Totally disoriented..

[The Barry]

I don't like the WHITE, STERILE appearance.

That's what is bothering me..

If the tartan is not going to be the background, the color scheme should be a bit 'softer'. I tried to read some forum posts at night, and found it painful to be bombarded with so much bright light.

Maybe color things up a bit, to get rid of some of this 'hospital' look?

Just my $.02

[morrison]

Formatting the site is fine.

Changing the colors, background, borders etc has diminished the site.

As I said in #53 & #58, "It's the tartan." ty thebarry

This non tartan look is unacceptable to me. I am drawn by an undefinable attraction to the tartan. It is what made the XMTS site more appealing for me.

You, my xmarx brothers & sisters will continue having me as a brother in kilt and heart. But, without the attractiveness of the appearance on screen as something to be proud to refer new Kilters and other inquisitors to I think I'll just stand back and watch the thing falter, (I don't want that!) unless the beautiful looks are brought back, which will bring me in again.

Additionally, even though I'm a hanger-on here in the free membership parlor and not an advertiser, what does it say to me as a potential 1st time advertiser in coming to a site about kilts, tartan, and traditions of such and find a plain white board with information indexed to specifics and otherwise showing no appearance of proliferation of the life and wear of tartan?

Where's the inviting atmosphere in appearance of brother/sisterhood in the Kilt and Tartan? I think it is not up to the advertisers and the design and colors in their advert banners to provide the "splash" of ambience and environmental character in the pages displayed.

When I came here, "XMarksTheScot" had appreciation of the Tartan, Scots and the kilt plastered all over it (1st impressions of the initial appearance). That's a part of what I want new arrivals to see when I refer them to XMarksTheScot. This "New" appearance is no different than any other unimaginative place in the mind or whiteboard.

I may as well refer people to "Clear Shows No Colors.com."
Russell Berry

[Tobus]

Wow, this is a tough crowd. If you folks are seriously going to leave just because there's no tartan in the background, I'd say you should probably reevaluate your priorities.

I dunno about you, but I come here for the advice and wisdom, not the color scheme. Sure, I like the tartan background better, but it's not an issue I'd walk away over. And yes, the white background is a bit sterile compared to what we were used to, but it's not the end of the world either. Do you avoid doing business with online sites with white backgrounds too?

Honestly, I don't mean to be a rabble-rouser, but some of you seem to be throwing a temper tantrum and making a mountain out of a mole hill. It's not that big a deal! I, for one, would prefer the tartan background and subdued color schemes, but I'll still come here regardless of the colors. Because the colors weren't why I came here in the first place.

Steve, I've been through forum changes on my own boards too, and I know the kind of hard work that goes on behind the scenes. I also know that people are invariably going to whine and moan about it, no matter what you do. I feel your pain, and I appreciate the efforts you're going through.

[The Barry]

I only meant to throw out suggestions. No tantrum here, just gentle reminders of why I liked parts of the old "look".

[Steve Ashton]

With all of the different threads that the new look to the forum has started perhaps some of you may have missed where I explained some of the things we are still working on.

Yes, we are trying to get the Tartan background back on the site. The problem is that when it was originally done (And that was not that long ago) it was done by adding a module to the overall forum software. That module was one of the things that was causing a conflict that had the result of you all getting logged off every two or three minutes.

We are working on it, believe me. We first thought that having our Tartan as the background of the title bars would be enough. We vetted the site for over a week to all the forum staff and 8 other members and everyone liked the look. But since we went live so many people complained that the Tartan title bars were too hard to read so we took them out and the overall look of the site appears brighter. To put the Tartan background back on the site we are having to go about it by writing the code from scratch.

We know that the current site looks bright to some people. However it is actually darker than the original. I actually took readings off my screen with a light meter and we are currently 8% darker than the original site.
When and if we are able to get the tartan background back on the site it will appear even darker and more people will complain about that.

So, please be patient. This new site has been up for just over 48 hours. As with all new software there will be bugs.

We are working on it.

[fluter]

Wow, this is a tough crowd.

No, just lacking in intellectual curiosity. I've been in the software racket goin' on thirty years, and I've seen tough.

I am pretty sure (not counting post #65 here) that Steve and the mods have mentioned at least 4 times that the tartan background is in the works.

And that it was removed because it was breaking stuff.

Steve has also designated a thread for discussing look-and-feel issues, and a thread for discussing actual, honest to goodness bugs. And this thread is not one of 'em.

There's some good high-octane coffee brewing, folks; do wake up and have a sniff. :ootd:


Edited Gracious, could y'all tell you caught me at the end of a work day? Over in the Off topic forum you'll find a couple of threads. You should be able to get the latest official words of wisdom, and the latest from the rabble, there:

Questions and comments about the new look to the forum

bugs in the new forum

[BEEDEE]

Folks, it's fairly obvious that a lot of people have trouble with handling change. However, these threads are devolving into issues beyond what has been done to the forum.

Since Steve has opened two threads, one for questions and comment and one for bugs, we are closing his one.

Please post to the appropriate thread.

Questions/comments
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...k-forum-57690/

Bugs:
http://www.xmarksthescot.com/forum/f...w-forum-57689/

We will attend to genuine bugs as soon as possible after they are identified.

General comments will be held for at least 7-10 days so that people get a chance to see the site at a stable point. Then we will evaluate comments and make decisions accordingly.

Brian & the Forum Moderators