forum get messed up; also, redesign imminent

[onions]

so the forum upgrade got all botched up somehow. i think things are fixed for the most part. header and footer are in place, the styling is about 50% broken, and the ad after the first post is kaput. the bad news is that the site skins are completely broken, but that was eventually going to happen anyway because i'm now ready to start the upgrade process.

here's a link to the rough mockup for the planned upgrades that was shown before. There's a ton more features and a couple of other pages that are still being hammered out between me and my consultant but things are progressing steadily. rather than wait to get everything finished and then changing everything over all at once, I've decided that a piece meal approach would be best for a couple of different reasons. if i waited until every page is done, the upgrade project would never get finished. also, i think this approach would be less of a shell shock to the user, like the saying about boiling a lobster. the last thing i want to do is pull a gawker and at least this way, i can explain things as i go and get some feedback along the way. and lastly, i need to brush up on my html5, css3, and jquery skills to make myself more marketable for potential jobs so this upgrade process is akin to a skills training exercise.

i'll probably be making posts like this as a sort of announcement in preparation for each upgrade. it's a long road ahead and with only the rough mockup of the homepage, we've barely scratched the surface. so anyways, the plan tonight was to get the new header up and running but with the snafu of the forum upgrade, i'm postponing it for the weekend. here's a screenshot of the new header:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/13491782/newheader.png

we've relocated a lot of static elements from the right hand sidebar to the header to keep them more centralized and out of the way. this opens up the right hand side for more content. The header is also thinner to push the content higher up on the page.

the logo is new and we're adopting a new overall color scheme to brand the site. there's a new link on the nav bar linking to the store that right now has our t shirts for sale. eventually i might add all my old stock of lego that's sitting around doing nothing but collecting dust. we'll see.

anyways, i guess that's all i have to say for tonight. got feedback? thoughts? reactions? questions? let me know.

[Iare Tosevite]

Noo I hate news summary list style.

[Oky Wan Kenobi]

I am running Firefox 3.6 and the header (and everything else as far as I can tell) is showing up fine. Yesterday the site wouldn't let me post, but now it seems to be working.
Are you going to reintroduce the skins soon?

[akunthita]

Looks like the sign-in issue got fixed! thank's Ace! I liked the new design from the beginning, so I hope the upgrade will go smoothly. In fact, I was just going to ask you the other day when it will happen.

[GrayMattR]

I like the new logo. It will work well on t-shirts and custom minifigs. The new layout looks nice too, especially the slimmer heading area. I'll still miss Mike Crowley's Anakin vs. Dooku header picture, though, because it was so well done.

[Sydag]

Yup, I like this !

[onions]

I am running Firefox 3.6 and the header (and everything else as far as I can tell) is showing up fine. Yesterday the site wouldn't let me post, but now it seems to be working.
Are you going to reintroduce the skins soon?

firefox was always ahead of the curve.

skins is a little lower priority at the moment. i know it's something people liked so i'm not completely taking it off the table. it'll just come back a little later.

[Morgan19]

Since you're asking for feedback... Wha-BAM! That logo! It's distractingly huge. It already looks gigantic compared to the rest of the banner, and not having any breathing space around it compounds that. Does it really need to be that big? Maybe 75% smaller?

m19

[Darth Mitz]

Overall I like the mock up, looks really clean and easy to navigate.

I agree with Morgan on the Logo feedback - it does feel quite large and could possibly do with some space around it.

Maybe consider placing the search box on the right - possibly lift the main navigation headings (NEWS, REVIEWS etc.) so they sit on the same base line as the logo. The main Nav headings could be bumped across to the left a little too.

Overall look and feel is nice though.

[onions]

i'm working on the navigation baseline issue right now. i have the navigation along the same baseline as the logo right now on all pages but the forum, and it sits uncomfortably close to the edge for my taste, so i'll take another stab at the logo and shrink it down a bit. that should make things a bit easier on the eyes.

[fallenangel327]

If nothing else, I'd just like to say that I absolutely love the blue - it brings back fond memories of the old boards.

Now how about those avatars and tags?

[Mofo Jones]

Looks good so far.

[cas]

I'm liking the way it's shaping up, too. The blue is very pleasant. Clashes with the starfield, though.

[DarthNick]

Part of the last 'B' of the FBTB title isn't showing up for me (Chrome 18 on a Mac). Checked Safari (V5.1) as well, no problems there.

EDIT: Looks good now.

[theone]

i like the mock up, BUT i don't like the half half of old and new

[agrahmann]

Has the redesign sucked all the time away from posting? That'd be a bummer. Missing me some FBTB.

[agrahmann]

Hooray! They're back! Long live FBTB!

[Commander Cody]

The new design is good for starters, I guess.
If I may say it bluntly:
It does not look like a LEGO website. Sorry, it just looks bland to me.
There lacks a color/image/illustration in the title/header.
It really needs something LEGO SW related like Anakin vs Dooku or Greg's Cartoons.
It does not scream "LEGO!" like other sites, such as Brickset.com and Bricklink.com for example.
These are my thoughts on the matter.
Respectfully, Anthony A.

I DO APPRECIATE YOUR WORK WITH THE WEBSITE REDESIGN; I UNDERSTAND IT CAN TAKE SO MUCH TIME, ENERGY, ETC. !

[Scogali]

Do excuse my deep ignorance, but is this as far as the redesign is going? Has progress just stalled, or has the mock-up been scrapped?

[CloneEmperor]

The Boss is a busy guy. It's my understanding that he is working on it as he has time. (I do believe he mentioned this several times in different posts but I'm too lazy to look them up)