A Fresh New Look for HomeTheaterForum.com (1 Viewer)

[Sean Bryan]

Something happened between early this morning and now - headers and associated text are so close to being the same color that you can't see the time/date stamps or thread number/indicators on posts without highlighting them.
View attachment 189570
Also the notification bell is now grey instead of red if you have a notification.
View attachment 189571

Yes, just saw this and came here to investigate what setting I need to change to get it back to normal. Headers with black text on a dark blue background? Yikes.

 

[Sean Bryan]

Hello Everyone,

I hope this message finds you all well.

Over the past several months, our team has been hard at work behind the scenes to bring you an updated, user-friendly, and visually engaging experience on our platform, specifically focusing on hometheaterforum.com's homepage and other non-forum sections of our site. We're excited to give you a sneak peek at our progress.

Please visit this link to see our fresh new design: https://htf-demo2.solmati.com/

Our goal with this redesign is to make your experience on our site even better.

If everything goes as planned, we're hoping to have the new design live later this evening!

We should note that we're still refining things, so expect a few more tweaks before and many more after the launch. Also, rest assured that the forum you've grown to love will stay mostly the same. Any changes you may notice would be minor ones such as color palette adjustments and a potential logo update.

We greatly value your opinions as part of this vibrant community and encourage you to spend a little time checking out the new design and sharing your thoughts with us. Your input will help shape the final look and feel of our platform.

Lastly, I want to extend my deepest gratitude for your constant participation and engagement in our community. It's your enthusiasm and passion that truly make our forum a unique and wonderful place to be.

Looking forward to your thoughts and feedback. Exciting times ahead!

Please let the “light” and “dark” style user choices apply to reviews as well.

I know some like the dark style websites. I hate dark styles as they hurt my eyes. The light text on dark backgrounds just messes with my visual system. Thus I always close light style when websites give that choice. As it currently is, it looks like the reviews are forced dark style? Or am I missing a settings option?

 

[Mike2001]

Another one here who can’t see a post’s header info. The text and background might s well be the same color. I use light style.

 

[Rodney]

Another one here who can’t see a post’s header info. The text and background might s well be the same color. I use light style.

I came here to say the same thing. Very frustrating not to be able to see the info unless I highlight it.

 

[Tino]

I don’t like it at all. It was perfect the way it was. Difficult to read against black text. Sorry.

 

[uncledougie]

I came here to say the same thing. Very frustrating not to be able to see the info unless I highlight it.

I thought the posting info had been done away with until I read these replies, but I can (barely) detect it on my phone (which is how I use this site) if I blow the image up to see the black lettering on the dark blue; the contrast makes it all but illegible. And the white lettered reviews, etc, still cut off the right margin text by a couple of characters, and that format is difficult for me, also, so would prefer a choice for light/dark formatting if possible. Not prone to complain or curmudgeon status, but am puzzled by the rationale for complexity over previous formatting.

 

[bujaki]

Black text on dark blue background is just poor design. I know. I used to work in advertising.
You are supposed to make it easy for your customer to understand at a glance, not make your target audience do unnecessary work. That's an instant turn off.

 

[TonyD]

Is this site a live Beta test now?

 

[BobO'Link]

Lots of colors have changed for the worse - links are now very light and more difficult to read the text.

Example: link to Ozzie and Harriet S12 on Amazon.

What ever has been changed needs to be reverted - this is a mess and dificult to read. I hope this isn't the new site. It's not good at all and most certainly not an improvement.

 

[Jonathan]

Hey everyone. Sorry about this.

None of these changes were supposed to be made to the site today, as they are clearly not finished, nor had I approved them yet.

I must have miscommunicated something to the designer. I'm trying to get in contact with him to revert the changes for the time being as soon as possible.

 

[TonyD]

Some things never change.

 

[bujaki]

It's gone back to what it was! Thanks!

 

[dpippel]

Hey everyone. Sorry about this.

None of these changes were supposed to be made to the site today, as they are clearly not finished, nor had I approved them yet.

I must have miscommunicated something to the designer. I'm trying to get in contact with him to revert the changes for the time being as soon as possible.

Thanks, Jonathan. It's back to normal now.

 

[Tino]

It's gone back to what it was! Thanks!

Yes!!

 

[darkrock17]

Navy blue is nice, but not for this site though.

Whatever the new owners have planned for this site, just leave everything as it is.

 

[BobO'Link]

If this review:

Land of the Pharaohs Blu-ray Review

Matt from Home Theater Forum explains why Howard Hawks' sword and sandal epic Land of the Pharaohs is not one of his best works.

www.hometheaterforum.com

is an example of what's coming... I'll say up front I do not like it at all. It looks like some type of "Dark Mode" - a design choice/style I don't like. I vastly prefer dark text over light backgrounds - you know... like black ink on white paper.

The rest of the design isn't bad - not needed, but not bad. If that "dark mode" is what we have to look forward to and there's no option to switch between styles, like now, I'll be one upset member.

I don't care for the new logo, either. It's very generic looking. And the "Howdy" on the username at the top? How hokey can you get?

 

[Carl David]

My first thoughts before having a look were "If it's not broke don't fix it".

However, it does look okay for first viewing.

In my opinion you can't beat simple black font and white background, though.

 

[TonyD]

Who is John?

 

[TonyD]

If this review:

Land of the Pharaohs Blu-ray Review

Matt from Home Theater Forum explains why Howard Hawks' sword and sandal epic Land of the Pharaohs is not one of his best works.

www.hometheaterforum.com

is an example of what's coming... I'll say up front I do not like it at all. It looks like some type of "Dark Mode" - a design choice/style I don't like. I vastly prefer dark text over light backgrounds - you know... like black ink on white paper.

The rest of the design isn't bad - not needed, but not bad. If that "dark mode" is what we have to look forward to and there's no option to switch between styles, like now, I'll be one upset member.

I don't care for the new logo, either. It's very generic looking. And the "Howdy" on the username at the top? How hokey can you get?

Agree on all these points.

 

[John Dirk]

If we're casting votes, I strongly preferred the original look. Since I usually land on the New Posts page, it's not a big deal for me either way but there was nothing wrong with the "look" of HTF. It's the content that needs to be refreshed and we're working on that with updated reviews, etc. Since I assume designers don't work for free, why pay for "look and feel" changes when most are happy with what we already have.