Nope. I didn't know we were adopted. Thanks for the link. I'll go read that now.

wow, the new format looks terrible.....

this is a really bad joke, right?

I'm sorry, but I don't like the new one very much.
EF is nice the way it is.
As EF is very special, it would be interesting to have perhaps a new color identity but without changing the layout.

Best wishes to all EFers for a Merry Christmas

The new look doesn't appeal to me at all.

If it aint kaput, don't fix it ..
Runs fine like it is, know where to find what.. great site as it is now.

Or are we all afraid of something new?? i know i am

What will become of the englishforum.ch?
I guess it'll turn into a TheLocal.ch sooner or later, right?

I like the new layout however instead of having a list of the threads with a load of useless text underneath, I think it would be better to have a summary of the latest headlines...maybe taken from swissinfo.

I hope not!!!

Well, he's up to something.
Every 6 months or so there's an announcement of some minor changes.
It's on the move to somewhere ...

Must be the CMS you're using/moving to.

Anyway, the index page has the first post from the most recently updated threads, but the forum page has the most recent poster listed, if I'm not mistaken. FOr people who visit the forum multiple times each day, having the first post of the most recently posted thread is not really all that useful on the index page. And like others, I'd like the thread orgininator on the forum page.

For me, I think I'll just set my link to the forum page and not bother with the index to be honest. I suppose that for the infrequent visitor the index page is useful. For the obsessive user, the forum page is the place to start. I like the small changes in font, etc on the forum page.

Will tapatalk work better with this version?

+1

And a link to a Swiss weather site. Or a link to where we can find sunshine. Today's sunshine situation is rather grim.

My comments:

- The adverts clutter the homepage far too much and it is difficult to tell what is ad and what is EF.

- The Discussion Forum Overview does not show which forum each post is in, nor does it show the last person to have posted. On the current EF main page you can click on the post title to go to the start of the thread and the "arrow" icon to go to the last post in the thread - in the new design it isn't obvious that the "time of last post" is a link until you move your mouse over it.

Don't forget that not all users of EF are computer or internet savvy.

Cheers,
Nick

Hi,

Just looked at http://www.toytowngermany.com - it would be a shame if EF was to look the same.

On TTG the front page is really cluttered - it is difficult to tell what is coming from where. The standard font on the forum pages I find difficult to read too.

EF might look like a bog-standard v-bulletin install, but the style works and it is easy to find things - especially when you are searching / browsing the forum for a particular topic.

I'd be interested to know what the business case was for a redesign. Presumably the EF is supposed to make money for the owners by visitors clicking on ads - sorry, but the only way I will click on an ad will be by mistake and not because I am interested in the particular product or service being offered.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Cheers,
Nick

I have just joined Snopes, which looks very much like EF,

http://message.snopes.com/

.

As do hundreds of other vBulletin forums. Scroll to the bottom of your link and you'll find:

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.7.4

(EF is presently on 3.8.4)

What's the point?

The new look isn't terrible. Plus, I was never conviced that the current banner & logo were the best possible, so I'm all for changing that; unfortunately, the new logo is just a re-worked version of the old one, so no real improvement there.

Apparently Google search has now been intergrated, which is a major plus - although experienced users already knew to manually use Google to search the forum rather than the rubbsh built-in search function, this should help all the newbies who didn't know about this trick.

I can see many visual changes, but they seem to have been done simply for the sake of it. Are there any functional / useful changes aside from the Google search integration?

The only reason given in previous posts for the change is to make it more similar to some other random websites that users of this site will probably never use, and so this is not going to help. If coherence with other webistes is the goal, then the current vBulletin format is familiar to many users due to other similar webistes that they use, so sticking with the current format would surely be the best way to achieve coherence across websites.

Overall, I don't see the point, and no valid justification has been given so far. Anyone care to fill me in? Are there actual improvements that I'm missing. Because, as far as I can see, it is just change for the sake of it (or for the sake of a goal that will not help any users).

I suspect we will get advertising and pop ups. Personally I would rather pay a subscription than suffer another penis enlargement offer.

Editor Bob, over the holidays people have had a few comments about the new look. Comments/responses to the comments left?

To make life easy, here is a summary of the comments to date:

Most people think it is dull, not exciting or cluttered. There is no need to change the forum for change's sake. The ads are too prominent. The link to Facebook could lead to loss of privacy. OP details should remain.

On the plus side: incorporating Google search is good, as is the Events summary.

And a question about the Google search - will it continue to not index certain areas of the site?