[Xaero]

Okay, guys, I'll give it time. I know what a new design does. It makes folks used to the old ways want the old ways back. I am sympathetic to both sides.
I do have one gripe at this point, well, two. Didn't like my userID being deleted, but hey, things happen and I'm okay starting afresh. Others aren't. Understandable. Lots of time invested in developing online relationships, posting ranking, etc.
The second would be the width of the page. I suspect the main reason is due to advertising and not wanting to squish the news into a tiny center column; however. It seems to be happening with alarming frequency all over the web, and those with limited screen realestate not only have to scroll up/down (which is normal), but now have to scroll sideways to ensure they haven't missed any news. Wouldn't be a problem if everyone had a 23" or 30" Cinema Display ... but they don't.
Just a design peeve. Life goes on. Glad to see you're considering and responding to some of the posts.
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Best,
Xaero

[fizcist]

I need not comment on the website, others have already made all the relevant criticisms.
What I used to like about MacCentral before I quit coming here was that it was not like all the other sites in the Universe. That's over now.
My favorite is the claim of trying to reduce clutter - that was rich....

[Uncle_Deercamp]

The forums are a bit of a mess, but the site looks good. And as we all know, it's better to look good than to work good.

[rlavere]

...what frosted my pumpkin is that I had to re-register. After all this time, I'm back to Post #1.
Grrrr.....

[swatcat]

Who needs MacCentral anyway they are all commies each and every member of those forums /forums/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif

[TxTom]

Agree. You lost 'seniority' if you want to participate.
I don't like the extra clicking it takes to get to the forums, I don't care for change simply because someone wants to change. Familiarity allows for greater participation.
i don't care for the design change at ALL. While I've re-registered, I easily see my use of MacCentral going downhill quickly...primarily because I've always had the impression that whatever is said here is disregarded as naysaying grumbling anyway.
Users were very familiar with the previous layout and forum hierarchy. Expect to lose a lot of them.

[jayslash]

From what I have been reading there are many concerns with this new look....
I think we should all separate our concerns in 2 areas: new services and new look.
On the new service arena let me congratulate u in providing rss news, it'll come in handy with the new safari.
On the new looks... Let me just say that I had to reregister losing all my previous posts, and I am pretty mad about that. Secondly, and I think that there is a concensus here... the home page sucks.
I have also had (past tense) your site as my default link for as long as I can remember... 3/4 years? maybe more? We all loved it because it was SO SIMPLE to see what the news were. and also with "visited links" it was also a matter of 2 seconds to see if there were any new articles (something that has been lost with your new fancy javascript, which is not that fancy anyway...)
My advice is the following: Change is good and if you want a new look, be my guest, BUT DON'T OVERCOMPLICATE the news posts. have them all together as u did and have them as the most important piece in the layout. Also have a read/unread, visited/unvisited link system.
A long time reader
who is at the moment quite
annoyed.
CYJ

[MacGizmo]

In reply to:

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Yes, but to get here - the comments section - one must first click 'Forums' then scroll down (maybe not for people with large screens/higher resolutions) then find the small grey-on-grey text "Macworld Magazine and Macworld.com" then click 'News'.

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No you don't. You click the "Comment" link at the end of every story and it takes your right to the the comments for that particular story here in the forums.

[brossow]

In reply to:

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On the first point: I'd argue that it's harder only because this is a new design. I actually think this design is better at keeping the crud separate from the content... but it is different from what you're used to.
As for the second part, I agree -- posting times should be in there.

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And on YOUR first point, I'd argue that as a user who has been on the 'Net since 1991 and who has been designing web pages since Lynx was the standard and graphics were nonexistent I know a thing or two about how easy or difficult it is to navigate your new design. In fact, I'd say that as Joe User instead of Joe Site Administrator I am able to provide a more unbiased assessment of the current design.
But I agree with you in at least one respect -- this IS going to help me keep the crud separate from the content, the "crud" being the new incarnation of my formerly beloved MacCentral and the "content" being those competing websites that recognize that the most important function of a news-oriented website is making the articles of greatest important and that "jazzy" design (to borrow someone else's term) is secondary at best, and only then to the extent that it doesn't detract from the presentation of the articles.
Consider this: on the former site, the first article title appeared a full inch and a half higher on the screen of my 15" TiBook than the first article title appears on the current design. On the old site, I could see at least 12 headlines before needing to scroll down; on the new site, that number is reduced to 8. On the old site, the top menu was located about 1.5" down the page; on the new site, it's about twice that. Even in today's world of expanding display sizes, screen real estate is as important as ever, yet in the new design more than half the screen (again, on my 15" TiBook running Safari with tabs turned on) is gone before I get to the first news headline.
Take this opinion for what it's worth, but consider this: if things don't improve remarkably over the next week or so, you can let your advertisers know that they've lost one set of eyeballs.
And by the way, I don't know about anyone else but I'm not getting copies of replies to my posts emailed to me despite having the box checked.

[MacGizmo]

In reply to:

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Your missing the point.
Advertisers do not like user comments. A lot of the comment here have been embarrassing to advertisers. Often the news "articles" are press releases. i know because i was an advertisers on the site. And we had had some negative comments after our "news" item.

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LOL... I think YOU'RE the one missing the point.
And, um, if developers wrote software worth a shiznit and checked their code for bugs, they probably wouldn't have the problem of embarrassing or negative comments. The user comments are the only part of the stories at MacCentral worth reading - because everybody knows that MacCentral started whoring itself out to advertisers shortly after it was purchased by MacWorld. It's nothing more than a press-release clearing house now, and quite frankly, not even a good one because the news at MC is usually a day old by the time they post it. The story comments were (and still are) the only way to get the truth about software.

[brossow]

Someone asked about a mirror of the old site. You might want to check this out as you occasionally mourn the loss of MacCentral: http://web.archive.org/
Punch in the old URL and you'll see what this site used to be (although IA doesn't seem to cache the CSS pages, so the experience isn't quite the same ... though it's still better than what we've got now.)

[brossow]

In reply to:

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2) Some posts have addressed this, but where are all the old posts? Were they deleted? Can you still get to them? If they were eliminated I am quite pissed as I have a MAJOR INVESTMENT here. I post for a reason - to show up in Google. I post so my replies can show up in Google about as many Apple topics as possible - I then depend on a few of those people following through to my website and buying a service or Apple part/accessory from me. I had 350 posts that covered a lot of ground, especially as far as my JackWhispers site went.

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WAAAAAAHHHH. You'll have to pardon me for not feeling sorry that the redesign has impacted your parasitic use of MacCentral. Sheesh. Only an idiot makes a "MAJOR INVESTMENT" in a website over which he has absolutely no control.

[liminal]

i think it looks nice, but it is oddly difficult to read - my eye too easily meanders from the main content (the news stories), when it should naturally want to go there. as a result i find hte whole page quite distracting. my preference would be to just read an RSS headline feed now.
i think the column full of "features" to teh right of the news should be minimized somewhat. and then when you are actually reading a story, that column of stuff to the left is of dubious utility and significant clutter. i'd minimize it or axe it as well. all the elements on the page(s) are over sized except for the actual news stories! this is opposite to what it ought to be.

[MacGizmo]

Once again, so people know... the "old" MacCentral forums are STILL here, and the link is probably going to be back in the navigation bar by Monday (I would imagine). Nobody's username has been deleted.
The forum you are in now are NOT the MacCentral forums... they are the re-designed MacWorld forums. MacCentral's forums haven't changed, and they can be reached by CLICKING HERE.