Hi,

I like the fresh look and feel of AndroidQuestions.org and although a change is not necessary it would bring a fresh new breeze to the LinuxQuestions.org community. I'm all for it, if the colors are not made too bright. Flashy neon stuff makes my eyes hurt. And as pointed out by Larry, changes always have pro and contra and comments will always be made but at the end I'm sure that all will adapt.

Kind regards,

Eric

I agree with some points raised by other members:
1. I like LQ stats but they are extremaly slow.
2. Don't change the LQ colour theme. If some change doesn't aid improving functionality, perhaps it's not necessary. The blue theme has worked well for such a long time. I don't think there's anything wrong with it and I don't believe in change for the sake of change.
3. I think the AQ menu(s) layout/structure is clearer in terms of user experience (but that might be just my impression)
4. If the reason for the future change of LQ platform are bugs or some technical issues that will be eliminated on the new platfrom, then it's always a most welcome change.

Same here regarding the colour scheme on AQ: bad, bad, bad. :) The layout isn't too bad, though.
I agree with TobiSGD as far as LQ is concerned: it ain't broke, so don't fix it.

LQ format
 

If it works, Don't fix it!
Change for changes sake is seldom worth while/

I strongly disagree about the color scheme. The color scheme at LQ makes most text easy to read quickly. The color scheme in the Android Forum make the text harder to see and slows down access to information.

I'm not ever a fan of "refreshing new" (AKA change for the sake of change). So a big layout change is at best something that takes effort to get used to. Maybe I would like a new layout once I'm used to it. Maybe not. (The Android Forum color scheme is just worse. Even if I got used to it, it would still be worse).

A technical forum should be set up to help the flow of information. I'm don't feel qualified to have an opinion on which of two color schemes or layouts is prettier (my sense of aesthetics is too far outside the common range). But even if I did have such an opinion, I'd say it isn't the basis for selecting color and layout. I want something that works well, not something that looks pretty.

Here it is aging eyes and a tiny font on old high resolution CRTs. That works fine with a good contrast color scheme, such as LQ. With the Android scheme, I would need to zoom in to anything I actually wanted to read.

LQ better than from my list visit
 

I do not visit LQ frequently, but I found it improved since my last visit. About Android, currently I am not interested on it

I agree, I really like the way LQ looks right now. It's really clean and simple, and the color scheme is very pleasant. On the other hand, AQ's theme looks really chunky and distracting, even if not for the yucky green color sceme.

Personally, if vBulletin wasn't proprietary, I would be against this change.

Currrent LQ better for newbies
 

Although newbies can be an annoyance, one thing that could make it worse is an unfamiliar interface. The current LQ forum is very familiar to many that use other forums. For a newbie like me, with a little experience on forums, I would look for "Read Me Firsts" and "Stickys" and certainly the "search" button. Place me in a strange environment with odd colors and it'll feel uncomfortable. Newbie mistakes would increase. Intolerant experienced users would become more frustrated and want more restrictions on newbs. This is counterproductive to introducing Linux to the world (there are a lot more newbs than experienced users). Ease of use in a Questions and Answers forum is critical. If you are looking for looking for Linux info and you are thrown into an Android environment, you may scare some potential converts away. My $0.02

Agree with GazL Really don't like the colour scheme

Personally, my feeling WRT color scheme is that if you really want something different, you can change the site CSS client-side (e.g. with Stylish for Firefox, Userstyles for Midori, etc.).

Speaking of which, will this new layout have any major effect on those (probably few) of us who do use some kind of client-side re-styling?

I'm a lurking learner. I have no problem with LQ as is. AQ looks nice, but I prefer the blue look of LQ. The contrast is better, making it easier to read.

I also agree whole-heartedly with theNbomr's comments.

No matter which way you go, I'm sure that this site will continue being an outstanding resource for the Linux community.

Keep up the good work :)

Thanks for the feedback so far. I'll address some specific points in subsequent posts, but to clarify what I said in the initial post, the color scheme will not be changing in any way.

--jeremy

To be clear, we're not changing for the sake of change. Hopefully the way LQ has been run for the last eleven years makes it clear that this just isn't the way we operate. The current codebase was implemented roughly six years ago; and while it's served us quite well it's quite simply starting to show its age. Think about it this way, when we rolled out this version of the code Ubuntu 5.10 and RHEL 4 were current releases. Upgrading allows us to move to code that is more modular, more maintainable and performs better. It allows us to implement features that are not currently possible. It also allows us to address some long standing issues such as implementing a much better search. While I understand that some member never want things to change, in this case that's just not a possibility.

--jeremy

A quick check shows it being quite fast at the moment and I don't see any other threads related to this. If it's a recurring issue I'd suggest starting a dedicated thread on the topic so it can be discussed.

--jeremy

Aside from the fact that the LQ color scheme is not changing in any way, it's probably (depending on how you're accomplishing the client-side re-styling) that you'll need to make some chances (for example, if you're using div names, some of them will change).

--jeremy