At 16 seconds ago, deckheadtottie wrote: That certainly helps, but say if I clicked through all the sub nav items of "Gadgets", that still refreshes the entire page. It's not really that big of a deal to be honest, I just thought it'd be nice if the content box on the right would automatically update on click of a genre.

I agree, some javascript would be nice.

I think that it'd be very convenient to show us whether P-Bot's runner-ups are games or movies. I mostly play games on here and watch the occasional movie, and I have no way of knowing which is which with the runner-up selection.

At 1 hour ago, Halvgoeden wrote: The Content Showcase, Featured Content, Promoted Games, Best New Games and Movies, and P-Bot's Picks all serve a similar functions: suggested viewing. They are scattered above and below the fold; there is a lot of friction of navigation.

This in particular is one of my big goals for the front page - I want to get the content out of the left column. Once we split daily awards for games and movies, I want each to have a row with the top four in the main space.

I would like to bring the artist news further up in the left column so that it gets a lot more attention. At the same time, I want to be stricter about use of the space - I know it's a good way to promote your OTHER sites (facebook, youtube, soundcloud) but users will stop clicking that space if it's just plugs and it's disheartening for me to see the space used for plugs when you could be talking about all the cool stuff you're MAKING or RELEASING. As we get Alphas back up and running that will become even more apparent.

Im one of those people who opens tabs a lot, i open all the new things under judgement and look though them one at a time but i cant do that anymore due to the Horribly annoying sound of the changing language thing :/ wish it could be disabled

Hurray for cuboy!

Also if you're not already I would highly recommend taking advantage of google analytics events. It would help you A/B test and figure out how people are using the site rather than just have to anecdotally ask a handful of people. I would imagine the participating community of newgrounds does not really accurately represent all of your sites visitors. But thats just me! I like basing decisions off real numbers. :)

I post a big response to the question #1:

1) Do you find yourself ignoring the big content showcase box here on the front page? I've been told it doesn't make enough of a "call to action" and while looking pretty, people aren't being as enticed to click it as they should be.

Yeah, to be honest, it kind off wants me to ignore it as well. There are several reasons for it, which I will mention now:
1 - The thumbnails are excessively big.
2 - The space between them is too short. ( makes the site look like a cluttered room )
3 - There are no short descriptions, so you have no idea, what are you going to watch, untill you watch it.

My solution: On the bottom, where is "Featured Contect" ...how should I say, I click every one of them as soon I first saw it. If the showcase box would look just like the featured contect box, the view result would be bigger than ever. Why? The thumbnail picture is slightly smaller than the showcase box ( the size I love the most. ) , it has description ( that's great! ), enough seperatured space between them ( that's awesome!! ) and even score rating and view count ( that's uberly awesome!!! )

But if would they do it my way, you'll probably have to scroll down more than before, which can get annoying, so I would add the "hide" button at the every showcase box, which shrinks the showcase box into a line where it would only sad: "Games" as well to same as "Movies" and you won't have to scroll down that much after all.

It's all up to you, Tom, either way I'm okay with the new redesign. Btw, I love the contect genre browsing, makes the site look more regulated :D ( Sorry if I done any grammar mistakes, english is not my main language :P )

At 1 hour ago, ScaryPicnic wrote: is it true there is going to be a Lit portal?

It's always been the plan, we just don't want to jump into another until everything is more fine-tuned.

Any plans in the near future to adequately enlarge the level icons?

At 59 minutes ago, TomFulp wrote:

At 1 hour ago, ScaryPicnic wrote: is it true there is going to be a Lit portal?

It's always been the plan, we just don't want to jump into another until everything is more fine-tuned.

Will that be after the majority of bugs get fixed?

And speaking of bugs, how many have you squashed so far?

I've noticed two more bugs:

1. The "add to collection" feature is missing. Manually entering the URL (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/addtocollection/######) works, but the resulting page is very ugly.
2. The "Save info" login checkbox no longer works on iPhone and iPad. Other non-Flash features still work, though.

1) I think it's okay, but I reckon it should only look at one thing.

2) I really like it, but I feel it should be placed on the right and featured content on the left. A bit of web design theory: the eye is naturally attracted to the right, so they're more likely to look there. IMO the categories are a more enticing way to look for stuff rather than throwing out, say, a random game.

3) Feeds? Excellent! I'm an avid user of Google Reader. However, I think I feed with everything in it would move too fast and spam my feed reader...

4) Not evaluating any new submissions... I think the all-in-one portal was better. I also liked the top 100 list which I think is a feature that will be much missed. Actually, most of the time I've spent on the site was playing/watching the stuff on the top 100. That should be included somehow.

MAJOR additional request; I'd much prefer featured Flash movies and games to have their descriptions on the front page... they really mean something, right now it could be an art mashup sir really.

Random thing: I've always had your domain whitelisted in Ghostery (after your ad banner called me an arsehole) but ads haven't shown up at all since the update. What's up with that?

I hope this includes Next/Previous buttons for the Art Portal :D

1) Do you find yourself ignoring the big content showcase box here on the front page? I've been told it doesn't make enough of a "call to action" and while looking pretty, people aren't being as enticed to click it as they should be.

I do sorta ignore it. You should move the new and events column slightly down and extend the showcase box across the entire top of the page if you really want to attract visitors to click the showcase.

At 16 hours ago, TomFulp wrote:

At 2 hours ago, NitrogenousBeing wrote: Final note: I have seen several artists upload flashes of embedded youtube movies, animations they claim they couldn't fit swf format because of the program they used. The users attacked the guy with no star reviews for doing this. Is there an official stance on whether this is acceptable?

I'm always squeamish about content being hosted by a third party since pretty much all third parties have ceased to exist at some point over the years. That does seem unlikely with YouTube, but it's still an awkward trend - I don't want NG to feel like a second-tier dropspot for YouTube submissions. We'll be addressing this sort of issue.

You should let Newgrounders have input on this. My opinion is that it's a bad idea to allow it for several reasons:

1. It's entirely too easy to steal other people's work that way. All you have to do is embed a link. And it would be more difficult to catch, as it would be a NG username posting something from a Youtube username. As it is, we can go to a site to research if an item is stolen, cuz not everyone has a website, but anyone can load anything on Youtube anonymously. This makes it much more difficult to research and track.

2. If you allow Youtube embedding, you're going to get more people from youtube trying to post their stuff both here and there. You'll end up with videos of 8 year olds jumping on the bed, stupid dog tricks, and Joe falling into the pool. Now, as much as I like women driver videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cv0HkM0XiBs), the influx of crap would be disasterous. After all, there's a reason we all spend our time HERE instead of THERE.

3. It gets too far from what Newgrounds was originally all about. Newgrounds was started so Flash authors could showcase their work. ...their FLASH work. If Youtube stuff was allowed, you might as well change the name to Yougrounds and seal Newgrounds away. What makes this site better than Youtube is that it IS selective about what gets on here. Also, we have the ability for people to post good things, and for us to blam the bad things (which people should do more often). I come here for animations and games, not for videos. If you allow embedding, you might get stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ssxF8EaMO0&ob=av3e but you'll also get stuff like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q15fB7E28Zs And because there's no official stance that video is discouraged on Newgrounds, we get stuff like this: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/583494 or like this: http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/588108 which is stolen and modified. I found the original but lost it before I could report it.

Please keep Newgrounds un-embedded and "flash preferred."

Hi Tom. Overall I prefer the new design - well done!! - but there are a couple of non-bug things that trouble me:

(a) I miss the detailed numerical game ratings and user stats being on the main game and user pages - the graphics for the stats are okay, but making the actual numbers easily visible alongside the graphics again, as per the old site design, would make things much better. And what are the new user level badges all about - the old ones were far better, and bigger and easier to see;

(b) Quickly put back in the Network user referral site-wide link - there currently seems to be no benefit to me or anyone else for referring our various sites in to NG. Or have I completely missed something very important???

Kindest regards,

Peter Inns.

As with any redesign or new version of an interface/software, there are always bugs. I myself have noticed that the medals don't update like they did in the old version of NGs. It seemed to me that the points take a day or so to retotal. As the days from the initial redesign have gone on, the bugs are getting better. Overall, this is one of the few redesigns I've like from the start. I liked to old one, but this one is much better.

Tom,
Let me say first, I love the redesign. The graphics are awesome, and the site looks cutting edge. I actually consult on website usability.
However, there is one thing you need to change about the re-design, something you MUST change or the number of users on the site will slowly be greatly damaged:
I, like every other Newgrounds user, appreciated the few sentences about the different games and movies on the home page of the old design. Why? Not for their humor, etc. but because games aren't adequately summarized in just a picture. The few sentences such as "Unique physics based tower defense game" in the old design was enough to tell users that if they like tower defense games, they should give it a try. In the new design, I see a pretty picture, but have no idea what type of game it is most of the time. You may think this makes users try more games, but in reality it makes impatient (all) users get pissed off and leave because they aren't going to wait to load and wait through the ads to realize its a third game that isn't the type they like to play.
Regards,
Tman

Mr Fulp,may I know what am I going to do with the problem of not being able to write reviews?

4) Have you found yourself doing anything more or less as a result of the new layout?

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

I really think that the news from the mods (Like this one) should be in the bottom of the front page like they used to be.

Ummm, would totally love the Egoraptor Tankgirl backdrop as a wallpaper...jus' sayin'

Here you go, enjoy your massive black squares!

I'm pretty sure I'm not the first person to bring this up, but where did all of the icons for all my audio posts go?

How the hell do I deposit my exp? It just keeps saying "Thanks for voting! The more you vote the more experience you get..." or something along those lines.

I don't see a whistle button on Under Judgement submissions any more. I just discovered a stolen game and I'm worried it'll pass.

At 1 day ago, Eltro2kneo wrote:

At 4 minutes ago, k6ka wrote: The only other thing I'm concerned about is that plan that was going to make everything a "One-vote-per-user," thing, which was in the old old site (I hadn't signed up yet then).

If you think it involves the "like/dislike" system a long with having the same voting power, then you're sadly mistaken.

What Tom means by "one-vote-per-user", he means that once you vote on a submission, you don't have to vote on it again unless you change your opinion. If your voting power gets bigger, then it affects the score. That's all.

That's what I'm concerned about. I vote on the same submissions daily to get my experience points, and if the "One-vote-per-user" system comes on, I have to hunt down new submissions each day, which I dislike.

At 32 minutes ago, k6ka wrote:

At 1 day ago, Eltro2kneo wrote:

At 4 minutes ago, k6ka wrote: The only other thing I'm concerned about is that plan that was going to make everything a "One-vote-per-user," thing, which was in the old old site (I hadn't signed up yet then).

If you think it involves the "like/dislike" system a long with having the same voting power, then you're sadly mistaken.

What Tom means by "one-vote-per-user", he means that once you vote on a submission, you don't have to vote on it again unless you change your opinion. If your voting power gets bigger, then it affects the score. That's all.

That's what I'm concerned about. I vote on the same submissions daily to get my experience points, and if the "One-vote-per-user" system comes on, I have to hunt down new submissions each day, which I dislike.

At least it prevents the users from rating down the same thing several times just so it can be hated. But then it gets harder to gain experience, so we need a new way to get experience if this happens (other than voting on UJ uploads).

Tom, are you aware that the B/P rank badges are glitching? Or are you planning on new B/P icons?

I noticed on the user page, under "Latest Shares" I see the image below. Kind of hard to read.

It's not just "Latest Shares" either. Most of the hover text is quite are to read since the bottom of the hover image fades out before the text ends.

i find the new layout more simple and still more confusing...
i mean, all those new side menus and stuff are totally confusing for me... i dont think i will even use another button than "Classic Portal" and submit in the games/movies dropdown menu. the wiki got a bit worse, doesnt tell much about each feature anymore maybe only its main purpose
i also dont like how now you have to click that stat button thing on your profile to get the numeric stats and now there isnt even a list for levels and ranks to view
i also miss the exp gain notification and the review button with which you could read reviews in a separate window. there isnt one anymore, right? :O

I can't select the amount of stars I want to give for a review... Sad face.