The New Shiny Escapist

[Jjkaybomb]

You spent six months on this? Half of the text is unreadable and blurry, and the white background makes it feel like a site from the ninties. I know everyones going minimalist these days, but damn, you've actually managed to have LESS STUFF on your front page!
I mean, all those people bitching and moaning because thier favorite site is a little different? Thats not what this is. This is a serious downgrade.

Is this the work of a hacker? an elaborate and early april fools? A switchup where you post a really bad site layout, then say just kidding and post a better one? Please tell me its one of those.

 

[Shifty Tortoise]

No no no no no, change it back, it honestly looks horrible.

 

[MrMisfit]

I never like it when a site changes the layout just for the sake of change. This time is no different. There was nothing wrong with the old layout. What really irks me is when and if I do grow accustomed to it they will probably just change it again.

 

[Robert632]

Seriously, that only some of the forums are in the forum drop down menu is pissing me off. Otherwise, this change is pretty good.

 

[Kron_the_mad wants to be deleted]

aesthetically it looks like they copied someone with a different entertainment product altogether, It's all style and no substance. The groupings of content make less sense than before, mainly because there seems to be no real thought put into it. Page loading times have increased dramatically, in spite of the fact that there seems to be less information/content available. The colour scheme change is dull and lifeless.
I hope they have the sense to either try something else or go back to what they had before.

 

[TimeLord]

since the site was released to the Publishers Club a few days ago based on our own feedback. So keep in mind that some changes were made based on the comments made by members of this community.

(Ah, this little gem needs to be spread round. In the end it's the PubClub chaps who deserve to wield the megaphone.)

I'm not sure if that's praise or scorn for the PubClubbers but either way I should point out that the PubClub should not accept praise or scorn for any changes made. And even then they were only a few annoyances. Like the message alert thing and Active User Group and Active Friends drop downs were added/altered based on our advice. I just want to make it clear that the PubClub did not design the update. That was all down to the hard work of the artists and Tech Team and hamsters. We only came in at the end and tore holes in their work which they graciously altered for us!

Basically my point was that fellow users helped with little bits of the site. Regardless of PubClub membership or not and my god I really sound like I'm trying to dig a hole for myself here but it's really hard to put across what I'm trying to say without sounding like a complete git!

Maybe it would be better to forget I wrote this? xD

I have to admit, if the Publisher's Club members approved this, then I don't think they really care. No one is naive enough to not notice an aspect 98% of the people here are complaining about (the brightness). Sorry, but the facts are there to back me up.

In our defence. We did make our feelings about the brightness well known.

 

[Saippua]

Its murdering my eyes

 

[Miles000]

It seemed like a good idea at the time.

It's still a good idea. It will just take some tweaking and getting used to.
I think the whole layout looks neater/more professional. However the excess of white still hurts my eyes.

[sub]Bring back the blue sides![/sub]

But I don't care whether it loks more professional. All I want is for it to be usable and readable =( Which it's not atm.
I really hope you guys didn't pay a lot for this, because that was money not well spent. More like wasted.

It really isn't that bad.
It took me about 10 minutes to figure out where everything now is. At most it's an extra click to get to what you want.

Like I said. There are a few things that need fixing, but most of it is an improvement.

BRING BACK THE BLUE SIDES!

 

[Leviathan_]

Facebook 2.0 huh?

Yeah, no, that's the last straw Escapist. I'm out.

 

[AdmiralMatt]

They may have caught some kind of horrible Facebook disease that has this effect on good websites.

 

[AdmiralMatt]

n

 

[Alade]

My first impression: "NO NO NO; WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE; FIX IT; MY EYES; WHAT HAS BEEN SEEN CANNOT BE UNSEEN".

Seriously, the previous look was perfect, and I mean perfect. This is horrible

 

[Flames66]

I don't see any problem with the layout so far, it will take a little getting used to but seems to make sense. The background is a bit bright though, may I suggest a cool blue?

 

[Mister K]

Just too much white.

 

[Plunkies]

Hurts my eyes.

 

[Thetwistedendgame]

Needs more blue. To whitey for my tastes.

 

[CaptainKoala]

To be completely honest, the page layout is kind of weird, especially the banner at the top (with the logo). I honestly checked NoScript because I thought the page had a JavaScript error. Don't get me wrong, I love it. Change is good especially for websites, it just needs to be a bit more visually friendly.

 

[Xanthious]

Ok this new look is pretty horrible fellas.

Just to be more specific about why I think this redesign makes me disappoint. Tone down the white levels for the love of god. It's literally hard on my eyes to view this new site. Secondly, the magnets on my refrigerator seem to have thought put in to their layout than the front page has. Everything just looks like you started throwing stuff where ever it would fit. Also the Escapist seems to be horribly laggy since the redesign. It's bad enough that I will avoid visiting except for specific purposes like Zero Punctuation if it isn't fixed and soon.

I think you had good intentions but failed miserably in application. The new top menus are nice but that's about the only positive thing I can say. If drastic changes aren't made I can honestly say that this redesign will turn me off to The Escapist. I can get news and the like elsewhere on sites that don't hurt my eyes and don't lag to beat Hell. I am absolutely floored this made it out the door. It's all around pretty horrible. My suggestion would be to go back to the old design and start over from scratch if you want to redesign.

 

[Fluke]

Horrible. Looks cold, less friendly, and just doesn't fit with the vibe that I always got from the site. A really bad decision imo.

 

[TilMorrow]

Oh god. *looks at changes* OH GOD! WHAT HAPPENED TO THE COOL COLOUR SCHEME AND AND EVERYTHING!?!? CHANGE IT BACK! CHANGE IT BBBAAACCCKKKK!
-End Scared Reponse-
-Beginning Serious Response-

This all seems quite unexpected and... white. I mean the colour scheme for the last layout was great, why'd you have to get rid of it. Also, I have the un-nerving feeling that I'm on Twitter now whenever I visit the site and I really dislike the annoyance that is Twitter. Oh yes and I miss the side Article boxes /weep. My Opinion? I really don't like the look. *Goes Blind*