Since switching to this design, the number of new threads posted daily has decreased by 75%. New posts, new registrations, and traffic has remained consistant.

Is the "new thread" button really hard to locate? Confusing? What is wrong?

Now that you mention it, the buttons do tend to blend in a bit too much. I know someone probably worked very hard to achieve the chrome look, but the buttons would be more functional (and marginally faster loading) if they were a solid color, slightly bigger with larger text, and responded to hovers.

The postbit buttons work well. Perhaps switch the thread-buttons to match?

Generally speaking, I think things would be improved with a normal font size, better contrast for all text, and for buttons. Using black instead of gray would help.

With all the gray, low-contrast colors and such, the site seems to be a bit of a ghost town.

Personally I find it is more difficult to access the Forum Index, than "Post a New Thread", (which I don't see as a problem). Maybe less people are finding there way to the correct forum where they feel confident to make such a post.

Maybe you could try a request for help system, lauched from the main page. Pretty much the same as a new post, but provides the option, of which forum to post in, maybe some extra information to help people solve the problem, like a OS drop down list, ... The drop down boxes, could in themselves, decide where the request is posted.

Can you believe that this was all just a fluke? There was a server problem in which emails weren't being sent out by the forum system ... including activation emails for new members. No one was able to register on the site for a couple of days! I manually activated the accounts of everyone who filled out the registration form, and emailed them all to do some damage control. It's all fixed now.

Yet some valid points were raised in regard to overall CONTRAST of the various forum elements. Don't dismiss them!

never mind the reasons How do I post a new thread!!!!!

Did you think about trying the big bright yellow 'START NEW THREAD' button?

Niek

Hi

Thanks, but that link does not exist except on the forums categories. I have posted a new thread only after deciding where the post should be posted. In my case the Windows XP forum.

A new user will do a search. They might find a thread that meets their need. They might even add to that thread. But on the results page there is not an option to post a new thread.
Daniweb is a very large community and although based on vBulletin is not easy to understand.

When I was here before I might have posted a new thread but could't find how to do so.

If I can think of why it's not easy to find the option to post a new thread I will suggest a solution.

Well, given the number of new threads posted daily, most don't seem to have any difficulty figuring it out.