new layout for front page and forum pages

It's been awhile since I saw the front page of the site (I have the forums bookmarked), but I must say the new look is very nice! Well done!

One other change I noticed that I'm not liking so much is when you are viewing the threads in a forum (eg. Hot Deals forum), there is a "Recent Deal" box on the righthand side. Unfortunately this has the effect of squishing the thread titles over to the left and causing more line wrap. Once you scroll down past the "Recent Deal" you end up with a crowded lefthand side and an empty righthand side.

May I suggest that the "Recent Deal" be modified to lie across the top of the page or some other placement that does not mess up the format of the list of threads? I prefer it when they fill the full width of the page. Thanks.

Thanks... glad you like the splash/gateway page... we're actually looking to tighten that up a bit as well to fit more information in a slightly smaller space. It'd be nice if we could have the whole gateway page on the screen without scrolling.

As for the Recent Deal box, we just added that yesterday. We are going to add more content to fill it out, just give us a couple days

Plzplzplz. get rid of the recent deal. I know its live and everything, but it cramps everything up and its harder to look at the thread.

I would have to agree with my fellow RFD'ers in regards to the NEW Recent Deal box. I think it should be removed or placed across the top. That new recent deal box is making the titles of the threads very hard to read.

Derek mentioned adding more content to the right side of the page. Thats great and all if you only want to fill the empty / wasted space thats currently on the right side of the page but thats not going to fix the new squished look of all the thread titles.

I'm sure this thread would get the needed / required feedback from other RFD'ers if it was moved to the Hot Deals section. Not everyone comes to the "Comments & Suggestions" side of the forum.

Thanks for listening,
pzn
P.S. The new look of the main page looks great!

Yeah unfortunately i have to agree with everyone else. The recent deal and coupon thing is annoying. We know where to find the deals and coupons, there's a bunch of blue buttons across the top of every page. No offense, just constructively critisizing your design decision.

The layout is really that different from what we have. If you look at the index page at http://forums.redflagdeals.com we have basically the same bar on the right and we haven't really received any negative feedback on that.

Furthermore, at least a couple people have commented on the 'new' layout for the front page which was changed a long time ago. What that says to me is that some people aren't really visiting the other non-forum sections of the site and may not know what they're missing...

Originally Posted by wanted

Plzplzplz. get rid of the recent deal. I know its live and everything, but it cramps everything up and its harder to look at the thread.

You got my vote as well. It really gets cramped up if you have your favourites on the left side of your IE as well!

Originally Posted by Derek

The layout is really that different from what we have. If you look at the index page at http://forums.redflagdeals.com we have basically the same bar on the right and we haven't really received any negative feedback on that.

The right side bar on the index page doesn't really matter, since it's just to get to the forum you want to browse. But now when browsing through those threads in those pages, it's quite cramped with the Recent Deal on the side. Espicially if the title's are long.
I would like to see that gone as well.

I think it's gone now. I don't see it there.

Originally Posted by technut

One other change I noticed that I'm not liking so much is when you are viewing the threads in a forum (eg. Hot Deals forum), there is a "Recent Deal" box on the righthand side. Unfortunately this has the effect of squishing the thread titles over to the left and causing more line wrap. Once you scroll down past the "Recent Deal" you end up with a crowded lefthand side and an empty righthand side.

May I suggest that the "Recent Deal" be modified to lie across the top of the page or some other placement that does not mess up the format of the list of threads? I prefer it when they fill the full width of the page. Thanks.

Yeah I'm not liking it on the right-hand side either...it's squishing all the threads together. Even if more content is added to that empty right-hand space I'm still not going to like the layout, it'll look very clustered and unorganized.

I all for putting it on the top like technut has suggested!

Originally Posted by Derek

The layout is really that different from what we have. If you look at the index page at http://forums.redflagdeals.com we have basically the same bar on the right and we haven't really received any negative feedback on that.

I think it's because people don't spend alot of time on the index page of the forums but do spend alot of time sifting through threads once they have selected a specific forum to visit.

i think today's teh first time ive looked at it ! hehe... im on this site like 10 times a day , but im bookmarked to the forums ... its like im hard-wired in ....