The New Writerscafe Layout Is Terrible Forum So what don't you like?

What parts of the new layour really annoy you, is there any thing you do like?
What could be done to improve it?

I hate...
the forums are gone,
subscriptions are gone,
my stories and poems are mixed together,
it's slow,
it's down all the time,
I have an awful time trying to upload writing,
you can't see people's pages unless you're friends,
the Tree is gone.

I like...
the requests section,
notices are handy,
um...that's it really.

I like the new text editors that they've added.  Makes inserting work easier and more readable.

Also, the Book/Chapter option in nice, tiddy's up the chapters.  Also like the screenplay addition.

HMMMM, can't really think of anything else I like, but hey....

 

Where's the suscribe function?  That I liked, then I could chose whose work I wanted notified about.  Now I've got get either everyone's (all friends) or no one.

Rating 1 to 99?  Come on, 1 to 5 was great.  Much more realistic rating schema, used in performance reports and etc... 1 to 99?  That's too much.

The colors, don't get me started there.  ANd the fancy borders and graphics, that only leads to more load times.

Can't see profiles unless they're friends, how do I know I wanna have them as a friend then?

No more tags?  WHy?  Made it easier to search for the stuff I wanted.

 

The list goes on......

Like:
-Group Moderators actually have control of threads and posts now.  That's an A+++ in my book!
-Notices are nice.  I like to know when a friend has edited an old work etc.
-Notes, just an all around cool idea, too bad it isn't working.

-I'm kind of on the fence about the new text editor.  It's nicer that it has more features, but it lags big time!  and I hate the double spaced enter thing

Don't Like:
-The stupid frilly writing, flower, and baby blue.  It makes me feel how when I was a kid my mom and dad would dress my sister and I up in stupid pastel colors to go to Easter Sunday church then to grandma's house.  I hated that and I hate this!  There's a lot of horror writing and erotica and a lot of various other styles that are very adult orriented on this site, and this new layout looks like it's meant for little children.

-Forum is gone!  I didn't use it much, but it helped a helluva a lot when it came time to promote a story, group, contest, or just get help on looking for an agent, publishing etc. etc.

-New rating system sucks!  1-5 much better, 1-99 is stupid!

-I hate the pop up blurbs on the mouse roll over.  I'll click on the "groups" tab and when I bring it down to click on the group I want I get all these stupid popups as it rolls over other groups.  It's really annoying!

-I liked being able to see peoples profile.  I get a lot of friend requests; now I don't wanna add 'em because I can't find out who that person really is.

Ditto, ditto ditto..

I am going blind from these colors!!!

It is harder to find anything..and the page is so slow that I am typing faster than what appears on screen.

Whoever chopped down the Tree is gonna have some karma!

I agree with you all.  The most irritating this is the roll over pop ups.  They just keep opening and closing and I can't click on the title of the work.  I have to use Ctrl+A to actually be able to tab over and hit enter.  As if the mouse hasn't been invented yet!

There's no smilies!!!!

Hi,

The layout looks great , but it is so slow . I can not see my own stories, reviews or comments . For the first time since I have joined the Cafe , I do not feel like logging on .

I really loved my subcribes list - now it is not there.

The older version was definately more user friendly this one, on the other hand seems to be very complecated .

 

I have a lot of the same complaints:

--The cutesy layout with the baby blue and flowers just doesn't cut it for me. All of the additional graphics/boxes/etc just clutter up the page.

--I liked being able to see others' profiles. I always read those before accepting friend requests, and I found some interesting people by cruising around from profile to profile by clicking on friends icons. I've also noticed that a lot of people use their profiles to promote their contests, writing, e-zines, and other publications. Now that information is only out there to people who already know about it (their friends). It's just crazy. Why in the world would anyone want the site to be "more personal and private" (quote for the site blog)?

--Pop-ups? Kill all the pop-ups. All they do is block other items on the list I'm scrolling through.

--I cannot see the previous posts on this thread. Very inconvenient if one wants to respond to multiple posts.

--I miss the forums. I met interesting folks through their posts, and it was fun to discuss ideas and the business with others.

--The Google ads have gotten larger and more frequent. I know the site has to make money somehow to cover their costs, but two giant ads per page? And most of them for vanity publishers?

--The site loads slowly for me...and I'm on a DSL line most of the time. I haven't even bothered to try logging in from my dial-up connection.

That's all I can remember off the top of my head. I've sent a message to Charlie with all of the above complaints. I encourage everyone else to make their opinions known as well. It's the only way we might see some productive "fixing" of the new design.

 

I think the website looks very "pansy-ish" now.  And what about the forums?  Yeah, the whole thing is annoyingly slow now. 

I agree with most of what's been said:

-The page is slow and always down for maintenance (the maintenance could be a good thing if they're actually working to implement changes)

-The colors/layout/aesthetics are just terrible. Part of what made this site different from all the other pansy-ish writing sites out there, was that the layout and look was simple, elegant, and of a younger generation. Something closer to an iPod commercial, but with a slightly darker edge. The new one is just like all the rest of the frilly writing sites, with flowers and rainbows and s**t. Like, being a writer means you have to be writing about bunnies. That's the main problem. There was nothing wrong with the old look, and someone paid a lot of money to hire a graphic design firm to f**k the site up.

-DOES ANYONE KNOW HOW TO DELETE/ALTER the 'signature' that keeps popping up (see below)? I can't find it anywhere...

-Where are the forums?!


The new site sucks. Go back to what was working and then try to leave well-enough alone...

After lurking on the site for a while, I finally decided to join.  Unfortunately only after the changes. I hate that I can't see profiles or even anyone else's reviews without bothering the poor writer with a friend's request.  I can totally appreciate the increased potential of the editors, but the exchange price seems too high!

Wow, what a great synopsis of all that is wrong now.

Oh, and you can't change signatures, even stupid ones you put up as a goof ... (see below). :)

Well, the pop-ups seem to be gone. Thank God!

But now I'm getting three ads per page. There's an additional one on the right side of the window. *sigh*

 

My complaints are the same as y'alls', with a couple of additions.  New writers aren't identified -- even tho there's a drop-down for them, the whole LONG list of all the members comes up.  Same with top reviewers and top writers.  Same with the contests and groups, and the new writings.

I don't like not having the subscriptions, I miss the tree (I'm a tree hugger, so that's a real biggie imo, and the site doesn't seem to have the vitality and vigor now that it used to have.  Seems like all the energy went out of everyone, and I really, really miss the interactions.  I can't really explain why, but this site doesn't feed me the way the previous one did.

I haven't had occasion yet to try the text editor and the other features like that -- notes, etc. -- but I'll have to check them out, based on some of the comments here.

No doubt Charles, et al, were trying to be helpful and make things even better, but so far it's not working very well.  I feel bad about that, and I wish there was a way to take what works well here and combine it with most of the previous site for an even better whole.  And (along with everything else mentioned here in this thread) bring back the tree, please!

I knew there was one more thing -- I can't tell now what progress is being made with the contests I've entered.  Frankly I'm glad the ones that have already completed are gone now (I was very frustrated before that I couldn't find a way to delete those that were done), but now there's no way to track which ones are at their deadlines nor what's being done with them.  I can't remember all the ones I've entered or when, so I can't go to all the creators - which is a royal pain in the a*s anyway -- to find out the status.

Thanks for bringing back the tree!!!!!!!

I like the new rich text editor ALOT!

I miss the subscriptions though...I miss the old cafe.

And I dont like how they dont reply to email either.

 

 

I want those pop-ups back!! At least on the read requests. I can't see the whole title, the author, or who sent the request. How annoying! I'm picky about my read requests. Bring back the POPUPS!!

I've lost the will to be a member of this site anymore. The colours I could just about cope with but removing the forum is a bad idea.

 

The old layout I thought looked quite professional, kinda cool. The new is just dire. I hope the owners didn't pay anyone to design it for them, but I suspect they didn't.

Honestly, there's really nothing I like better in this new version versus the old version. Most of my participation came via forums and now I can't even reply or make any kind of forum posts using Safari. I have to use Firefox any time I want to post in a forum. The "look" is so bad I can't even put it in words.

I sent the owners a message through their official "new" contact form, but received no reply of any kind and that was a week ago. Seems like their ignoring all the discontent anyway, so what's the point of the contact form? They really need some kind of public feedback area, because it seems to me that 95% of the members feel like the changes were really bad.

And I'm with a few others: I used to come on here a lot, but now I'm tempted to just give up the site, because it's so frustrating and has made communicating with each other a chore.