[TFN] The new TheForce.net

If the boards end up looking like this, I'm probably going to end up murdering someone.


there would be no reason to change the look of the boards, although i can't seem to find a reason why this update on TF.N happend anyway.

 

Well, the text is too small, and I cannot even increase the size like I can on other sites. What is up with that?

 

as people have said, im a user for nearly a year, but with the new layout even im finding it hard to find latest news stories, and just how to navigate round the main pages

i have now just bookmarked The episode3 spoiler forum so that i dont have to navigate the main pages

 

yeah....looks like I have to remember the exact address of the forums, instead of the home page myself.

 

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but the links to TF.N stories at the bottom of the forum pages do not work in Firefox and Safari. They aren't even readable in my Safari browser.

 

they dont work at all, i usuing Explorer, im at work you see, and they havent worked sinse the switch

 

Has they even been a reason listed for doing this?
-- Was Lucasfilm threatening them?
-- Was there a C&D order?
-- Was it a money issue?
-- Did the service option change?

Any of those I'd say "oh okay makes sense now". Right now it looks like it was screwed with just to be screwed with.

It's like painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa. The old site was a mimiced by many, love by more, and it stood out among the millions of SW sites. Yeah she didn't look like the 100s of other sites out there, but that was teh charm and the feel. It was home, it had soul, and it was familarity and a touchstone for the Star Wars community that no one else able to create for those reasons. And part of the reason it was things was because the it didn't look like a hardcore news site, it looked like a fansite run by fans who were interesting in being fans, not maximizing (sp) the advertising bottome line; it didn't feel like a business.

Honestly when Episode III comes and go and teh Star Wars fandom starts on it long, and eventually final, hibernation and reverts by to cliques of fans and zines hanging out here and there. I just don't see TFN surviving as a business. Not the way things are getting now.

 

My prediction is TFN will be absorbed into Rebelscum and will therefore cease to exist.

 

they dont work at all, i usuing Explorer, im at work you see, and they havent worked sinse the switch

No... There is ONE place they work!

Firefox on my Linux machine!! And there, the font is 3x too large. But, at least it can be read!

 

I don't mind the home page, but please leave the boards pages the same.

 

Boy, am I glad I don't visit the main page anymore. It just looks, unprofessional. Best word I can use to describe it.

 

I much prefer the old style I'm sorry to say.

Three things really jump out at me about the new one.

1. The font is too small.

2. There is way too much repetition with the headlines across the various categories. One single news list served us far more efficiently. Its now way too cluttered.

3. It takes more than twice as long to load for me than before. For people like myself who are outside the USA, it can get a little frustrating. Only suggestion I can make is to reduce the amount of frames and images.


But ultimately, as others have said... if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

 

I liked the old one but I like the new one more. More appealing but yeah I hope the drop-down menu gets working again soon.

 

They aren't even readable in my Safari browser.

Same here. Not that I'd want to go to the main page anyways. I think I can get my SW news from a better looking site.

 

Bring the old back. It was much better than this one.

 

I don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but the links to TF.N stories at the bottom of the forum pages do not work in Firefox and Safari.

I noticed that too. I wasn't about to complain, though. I quite like it! No chance of reading any spoilers there!

 

In case you haven't noticed many sites (including the very unpopular sites IGN.com and StarWars.com) have a very similar style.

I disagree. Both of those mentioned have better layout and navigation than the new TFN.
Still, I prefer to visit starwars.com via the RSS feed (newsboxes) these days over going through the main page.

 

Actually, I don't really mind the new TFN page. It needed a change, and it isn't nearly as bad as a lot of you are making it out to be. Sure, there are a few things I'd change, but overall, I don't think it's that bad.

That said, I don't think it'd translate well to the forums as-is.

 

It is kind of a hastle though.
The little drop down bar thingy doesn't take you where you ask it to anymore. Now it just takes you around in circles instead of actually letting you go to the site you want to go to.
Can't wait for it to be fixed. If it is supposed ot be fixed, as in the banner announcement.
What a waste if it isn't.

 

Well, they fixed the headline menu at the bottom. (I still liked it better when I couldn't read the text.)

 

Really? When was this?

*goes and checks it out*

 

Ok, I could learn to live with it, despite the eyestrain and the weirdness of looking at something that blatently DEFIES everything that my university HTML class professor taught us about webpage programming and layout.

Now if only they bothered to do enough 'net research (like they used to as little as ONE MONTH AGO) to come up with a headline that ISN'T available at the OTS or that you're only interested in if you're a collector.

I've been coming to this site since the mid to late 90's. Since before it was even TF.N (my extremely late registration to the boards, not withstanding). I always liked the CONTENT better then, and for that matter a month ago, than what I'm reading these days and I liked it better than most anything I could get at other similar sites.

Before the latest change, you got news you didn't get at the official site. Now I might as well just go there. Heck I'm paying for it, why not?

Thanks guys. You finally gave me a reason to NOT check in at TF.N everyday. Keep up the good work. Heh.

 

Hate to say it, but the new design just isn't growing on me. Everytime I go there it feels more and more like a masive ad/affiliate program server than TF.N

 

You're making posts as if this can't be changed and customized. Of course it can. As all the bugs from the switch are ironed out, then they can go in and begin to customize all the areas and give them each their own unique feel like before. It just takes time, that's all. There aren't a lot of people who are working on this.

 

Wow...I can't think of single polite way to say I don't like it, so I'll leave it at that. I know how much of a pain in the ass good UI design is, but the old one worked just fine. It has looked that way in the 5 or 6 years I've been coming here. I guess my biggest complaint is the cluttered and crampedness of it, as others have said.

But, to end on a positive note, glad to see there are RSS feeds now.