fyi- APUG Homepage Rebuilt

[Sean]

Hi All,

I have rebuilt the homepage. This is part of an effort to start making the homepage more dynamic. Please let me know if you find any bugs or have any feedback. I hope you enjoy it. Thanks!

Sean

[wfe]

Looks good to me so far.

Cheers,
Bill

[David A. Goldfarb]

I like the idea of having more dynamic content, but it looks a bit cluttered.

I'd put APUG content first--latest posts, APUG portfolios, featured member, and latest gallery images--and move the sponsor info down or to the side. As it is on the computer I'm using at the moment (my wife's Vaio laptop which has a widescreen display), I get to the front page and I see lots of sponsor info, and not much about APUG except for the mission statement, until I scroll down. If I were a new user, I'd probably think this was a site with a lot of advertising content, and I suspect that the front page is mainly for new users, since it's easier for regular users to link directly to the forums or galleries and skip the front page altogether.

By comparison, photo.net has no ad content on the front page--it's more like the table of contents in a magazine. Rangefinderforum.com is more like the front page of a newspaper--top threads on the top of the page, listing of active threads down the middle, advertising at the sides.

I'd also move "APUG buttons for your website" to a separate page.

[jovo]

Displaying the latest gallery images, again runs the risk of "not suitable for work" situations arising. Is there a way to hide the images for such environments?

[Sean]

Thanks for the feedback David, how do you think it looks now?

As for the gallery images on the homepage I can't decide if it's that big of an issue regarding work safe browsing. I'll await more feedback on that one. I still plan to implement a nsfw modification but it could be a while..

[Sanjay Sen]

I think this is a better version than the one I saw (briefly) earlier(?). I like how it is now. The dynamic content is much better - I was getting a little bored of the same home page!

Thanks for all your efforts.


Best,
Sanjay

[Sirius Glass]

Displaying the latest gallery images, again runs the risk of "not suitable for work" situations arising. Is there a way to hide the images for such environments?

I have to go with Jovo on this OR a way each user to set a tolerance level for the home page.

Steve

[blaze-on]

I appreciate efforts to have a new look every so often, but I think it's a bit cluttered as well.

Gallery images I don't care for there, for reasons stated above. I understand perhaps it's there to be a "teaser" of sorts to non-subscribers, an impetus to subscribe, but it could easily go against that too.

The latest "hot" thread area is insignificant for me, adds to clutter.

Your sponsors may balk at their presence being diminished some too.

All in all, I applaud new looks, but it's too much.

[terri]

Thanks for the feedback David, how do you think it looks now?

As for the gallery images on the homepage I can't decide if it's that big of an issue regarding work safe browsing. I'll await more feedback on that one. I still plan to implement a nsfw modification but it could be a while..

It appears from prior comments on this that the answer is: it's not an issue as long as the recent images are collectively "G" rated, but it only takes one nude to cause an outcry. You might be better served posting a static thumbnail or two there, with a link to the Galleries, while keeping the disclaimer you already have in place there.

The rest of it looks great to me!

[Bruce Osgood]

Well, I for one like what you got going. I don't know what it looked like earlier but it looks good now.