Specific ways to improve Free Republic site design

Me

[Stop Legal Plunder]

Love Free Republic but have doubts about the latest site design? Then use this thread to post specific and constructive suggestions about how to fix shortcomings in the new design.

[Salvation]

Return the "Find In Forum" link on each member's profile page.

I thought I was going nuts the other day when I could not find that link. I was asking myself, "OK, did you really forget where it was?"

[mlmr]

I agree about going back to Times Roman.

[summer]

Drop all the graphics. I want text - the more the better. I can always turn on the TV if I want mindless graphics instead of news.

I agree, though I do like the American flag, of course. But, I prefer no graphics on this site's forum pages.

[summer]

Re your post #62 - I agree.

[Uncle Hal]

Go back to the way it was. This is too confined. Too much wasted space on the left.

[Crowcreek]

"Please give an all threads option. I dont want to be bouncing among forums and I am omniverous."

Yes. What he said.

[Crowcreek]

'She'

[Bob J]

We absolutely, positively need more than 5 items in Breaking news. I dumped all the other item just to see if it would expand...nope.

[TLBSHOW]

I can't even get breaking news and it takes so long to load that anyone with a 36 k computer we will lose them I bet. This reminds me of ebay when they decided to make that site harder. Yes the color design is very hard on the eyes I have a head ache already. Just return to the original coke please, pretty please.

[Vinomori]

Sweet Loretta Martin thought she was a woman, but she was another man.

O'Rielly interviewed sweet Loretta last night (Rosie O) and she really did think she was another man.

[Hardcorps]

I agree 100%

[BlueCat]

I agree with you...I liked it the way it was. This is not as clean, therefore more difficult to read.

[Bizzy Bugz]

I agree. This is too hard for people who are rather new to computers to understand. We do not want new people to turn us off before getting to know us.

[kristinn]

My general comment is that the new design violates a core principle of design: Keep It Simple Stupid.

FR was difficult enough for newbies to navigate, but most could figure it out without much trouble. Now, you'll need a manual thicker than a VCR manual to figure this out.

FR's strength lies not in being a techie's bell and whistles paradise, it is that it has been a relatively easy to use information exchange of conservative news and activism.

I recognize the need for and support efforts to improve FR, but this one has thrown folks for a loop, IMHO.

[GailA]

DITTO this. Also PLEASE as a vision "challenged" person wearing tri-focals and having a VERY hard time with seeing print on dark pages. PLEASE keep the black/white floormat as much as possible. I'm sure I'm not the only person with vision problems like this.

When I encounter pages with black or dark backgrounds with dark printing on them it is as if they are INVISIBLE. Don't know what causes this handicap, maybe something to do with my cataract, it is a PAIN in the butt.

[republicandiva]

DITTO to everything Kristinn said. This is the same argument as changing the state boards...many people on this site just are not as computer savy as the some of you, and whether you realize it or not, you have made things more complicated, not just for newbies!

For everyone that said go back to the way it was: DITTO!

For everyone that said the colors are wrong: DITTO!

For everyone that said the fonts are hard to read: DITTO!

For everyone that said 5 items of breaking news is insufficient: DITTO!

Someone once said: Sometimes changes isn't necessarily for the better, it's just change!

[vikingchick]

Drop the flag background on scrolling pages.

Ditto.

[Tree of Liberty]

Well, for a time we had BOTH front-ends in operation (the previous version of FR, plus the beta) Why not continue to give users the choice? IMO, it's all about options. For instance, if someone likes the left side-bar, more power to 'em, but I'd like a way to turn it off for me and others that don't care for it. I'd like the opportunity to turn on/off all front-end features, insofar as it's possible to do. One size does not fit all.

Also, is it feasible to have a java app, or something similar, that would push new content to the breaking news sidebar? That way we wouldn't need to reload the page to find out the world's about to blow up :)

[RCW2001]

Really not that much different once configured properly however heres a few of my suggestions.

1. Configure the 'default' settings to emulate the old forum as closely as possible.
2. Allow more listing of articles in the sidebar categories. Right now breaking, extended, frontpage only list about 4-5 article versus the old 10+.
3. Return the old 'quick search' function. When posting articles, it was a must for locating duplicate articles especially with the 'articles only' option.

Other than that...it's working for me.

[ironman]

Needs a few tweeks but I like it. Formatting is much better on my PDA.