you're just stupid. just kidding. it's under the forums drop down menu. it's always been there for me though so i don't know if you're talking about a different one

Aw :( I was a bit taken back checking cB today, (with the big layouts popping out at me). I really loved the old version, but I can understand where you're coming from for this new look (especially the navigation, there is some what of a GoogleAds disguise no?) )

Oh yeah, it's always been there. But just now, without Latte, it looked different to me so I never thought to look there. Thanks!

I'm not feeling this bloatage (width) at all right now.

no the image in the layouts. The one thats used as a default image filler for the myspace layouts. Thats what i meant. Sorry to confuse you on that. And i totally didn't notice the added section the top nav. Great that its up there now. I have to say i really go agree that its a little too wide. maybe from 770px to 870? I think that 770px to 960px is far too much.

and the box nav was pretty awesome in fact it was the best feature of the last CB. it was also easier to spot. now we can accidentally end up clicking the add instead.
The search bar being under the account nav, same with the submit button, just looks weird being soo close to the rest of the links.

I like the wider screenshots, hopefully that can be fixed to look more clear.

The layout/graphic info was ok the way it was, under the ad, instead of on top.

would it be possible to box in some of the layers? like add a background color like before. Instead of all that white. I think thats whats putting people off.

It could of been a bit wider from the old one, but not this wide. It looks like im reading a report. Maybe because there is no Latte.

Does the ad banner haaave to go at the top? And right below the nav? :[ I think it would look sick if, instead of it being the advertisement, it was a super-pro graphic design. It would be immensely cooler if there were multiple designs that showed at random.

This layout looks messed up on FF, the search bar is under layouts and graphics

Once the kinks get worked out, I think it will look pretty good.

Would it be appropriate to change the font for the entire site, just to bring something else fresh to the table?

ok, a lot of you aren't digging the new width and wondering why its like that. the primary reason why its wider now is to make room for the larger screenshots. cb4.5 is optimized for 1024x768 resolution or higher, since people no longer use 800x600 (which was what cb4 was optimized for). granted, i didnt realize when i was designing cb 4.5 that many of you have cb windowed, which is why we have this problem now.

so, heres the deal. im running a script thats automagically updating the layout thumbnails as i type. check out the layout section and see if you still dont like it. ill port the nighttime and mocha and latte in the next few days. after you try that and you still really really dont like the fatter cb and would much rather prefer that we go back, what ill do then is make a "thin" version, where ill just have to reshrink the thumbnails (outside cb) via css at the expense of making it look choppy (since the image is larger than what its made to fit into). that way everyone's happy.




oh, its supposed to be "cb" italicized, but i can see why someone can be confused. when i finish everything, ill work on another icon.




i suppose its relative. cb4 was boxy, and although it didnt use any tables, the boxiness gave an effect that it did so, which gave me an impression that it was outdated.




oh? what will you be doing here? ill pm you my number, if youre free call me. =)




hmm i didnt think about that. ill need to check with google about that, but the ads being so close is intentional (as hated as it might be).




oh hmm, im still confused. =( there is no filler myspace layout image.

i decided to do away with the boxes, since when im adding new sections ill have to recalculate the width to make sure everything will still fit.

the screenshots are automatically being replaced as i type.

ok. what ill try adding some colors to the navbar and see. you know, cb4.5 is very similar to cb3 and cb2, which is interesting because when i launched cb4, everyone hated it because it looked so different. and now people are wanting it back. =(





oh can you give me a screenshot?

what would you suggest?

^ oh... fit refresh. cb is wider now.

oh it works now, lol

damn, cb got fat

I could not care any less about the thumbnails, so a thin version would be lovely.

the colors are nice...but white looks too plain, maybe you could change that ?
and yea I hate the ad below the menu you know =]

and also, u could try making something like a button that takes us back to the old version ? just a suggestion :)

Dude cB just got obese.

More like the Freshman 15.

And wtf BLABLA, from your screenshot you have those "boxes" on the menu/navigation at the top. Those boxes have been gone since yesterday morning for me, so how are you still able to see those at that time when I couldn't? I thought cB was messed up since I was too lazy to read this topic, haha.

did not answer.

I think the boxyness of it made it more organized in my opinion. This new one seems more downgraded-ish. Its like the layouts swapped and this one should be 4 and the last one would be 4.5

I agree, seems like cb went back in time in design, kind of.

i preferred the old favicon :(

i dont understand, i think more people would want wordpress than hi5?

there arent any huge changes that i care too much about. but finally some fixes, i guess :D

Odd as it is, the only change I like is the width change, but that's really only because I have a 9-inch screen and feel like a page is finally maximized for me, but I would HATE to have a horizontal scroll-bar.

That said, I do think cB took a small step back if the goal was the professional look. I don't like the underlines on the navigation at the top, and much preffered the shaded-box style of the previous layout.

But! And I really hope this doesn't come off as a oh-I-should-say-something-nice-because-I'm-afraid-to-offend (do people still think that of posts?) comment, but I am glad for the nighttime skin. Unless, of course, it's always been around in this version and I...never noticed.

Ha ha, it's been around for a while (including the Mocha style).



lol all the cb profiles got raped

:[] How many options have there been?

I think there was a latte style too

No offense I think it makes the site look a little cheap. I like it where you can tell right off the bat where the navigation is. For some reason at first I skipped over and was looking for the Nav. I also don't like how with the previews are stretched out sometimes because of the predefined widths.

But yea it's cute :D

Aww i actually liked cb4, just wasn't digging the new standards for layouts when cb4 launched.

ok, this is the icon I'm talking about.


when i saw you have this one


i was hoping that the first one wasn't replaced. I actually like the first one.

i can hardly remember cb3, but wasn't cb three the logo, and three columns with links? or was the cb 2?
the forum section for the layout comments was a feature i missed, but when you updated the comments for cb4 turned out pretty good.

the screenshots look pretty good.

I like the first much better than that new one...

Mine appears to be a virgin still. :]

yours is da best mang you deed it

I don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet, but it's all funny in IE6.

Doesn't really affect me, because any computer that I use without IE7 has Firefox, but thought I should put that out there.

Who the f*ck still uses IE6? Yeah. No one.

^lol. true dat.
Any body got screenshots of cB 1 and cB 2? I doubt it.

way back machine :] a.k.a archive.org

I wish the search bar on the front page weren't touching the ad banner.

/firefox 3, mac

the ad is honestly an eyesore, maybe there is a way to frame the ad and make the site look more aligned, the huge content and the tinier nav seems unbalanced :/

Plenty of people don't, sure, but there are still a number who are on IE6. Maybe they have a slow connection and can't download IE7.

This has probably already been covered, but the ad at the top looks trashy as hell

You guys were talking about an ad, and I was like...wtf are you talking about, I don't see an ad. Then I went on my iPod touch and saw it.

And then I remembered that I installed an add-on for Firefox that blocks ads on all pages.

So maybe look into that.

i like the blue on the forums or blue on the paint brush in the createblog logo better than the neonish blue stuff too.

oh we'll be adding more sections to the navbar, but youre right, i can see where youre coming from. instead of centering, ill most likely have the navbar colored instead.



i mentioned this before, but wp has their own skin respository built right into their site. theres little reason why anyone would go anywhere other than wordpress.org itself to grab skins.



... sadly, based on the replies, i think thats the general consensus (a step backword). i do appreciate the honesty but sometimes i wish people would use a little more tact when criticizing. obviously, it wasnt my intention to go a step back, so a little sensitivity would go a long way. some of the other replies ive been getting just seem to be a bashfest without giving me any useful pointers for improvement. but anyhow, thanks for putting it lightly (serious, not being sarcastic).

i will be working on the mocha and latte skins and maybe you guys will like that.



i agree that the navbar is somewhat cluttered (with teh ads). in all honestly, the ads are strategically placed there to maximize exposure. youll notice that now, we only have a banner ad (with the link ad to the right) and a 300x250 ad littered on destination pages (ie layout code page). before, we had a lot more ads everywhere (including a skyscraper ad on destination pages that sort of messed this up. since the ads now are getting more exposure, well have less ads everywhere else.



oh haha. sorry about that. ill be changing the icon since there were confusion that it looks more like an l than cb.



yes, i just realized that today! thank you for telling me, ill fix this tonight.



mocha and latte will be back shortly. are you using a window to browse or full screen?



i mentioned this above.. the ad is placed there for a reason to maximize exposure. i know it doesnt look too good, but in exchange, we now have less ads everywhere else. ill play around with the css and change the navbar colors and see if that looks any better.



--------

on a side note, tracker identifying feature now works again. official members will be able to track ips every 5 sec, whereas regular members 10sec.

the width makes it look a little more web 2.0 ish, which would technically be a step forwardin design. the "in" thing in web design nowadays is going for the bigger, wider look (e.g. - facebook). if anything, we're a little late on the trend.

the problem is that it's not as functional for some people as it is for others. though, i am glad that you're trying to move forward; i found it amazing that there are some people out there still on 800x600 (throw out your monitors already!). as for the issue of people resizing their windows, i guess it just depends on how small you resize. i've always resized my browser, but never smaller than ~2/3 of my widescreen just 'cause i hate vertical windows; therefore, this is no problem for me.

i think a good compromise would be to keep the "fast reply" aligned to the left of the screen and make it smaller (around 2/3 of the current size would be ok i think). that way, people could fast reply without scrolling horizontally.

i agree with what was said about the aqua color; i much prefer the old duller blue, which imo is more professional looking as well. the banner is in disaray purely because everything (text, graphics, ads) is within a white bg. i think some kind of framework/color change would be needed to organize it.

I personally like the wider width, it is more web 2.0

it was too wide. Everyone was more use to the smaller width

I agree also. I have this thing for organization and I personally do think the boxes really added to the organization aspect of the site.

Also I wouldn't mind if it got a little wider but this is like...too wide. I don't have the horizontal scroll bar or anything but the wideness is personally an eyesore to me.

NOT to be harsh, but honestly, this is going more towards...dun dun dun...BLOGRING!

Everyone was used to cB 2/3 but they adjusted just fine. I think people should give it time. I'm sure they will get used to it like they did with the earlier versions. As for the ad, I think it was a strategic move to place it there. It does look a bit cluttered but like the width of the forum, I'm sure it'll be fine once it's adjusted to.

to wide for me :[
on internet explorer 6

imo, i liked the old CB. i don't like how a lot of things aren't in their little
boxes with borders and stuff. &i also agree that its too wide.