What's with the new format?

What's with the new format? Anyone else find it all kind of confusing to find threads now.

It looks like it still has a few kinks to be worked out (overflowing text in threads) BUT overall, I'm liking the redesign! Very nice.

On my computer, the text boxes in the threads ends, but the words keep going almost as if the thing doesn't wrap text or something.

I mean, I love the new bacground when it first comes up, but I agree that it is a bit confusing to find the threads and such... Oh, and I love the skyline of the park at the bottom of the page.

CPboy, Walt & Jeff have obviously spent a lot of time updating the site. Please take the time to navigate the new version. I do not think it is confusing, just a change that's all. :)

I just noticed the skyline at the bottom, that's cool! I also like the gallery section. It's much more user-friendly now.

Well, job well done guys. This site looks great. Walt and Jeff, beautiful job. Again, I personally love the color scheme, the Maverick background, and the skyline at the bottom. You guys must have spent a lot of time on this. Looks awesome. :)

Actually the photo gallery is exactly how it has been for months, just pretty.

I don't understand how it's hard to navigate. It's exactly the same thing... Forum -> Topics -> Thread.

And from the topic list, click the icon to go to the newest post since you last marked the forum read.

Everything looks great so far guys. Have not had any problems. I had a few questions though. 1. Is the rest of the content going to return eventually? 2. The ad system is not tied in to the login yet right? and 3. I miss the recent post button, any plans for that?

Other then those questions I love it, it was long overdue. Keep up the good work.

We still have some content to add, as well as some adjustments to make. But most of the former content will not be coming back.

We studied the site usage and talked about it for some time. What we found was that more than 90% of our traffic was focused on just a few areas. It was a lot of work to maintain such a huge collection of content, especially when no one was using it. It was out of date, with some of it going untouched since the 2004 launch.

We are both huge advocates of simplicity. Give the people what they want, get rid of the bloat. This makes the site easier to use and allows us to quickly make changes.

There will be other stuff coming, including sections for video, wallpaper, enhancement of our new trip planning section (Heading to the Point? - A place for people coming in from Google and such to land, ask their questions, and find their answers.), and more. It will take some time getting used to it, but we think it's a huge improvement.

Awesome! I love it! Jeff & Walt this design is great!

But...where'd I go? My handsome picture is gone! Jeff, I thought you were trying to improve this site?

Oh where, oh where, has my avatar gone? Oh where, oh where, can it be? ;)

Mmmm... Web 2.0.

Kudos on the site, I love the bloat-free-ness of it. I had always felt that if the extra content wasn't updated it was pointless to have it.

Great job!

The avatars will come back in a subsequent build.

I know that it's hard to really see what's different on the back end in terms of the forum, but the library code alone is about around 10,000 new lines of code (though I like my { braces } alone on new lines). There is a lot of work left to do, but given the popularity of the site in the last year, it was important to me to get the new code out for the performance boost.

To expand on what Walt was saying, we both are guilty of "big bang" site work, where you disappear into a cave for months and then come out with something big. The problem with that approach is that you lose sight of what is really important and end up straying from your primary objectives. I actually started over on the forum twice because I was building for situations that didn't exist. Ditto for the content management and photo apps.

The important thing was to enable a framework that would allow us to be more agile and not be locked into something for years. Now we have that flexibility.

Ensign Smith said:
But...where'd I go? My handsome picture is gone! Jeff, I thought you were trying to improve this site?

Mike, I think he succeeded.. ;)

Nice work Jeff. Can't wait to see the ad-free version. ;)

I love the new format. Especially the background on the main page. Good job Walt and Jeff!

OMG, the Geuaga Lake forum is gone!!

You only started it 4 years ago with the intentions of getting rid of it, didn't you??!11 ;)

Seriously, though. Site looks pretty awesome.

One other question, will it be possible to mark individual threads as "read" or just whole forums?

More Praise: I like the message notification now too....no more having to look to the top to see a tiny (1) next to the PM link. Very nice.

I also like the archive feature. Then you can close down threads/forums and still keep the info available for people to back search (and NOT bring them back to life).

I'll keep adding as I find more stuff to praise.

It's definitely growing on me. I wasn't sure what to think last night, but now that I've properly slept, I think it's a lot nicer than the previous version. No clutter.

Great Job!!! Love It!!! :)

Looks good once the kinks are out it will be perfect.