New Style

[tgreer]

Maybe this should go in the "Site Feedback" forum, I don't know.

Wow, I really don't like this style. Most of the navigational elements are WAY TOO SMALL.

Where did the JavaScript/DHTML forum go? I can't seem to find it anymore. It should be under Web Development.

So... I guess I'll let whoever finds it first moderate it, while I go get my eyes checked.

[Dani]

I moved it ... Hmm, not sure what I can say other than that I am still tweaking a LOT of things. The reason for the change was actually to provide more eye candy to catch the interest of advertisers and ad agencies. In addition, I wanted to see if I could simplify the navigation with the tabs at the top. (For example, you'll notice that clicking on the Software Development tab will present you with Software Dev forums, Software Dev blog entries, and Software Dev tutorials, all in one place.)

Unfortunately, however, there are way too many graphics for my taste making the pages too slow loading. I am going to work over the course of the next week on taking a lot of the text contained within graphics and putting it into CSS.

In my defense, I do wish I had received more feedback to all of the screenshots of the new style that I posted over the course of the past week. ;)

[tgreer]

Dani,

I honestly never saw any of the screenshots. Where were they posted? Yes, the ads totally overwhelm the content, and the navigation. The tabs at the top are fine, but way too small. The side navigation panels are basically useless... too tiny, and overwhelmed by ads.

I still can't find the JavaScript forum.

[Catweazle]

Javascript is listed under Web Dev.

Some sections have been amalgamated, an I'd consider that to be somewhat of a good thing as there seemed to be far too many sections before.

[Letscode]

Wont it be appropriate if VB.NET falls under web development rather than software development?

[tgreer]

The problem with C# and VB.NET, is that either language can be used for either web development or windows development. So, I think the compromise of having ASP.NET under Web Devleopment, and C#/VB.NET under Software Development, is not a bad one.

The only issue is that I'm a C# developer. So when people ask ASP.NET questions using VB.NET code snippets, I can only answer the question "in general".

Also, I'm sure that there are a lot of C#/VB.NET posts that really should go in the ASP.NET forum. But, that's why the site has moderators... to move such threads.

[Dani]

Is it necessary to continue to have the .NET Framework forum, also, as we have??

[tgreer]

Probably not. I can imagine someone having a non-programming question about the .NET Framework, but is that worth an entire dedicated forum? I don't think so.

[Dani]

I was under the impression that questions related to the VS.NET IDE, forms, and all of the other good stuff involved before you actually start dealing with a particular syntax language, would fall into that forum.

[tgreer]

Hmmm... I wouldn't think to post a question about Visual Studio, in such a forum.

Mabye combine .NET Framework, C#, and VB.NET in a "Visual Studio.NET devleopment" forum?

[Dani]

That was what we originally had. But then that brought us into the dilemma of wanting to separate out ASP.NET and C# and VB.NET - especially across Software Dev and Web Dev categories. And nothing is as popular as a subforum, anyways ;)

[tgreer]

I say we all stop using .NET in any capacity. That'll make things easier.

Seriously, though, whatever else you decide, ASP.NET needs to be split out as a separate forum. It is such a weird way to do web development, and so many ASP.NET developers come to it without knowing the fundamentals of client-side development, so get into unique situations. Those situations don't have anything to do with the IDE or the language, but with the ASP.NET methodology.