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Welcome to the new CD Freaks home
Posted on 12/12/07 14:46 by Jan Willem
When you are reading this through our homepage then you've most likely seen a huge change in the layout of our website, we've been planning to change many layout features of our website the last few months and the home is one of the first to be changed. Also the header of the site should be changed the coming months as the feedback we've received on our previous layout was clear, it had to be changed!
Unfortunately we are not able to switch to a relative size, so you can resize it in your browser so you'll have to bear with our fixed width.
Some features:
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Show more headlines -> shows 20 headlines in 1 click
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Overview of latest forum threads -> per request of many
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Overview of latest reactions is back
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Community messages, an overview of activity on the site
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New and improved poll -> working this time!
The coming hours we will continue tweaking the home, so please bear with us and we apologise for any inconveniences this might cause for you.
We really hope you feel our new home is an improvement over the old one and as always we love to read your feedback!
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Reactions
Discuss this article with your fellow community members! We appreciate your valuable input, but please keep the reaction policy in mind and make sure your reaction is constructive.
By
Wadokai (guest),
Wednesday 12 December 2007 15:01
Cool Man !! 
By
ron (guest),
Wednesday 12 December 2007 18:58
"Unfortunately we are not able to switch to a relative size, so you can resize it in your browser so you'll have to bear with our fixed width."
And you're a tech site? Yeesh...
More excellent visual improvements to the site, I love the new layout.
Great work!might want to fix the spelling error. "trough" doesn't look very good on the homepage.
"through" would be nicer.
By
GNK (guest),
Wednesday 12 December 2007 22:50
Looks like CDRinfo now .... lol.
Anyway to lock-in...
Show More Headlines
Also when will you take
advantage of WideScreens!
JohnnyJT
South PhillyI liked cd freaks a lot better 2 versions ago. (The one before this one and the last one.) I've noticed myself coming here less and less and seeing the new page I think I will be visiting even more rarely. 2 versions ago everything was nicely displayed without 5 billion other things going on. There also seemed to be decent news then.
christ man 455,000 views and you still have the same stupid spelling mistake on the home page in this article. doesn't anyone have an IQ over 50??? "trough" is not acceptable, the word is "through".
By
Guest (guest),
Thursday 13 December 2007 06:00
@aedipuss
How good is your Dutch because that is what Jan's first language is.
10 hours ago i let him know about the error. 450,000 people have viewed it since!!! i don't speak dutch at all, but how many people are reading it in dutch. it is in english on the home page of cdfreaks i see.
By
Guest (guest),
Thursday 13 December 2007 06:40
LOL
Maybe he is in bed 
By
fredbloggs (guest),
Thursday 13 December 2007 13:02
What a load of crap this site is getting worse every change
With comments on how bad it is we can't work, so if you can add reasons and what we could do to improve it, then it would be much more helpful...Well you could switch back to the version from 2 versions ago. 
I think it was the one with the orange links, but it's been a long time. Also, the news back then seemed a lot more interesting. I used to have something to click on once a day or every other day. Now it seems like there is nothing. It's hard to say exactly what is missing since it has been so long.
I think it was the one with the orange links, but it's been a long time. Also, the news back then seemed a lot more interesting. I used to have something to click on once a day or every other day. Now it seems like there is nothing. It's hard to say exactly what is missing since it has been so long.
@ DoMiN8ToR
I have to agree with a few of the other posts.
1) The site looks worse now than two versions ago, however this version is better than the last.
2) The news isn't so hot anymore (maybe I should contribute), so people aren't visiting as often.
3) There's too much going on around here. I feel like I'm in Vegas. Can we not tone down some of the ads?By
Cheeze (guest),
Thursday 13 December 2007 16:35
What a mixed up mush you seem to have created
By
Casual_User (guest),
Thursday 13 December 2007 17:44
Also not a big fan of the layout, looks too busy and spread out all over the place. Navigation just isn't very clear, as the others above have said, the news side of this site is defiantly in the decline and I don't see this latest update changing that.
By
John Mitchell (guest),
Thursday 13 December 2007 17:49
It is too busy. Please go back to the old format - makes for quick reading and dosn't require hunting around for the news.
Anyone who feels we can improve our news and wants to contribute to that (we welcome you very much!) can contact me at the cooperation mail address mentiond here: http://www.cdfreaks.com/contact (to avoid spam) I'd have to agree with the previous comments, the new main page layout is pretty horrid. Sticking to headlines instead of this "mini-view" of news and reviews would have been way better, right now there's just too many small icons and images all over the page that just screams "INCOHERENT!" in your face.
This message was edited at: 14-12-2007 01:06
This message was edited at: 14-12-2007 01:06
I like the tabs and also the colour scheme is nice. In all, this layout is superior to the previous one.
The only thing I miss, is the Christmas theme we used to have years ago. Sinterklass told me he is extremely pissed about this too! 
Not bad, but the light blue text against the white background is not easy to see, can you change the skin on this? Though I have to say that it is a lot more commercial looking and a bit less cozy feeling.
Just so you guys know, cdfreaks, you have a run on sentence in the first paragraph. I know Jan is Dutch but someone should proof read posts before posting news.
"When you are reading this through our homepage then you've most likely seen a huge change in the layout of our website, we've been"
Should be "When you are reading this through our homepage(,) you have...layout of our website( we've been..." or use a conjuction or period.
Sorry, don't mean to be critical but it does look a little bad.
By the way, apologise should be "apologize".
About the webpage, I don't like it. The pop up advertisements are annoying. Please go back to the old format. The old adage is true, "Don't fix what is not broke!"By
OldskoolCdfrx (guest),
Saturday 15 December 2007 00:58
I think my experience with the new layout is very telling:
I'm using FF as my main browser and Opera as my second choice. It so happened that I first opened cdfreaks with the new layout in Opera and not expecting the change, I thought Opera was having some problems and wasn't displaying the site correctly. Only after I then tried it in FF also, did I notice that the change was in fact intended and not an error - wow. Even without the overly annoying adds the layout is just messy, with things scattered around in an almost random fashion. The old orange design even if it was quite dated in appearance was a lot more functional. You should go for a clean design, giving the spotlight to only what you think is the main cdfreaks thing (news for example, especially if they get to be the same quality as in the "orange" days) and having a nice & friendly navigation system to all the other sections. Having a little bit of everything competing for the reader's attention in the end manages to grab little to no attention and mainly confuses, eventually alienates the visitor.
GOD...
to be honest... the home page is a big mess now...
i think the community at CDFreaks was clear enough about the opinion, it would've been perfect if you kept the Orange and Blue design, it's so peaceful, so clear, and everything was in place, currently i'm using the RSS Feeds for news cause the newer layout was heavier on the connection (still using a dial-up, so many are too) and it takes ages to load ads at first, and then thinking about the contents, the new features in the forums are totally great, but still the Layout is getting uglier day by day, the new post icons, the new buttons make no sense, while the whole CDFreaks website turned into a Big colourful waste of space and time... and i mean your time, the ones working on it...
i don't mean to put you down but.. please... you've heard everyone...
we don't want a new slick design, this is a tech forum, not a playground for youngsters... this is no kindergarten...
what we need is, less colours, less sci-fi ultra smooth vista button, simple shapes, two colours, simple fonts, and less cutting-edge technology, remember that most people are coming here to solve their problems, not to be faced with more trouble...
i'm a user since 2004, CDFreaks was my homepage for years... until you changed the layout...
and now i'm not even checking it daily, and i'm contributing less... i'm not gonna blame the new design, but i can deny that it IS a big part of the problem...
i know it's uneasy to go backwards... but believe me, you still have a long long way until you get to something good with what we have now in our hands...
you're only losing members...
sincerely
H.Q.This message was edited at: 15-12-2007 06:48
By
K Henderson (guest),
Saturday 15 December 2007 14:43
I'm very disappointed that the new DVD-drive firmware updates arent locatable anywhere except in the forums and those links are strictly user posted and generic. Sorry, but this website has changed to the point where it isnt useful anymore. Good luck though. I understand you need advertising dollars but it looks like a hole lots more has changed about the site than a need for more revenue.
Drive firmware can be found in the "devices section" just as before.
Just select the catagory and then your drive model. All available firmwares will then be listed on the "more details" page for each drive.
This has been the case since the last update.By
Sash (guest),
Monday 17 December 2007 13:07
Well I posted last time I have definitely been visiting less and less. News is partly responsible. My main problem was in FF if I open more than a couple of tabs with cdfreaks news it would slow down to a point where I could do nothing. Oh and I do have a core2Duo PC. Also any other site open 50 pages and no problems what so ever 
. Bring back the two version ago
. Bring back the two version agoBy
Sash (guest),
Monday 17 December 2007 13:08
Oh and the blue text are you serious?
By
Spud (guest),
Tuesday 18 December 2007 01:45
The Home page just has a little of everything on it so you can see what is new over the whole site.
If you just want News then click on the News tab and get just that.
If you want 2 versions ago either invert a time machine or click on the News Archive button to get older layout.
Or just get over yourselves. It\'s a website that has changed it\'s looks, added more functionality and more things that people might want. If you don\'t want to don\'t use them. Simple.
By
Sash (guest),
Tuesday 18 December 2007 13:25
It goes to show what a jackass's response like yourself is spud. You can get over yourself. I have provided my feedback to this site's mod to better his/her site. If you have a opinion about the layout fine provide that. Dont tell us what we should get used to. I know I can click on the news, I am not new to the site. If you read my response earlier its called feedback by the way. Site isn't working as per normal. It freezes up FF. It cant be my PC coz the problem is only with site. Anyway I dont have to explain this to you
We would like to continue the discussion with everyone who has given their opinion here, we will contact everyone by e-mail for a forum thread so we can get more of your input and work according to that...Top news
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