and wish I could change more than just the background color and text color.

Unhappy for sure with the white background and dark link color. Set default background to black and text to white and link color to the color of the light blue cord in the design so we can see it, give members the option to change their link color and let's get back to business. The white background for art is far too harsh on the eyes, and a mood killer for sure. Afterall, we are an 'Artists' community and not 'Corporate America' right?

The white default background is awfull but once you change it to black its ok, unfortunatly new visitors wont see that so I suggest simply making black the default for a more professional look.

Who noticed the new logo! I can't get past the cement/taupe coloured screen. What was wrong with the old colours anyhow? These new colours do NOT invite someone to stay and browse a while. These colours say Get in, do your business and GET OUT! I've seen fast food joints with similar schemes - keep those customers moving to make room for more. Maybe that's their intent. I don't know that the new dropdown menus are any more useful than the way the set up was before.

The members and merchants of Renderosity have been designing their graphics for black backgrounds for many years. There are hundreds of thousands of artistically designed works dependent on the black - four-sided bleed black images. This has resulted in a thing of rare beauty. The decision that the default must be white should be immediately reconsidered as it is not a viable option for the thousands of graphics this site supports.

The brown is kinda yucky.

The brown is actually a nice new daring change of color .. I've fiddled around with the new available changing options and have come to kinda like the brown (see attached image) .. That's a screenshot of how R'osity looks like to me on my browser with my current custom color preferences: background color: #2C2C2C text color: #DBDBDB link color: #9999CC visited link color: #CCCCFF just my humble opinion ..

I thought this was the unhappy thread?

The logo is ok, but the page colors are not! Dont like the dropdown menus either. Still has to scroll as much as before, and now with the annoying "you will be sent somewhere as soon as you scroll because the menu is still selected"-function! Sorry, but i dont like! :(

Graviton: I am unhappy. very unhappy .. trying hard to make myself happy .. but no point complaining and bitching cos everybody else has done this all day. Was trying like mad to crack my head for some solution for those who can't see the tragedy, I guess :(

total crap. bad logo : back to the days of 256 colour Amiga's. bad colours (for all the options to fix) bad layout in general shall we all go on?

I don't like it at all. I don't like the colors, I want the old ones back. I don't like the top, but I do like the new logo. And why did you make it so we have to scroll sideways? I just upped my screen res the other day from 1024x768 to 1152x864 for other reasons, but still Renderosity shouldn't be wider than 1024. It's more than irritating to me. And I dislike the drop downs because I have to search for things instead of just scanning the side links quickly.

Things I don't like:
1> The top bar no longer fits in 1024x768 even at my smallest text setting, which I can't use and still see. Any setting larger than "Medium" is just a mess, but that is a common thing in most sites unfortunately.

2> The fact that new artists and visitors won't be able to see my artwork as it was designed to fit in with the black background, or get so much of a headache that they will not want to even bother, without knowing that they can change it. Remember, that message at the top I'm sure will not be there forever, but the changes will. Even with the message, there are people who don't know they can change it and also it can't be changed without having to fill out your whole info.

3> The loss of the margins and the fact that the pages with their table boxes looked jammed into the page in order to fit the side text bar.

4> Automatic drop downs, so that if you hit the mouse wheel you are thrown all over the place, places you may not want to go.

On the other hand, I do like the logo and I don't mind the brown sidebars/drop downs and while not a big thing, I do like the My Gallery in the dropdown. Now that the colors can be changed for the main window, it works for me, but as I said in #2, the new default design is going to scare people away...

Nope...don't like it. Want things back the way they were, let us change all colors, including the top and sidebar. Don't like to have to scroll the screen left or right to accomodate the new size of the banners. Like the new logo... Flexibility is key ;^)

I have already fixed my background and default text back to what they were, that is no problem. But tiny white text is difficult for me to read on the header and sidebar, and that there is no control over. I asked regarding this, and this was my response: Instant Message from tammymc: the header and sidebar are both hard coded. they can't be changed.

Ahhh... My eyes! My eyes! If you miss the old colours, try this: background #000000 text #FFFFFF link #FFCC00 visited #FFFFCC Hit "Submit", and then you can carefully dispose of your security glasses...

I want all the old colours back. I have tried background #303050 text #BFBFBF link #E8E800 visited #FF6600 But the bright white of the forms and popups are killing my eyes!

ok..finaly a proper thread to place this in.. above is what I designed..so no..I'm not happy on what it turned out to be. The background pictures on the headers are unproffessional and plain ugly. the white links on the sidebar hurt the eyes. The light background remains to be painfull not wanted and questional on why it was ever suggested.

I really like the colors Mind-Vision shows for links - especially in the sidebar. I find that when I change the links colors in my profile, the links in the sidebar and header remain the same. I prefer the black background everywhere. The left margin got lost in this shuffle, and needs to be back there. I would like to know the hex code of those links, so I can use that subtle color from my Profiles page. thanks - dg

I'm not sure that any browser will display colored pulldowns besides IE. IFAIK it's an non-standard extension to HTML, just like colored table frames.

Yup, hate it, especially the white sidebar text, which shgould pickup the link colour, but doesn't... later jb

Dislike. Poor color choices for graphics display, but it's not the color scheme that gets me so much as the layout. It doesn't display properly for me in IE6 or Netscape, with the sidebar disappearing over the edge more often than not. The top bar stretches too far in IE6, leaving some text off my screen.

I do not like the current colors and headers. I would like to be able to change the sidebar colors. I really like Mindvision's suggestion -- especially the headers.

Basically, the whole design looks crummy. I mean, the logos and headers are nice, but the default color settings don't match the design colors, and it's a pain in the hillary to change them. Everything looks like it was splotched together at the last minute. Also, I can't stand pull-down menus. I like to see all my choices without having to futz with a pull-down. Whine. Whine. whine....

Okay, RE-POSTING here from other thread, and as a PS - I did go to try and change the link color and was really mad that ONLY the "visited link" color can be changed. My vote - go back to the original or allow total color changing...and if this was such a huge job to do on your servers, then that is ANOTHER reason to do a beta market research test first!! ___________________________ Frankly I am too busy to be aware of all the "coming changes" and was really caught off guard. I knew of the "new logo contest" but not being interested in it, I did not read about it. I suppose that is where there was more information on the huge change of the entire site? The format is changed and for some reason the words at the top, before I log in, are nearly jumbled over one another. Not a real professional look, and made it difficult to even find the link to log in! (FYI - staff, I run my monitor at 1280X960, but when I log in here the words straighten out and line up... which by the way, also righted themselves BEFORE I changed any of myu personal settings once I logged on...?!) Yes, we all will have to get used to it, as we did the change in the gallery formatting, but I AGREE with ShadowWind that there should have been some sort of beta to test! And I do not agree that people should have to write scripts or change their browsers just to accommodate Renderosity's site! I do not want to mess with my IE6 browser, write a code, etc... it works just fine with every other site on the web!! I changed the colors "back" and do not like it, it offends my artistic eye.... which of course is my own personal opinion. More importantly with black background and white text, (easier to read) the LINKS are now too dark to read, (SEE ABOVE PS) and that is something I think can only be changed by the web people here, right? Seems a simple enough change, but I see it is still dark. It is a fact in the business/marketing world, that for every person who actually writes there are many who feel the same but do not write, for whatever reason. Big companies take this very seriously in taking polls, providing toll free phone numbers on products, etc. Many of the "silent majority" just stop using the offensive product. Lyne

~sighs~ ok I will put in my two bits worth. the colors of the side bar...well they arent great they are blah.. the drop down...well I think they give a neater appearance then a whole list of forums and such onthe side.. the logo.. ~groans~ well it is a good logo but I dont like it for an art site..why? because it looks mechanical. when you first come to renderosity{actually any site} your first impressions of the site are what will stick with you. when you open renderosity now...even I as a member took it as being more tech geared as opposed to art geared. it looks more like something from a site that is used for tech questions and information on proggies instead of a site geared for art. the colors..the logo all give a very mechanical appearance to the site. if I was new and never seen it befor I wouldnt bother really looking through it. I would assume it is more for showing the technical cold use of a proggy not the artistic life of the artists visions. it is not very inviting. sorry but that is just my two cents worth.

totaly amateurish!! who ever made it should take a copule of years off and read some theory on human/pc interfaces. this is no-design. no concept, not ergonomic, not friendly.

Oh my eyes! It hurts, it hurts! I hate the new colors! Sorry... Pleeeease get the old colors back or at least give the users the choice to change colors as it used to be - including the sidebar.

I am UNhappy, and I posted that in my "Hmmmm..." thread today a few below this thread. Anyhow, I like the logo...no problem there, though I liked the old one better. I detest the default background scheme, but that's fixable, and I did. But what really bugs me is that the page doesn't fit in an 800x600 screen resolution. Isn't that, like, Commandment #1 in the Webmaster's Bible: Though shalt not design anything larger than 800x600 ?????? I remember the first web site I ever designed for myself; in my ignorance it was made for 1186x1024. I thought it looked great, but I got bashed from here to Hell and back for not making it 800x600, which, according to someone in another thread, is still the webmaster's standard. I'm shocked, really. Just because this is an artis't site doesn't mean it shouldn't be designed as professionally as everything else out there! Grrrrr.......

Yeah Please give us the ability to change the colors to our own prefs Including the Sidebars. I have been a member at rosity for two years now, and upon entering the Site and finding the "New" design my first thought was "OMG,WTF, This is ugly." But my irritation was made all the worse upon learning that I could not change the color scheme back to the way I had it before. As an aside issue, I have seen a whole lotta complaints about various issues with the new design from the scrolling problems with the drop down menus, (something this user personally hates) to the color scheme and the layout. But oddly I have only seen one reply from any of the admins regarding the issues posted. Are the admins even listening to us? Do they care? The lack of response I have seen leads this user to think they dont care, and aren't listening. As if to say like it, or lump it. I hope this is not the case as I would really hate to have to leave rosity.

Quite unhappy! The chosen default colors simply did hurt my eyes (also cause this is an artists site, but not Winword!!). I switched my background immediately back to black and text to a light grey, to gain better legibility. Now, I also would like to change the colors of links, of that ugly browngreyish sidebar and its distracting white links. The layout exceeds the (rather frequent!) screensize of 800x600. Those drop-downs for Forums should be provided again as a link list or at least display the complete list of available forums when selected. Navigation and usability of that much too short drop-down simply sucks. Sorry, but I consider these forced changes (while ignoring plenty of reasonable member-concerns and removing several options to switch it back asap) bad design and a clumsy implementation! Usability and legibility was decreased considerably! I dont object to changes if helpful and necessary, but Rsity really did surprise me. Hubert

I absolutely love the new logo. I like the grays in the center a lot and purple is my favorite color of all. I am distressed that you chose the one color I don't care much for to base all the rest of the site on. The brown is awful...and although some may suggest that it is chocolate, I would suggest another term not used in polite company. I think it would have been incredibly better to go with a scheme that featured the neutral grays. Perhaps choosing a pale gray background for the forum, with black lettering, and a charcoal gray background for the gallery with pale gray lettering. Then choosing the other colors in the logo for the smaller items. Just think how dignified and professional the grays would be! Failing that, it would be so much better to allow all members to choose their own colors for everything, and making new members choose before using the site. It distresses me to know that my art will be viewed by new members with this much too light background. It is washing out all of my colors. Tres

I'd rather have the old layout. Can't stand that ugly sidebar color, and the white text...Even tho I changed my BG color to black again it just doesn't look right with that sidebar {And I thought that black went with everything} Also Im unhappy with the profile form that you have to give all that info about yourself before you get anything changed >:(....for instance: I live in Tx....had that up there already...but now I have to inform everyone that Tx is in the U.S. before I get my colors changed!? {Duh!} Then you have "What OS are you using?" "How did you hear about us?" blah, blah, blah...{None ya business} Now we have been told nothing {but link colors} will be changed for 2 months? As for the drop downs....those would be ok if it didnt whisk me away to somewhere that I didnt intend to go {highlight the wrong one} what's the "go" button for? Nope, 'color' me unhappy. I want the old layout back. {And I don't want to have to answer 9 thousand questions to get back to it} >:( ~Jani

Unhappy, to put it mildly.

For a start, how inept do you have to be to design a layout that doesn't fit on a 800x600 screen?

The new logo is mystifying to me - it's well done, but I feel like I should be shopping for car parts.

The white background is literally painful to look at. Yes, I know we can change the background to black (thank goodness) - but first time visitor/customers/clients will encounter the stark, ugly default scheme and I can't imagine it making a good first impression on many of them.

We have marketplace, gallery and freestuff thumbnails all designed to look good on a black background. Didn't it occur to anyone that they might not look quite so good dropped into the middle of a vast expanse of white?

Apparently not :(

In another thread someone suggested that you temporarily revert to the old layout while you get this mess sorted out. Sounds like a good idea to me.

• gps

I'm using Opera and I no longer get any thumbnails.

Anywhere...

Not in the galleries,
Not in the Marketplace,
Not in freestuff,

...what I can see looked better before.

Hi Ok I'll Try to be constructive. attached is an image of what I consider meeds to be fixed. First off please make the links user 'fixable' or as I think I read this afternoon if the the colours are 'hard coded' make the colour a mid tone so that it can be seen on either a light or dark background. second make the dropdowns into 'expandy'menus so that members have a choice as to whether they are open or closed. Tonight for instance I've dialed up the wrong forum twice (wheel mouse) third the fact that the screen size is variable on none image posts is a royal pain I hate having to scroll across the bottom to read what someone has said! oftimes I get fed up and give up. I would also like to add that the site was great as it was why oh why change it ok improve it with new features and graphics but not break something that wasn't broken. can't you combine the old site with the new graphics which btw look good. but at the moment I feel that little or no thought has been put into this design and no comunication with the members/users this move I feel will lose members and goodwill. annoyed and upset Dave

btw the above was done on a 1024x768 flat screen monitor and I cant get the whole of the page on the screen

One word -- UGLY This is supposed to be an artist site. I don't know of ANYONE who would use that puke brown color on anything. I think the logo is great, but the rest of if is just plain awful. Also -some people like the drop downs. I HATE them. I bought a scroll mouse basically just for this site. Now, I don't need it.. My fingers knew just where to stop before, now I have to read everything to find what I want and then you know what - click, click, click.

Today, like any other day, I decided to come browse and converse with my fellow cg artists at my favorite online community, and... EEEEEEKK!!! What the heck happened??? I didn't necessarily love the layout of the original design, but this is far from an improvement. The "logo" is crude compared to the old one. It's also very 2D (contrasting the main theme of this website). It is interesting, but the original was far more creative, original, and visually appealing. This one seems to be more like a mechanical engineering firm or a computer hardware company. The old logo showed the expressive nature of artists, it hinted at a simulated reality, and it paid hommage to the CG software (i.e. a wireframe fading into a rendered hand). Aside from the typography, this logo says nothing about community nor much about modeling or rendering. The drop-down menu for selecting a forum is just a minor inconvenience, but it is an inconvenience none the less - especially if your favorite forum is near the bottom of the list. What is with that detail behind the menu titles? I realize it reflects the 'logo', but that little mechanical joint seems very insignificant and doesn't combine well with the background menu color. Also, the marketplace symbol seems a little misleading - I didn't see an ATM when I first saw it. Sigh... I expected better... Good luck on the expectant remodel - it seems I am not the only one dissappointed here. You have thousands of willing artists at your disposal - try using that resource.

And get rid of this!!!

Well, I wasn't going to get into it, but since this thread was started, I'll go ahead and throw my two cents in as another unhappy user: I'm a web designer, and from what I'm told a pretty decent one. This new design incorporates almost every element I try to avoid in site design. 1. The color scheme by default is an assault on the eyes. A 'professional' look uses non-invasive colors such as black or white, which can be easily 'ignored' by the eye, allowing the focus to remain on the content. 2. The layout has now become more complex, and more difficult for first-timers to navigate should they manage to survive the colors. What you have listed as 'Features' at the top of the sidebar are all items that are either total gee-gaws with zero real value(the grafitti wall, for example), or items that would be used by existing members who know their way around. Meanwhile, the items that would likely be attractive to first-timers (Galleries, Marketplace, Forums) are either tiny hard to read text links at the top, or drop-down menus that don't immediately show the full range of what's offered at a glance. To make a long story short (too late), the new design is totally inverse to what it takes to draw new clientele, and it makes the existing clientele (most of us do spend money here) nauseous. Allowing the user to semi-customize the look of the site does no good whatsoever in the case of a first-timer who is turned off by the first look at the front page. And removing the ability for existing users to fully customize the look of the site is just a bad move commercially...don't give a client power, then cut them off...you end up losing clients. I saw mentioned somewhere that these changes affected 7% of the existing userbase. Now 7% doesn't sound like a big number...but Renderosity has bragged mightily about having over 100,000 registered users. 7% is SEVEN THOUSAND USERS...not a group I'd wanna be ticking off... That's my opinion, like it or don't...thanks for the opportunity to vent off the steam... ChromeTiger

Since when did what YOU want supersede what WE want?

Crescent, 1) I do not like the colors. Even though I can now change the basic area of the Forums (text, ground, links) where my eyes linger longest, I can not remove, wipe out, or paint over those shitty browns with their bright white illegible text glaring back at me in the frame. 1a) I'm not afraid of color (my nascent website is dressed in golds and purples), most artists like to use color effectively to communicate mood or experience or information. The browns used in the frame here obscure information and set a dim glowery mood to match. 2) I do not like the logo. It is a fine piece of work, but isn't terribly suitable for a community of artists. The digital and mechanical aspects are there, but not the creative or human side. 3) I do not like the layout. It is confusing. Important items are relegated to dropdown boxes and fluff gets top billing. I'm using the Forum link at the top rather than fight the drop-down menus (ergonomically very, very bad). 3a) Some scrolling down is ok. You should have left the Forums listed at the side and buried other items. However, this monitor is set at maximum resolution 1280X1024 and I have to scroll sideways as well. Everywhere. If you are going to take up that much real estate, it ought to be much less jumbled than it is. 4) I do not like the organization. It isn't logical. Unrelated items are tossed in together. Desired destinations are hard to find. A casual visitor would think that the store and the webring with links to other probable stores were the primary foci of the site... based upon the amount and distribution of real estate. It would be all too easy to overlook the single words for tutorials and galleries and forums. I am dismayed by this much ugliness. Carolly

BTW does anyone know where the 'Leave' button now? I see 'Login/Logout' option is the only one left to us... Do I have to go through the login screen everytime I start a session?

I'm just trying to give the admins an idea of who likes it and who doesn't. I figured it would be easier to get some theads going where people could give thumbs up or thumbs down all in one place, as compared to scattered about the site. It makes it easier for the admins if they only have to track a few threads and see what is working and what isn't. Thanks! Ducks in back to swap out her worn out kevlar tuxedo and top hat with new ones

I second MindVision as an artist, and as a merchant, well it really screws up presentation of goods, if I change the colors to what I want it doesn't reflect what the average buyer sees, I get to look at a nice presentation , they get to look at less than professional. If half the site is changing their colors and the other half is staying with the default, how the h**l does a merchant do their product preveiws and thums to look enticing to both sides?