thebackalleys v5 launched

[rtil]

today i launched the 5th redesign of thebackalleys. this is the biggest change the site has seen, and lays the foundation for even better things. here's some of the changes and new features:

• forum-centric sidebars: links have been moved to the top and the sidebars now show information about activity on the forum. on the left are recently popular topics, picked based on an average topic creation date to keep older threads from popping up at random. then 3 active art topics and 3 new art topics. on the right is the current poll, the 5 most recent posts and the top ten recent posters.
• resource center: a place for all the "useful" stuff on tba. i still have more to add to it, but you can get an idea of how it will shape up.
• the art gallery uses lightbox 2 to display the artwork. click on some art and see how it works! use the escape key to exit.
• animations are displayed in a small "theater". this was originally going to have a cool animation on it, but it ran like crap in IE so i scrapped it for now.
• some minor forum cosmetics have been changed.. but there was another IE problem so it doesn't look the way it should on that browser. i hope you're not using it.
• cleaner, more functional layout. this new design is virtually 100% w3c HTML 4.01 strict compatible, the latest in web standards, meaning it looks and performs the same in every modern browser - something the old layout did and could not accomplish.

and here's some plans for the next few months now that the new layout is set in place:

• an oekaki will be added. this will be a part of your forum account so you won't have to register for it if you're already a member. your oekaki gallery will also be in your userpage.
• the forum will be upgraded to match the browser as well as put in a more recent version.
• i will be starting a 'features' forum/site section where every once and a while i will feature a movie, musician, artist or something that is not well known and is worth showing, hopefully with a download to go with it. i'd like these features to be open for other people to write one as well, and merge them with the main site.
• if anoyne has some other suggestions i'd be happy to look into them

i won't be able to do these things in the near future, but i'm hoping to get them started over the summer. for now, i hope you enjoy the new version of the site. any comments or suggestions are welcome.

[shitturtle]

i like that nice gothic pattern you got going everywhere, and that ajax artviewing thing is nice too.

i've always fantasized about having the forum header more like the site header, like that nice moody cityscape.
maybe, i guess i just like that picture.

[ZekeySpaceyLizard]

what turtshirtle said


also bigger size sizes please (300k is pretty f)

[Alta Don]

Looks really nice. Nice redesign  

[rtil]

i like that nice gothic pattern you got going everywhere, and that ajax artviewing thing is nice too.

i've always fantasized about having the forum header more like the site header, like that nice moody cityscape.
maybe, i guess i just like that picture.

that will be included in the forum redesign - bringing the site layout to the forum. unfortunately because of the way this layout is designed i can't port it without overhauling the entire thing which i don't have time to do while i'm still in school. that time will come in may or june.

what turtshirtle said


also bigger size sizes please (300k is pretty f)

do you mean signature image sizes?

Looks really nice. Nice redesign  

thank you

[Hammi]

Dope redesign, looks more personal lookin now and noir like. Everything looks balanced out. Great.

[Casey Pixmintro]

Damn, I was still getting used to Version 4. :P Looks awesome though.

[shura]

holy shit you're adding an oekaki?? that's awesome! =D
the redesigns are great. i love the featuring new movies/music idea

[funzop]

i like it but i think it looks cluttered
lovin the new header

[mishkamash]

i think adding an oekaki is a wonderful thing
i cant wait  

[DrRumack]

neato torpedo

[Flash]

great design

[rtil]

Damn, I was still getting used to Version 4. :P Looks awesome though.

haha well this one is much better to be getting used to. anipedia links are in the resources section btw

holy shit you're adding an oekaki?? that's awesome! =D
the redesigns are great. i love the featuring new movies/music idea

not soon but in the future,yes. glad you like it sasha

i like it but i think it looks cluttered
lovin the new header

is it the sidebars? glad you like the header

i think adding an oekaki is a wonderful thing
i cant wait  

sweet

great design

thanks flash

[Blordow]

i like it but i think it looks cluttered
lovin the new header

is it the sidebars? glad you like the header

yeah i think it is. in my opinion.

too many "stats" on both sides. however the left side looks nice as it keeps its consistency with it's companions, i.e. latest topics all on one side.

I do like it but it does seem cluttered with text everywhere, feels like I am reading a huge article in a busy magazine and don't know where to start.

You should try aligning the avatars on the page to the top rather than the middle, I think that would look neater in my opinion.

But yeah overall I think I like it better even though it seems a lot busier.

[rtil]

i was thinking about the avatar thing

as far as too much text, someday when the oekaki is up i'll have a link to 3 recent drawings instead of having the 10/3/3 topics thing on the left side. i kind of ran out of ideas of things to fill it with

[W.A.C.]

In all honesty, I think some of the older layouts looked nicer. While the new banner looks cool, I don't like the new layout as a whole. >_> IMO, its just really cluttered, lacking in contrast, and overall doesn't look very nice. It has some good ideas, like how the buttons were moved from the sides to under the banner, but the execution of the redesign is very questionable, as it just looks kinda odd to me. :/ One of the biggest problems with the new layout is the over emphasis on forum related stuff. Displaying the latest posts and some of the popular topics on the layout are okay ideas, but isn't showing the recent top posters, active art topics, and recent artist topics a bit overdoing it? I know some of it is temporary, but in the meantime, it just looks unnecessary. One suggestion I have is to put all the forum related stuff on one side of the page. Another suggestion would be to modify the avatar area. Having "[View" and "Profile]" on separate rows just doesn't look very good, so you might want to keep "[View Profile]" and the poster's name in two different rows. You also might want to improve the banner text, for I feel it lacks smoothness. <_< Sorry if I seem overly critical.

[rtil]

i'm just going to ignore the first half of your post since you made it irrelevant on your own. as far as the other suggestions go, i'm not sure what you mean about the "view profile" being on seperate rows. you may have looked at the layout when i was fixing something. please look at it again

[W.A.C.]

Yeah, the [View Profile] thing is fixed.

[ZekeySpaceyLizard]

>_> IMO, blah blah blah :/ blah blah blah <_< Sorry if I seem overly critical.

lawl

[psi43]

lmfao zekey nice summary of his post. A+