what's going on now?!!

If we've lost the battle already, let's at least hope that the performance of the new forums is not hurt by this butt ugly design. If performance deteriorates, it's all over.

Search options will be greatly expanded, Bill. That is one I'll be looking forward to for sure. They are doing log in issue now to get it over with before the next steps. Any posts from this set of forums that didn't get linked to an Adobe acct is probably going to have a generic "guest" username attached to it. And I'm going to join the grumbling about things being too big and taking up more space then necessary. Tweaking with happen with that in time tho.

Thank you John. However, it looks like the post confirms the fears of many of us. I understand the need to update the software due to load and such, but the look and related space issues has come out as a negative from all the posts since you put in the link. A lot of these issues were major items with the last revision a year or two ago, that was taken off.

I guess the other two issues that others have discussed are the log in issue and the search. I have not had problems with those, but it seems to summarize the concerns of many to list them as

1. wasted space
2. log in issues (being worked on I guess)
3. search issues

I don't remember of many other comments off hand that are not part of one of these. If the selection of borders and avatars (i.e., the layout) was a preference, then many of us would select a layout like this topic has. I am sure there are others that will select the space wasting layout also because they have large monitors, good eyes, or lots of time - but if it is at all possible to make it a preference, both camps would be happy. (maybe?)

> Let's all help to get it up and running... and save the griping and additional tweaking for after we have it humming along decently.

Once you buy the package there will be no going back because of time invested. You know that shells can only be tweaked so much. So it isn't just "griping".

> Is there less traffic in the Macromedia and Adobe Lab Forums than there is over here in the Adobe Forums?

Absolutely. I use Dreamweaver a lot but I cannot stand the DW forums, period. The Adobe forums have always been a great place (not always friendly but always fun) to be which is the reason some of us make noise about this transition you are likely to get locked into.

You have the be sure the shell can even be modified into something that everyone wants.

It is obvious that John is on our side but he is not the only one behind this change.

You are about to ruin a good thing if you don't pay attention. I am not into being negative but this has got my attention.

>Questions are seldom answered over there because no-one wants to waste their time wading through those turgid pages to find the place where they were when they last visited.

>And Avatars? And Red Stripes awarded for attendance?!

agreed.

Declining Forum Use could possibly be explained by the fact that CS4 hit the market just as this recession really started to bite so sales are probably way below what was expected.

If fewer people have upgraded to CS4 than upgraded to CS3 I would expect to see less traffic in the Forums than we saw at the time that people were first venturing into CS3.

Traffic has always tailed off towards the end of a product cycle and has normally mushroomed again with the advent of a new version.

If people are sitting CS4 out because of financial restraints, would they be that interested in spending time reading about a product that they cannot have? And if they don't have the product, they are rather unlikely to be asking for help in using it!

There is also a facet that Adobe does need to look at:
Is there less traffic in the Macromedia and Adobe Lab Forums than there is over here in the Adobe Forums?

And if that is the case (as I strongly suspect that it is), could that just possibly be because the appalling design of those Forums makes them unusable?

Questions are seldom answered over there because no-one wants to waste their time wading through those turgid pages to find the place where they were when they last visited.

And Avatars? And Red Stripes awarded for attendance?!

What IS this?

The KiddyPix Forums?

phos... figure out how to connect to my machine and I'll let you in to play with mine. Email me if you want to try to figure it out.

number one is to get something up and running and stable that serves the primary need of creating one set of forums. Once they have a box that will do that... in order to not add complexities that can destabilize it, I have to think it's best to not mess with the core product beyond the built in settings. Let's all help to get it up and running... and save the griping and additional tweaking for after we have it humming along decently. John's been working with us and for us for a long, long time now. If it's not obvious that he's on the users side, people haven't been paying attention.

Dang.

Can't install the Clearspace stuff, so, no experimental layouts or configs from me.

Dang.

Indeed we have a problem - the factors listed by DK somewhere above, which means that Something Has Got To Change - and it will, so let's not waste our breath on arguing for no change - coupled with declining forum use (as mentioned by Forum Operations somewhere...).

Now I'm personally inclined to agree with the posts above commenting on the superfluous elements in the partial screenshot above (slightly hard to make an overall judgment without seeing the whole thing, and being able to adjust individual preferences). However, what if the current sparse forum design is so different from what many users of other forums are using, that despite its advantages, it's what is driving people away? Maybe, while it's efficient etc, it's simply not warm, friendly and inviting enough to hold the mass audience?

There's often a gulf between good design, and popular design.

I think if I were responsible for this change I'd be starting with piloting it with minimal look and minimal features, then saying "now what if we add this or that feature or visual element" and seeing at what point the consensus is that people start to feel that the usability is being undermined by the added sexy bits.