DU3 - so far not a fan

[underpants]

Okay it has only been 10 minutes but this is like re-learning how to walk.

No videos on the main page
"Soapbox"
NO CONSPIRACY THEORIES?!?!?!?

Don't like the twitter and other boxes on each post.

No sig lines?

All right all right I will just get used to it

[oldironside]

1. Agreed.

It is a major step backwards. It looks more like Freerepublic than DU.

[TheEuclideanOne]

90. Well, comparing it to Freerepublic is a bit harsh, but holy cow are these bugs super obvious.

I could totally understand it if they were subtle issues that only the hard-core users could notice, but the gazillian issues that fall into the category of "Wow, if they tested this feature even 1 time, it would be noticed" are the ones that surprise me. Seriously, who in their right mind decided to bring this system live?

There must be some major breakdown in the development team and project management side of things. Did somebody accidentally delete all of the original source code? Did Skinner threaten the developers by saying that he is going to bring the site live, no matter how many bugs are in the system, perhaps some type of shaming approach or negative reinflorcement?

Right now, the dev team is probably in a panic and sleeping by their computers. I imagine that this "bring it live" excersize is causing people to spend a whole lot of time that they would not normally spend.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

99. Personally, I'd roll back to DU2 and fix this puppy before making it "live"

But it's not my call, and it's not my Website.

But so far, it's tasting like "New Coke," and that's going to make it hard to turn this into an ongoing cash proposition. It needs to be fixed before it has a monthly fee attached to it.

[TheEuclideanOne]

100. Same here - Just by including the entire community in the pain of testing will not help.

Maybe the thought is that if you make it live and force people to try to use it, they will give the quickest feedback, but that will not lead to anything good. For the really blatant things like, "The signature does allow images", as an example, it does not help to have 100 people posting things like "WTF?!?!? The Signature line does not work!". Obvious things like that should be done and then let us give feedback on the finer points.

Just roll it back until the dev team is done. Wasting everybody's time in beta testing it is not going to turn out like I think you are expecting. Yes, this is a tight-knit community, but don't take advantage of that to use as a way to do the testing for the web team. Hire testers, finish the site, then bring it live.

What the heck, Skinner, did you outsource it to some company in India where they told you that they can put 100 people on the job for the price of 1 person at US rates and that there is no way it could fail without all of that manpower?

[kayakjohnny]

2. I wish it had more color. Too much white.

Even Youtube managed to get a new look.

Throw some other color options into the mix.

[underpants]

6. Thanks - I knew there was something else

yes too white

[Graybeard]

17. More color. Page looks too sterile.

I liked the different color icons on top of the DU2 page.

[MedicalAdmin]

101. Did the smiley's disappear?

I can't find them and they were good for things like sarcasm, satire, and just letting people understand the 90 of communication that doesn't come through the written or spoken word.

I am not a fan so far. Not that my opinion counts because I can't afford it right now anyway.

[kayakjohnny]

102. They didn't disappear. But they are now hard to find.

There is a link pinned to the top of meta....

And here it is...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/emoticons

[MedicalAdmin]

105. Thanks....

Given that I am not a coding type of dude, I probably won't be using them much.

Cheerio.

[LiberalLovinLug]

61. Front Page gone from the best to one of the worst

You mentioned YouTube. Yes it seems like with faster speeds, higher bandwidth, bigger monitors etc...other sites are adapting by making their sites MORE visually based functionality. DU has decided to go backwards to a time where text based sites were the norm.

DU was ahead of their time with their DU2 Front Page. Soon other sites like YouTube have caught up. Why oh Why are they now going back to a tired boring 1990's type-based design? It is horrible, but I'm willing to give it time to see how it looks after all the feedback.

[Odin2005]

83. It needs some blue.

[Chiquitita]

96. yes!!

It's grey and white stripes everywhere. I miss the color and the greatest page.

[orpupilofnature57]

4. Agreed ,it's a nanosecond old.

[leveymg]

5. Words to the Wise: If it ain't broke, don't break it.

DU3 is a mess. What's the point of messing with something that worked so well?

[underpants]

8. I just went back to retrieve my sig line

and literally let out a *sigh* when I saw the old site.

well we will see

[leveymg]

13. I want my Journal back. I know it's archived, but I want it brought back to life.

What's the point of this DU3 exercise - to save on bandwidth?

[1monster]

24. How do you get back? My link to DU2 is now a link

to DU3.

[underpants]

27. Here

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/

[1monster]

40. Thank you!

[GoneOffShore]

58. Thank you indeed- Thought I'd have to find another way to

rebuild my ignore list.

Not that you're there.

[StarsInHerHair]

86. how do you go back?

I want to copy my sig line too

[Rene]

19. I agree Not a fan of this change

What was broken?....it was so easy to peruse thru du2 and pick articles of interest. I'm thinking the white space is reserved for future advertisers

[underpants]

22. I was thinking the same thing about all the empty space

we'll see

[tavalon]

25. The concept behind it is more democratic

We are all going to be responsible for its functioning. It reminds me of OWS. Less oligarchy, more participant driven.

If you were here for the advent of DU2, you might remember it had growing pains but turned out really well. I think we should give this one a chance to mature.

[underpants]

28. I like the DU2 upgrade

I thought it was an immediate improvement. This ...will take some getting used to.

[hobbit709]

7. Not sure yet

I can't find anything without going through everything, some things appear to be lost-at least temporarily, new color scheme hard on my eyes. Oh well, I was spending way too much time on DU anyhow. Maybe I'll find something more productive to do.

[Oldenuff]

9. I don't like it either..

But I'll lay a bet that our opinions won't change...well...the change.It's kinda like trying to stop the War on "some" drugs.Fat chance that anybody is going to listen...specially after spending countless hours building a spiffy (?) new site.

Bah humbug.


Hey!!!

We FINALLY got some doggone change now didn't we?..never mind that we seem to be going backwards tho.

[hobbit709]

12. Or we will.

[TheEuclideanOne]

75. The missing features will get programmed?

You might have thought to finish the site before moving the test site to production. Is there an email list, where you can tell us that you are finished testing the site and we can come back?

[TheEuclideanOne]

88. Sorry Tesha, I thought you were part of the web team, actually.

Maybe it was the posts of yours. My bad, sorry.

Yeah, I am sure alot of people are working hard now. Definitely not the smoothest transition, I can tell you that since I build websites, usually for very large corporations, so I can see all of the signs of mistakes that have been made. And, if I didn't, there are apparently many others helpfully reminding them.

They appear to be on the wrong track, but hopefully they will get back on track and clean up this mess. If this app were in beta, it would be a world of difference in the situation.

[kevm1550]

11. Hate it nt

[BeyondGeography]

15. I'm posting to see what my post looks like

Oh, ok. Gotta rebuild...

[WinkyDink]

16. HATE. And the STUPID WHITE SPACE to the left?? Very unpleasant.

[Arkansas Granny]

21. Yeah! Those ads showing the sickly calf and the butchered pigs were a lot better.

It's different, but I think we'll get used to it pretty quickly. It's just going to take a little time to learn how to navigate.

[originalpckelly]

29. The white space is good design. That way on wider monitors...

you don't have to read a single line of text that should be a nicer neater paragraph. That was one major problem on DU2.

[Kali]

42. have you tried classic view?

look in "my accounts" to change the setting

[Graybeard]

47. I don't see a difference.

What is supposed to be different in Classic or Standard?

[Kali]

55. in standard there is a menu at the left and then further down white space

also the thread/reply boxes/posts are off-set to the right, in classic view that menu disappears and the thread/reply boxes/posts go all the way to the left hand side of the screen (menu is then accessed from the tabs at the top of the page)

[tblue37]

92. Go to your "My Accounts" button and click "Classic" to

get a view that uses up all that white space on the left. I use the Classic mode, and I have no white space on the left at all.

[AirmensMom]

18. What were they thinking?

This is a typical "Improvement" that is actually anything but. Truly ugly. It never would have passed my usability team. Sorry they wasted a year on it. It sucks.

[Oldenuff]

20. Thinking?

It kinda reminds me of Microsoft releasing os before they were ready...and not making very many friends,or furthering loyalty in the process.

Sorry to say it...especially since there are people who prolly worked really hard...but,it does stank.

And like I said before,we will likely have it forced down our throats anyway...kinda like asking for a good candidate,and instead we get...well,you know.


And I agree with Hobit709,I was spending too much time here anyway.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

31. !

long time. no see

[onlyadream]

23. I like some things

When reading the posts, it was difficult to keep track of who replied to who. Now it's easier with the indenting. But I Miss the home page with the quick news... Maybe I missed it, so I'll keep looking.

[octothorpe]

35. Are there any deeply nested threads yet?

I'm curious how that will look when you have replies going 100 deep.

[TeeYiYi]

43. On my phone...

...the nested replies had one word and then single letter paragraphs. Then they just disappear and
I
can't
access
the
hid
den
r
e
p
l
i
e
s
.

TYY

[TeeYiYi]

87. The only format available...

...is Mobile. You have to have a star to use Standard or Classic. Hopefully that will change to at least one other option. Mobile view works like hell on my phone.

Fyi, the nested replies have been fixed since beta testing last week. They don't look that bad now. I checked it today.

Thanks for trying to help.

TYY

[Duer 157099]

51. I tried it out here:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1240478

[Highway61]

26. I'm with ya

Don't care for the main page at all. Miss seeing the videos.

[originalpckelly]

30. It is a step in the right direction...

but they need more actual graphics.

[Blacksheep214]

32. I Need My Pictures!!!

And if you could make them pop-ups it would be cool!

Where the hell did the Smileys button go? I needed a smiley! AARRRGGGHHH!!!

[underpants]

38. Smileys still work

I haven't seen the link to just click on them but they do work

[sarcasmo]

33. Where do you find the spell check?

[underpants]

39. THAT I have not been able to find

maybe it is coming soon.

[sarcasmo]

85. Good to know I am not the only one.

[tblue37]

94. Skinner says it will be programmed in soon. nt

[octothorpe]

34. I agree with you on the social media icons... Those take up too much real estate for what they are..

I think they should be much smaller or at least hidden until specifically unhidden for use.

[TeeYiYi]

44. You oughta see them on a phone...

They're HUGE! ...and trying to scroll and navigate around them on a tiny touch screen is like tiptoeing through a minefield.

TYY

[noamnety]

36. I HATE the twitter/facebook etc buttons.

They are huge and intrusive, they interrupt the flow of the conversation.

[Fantastic Anarchist]

37. Where is the socialism forum?

Where are the special topic forum?

[supernova]

41. All y'all complaining about a lack of color

Please remember that black text/white background is the most comfortable for people with sight difficulties. There are accessibility issues to think about.

Now you can program customizations so that users can chose their color schemes, but it is work and probably more than Elad can do right now.

[Aaria]

45. The front page usta be something to look forward to opening. Cheesie

[bongo_x]

46. home page

I mostly only use the home page. I hope there is going to be something there. I’m finding the new site confusing, I’m not sure what I’m looking for or where it is.

[Knicks007]

48. its giving me a headache

old format was better. This is a terrible re-design. Soapbox is idiotic. Go back to GD/GDP.

[pscot]

49. Some folks would complain

If they were hung with a new rope. I'm not crazy about the new look, but I guess I'll get used to it, since I have to.

[nolabear]

50. My problem is that I have a strong visual orientation

Seeing the News Feed and those short first paragraphs, and the videos displayed on the Front Page excites my curiosity and triggers my memory far more than a line of text. The sterility and cool design doesn't make me want to click through to stories.

Forums aren't as big a problem but what usually gets me to the site in the first place is that when I hear a headline I know I'll see something about it on DU immediately and check out the discussions following.

It might make a real difference in the number of times I come in.

(Although I always do get a chuckle out of the exclamation mark on "Post my reply!&quot

[JCMach1]

52. Hate the front page at the moment...

although I assume that is coming soon as well.

Reminds me of the malls in the UAE when they open them with much of the work still to go.

[Curmudgeoness]

53. I'm with you. I really loved DU2, I really hate change.

But....I will get used to this.

I never have understood why things that are working so well get changed. Like a grocery store deciding to move all the aisles every few years....and I just go to the store that never makes changes instead or learning all the new setup. Why????????

[byronius]

65. Can't stand it. No links. No easy news page. WTF. I'm taking a break.

[Curmudgeoness]

68. That is what I miss the most.

I continually would go to the "front page" to see the most recent posts to see what was new. And having that page got me into many forums that I would not have visited, but was glad that I did.

[Prana69]

76. I agree. The Front Page was a great entry point and summary.

I miss the videos. It was easy to see what was a video compared to text, how long the video was and a brief overview. I would open 6-8 in new tabs and work my way through them depending on how much time I had to spare.

Now, every entry is just a line item. I can't see what is a video, and I can't see how long it is.

I don't like it.

But in replies, I do like being able to see to whom a reply is directed rather than "In reply to Post #432".

P69

[Curmudgeoness]

77. Well, at least I found the page I need for recent activity

with a little help from my friends. Latest Threads is the tab to get to it and what is nice is that you can choose to look at latest threads, or most rec'd, or most active. I guess that I like it. I have yet to stumble onto the video issue, but I can't help but think they will get that sorted out. I hope so.

[GoCubsGo]

54. I'm withholding my judgement for now.

Some of the things I miss are supposedly going to show up soon, like "hide thread". However, I am not sure what you are talking about when you say "No sig lines?" I see them in the main thread, in light grey text. But, not in the posts to which I am replying.

One thing I do agree with you on is the "Soapbox" thing. I think GD/GDP was a better way to arrange things. And, since there is no "Greatest Pages", I see no point to the "recs". Or, the Twitter, etc. Otherwise, I like having the different forums and subscriptions on the sidebar. And, outside of the lack of unrecs, and the jury thing, I don't see to many differences between here and the old format.

[underpants]

56. I should have withheld judgement too

I wasn't aware of the ability to add sig lines -whoops

I think there should be two GD's as well

[tblue37]

93. The "Most Rec'd" button will be the new "greatest" page.

Click "latest threads" --> "most rec'd" to get to it.

[AikidoSoul]

57. DU3 Lacks warmth. It literally glares like an overcast day...

Looks like underpants found the smilies but damned if I can see them anywhere.

[PunkinPi]

70. see post #64 ;) nt

[mahina]

59. I'm willing to give it a chance but agree the visuals were better before,

esp being able to view latest, GD, Greatests by timeline and # of recs.

However I seem to recall bitching about DU2 conversion at least to myself. (Started reading daily after I saw the Democraticunderground.com banner on CSPAN at *'s coronation parade, the dark day Jan 21 2001, but lurked till 03.)

I see the rationale behind the process changes. If you guys are here, I am here. I'm sure it will improve. The fonts are ugly looking but I'll try to change that on my side.

And I miss my Obama bodysurfing pic oh well!

[helderheid]

60. You're not allowed to not like it! Get a grip! :P

Where's the bar?

[RobertBlue]

95. Lol!

[russspeakeasy]

62. I've tried for over 15 minutes and I'm still not

use
to
it.

[Boudica the Lyoness]

63. I like it..but

for the life of me I can't find the smileys. I also don't like the social media icons. Other than that, it's pretty good.

[PunkinPi]

64. emoticons here --->

http://www.democraticunderground.com/emoticons/index.html

[Boudica the Lyoness]

69. Thanks!

[PunkinPi]

71. You're welcome! :) nt

[trof]

73. OK, but how do you GET there?

????

[Dem2theMax]

66. I. Hate. It.

Well, at least I'll spend a LOT less time on the computer. So there is that silver lining.

[jakeXT]

67. Is the Lounge now spread over different groups like humor, weird news and entertainment ? /nt

[MisterP]

72. it has a real Children of the Corn feel

and still no ignores or unrecs, so it's going to have even more Dem rightwingers

DU2 was a place where you felt more comfortable speaking out--now it's a well-lit, well-monitored THX 1138

it's basically sub-Kos--unhomely, unsightly, unusable, suspicious security guards all around

[Liberty Belle]

74. I agree. I HATE the new DU! No color, no videos, too hard to find anything, boring for newcomers

Skinner why mess with success? The old DU was so much better looking and easier to use than this! I know you guys put time into this but it looks honestly like amateur hour compared to the great site you had before. Please bring it back!!!

[Maccagirl]

81. Not happy so far-but nowhere else to go.

Change isn't always for the better.

[erodriguez]

82. Cant get classic view unless you donate. Not cool.

I think i'm done with this site.

[femmocrat]

84. I do not think it is as attractive as DU2.

Last edited Sun Dec 11, 2011, 10:43 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't like the junk down the left side of the screen. I don't like the colors... BOOOORING!
I don't like those distracting little twitter things at the bottom of the posts.

And where the hell are the smilies?!

:frown: :grumpy: :negativenellie: (I just made those ones up. )

On edit: And I can't find my old avatar!!! It was the Wisconsin-Fist with the word "solidarity".

[RushIsRot]

89. They have had their Facebook moment. They have repaired something in NO NEED of REPAIR!

In so doing, they have made it worse instead of better.

[Lifelong Protester]

91. First check in this weekend, and so far, not a fan

The opening page looks like any other web/blog/message board.

TOO BLAH! and not too intuitive for navigation.

*sigh* and that facebook and twitter stuff at the bottom. Really? Do we need that?

[pam4water]

97. Not liking it either. It de-emphasize user input with the loss of unrec and new main page layout is

goofy. There's still a LOL catz thread on the main page. UD2 fit on my monitor almost completely without scrolling and had more information on it. When I'm looking at new threads, I don't like have to waste time sifting through sports post. I'm worried the sight going the way of Huffington Post.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

98. A cold, visually unappealing beta version of something that eventually might be good

Layout is "clean" but "fugly" (no visual appeal at all).

I'm not convinced that the new navigation is "user friendly." My personal feeling is that in an attempt to organize it, things just got a little more confusing.

No polls, no custom siglines, no custom avatars, all things we're told will be coded "in the near future," which could mean anything, but when you roll out a semi-functional "new version," it's a beta, just like a pig is bacon.

I don't see a lot of support for the forum name "Soapbox."

Not entirely sure of what parts will be available to paying customers and what will be included in the "free" version.

So far, I'm missing DU2. Change is good, but only when it's a good change.

[cbdo2007]

103. mediocrity eventually happens to all internet sites....guess it is DU's turn.

Really, the message board before was beautiful. It was the exact format I wished most other message boards out there would take up because it was fairly easy to browse through.

I'm guessing before it was more of a "home based" approach and now they've hired a bigger web design company to give them something useless and generic.

Who knows, maybe I'm in the minority, I guess hits and $$$ will be the judge but I'll probably visit less just because it's so ugly now. The saying Keep It Simple Stupid should be what's on everyone's mind when doing web design. Too much of it is done for the sake of the programmers than for the customers.

[snagglepuss]

106. I agree. What I find really strange is that DUs Classic look is only available to paid members.

What attractd me to DU was the striking look of Classic, very appealing, friendly and inviting. If the Classic look is available for star members I am dumbfounded why it's not the default. Come January when my subscription ends I'll stop visiting as I unfortunately will not be able to afford the yearly rate and, as I don't have a credit card can't do the $5 monthly rate. A lot posters have made very derisory comments about people not liking change but when people are under enormous stress the smallest change can be unbearable.

[pam4water]

104. The front page is not changing. Are only staff selected story showing?

[MindMover]

107. fantastic improvement

this new look is great and getting better.....love it..

[backtoblue]

108. It feels very compartmentalized.

You have to be careful where you post what and I don't like the twitter and facebook boxes, either.

And...R.I.P. my lil sig man....

[Tuesday Afternoon]

109. DUkick