Ugh... New TH look?

[jakemo136]

If I wanted to read a newspaper, I'd read a newspaper. This looks cluttered, busy, and distinctly un-techie. When I visit a website about computers and technology, I want the website to look like the developers are concerned with computers and technology. CNN's website looks more "techie," for crying out loud. How can we get the old Tom's look back, or at least improve this one?

 

[amdfangirl]

I wanna lite version of THG!!!!

 

[kyeana]

this is just insane.... chock another one up for Best of Media....

 

[amdfangirl]

Well I hope the finical crisis make them listen to us...

 

[randomizer]

Well, it has less ads. Actually, I don't think I saw any ads on the main page, although I see the word "ads" there so I assume they just haven't ad-ed them yet. And yes, I did disable Adblock plus to check 😛

 

[jitpublisher]

It just keeps getting worse.....everytime they change, it only gets worse.
I do like the way more of the forums latest posts are showing.....but it either doesn't update very often, or people have simply stopped posting.
I think it may be the latter.
This new look simply put is an eyesore. Like amdfangirl says, it looks like a newwpaper page. Ugly, ugly, ugly, ugly and my god it's ugly.

 

[amdfangirl]

Yes, its changing, but when did I say it looked like a newspaper... meh?

 

[Zenthar]

Is it me or since 1-2 weeks (since the new look), the site is completely broken? Sometimes it would load with the good look-and-feel, but other times it seems as if the CSS didn't load at all. The site gets slow, sometimes I get timeouts, some of the page elements gets misplaced, ...

I'm a daily THG reader (forum and all), but for a week now I find my THG experience painful. I can bet that most people who come for the first time since last week won't be coming back.

 

[randomizer]

I thought it might have been me getting my ADSL profile changed that was causing loss of connection errors at night, but that doesn't seem like the case, since others are having the same problem.

 

[amdfangirl]

Hmm, I'm having the same problems too

 

[Jake_Barnes]

No, all of you guys are right (you too Echo ). There are ISP issues, not to mention general dissatisfaction with the "new look". Personally, I don't like what BoM has and is doing to Tom's ... I can complain through channels, but that's about it.

I think threads like this are good - I have something to point the site developers too.

 

[randomizer]

All other sites work fine though, it's just this one. It seems to be only the US mirror (haven't tried the UK one). The french servers are fine.

 

[Jake_Barnes]

I'm told it's an ISP issue - perhaps with the USA servers. It's happened before.

 

[randomizer]

I see, well it's still happening and it's not night now. Connection timeouts usually. BOM should start sueing

 

[Jake_Barnes]

randomizer, buddy - I'm yelling and insulting as many people as I can. Maybe it will help, maybe not. ASAP to BoM often means a month!

You can try writing/emailing to their address. But posting here is good - they look at these threads.

 

[randomizer]

It would be nice if they responded to these threads too, so we know they've seen them 😉 Yell that too :lol:

 

[justinblue]

Hi all,

I just an FYI, I have seen this thread. I realize that some of you might not like the new header layout of the site. However, I thought I should outline one of the primary reasons that it was done.

As you probably know, there are problems with pages on Tom's Hardware loading slow. We are now expending great efforts to reduce the "page weight" so that these pages will load much faster. I have been told that the new design was necessary in order to help reduce this page loading time. If it really works (and I care about it just as much as you guys), I think the change is more than worth it.

I realize that if it doesn't work, then its a waste of time. However, I am assured, that soon this will have a dramatic effect in loading times.

Justin

 

[randomizer]

It does seem faster than the old layout IMO, but my Aussie internet is probably crawling compare to some. It's definitely alot faster in FireFox than IE7. My main problem is the connection timeouts and zero sized replies (the latter which I only just got 2 minutes ago for the first time). If it's an ISP issue then not alot can be done though.

 

[amdfangirl]

Seriously plez get an Australian server/mirror... plez... it constantly times out and etc.

I wish for a simple interface. Nothing fancy, simple as fast as possible.

 

[Zenthar]

I understand the need to reduce load and have been around this forum long enough to know that each change of look has been criticized. Personally, I don't mind, I just want something that works.

As I now understand what they are trying to achieve, maybe it's time for constructive criticism/suggestions. I don't know what is causing the load time, but could reducing the amount of information on the home page help in any way? They could open a poll and ask people what they want on the homepage. I personally only care for the following sections:
■Latest articles ("Features")
■Latest News
■Latest Forum questions/Last active forum thread (whatever it used to be)
■Top menu to go to the other sections
And on that points 2 and 3 could be replaced by an RSS feed and probably take some load of the server. Probably easier said than done, but still a suggestion (making a lightweight page doesn't seem to be that easy to do either 😛).

 

[justinblue]

Zenthar,

I just asked about this. There is supposed a new version of the user profile page coming out. On that page, you will be able to select what you want to see. You will also be able to move around the blocks. This personalized user homepage could substitute for the "homepage" customization which you are talking about.

Good idea!
Justin

 

[amdfangirl]

Oh that's cool

 

[oneof10]

Don't like it...(my $0.02)

 

[I]

The 'site has been screwed up for far more than a few weeks, the design was mutilated what, a couple years or 3 ago?

Would you kids please not put the silly looking pictures in your sig? It just makes a bad thing worse. The last thing needed is non-content, redundant clutter that makes everyone scroll 3 times as much just to find tiny bits of content inbetween excessive avatars, text under them, and links to things nobody ever clicks from the forum pages. Please get rid of the kindergarten stylized icons too, boring plain text would even be better unless catering to 3 year olds who don't know how to read yet.

There are so many different forum packages, and so much wasted space, surely this can't be seen as acceptable? The only thing that isn't, aww, screw it and goodbye.

 

[randomizer]

You've been able to disable display of signatures for as long as I (no pun intended) can remember.