neutral. The new page, not the best, not the worst. Could live with it or without it, either way, nothing lost, nothing gained. :I

This fixed my problem with Safari, as well. Thank you.

Maybe it's just seeing the 'old' news in this new style.
I'll wait for the news you've made this new front page for to make my decision about it.

First reaction...OMG..why?
Second reaction...hmm, ok, I never used the big buttons anyway (navbar user) and it is handy to see the news

Suggestion: I like the blog style for the featured items, but it would maybe be good to add the option for creators to add some detail to the featured item? Like giving a synopsis of the main post. I suggest making that a piece of text that can be added to the upload once featured, maybe using a similar technique to the pick as personal pick (but with text options); but only available to add if upload is featured?

I likes it!
Thanks Delphy and crew...

Due to the blog-style layout I found some featured items I'd missed (OMG!!!) They are now duly downloaded.

Have some fresh baked brownies! Yummy!

leesester, First answer - read the first post and my replies as to the "Why?". It's already been explained "Why" and your tone leaves a lot to be desired, especially when the information is already out there.

With regards to the text of the items, we actually did try a version with that, but it ended up being a wall of text and in most cases the first few lines of the download really aren't that interesting, so we rejected it in favour of the EP/Tags/Forum view we have now. This prevents too much text but also gives information thats pertinent to the download.

I have no idea what you are talking about with regards to the "similar technique to the pick as personal pick" - there is no "extra text" you can enter at any point. I'd rather have it be things that are easily recognisable to the general downloader rather than something arbitrary added by the creator - we already have enough of that with the tags.

Wow, this is different but cool! Thanks for all the shinyness!

My first reaction was: Oh GOD the buttons are gone! But now I think I really like it. I'm not into the whole sims3 thing, but I can see how this is going to be very useful for those who are. A ham cookie for Delphy!

I like the changes, but In a way I liked the second search box on the home page-- because at least there was an additional search window there in case the navbar search box glitches for any reason-- site related or browser related, or dummy related.

Though I know there's a search box in the download area too, I couldn't get to 'downloads' or use any other link on the nav for that matter-- just now because (I think) -- the IP changed in the script the navbar uses and my noscript kicked in again (MTS2 is usually allowed). Since the navbar was working fine yesterday, (when I first noticed the change), I was a little lost for a minute there, and I couldn't navigate or search for anything. I almost had to go back to real life for a second there! Phew. Crisis averted! ;D

All that said, I like the blog-view, and I think that it's a good thing for the site to have it-- I definitely wasn't aware of news and site announcements before. However, because my resolution is biggish, (and widescreen) I find that the wall of text on the left makes my eyes wander, lost, in a sea of text for a few seconds every time. I don't find myself reading it or noticing it all that much. I think a 3 column would center my field of view and draw my eye to the announcements, but that's just me, and at best it's a minor annoyance and niggly thing. As it is, I've pretty much already forgotten what the old page looked like. (Yes, I am a goldfish)

Anyways, mucho cookies for everyone. (I think peanut-butter choc chip).

Oh! I totally didn't see the tab things! I thought I'd looked there, too. That's much better. And maybe it was just with my computer, because it's changing much quicker than every 8 seconds. My comp has been acting strange lately, though, so it's probably only me.

I'll get used to this, and I'm sure soon I'll love it an not understand why I had issues with it to begin with. As I said, change is hard (even if it's something like this). I will miss the big buttons, though.

bare bear: I actually increased it earlier to 10 seconds, and timed it - it's definately 10 seconds.

PrincessD: Thanks for the comments. Unfortunately, a 3 column view wouldn't work on 1024x768 - this would be identical to the old view, and would end up with a very narrow and squashed middle column where the news is. I did try this and it looked weird. I too run widescreen monitors (dual ones, in fact), but I actually like the whitespace that is on the page.

I like the new fron pge atractv and easy fr me to navigate, Kudos to yu Delphy

i gotta say, i really like it! at first i didn't but that was just my brains first panicked reaction to change.

( sherahbims brain)
. . .... NOOOOO IT ARE DIFFERENT
*runs to familiar downloads page* *calms down*
*accesses the tech news from the drop down menu* *reads the news*
*tentatively goes to front page* :lovestruc
OHHHH IT ARE GOOD

just a few minutes in the life of my brain.

looks good!
have some cookies! i made em my self!

I like it. However, I do have a suggestion about the display, though: Scrolling down through the news, it all kind of blurs together. Even though the headings are a larger size, it feels like I'm having to try extra hard to differentiate one entry from another. Would it be possible to add some very light shading behind the headers to break up page and make the divisions between articles more obvious?

I use Firefox 3 and I've had problems with the drop-down navigation since it was added. It would sometimes work, sometimes not, but I have preferred using the drop-downs (when they would actually drop down) since they were added to the layout, so I'm very pleased to note that now that you've made changes to the pop-up recognition code, the dropping-down aspect seems to be working perfectly.

I noticed that when I didn't feel like scrolling through my bookmarks and just typed in the website name! Very nice!

Hi Delphy
Sorry if my tone seemed off. I had of course read the reasons you gave and tried to give some input into the idea of the blog view. I appreciate the reasons why that is not possible, and I think that once we start having updates on the modding developments on sims3 the front page will be my first port of call.
Thanks

Lee

OMGoodness, love the new shininess!

Sending Delphy and all the staff a HUGE, ENORMOUS platter of yummy cookies! Thanks for all the hard making this site a kick a** place to be! :O)

I like how the fetured and top items change every 10 sec.
However same sujestion as jadin, I get lost on the news text and end up not reading it at all. Also it doesn't look so much as a front page to me. I guess I got used to the other one. Anyway thanks for the time and for taking the search box off.

Chocolate cake for Delphy and HP.

Maybe I've missed it, but is there a direct link to the front page anywhere? When options are set to have Downloads as main page it gets hard to find the front page. It's not important though, I could just bookmark the front page or something like that, but I thought it was worth mentioning.

zax - "Home" button on the navbar.

jadin, good idea on the shading - I'll also try the standard "alternate row background shading" too and see if that helps.

zax, when you have your default homepage set to anything else via your profile Options, then the "Home" link on the navbar takes you to your default page - ie downloads, site map, etc. The only way to see the "true" homepage is to turn off your default.

Adding a multi-column view would only work on resolutions equal to or higher than 1680x01050, and only about 8% of people who visit have that.

Even at 1680x1050, there really isn't that much whitespace except by the side of the featureds and on the right hand side. The normal news items don't have the whitespace problem.

I can see the point about the "compactness" but it'll stay how it is for now. You know, if you only want to read the news, you can always untick the box next to Featured in the top right.

Blah. Not crazy about it. I don't understand the constant need for changes on the homepage, but oh well. I'm just gonna avoid it and save myself a link directly to the downloads page.

Good job to you, though, because I can appreciate the effort you guys made to make a new front page. I'm not a total butt

*Gives peanut butter cookies*

"Constant changes"? It hadn't changed for, I dunno, since August 2008. Thats not, well, "constant".

My first reaction wasn't very positive either...I miss the big buttons. But as with all the changes before this, I will eventually get used to it.

I do appreciate your work & effort in continuing to make this site better for all in the long run. Just PLEASE don't go overboard with the flashing ads. If you go the route of TSR & have so much garbage stinging my eyeballs on the front page, I will probably stop using the front page all together. ONE ad is plenty & I DO so appreciate that I can click on that little plus/minus sign & hide the ads. I know they may be necessary for your income/upkeep of the site, but they are extremely annoying to readers like me.

I'm not a big fan of "blogs" per say, but I can see why you went for this type of change & like I said, I will get used to it eventually.