New Look... again?

So I've been away for a week visiting my family in Indianapolis and hop on YC today to see this atrocious look and a few new changes. I'm not really that impressed to be honest. It looks absolutely sterile and void of life here now. Kind of sad to see it like this. I'm not sure why we needed a change again but it's getting kind of old.

I agree.... I think this forum needs to stay in one place for a while. Too much change is never a good thing. The last skin was a great look, and now it's this boring blue crap.

Can we have SOME degree of uniformity, please? First the uploads change monthly or so (that deserves a new thread by itsself) and then everything is messed with constantly?

I agree fully, MF. It's very disheartening to see so much change on a website now. Here are some of my complaints about this:

1. The blue look is completely sterile and void of any of the 'zesty youthfulness' that is YC.

2. The pop up sponsor ads are uncalled for really.

3. The fact that we have to go to a new page now to do our status updates is inconvenient.

4. I don't like that each post now includes information on the users profile. I feel if people want to view another persons profile, they will go to that profile themselves.

5. The profile page itself is now messed up AGAIN. Especially the layout of the community stats.

6. The view new content is too complicated now. Why can't we just have one list of ALL the new content in one page... instead of having to click the separate areas of the site now?

Finally, I want to add to what MF wrote. We need some degree of uniformity. If I were a new member coming to this page and seen all this change happen in the blink of an eye.. I'd probably leave and find something else. It's really stupid, imo. Makes me really just want to call for a return to old YC or leave and find a new forum to peruse.

Someone commission a heavy work to Chopin, a large symphony or something that keeps him busy for the next 15 months...

I'm pretty much done with this site. This is ridiculous.

Someone want to start up a new site to transfer what's left of the community there? Because I really want to do that now.

Oh come on you guys! Don't be ridiculous. Chopin is trying to finalize what he started a bit ago. You don't like the colors basically. The look and organization of this is basically spot on. Give it some time and he will have the different skins available again. Let's not just jump off the cliff. This doesn't change anything amongst us really. We still have the same group of people and we still have the same functionality. You can still do anything you could do a couple of days ago. Just calm down. Chopin will finally get settled on something and integrate everything together. Then we will have a finished product that will stay put for a while.

So I've been away for a week visiting my family in Indianapolis and hop on YC today to see this atrocious look and a few new changes. I'm not really that impressed to be honest. It looks absolutely sterile and void of life here now. Kind of sad to see it like this. I'm not sure why we needed a change again but it's getting kind of old.

I am *insert name of someone you respect here* and I approve this message.

The wonkiness of design choices on this site is, understandably, irritating to many members here, I'm sure. I'm a little annoyed myself.

However, as much as I hate to sound overly-patient, this forum is, as far as I know, the best one for sharing music and getting much-needed criticism to grow by, and I think we should just be patient until all the upheaval has passed. All other forums I've seen have far less luster to them, personality wise, and that makes this site worth hanging on to, in my opinion.

Lets give it a few more months to a year. If by then the site hasn't settled, to the extent that it finally does really know what it is (as this constant upheaval can NOT continue), then we can mass-migrate from it in droves.

The new design is a result of the software upgrade. We've basically eliminated all bugs we've had from the past year, and integration is now 100% throughout the site since I opted to use the entire Invision Suite for development. As far as design, I can purchase a few different skins, but IPB 3.2 is very new still, so we will have to wait a little until we start seeing some new different styles.

That's great and all, but we still need organization. I really don't like the way all pieces are lumped together in the music submissions forum, and how they all have "zero replies", in a sense :musicwhistle:

We need to find an organizational system that really works, and then stick with it.

I'm working on that, and if you have any ideas, please send me a private note. In fact, i'll add you to the message I just sent out to the admins and mods.

You need a superb Public Relations Manager, because you work well, but "looks" like you work wrong.

It's been three years of constantly changing things, bugs, and a diminishing user-base. Enough is enough.

*sigh* I agree, the last one was PERFECT. 2 years ago, when I joined, it was perfect. Well, not perfect, but I mean good enough. time 1 it changed, then it changed, changed, changed, changed, it's like every couple of weeks....... I don't want to leave this site. I'm not going to, and I don't ever plan on leaving it. however, I would be so happy, so, so, so, so, so, happy as a member, to have the website the same.

My idea: get back that old skin! I really liked it :) and keep it.

I...... say, the previous network was/is my favorite, this one feels to me like too separated from the forum, I'm a forum member, I feel like I would have to leave a tall building, cross the street and enter into another building where the music is, which is "too far" for me :D so I prefer to stay in the forum building.

Anyone remember when this site still used vBulletin? THOSE were the good ol' days!

ooh yea :D

I remember when SSC was a woman.

There are still many bugs to work out and some ui things, but this is one powerful upgrade. And the site's finally integrated!

Yes, the constant changes are disappointing and will scare members away. I'm not here much myself anymore, but I do want the site to succeed. One of my biggest issues now is that submissions (an awful name, btw, why not call them original compositions?) are all lumped into one forum. Sort of. I see that you can get to subforums via the homepage, but it doesn't look like the subforums are obvious in the main forum.

Also, what's the point of having collapsible content if it doesn't stay collapsed when you refresh the page?

... this is one powerful upgrade. And the site's finally integrated!

Agreed.

It works now. It seems to be working well. The Main http://youngcomposers.com/ page looks great. The forum skin isn't ugly.

Yes, so many changes - BUT, is should be obvious that the site and design are headed in the right direction.

Also, Tokke - what the hell is your problem?! Anyone remember when Tokke didn't scallop and complain about minor bigs and details? THOSE were the good ol' days!

Anyone remember when this site still used vBulletin? THOSE were the good ol' days!

Yeah, I would like that funny little brown boy mascot back at least just for nostalgia.

There have been improvements though. I don't like how everyone treats Chopin when it comes to all the hard work and thought he puts into this site.

Also, Tokke - what the hell is your problem?! Anyone remember when Tokke didn't scallop and complain about minor bigs and details? THOSE were the good ol' days!

Back then there wasn't much to complain about. Remember that?

Back in the days when the site was thus: http://web.archive.org/web/20090423063404/http://www.youngcomposers.com/?

You can't commission Michael to do anything epic, he doesn't write anything interesting. And you can't have a symphonic work with only piano.

Alkan would disagree with you! :)

Back then there wasn't much to complain about. Remember that?

Back in the days when the site was thus: http://web.archive.o...composers.com/?

Yes there was lots to complain about. I think some of us have forgotten what everyone used to complain about.

Remember when we had a major problem with random users flooding the forum with useless posts of ridiculous music. I am not really making a judgement on their music more than I am saying that it was like they just trotted out a few bars and then posted something without an effort to really complete it or write anything good. It was all over the place.

Remember when the off-topic was so large and off point that many people thought it was taking over the site. People were always talking about how the site was driving further and further away from good solid music and musical discussion.

Remember when people were complaining about the professional appearance of the site because of the shout box being on the front page. People didn't think a newcomer reading the shout box was a very good first impression.

Remember when it was John Galt, Sapphire, etc vs me, Jeremy, Tokke, etc. and a lot of what we would do is argue religion, politics, etc. People thought there was too much of that and on a music forum I might agree even though some of it is good to have for diversity.

And by the way, these first two reasons are the reasons that Chopin changes what he changes. These were problems and he set out to find a way to structure the forum so that it minimized those problems. If you notice, the off-topic is not rampant like it used to be and we have far less occurrences of spam posting and useless music postings.

Chris, that was a joke to Chopin :toothygrin: I know he doesn't write that large.... all I can add is that I do try to avoid being negative and complain too much, it's just Mike seems to like to test our loyalty.