Hello,For the (very) distracted visitors that wouldn't have noticed, the brand new version of design addict is online! We wanted to reserve our first message to the many members of the forum who make Design Addict a place filled with generously shared knowledge, exchange of various ideas and fancy pants ...;)Before we briefly explain the main changes in the forum, we want to thank a few people who worked behind the scenes to bring you this powerful new tool. Wojciech and Gaetano from "Stoëmp Design Studio" and Matthieu and Constant from "Bien à vous", the designers and developers of this V3 of DA. A special thanks also to leif ericson whose expert advice have been invaluable throughout these months.Well, let's talk about the changes now!They will be detailed in the coming days for each section of the site, but we'll start with the list of new features in the forum.ImagesIt's the most important improvement. It's no longer necessary to host your images on a server before posting on the forum. It's also not necessary to resize your images. They adapt to the format of the website and they are now zoomable. You can upload up to 6 images per message directly on DA in a single operation. Super fast and easy.VideoYou can now also embed videos in your message. These can be hosted on YouTube, Vimeo or other specialized services. Then simply add the url in the provided field.SectionsAs requested by many of you, the forum is now separated into different sections. "Identification" where one finds all the threads related to ID requests. "Repair" with discussions held on restoration of furniture and objects. "General discussions" where we find all the other discussions on topics related to DA: Design (product, interior, graphic, fashion), Architecture and Art. "Off topic" the place where 'senior' members of DA can discuss various topics that are not directly related to the previous sections. If you want to share your favorite recipes for cocktails, it's here. However topics subject to controversy (politics, religion, etc.) are prohibited.The homepage of the forum shows all the threads. To see the contents of a single section, open the filters on the top of the page and select the section of your choice. Regarding the "Off topic section", we have already pre-approved some members. As it is a manual process, we have probably forgotten some members who deserve to access this part of the forum. If this is the case, please don't be offended, just send us an email to info at designaddict.com with "Off topic" as the subject and we'll give you the access.LinksThere are no more "Associated web link" fields in the form. You can simply add the url in your text. Web page addresses will turn into links automatically. Of course advertising links are still forbidden!NotificationsYou can now choose to receive a notification by email when a new message is posted.TagsWhen you post a new thread, we propose to associate it to different tags. It is not mandatory but it is intended to facilitate the access to content. For example, if you associate your thread to a specific designer like "Charles Eames" this tag will appear at the bottom of your thread. Then by clicking on this tag, all users will have access to all the threads related to Eames. There are many other improvements that we will explain in the coming days. We tried to best meet the expectations you had expressed here on the forum. We hope you will enjoy these new features. Patrick & AlixPS. As with all new releases, there may still be a few bugs that have escaped from our many tests. If you spot one, please send us a message to info at designaddict.com with BUG in the subject. Thank you!
Works nicely. Easy to navigate. My only nags, so far: Couldn't find the "post" button when ready to post. Turns out that's "save." I see we still don't get to look at the thread -- even the last previous post -- when composing a reply. And the text font is a bit small -- isn't it ?
Thanks for the hard work ! Any change takes getting used to -- I more or less stopped visiting DesignCommunity a few years ago because the changed format was off-putting. Nothing like that will happen here ! All the same stuff is present, and not far from where it was before. Nicely done !
SDR
Thanks for your kind comments!
A week with very short nights and we still have some glitches to fix here and there...
We know that change will be disconcerting for a short while. We will give you some more tips about the new functions a soon as possible to help you understand all the new features and tools.
Tex: Regarding advertising. We have removed the banner on top of each page and we tried to find the right balance for the "announcement" messages. Visible for the advertisers and not to intrusive for you. Compared to most sites, we find that the amount of advertising is very reasonable on Design Addict.
Robert, SDR, csc23: Of course, we are always attentive to your comments. All will not be realized immediately but we will add them up and include them into our future brainstorming with our web designers and developers.
Some have been done immediately:
- The save button has been changed.
- A mobile version for smartphones will be available in a few days.
Re: Text Size
I was experiencing eye strain with the text size, but have now learned that I can use COMMAND + to increase it.
------------------------------------------
Also, I appreciate this availability of rich text, it allows for greater nuance of expression, but not so much as to have ridiculous dancing sunglasses wearing smily faces jumping all over...
I agree with Tex that the site is now almost impossible to browse on an iphone. Over half of the screen is comprised of static links, and only the lower 40% or so is scrollable content. I would suggest a layout where the static text is at the top. Since there's that button that takes you immediately to the top, it would still be readily accessible, and it wouldn't get in the way of the functionality of the site. DesignAddict used to be one of the sites that I always looked at when I was out-and-about/on the train, etc., but with the new layout for iphone...I just can't. It's like trying to read the posts on a watch.
EDIT: oops...I post that, and THEN I see that there's a mobile version in the works that'll be available in a few days. Well that's good news. Guess that addresses my gripe! Looking forward to it.
If you need any help, please contact us at – info@designaddict.com