[Stop Legal Plunder]

White text on a dark background is always harder to read than dark text on a white background. However, if Free Republic must have the former (i.e. the purple borders), then changing the text to a sans serif font will make it much easier to read.

[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.

[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.

[austingirl]

I need my sidebars back, please! Self-search without the text would be good, too.

[Rudder]

1. Improve scrolling on the forum pages, either news/activism or general interest (for example) scrolls poorly, with a "jumpy" feeling. It almost make me seasick, and, for that reason alone it it is causing me to go to other sites for news.

2. Turn off the poll--it takes up room that should be devoted to breaking news, etc., etc.

3. Have user ability to order the sidebar with catagories preferred going first.

4. Page width is eaten up by a left and a right sidebar--not enough room for the post and the one paragraph header without constant scrolling (scrolling? see No. 1 above.)

[mysonsfuture]

start over.

[mlmr]

One more suggestion, Get rid of the "my". My post, my mailbox........... One of the reasons I like FR is that it isnt as self centered as the "my"sites. A step above!

[Teacher317]

One small suggestion: it took me a while to subscribe to all of the topics on the topic page (not every state, though, just my own). Can you make just one link that would subscribe to every topic in each section?

[a history buff]

Reintroduce search by poster!

[Dajjal]

Bring back the "All Articles" page.

[Nogbad]

Too much muck on the page!!

Muck on the left, muck on the right, muck on the top.

KEEP IT CLEAN!

One page for the Posts, another for all the Muck.

Put on a toggle button so you can toggle back and forth between the two,
from Muck to Content and back to Muck again.

[Dajjal]

Make it searchable by date and time.

[Quix]

Have an Artificial Intelligence module monitor the level of whine. When a user escalates beyond a certain tolerable level, have a potent hollographic but tangible hand come out of the screen and grab the simpleton by the throat and shake them real good.

Then play a rather loud and obnoxious song about "GET A LIFE--AS IN GET A BRAIN FIRST AND THEN GET A LIFE."

Then a med module could dispense a time limited suitable amount of valium. Then the rest of us could merrily FREEP in relative peace.

[hobbes1]

Roll back the software 18 months?????

[GretchenEE]

The changes when I just logged on at about 4:15 AM PST are MUCH easier on the eyes. The Sunday day version was too busy and made the more so by a lack of visual definition between sections. Monday's early AM edition fixes much of that problem.