[DuffMan]

We'll be rolling out our final redesign (which is the first significant redesign we have had since relaunching the site in October of 2009) shortly, and it will pertain to the forums.

The forum body, or the area that contains the posts and discussions, will shift from right to left. English speaking societies look to the left first as it relates to print, since we read from left to right...and while there will be an adjustment period until you get used to it, it will seem second nature in a short span of time.

We have also decreased the space between the top of the page to where the posts begin to show up on your screen...laptop screens, you should see the first four or five most recent posts, where as right now (or what we will refer to as the old layout going forward) there is just one.

The toolbar will include a forum drop down menu...after we make the change, hover your mouse over the word 'Forums' and you will have a list of the specific forums you can access. However, the landing page will be what you are used to seeing, which is the most recent posts from all of the forums combined. We will not change that, as it seems to be what most of you prefer in a landing page. Also in the toolbar will be quick links to the football, basketball and recruiting forums, which are the most visited...plus a link to our Hawkeye Buzz page which pulls in Hawkeye headlines and twitter feeds from selected locations around the web.

The ads will move to the right side of the page, but we have also brought our resource bar with us from the front page...on the front and content pages, that bar is on the left...on the message boards, it will be on the right after a little scroll. Most of the third party ads will be visible above the fold and with no scrolling, and this is by design as it increases their value which helps us pay the bills.

The forums should continue to load quickly, as we are bringing over the process we installed late last week to increase forum loading speed. If there is a hiccup in that at the start, we have the blueprint to solve the problem and will do so in short order. The content you want to see will show up quickly, which is our goal and what you want. The ads are going to remain a part of the site, but if they are not hurting your browsing experience from a page loading pace perspective, then we feel its a win-win. As was the case with the front page, we have not added any advertising slots and have in fact decreased the number of ads that will be displayed. The local fixed advertising toolbar will be along the bottom of each page, as it is on the homepage.

A forum search bar will be easily seen in the extreme upper right corner of each forum page.

In closing, this is not a 'fancy' redesign...the redesign we did on the front page was more dramatic from an aesthetic point of view. This will be some aesthetic, but mostly moving things a round a bit to maximize user experience and ad position value without hurting the end user experience from a page loading speed perspective.

Thanks for visiting the site.

So I have an HTC something or other that runs the android and after the recent changes I have had trouble viewing the forums on it.

I have set up the site to appear normal on the phone, that is it looks and acts just like it does on any computer screen, only smaller. The problem arises when I open any of the threads. There is a miller light banner ad that opens and sits in the middle of the screen running from left to right (there is also a sports bar that appears in the ad). When viewing the page from my laptop this ad constantly scrolls with the screen so it always appears at the bottom. For some reason on the smart phone it sits in the middle of the page and doesn't move.

JD fix this pronto. My smart phone is the only thing that keeps me from being a lumpen prole!

[hawkfarmer]

I don't like it. Just getting my complaint in early (just kidding).

When is that revolutionary recruiting page coming.

[JonDMiller]

Originally Posted by hawkfarmer

I don't like it. Just getting my complaint in early (just kidding).

When is that revolutionary recruiting page coming.

Not a day later than it should

[hawkfarmer]

Originally Posted by JonDMiller

Not a day later than it should

And I suppose you get to decide when "should" is. This sounds like a dictatorship to me. Unfortunately I'm forced to visit this site daily by my inner demons, or I would protest this Nazi site

[hawkfan2679]

Hopefully this took place about 5 minutes ago? Cuz things, they are a changin' (i.e. they already changed).

[DwayneTwill]

Originally Posted by hawkfan2679

Hopefully this took place about 5 minutes ago? Cuz things, they are a changin' (i.e. they already changed).

Yeah, there's weird stuff going on.

[JonDMiller]

Yes, change happening now and there are a few things that need ironed out....bear with us while we get a look at what needs to be tweaked...going from a staging/development site to the real thing always seems to include an ironing out process and clearly we have some work to do once you get inside the body of a thread.

[JonDMiller]

Some of these adjustments and tweaks have to be done on the fly, while things are live, as they don't just transfer over from the staging site to live the way the content and front page area did, due to the forums being more database driven...we'll get it fixed.

[VintageHawkeye]

I feel...different...strange...almost new...

[Chickenlounge]

Wow...all messed up for me in IE8, FF5, and Chrome 11. I've cleared my cache on all 3 and "forced" a refresh. Still seems to not be rendering correctly. Seems ads are not fully loading or something.

Also, what's the likelihood the HN team could do these "minor" upgrades overnight so it affects the fewest number of users?

Maybe you could create an ad-free site where users could pay $X/month to have no ads. Content could all be the same, just no obnoxious ads?

[pin2win]

who wants to work on this overnight its really not that big of a deal for them to be working on it on normal working hours on this free site they offer

[atxhawk]

Auuuuuuuuuuuugh! My eyes! My eyes! Change it back! I prefer the old way! Change is bad!!! Have I covered all the complaints?

Honestly though it doesn't bother me a bit. Shouldn't take more than a little bit to get used to the new look. Hopefully the stationary ads at the bottom will speed things up.

[JonDMiller]

Originally Posted by Chickenlounge

Wow...all messed up for me in IE8, FF5, and Chrome 11. I've cleared my cache on all 3 and "forced" a refresh. Still seems to not be rendering correctly. Seems ads are not fully loading or something.

Also, what's the likelihood the HN team could do these "minor" upgrades overnight so it affects the fewest number of users?

Maybe you could create an ad-free site where users could pay $X/month to have no ads. Content could all be the same, just no obnoxious ads?

I want to be sure we have implemented all of the tweaks before attacking specific browser problems.

that being said, the latest version of chrome is 12.0.742.112, and that is what I am viewing it in. I just opened FF5, and it looks how its supposed to look. I just loaded the latest version of Safari, and it looks how it's supposed to look

[Cyclones17]

I liked the old way but this works just fine as well

[latrans]

Lets just get this out of the way - I don't like it.

Moving on, is there any way we can get the list of the different forums on every forum page so I can waste time more efficiently?