At 5/30/13 12:00 PM, Xaotik wrote: Would the grayness be only for the backdrop of the site or would the title bars on all the pods also be swapped for gray versions?

The title bars would be grey.

At 5/30/13 06:42 AM, Patonion wrote: I think you should fix the portal before worrying about how the site looks. everything listed there is under judgement, it makes the whole color coded score system defunct.

The Portal bugs are being worked on by Rob and Goldfish. The site skin came up while implementing some self-hosted ad skins with liljim. The skins would basically integrate best if the site had a consistent color scheme, for both technical and aesthetic reasons.

These skins are important because they are promoting games on NG that increase sign-ups and generate revenue. We have a lot working against us, with most advertisers being afraid to run ads on NG and most of our users running ad block. The skins allow us to test the waters with MMO partnerships but if they prove to be successful they could ultimately replace a lot of our traditional ads with something more attractive, making pages load faster, keeping users on NG, increasing sign-ups, less cookies, etc.

This grey skin is sexy as fuuuuuuuck. Love the slightly blue hue it has. Excellent work.

I sort of like the grey skin on BBS.

Great work Tom,awesome theme,love the colors.
I also wanted to tell you that the review marking system is bugging,I tried to mark reviews from 2 different browsers (Firefox and Chrome) and it didn't send,thanks for fixing it.

Maybe you should make everything grey skinned :D

It's all so...dark...

and cold..

I don't think the grey makes anything pop, really

bleh

The gray is so cold and dark, looks like a morgue, the colors give life to the site, now everything seems dead and inactive, I preferred the colors...

I LOVED how each section of the site had its own color theme. I thought it was a really neat and artistic idea, but I never once saw it take away focus from the content; instead, it gave it more of an identity, if that makes sense. The gray makes sense for the store since you're not spending a lot of time there but having it all over the site would be blegh. I prefer the NG orange for the forums.

Would you be completely getting rid of the orange? If so, I don't like that idea.

Well, black and gold was always NG's thing. As long as there are black and gold details integrated into the grey, I wouldn't have an issue with it at all.

At times, certain pages do look a little too busy. Change is the only constant, lets give grey a go.

At 5/30/13 12:32 PM, TomFulp wrote:

At 5/29/13 05:56 PM, squidly wrote: Next redesign should simply make the important buttons larger and the site layout in general less busy.

Without a full redesign I do hope to reduce overall buttons and links. I'd like to completely eliminate the dropdowns in the nav. I have decent alternatives in mind for every category EXCEPT Community, which has a bunch of important stuff that is hard to relocate without adding some secondary nav like we used to have (the nav under the nav).

Navception.

Here's the thing - I think the Forum and Wiki should be their own tab. Chat is kind of a strange bonus that I guess could be slammed at the top of the Forums page.

Who usually draws out the redesigns? As in, actual site design?

I'd like if something like this were to happen. Gray but not cold gray and not too much.

Probably already been brought up but personally find the linking of the sidebar graphics annoying as I habitually click on the sides of the pages to focus that area for scrolling. Maybe I'm the only one.

I'm new and blah blah, but i dont like it. I think it was fine as it was already.

At 5/30/13 05:01 PM, Ejit wrote: Probably already been brought up but personally find the linking of the sidebar graphics annoying as I habitually click on the sides of the pages to focus that area for scrolling. Maybe I'm the only one.

+1

I agree with what you say about they greyscale making everything else 'pop', I prefer it this way.

To be honest, I do like the grey color scheme a lot. It gives off a different yet cool feel and look to the website, especially when I browse the forums.

But of course, the decision to keep the grey color scheme or not is entirely up to you, Tom.

Personally, I prefer the multi-color version. It gives the website more personality and character, and sets it apart from the pretenders.

But if for the aforementioned reasons you absolutely MUST use only one color, then IT HAS TO BE ORANGE. The orange-golden-amber layout is the warm and friendly yet totally badass color theme that identifies Newgrounds as being Newgrounds. An all-gray theme is cold, uninviting, and just really bland in general. And if the color scheme is bland, that sends the message that the whole site is bland and not worth our time, consequently reducing the Newgrounds user base. Orange is vibrant, it grabs your attention; it makes you want to keep looking and discover what this site has to offer.

TL;DR - Multicolor or orange. NOT GRAY.

Tom, it is with utmost sincerity and objectivity that I voice my opinion on the matter: this current design blows.
The 2007/08 transition was the peak of this site's many guises for me; I came to the site every day and actually voted on things etc.
Heck, I even bothered to register an account for the forums.
Sure, it could have been better, but it was decent and exuded the charming essence that we all knew and loved.
Now I just have the bbs url memorized and skip straight to it because the entire website is so saturated with overly-contrasting visuals and conflicting colors that my designer's soul cries out in anguish each night as I lay in sleepless turmoil, my mind conflicted over whether newgrounds had actually committed such an atrocity or that I had just imagined such in a bizarre and twisted nightmare.
This isn't a bitch session pleading you to revert to the previous theme, this is a bitch session pleading you to consider the more aesthetically simplistic (and pleasing) key points of the previous themes when working to improve the current.
I want my favorite website back, not an overblown poster for an action-packed child's movie (try squinting when viewing your pages, most well-styled websites will blend together into a solid or gradient).

Yours truly,
Concerned User

I like the grey!

its retarded give the users to switch it as they please Via User Settings.

While this may take some getting used to, I find this design really cool, if you know what I mean.

At 5/30/13 05:01 PM, Ejit wrote: Probably already been brought up but personally find the linking of the sidebar graphics annoying as I habitually click on the sides of the pages to focus that area for scrolling. Maybe I'm the only one.

+1

++2, I wrote a long reason as to why, when I wanted to scroll down and focus outside the flash; then I wanted to scroll down to click the Post button, but instead got redirected to Cathode Raybots instead. And my browser lost the original reply.

:(

Well, it's nice to have a different layout once a while.

I kinda like the oldschool calming effect.

Wish it were an option.

The gray is too green in some places. I think it should be completely achromatic or more icy blue colored like this boss text field for replies.

I'm digging the grey. For the reason you pointed out, it makes the rest of the content pop. It looks clean, metallic and gives me a feeling that I must create. It doesn't try to push me in a direction, it lets me float around effortlessly. Less work for the eyes, and leaves more room for appreciation of the content.

At 5/30/13 06:24 PM, Dawnslayer wrote: TL;DR - Multicolor or orange. NOT GRAY.

...Okay, I've been looking at it for an extended period now, and I admit the gray theme is kind of growing on me. That said, Scintillating has a point; it could use a slight nudge toward the blue end of the spectrum. Right now it kind of clashes with the gold and amber colored accents.

I dig the grey.

I personally like it the way it was but the Grey looks nice as well.

It is nice, i like the grey tones. I believe the little colour that the Portal buttons give and the background make for a nice contrast too.