Pretty New Buttons...

reply to post by roswell1


I too have noticed that. I actually like it. When you have a u2u, you will see a button stating so. And that link will take you directly to your u2u's.

The memCenter now takes you to your settings, as it should, and the u2u button takes you to your u2u's.

Works for me.

I personally like the buttons, and it was perfectly put by GradyPhilpott in the previous page:

However, in the end, a button is a button and what one looks like is far less important than the function a button performs.

Exactly.

reply to post by robert z


Hey some of them are little old men and there worse than little old ladies

I would rather keep the avatar space I like looking at everyone else's even the one that are too large

cough, cough, AcesInTheHole

I think the buttons look better now than they did when it first changed. I'm not sure if they've been like this the whole time, but they do look different to me.

But I still like the old ones.

I wish someone would make their mind up - I think we're on the third design of new button already this evening. You find it so much harder to adapt to change as you get older you know.

I liked the ones with the more heavily curved profile on the bottom left corner if that helps.

Originally posted by timeless test
I liked the ones with the more heavily curved profile on the bottom left corner if that helps.

I agree. Those looked best among the new designs IMO. Of course I think the older ones are far, far, far better than any of these.

reply to post by SkepticOverlord


Mista Skeptic.. I know how these things go, been there, done that, seen it happen before to other sites.

As more and more people become interested in ATS, a broader segment of users are hitting our pages. Our Google Analytics data is showing a significant increase in dial-up, slow-DSL, and slow-Cable users coming to ATS and joining ATS.

Who the hell uses dial up anymore? Most of these "visitors" and new "members" are probably the ones who sign on once, make a name, never post, never do anything and probably never come back.

This time last year, more than 80% of all our users (members and guests) were on fast broadband connections. But last month, our biggest month ever, over 40% of all our users were on connection speeds either somewhat less than broadband, or a lot less.

As I said, the 20% decrease in fast speed connections relations to the new advertising blitz that ya'll are doing could come down to.. people surfing the web in obscure countries where there is no super fast speed roadrunner type internet, and see all your pretty new adds, click on the add, wait for it to load, sign up, read a thread, leave.

We've always had a graphically rich environment because of our heavy "skew" toward experienced online users who tend to have fast connections.

One reason I love this site.. and hate so many others..

But after our recent round of advertising, we're reaching a broader base.

So degenerate? Knock back the site a few years in technological advancement so to speak? I pay for my highspeed damnit, I want graphics, pictures, color, streaming video and music, 3d buttons and the whole nine yards! We are lowering the standards of ATS to a crowd THAT DOES NOT POST .. We may have the thousands upon thousands of members, but NEVER forget that there is a CORE population of posters. Since the advertising blitz you see all kinds of new people posting, but no where near as many as you say join the site as members. Who are we pandering to?

Dial up users have only ever complained about Google Vids in the past, and the posters always give them the description.

So, it was time to make the hard decisions of putting our pages on a diet. For example, a page analysis tool I'm using shows our "Recent Posts" page comes in at a whopping 322 kilobytes with 55 different images totaling nearly 200k... that's a heavy page!

I happen to like that page. I load it in about .8 seconds. Keep it.

These new menu buttons are a fraction of the total file size of the previous menu, since they're text with a small graphic background.

Didn't we go through the same story last time though.. when we got rid of the "views" column because it somehow made the loading of the pages "slower" .. and then once the changes where implemented in the script of the site the site was slower, sluggish and sometimes went off line?

So in short, these changes are not about any "bandwidth issues" with our servers, but the need to consider an increasingly broader base of users who may not have the fastest connections.

In most areas a "slow" high speed internet connection is roughly $10 more then the cheapest dial up services. Who the hell uses dial up??


Has anyone actually complained????

Originally posted by djohnsto77
I prefer the older buttons.

My thought exactly. Green just doesn't fit in with the big red ATS banner on top left. Better bring back the old ones, unless you plan to do a major change of the site design. Or change the color, at least.

I was wondering if it was a glitch, but looks like 'this is it'. I used to rely on the old buttons to get visual cues - that is, I'd click on the buttons by recognition of the colours and the icons rather than reading the words on the buttons. Now everything's green and you have to physically read each button rather than quickly hit the button that catches your eye.

I hate it.

[edit on 18-10-2007 by RiotComing]

I like the change....makes the page look a lot less confusing and much smoother IMO.

Originally posted by Rockpuck
Who the hell uses dial up anymore?

52.7% of all our new (never been here before) visitors in September.

Most of these "visitors" and new "members" are probably the ones who sign on once, make a name, never post, never do anything and probably never come back.

Might that be because the average page takes too long to load?

people surfing the web in obscure countries where there is no super fast speed roadrunner type internet, and see all your pretty new adds, click on the add, wait for it to load, sign up, read a thread, leave.

In reality, the US is far behind the rest of the world in broadband access penetration. The vast majority of our new (never been here before) users in September are US-based.

So degenerate? Knock back the site a few years in technological advancement so to speak?

Pick one, and only one:

A) Graphically rich environment that a few are comfortable with, thus not everyone is able to read what our members post.

b) An efficient and clean environment, with broad accessibility, where most everyone is able to read what our members post.

Pick one.

Didn't we go through the same story last time though.. when we got rid of the "views" column because it somehow made the loading of the pages "slower"

No. Tallying the views, writing to the database each time a thread is viewed (several times a second) was a strain on our old database server. There never was an issue with displaying view totals.

Has anyone actually complained????

Yes. We have quite a bit of email through the contact form over this issue. Those alone would not sway me... but combined with the raw data, it creates a need.

Is it possible to at least use a different color for the writing on the buttons? The lime green just doesn't look good with the rest of the site's colors, not to mention that it's hard to read unless you already know which button you want. Plus I thought the change to dark matter was to get rid of the multiple colors the site was in before. So why go and add a new color that doesn't really work with the rest of the site? Or are we slowly going back to rainbow colors again? Not having pictures on the buttons isn't really that big an issue, but could you look into a color that is a bit easier on the eyes?

What about tweaking them a bit so that the writing is in white until you hover over it, and then it changes color? It'd be easier to read anyway.

[edit on 18-10-2007 by Jenna]

I highly recommend to change them back to the way it was - they looked better and more fit with the whole website.

I don't prefer the new ones, though.

Just one question: Is it ATS policy to accustom to the lowest denominator?

I have, what I think must be the slowest connection on the planet, a GPRS hook up by a provider that really sucks. Forget about vids, forget about podcasts, even images sometimes don't load properly. For best performance I have to get up at 3 am. During a day session my browser will go down dozens and dozens of times.

Where I live a dial-up line would be the only alternative, and again to get that whithin a reasonable time I would have to pay bribes out of proportion with the result.

Just wanna say these buttons, as I see them now, don't give me the dopamine release when I open ATS, the joy of what's awaiting gone.

I can live with waiting 60 secs for a page to load - and I really don't bother the ads not to load proberly. Sometimes I appreciate that.

To add: Sometimes avatars don't load, often times images don't, but I always have the text. And that's what it is about.

The first and foremost thing that brought me to ATS so long ago is perhaps the most important: Content

To simply write off a whole group of people because of dialup or other issues denies us thier unique point of view, thier experiences, and thier insights, as well all work towards our collective goal of Denying Ignorance.

The buttons are clean, they get me to where I want to go quickly and the pages load up nice and fast. Yes they have changed, but the content here is just as rich as when I first joined up AND is expanding almost daily. What more could any hard core conspiracy theorist want?

reply to post by FredT


Why not just create low speed and high speed layouts like I've been saying? That way you give choices while appealing to all people.

My first impression was what went wrong wheres this and that.... looks cheap and cheerful and does that PINK U2U mean I have a U2U or what?..... I found out no.

I still like it better before! but its your site and I will get used to it

Dang it..Stop making them change colours..It's freaking out my eyes!

Hmm. Now I (think) I see blue and yellow on three different backgrounds. Much better! We're getting there.

Yeah, that looks better. Just center all the buttons and you'll shut me up.