sasook.
Smash Cadet
Soo just hopped onto SWF for the first time today and here's what I think; I'll try to break it down as much as possible.
The Good:
-The new features are fantastic; the livestream thing is a feature AiB just put up very recently too, good to see it's made its way here as well.
-The Info button at the top is so convenient, like honestly whoever thought of that idea deserves a hug.
-Connect is nice to see, sorta reminds me of AiB's "Me" page and I feel it definitely would promote a lot of social interaction, since the rep of this place is really uptight and such.
-The live updater (the little FB-like notification about new posts that were just made) is a really good idea.
-The ease of access to metagame-related material from the homepage (the tier list, the MU chart, etc.) is nice too.
The Bad:
-Lack of an option for Revolution; I'm not saying if it becomes available again, I'm going to immediately switch back. This was probably disabled in order to promote this new skin, which is understandable, but there were several nice things about that skin that are really missed with this one, such as how easy it was on the eyes (everything was simple, to sum it up) and the appearance of everything was professional and sleek, which is what SWF is known for.
-The contrast......everywhere. The banner at the top is exceedingly bright compared to the dark skin of the site (it's pretty hard just to see your own name next to where your PM box is), and the neon glow which all names and words seem to have only adds to that. Sure, it's cool at first, but it's also a bit heavy on the eyes; I've already had to look closely at a few mods' names to actually read their name. Even as I type this now in the quick reply box, there's this little grayish bar made to give me the feel as if my letters are glowing as I type them. Cool idea, but the execution backfired a little, IMO.
-The icons. This issue has been addressed by many people already, but it needs to be said; the icons really are too big. With the size, lack of sleekness that the old ones had, and the colors, they just look goofy. The "this user is online" icon went from a nice, goldish Melee sign to a bright yellow dot which looks like a poor imitation of a 3rd grader's drawing of the sun. But I'm not talking about just the icons within posts; I'm talking about all icons. The sticky icon, the icons next to threads that have new replies, the icons next to character boards, etc. They're all way too big, distracting the reader's eye from the words he's viewing and detracting from the quality of the viewing experience as a whole.
-It doesn't appear as if the space on a page has been used efficiently. This goes hand-in-hand with the icons thing, but the character posts have been widened, yet the font size is the same, which means it was pretty unnecessary. In fact, the only things the new space in the posts accommodates are the giant icons. On the home page, while easy access to the tier list and such is nice, they're so big and bright it's almost forcing your eye to split the page in a skewed manner; if these icons were to go somewhere else (honestly I can't give a suggestion here, so forgive me for sounding hypocritical) I think it may be easier to look at and be more efficient because that new space could be used for something else.
-This one is purely opinion, so take it with more than a grain of salt, but I did prefer SWF's old font better. I don't quite know how to explain it, but that sort of grayish, boldish-but-not-quite-bold like font style was quite fun to type in.
Hmm, that's about all I have to say for now. If I think of more, I'll be sure to add it in. Though, if I may, a few suggestions:
-One of the things that really caught my eye was the section of "Major Tournaments" up at the top. This gave me an idea; could there be a way to monitor tournaments that you choose yourself? I'm not talking about subscribing to threads, I mean sort of like a shopping list on Amazon; you hit "add to cart" and then it's there, accessible at all times. So if I want to follow a tournament that's going to happen in the middle of June in Florida, I may forget about it by the time it comes around. Unless there'd be a little link that says "Upcoming Tournaments You're Watching" or something to that effect. My apologies if something like this already exists and I was not aware of it.
-I'd like the option for Revolution back, just because I feel the option should be available.
If I think of any others, I'll be sure to post that as well.
The Good:
-The new features are fantastic; the livestream thing is a feature AiB just put up very recently too, good to see it's made its way here as well.
-The Info button at the top is so convenient, like honestly whoever thought of that idea deserves a hug.
-Connect is nice to see, sorta reminds me of AiB's "Me" page and I feel it definitely would promote a lot of social interaction, since the rep of this place is really uptight and such.
-The live updater (the little FB-like notification about new posts that were just made) is a really good idea.
-The ease of access to metagame-related material from the homepage (the tier list, the MU chart, etc.) is nice too.
The Bad:
-Lack of an option for Revolution; I'm not saying if it becomes available again, I'm going to immediately switch back. This was probably disabled in order to promote this new skin, which is understandable, but there were several nice things about that skin that are really missed with this one, such as how easy it was on the eyes (everything was simple, to sum it up) and the appearance of everything was professional and sleek, which is what SWF is known for.
-The contrast......everywhere. The banner at the top is exceedingly bright compared to the dark skin of the site (it's pretty hard just to see your own name next to where your PM box is), and the neon glow which all names and words seem to have only adds to that. Sure, it's cool at first, but it's also a bit heavy on the eyes; I've already had to look closely at a few mods' names to actually read their name. Even as I type this now in the quick reply box, there's this little grayish bar made to give me the feel as if my letters are glowing as I type them. Cool idea, but the execution backfired a little, IMO.
-The icons. This issue has been addressed by many people already, but it needs to be said; the icons really are too big. With the size, lack of sleekness that the old ones had, and the colors, they just look goofy. The "this user is online" icon went from a nice, goldish Melee sign to a bright yellow dot which looks like a poor imitation of a 3rd grader's drawing of the sun. But I'm not talking about just the icons within posts; I'm talking about all icons. The sticky icon, the icons next to threads that have new replies, the icons next to character boards, etc. They're all way too big, distracting the reader's eye from the words he's viewing and detracting from the quality of the viewing experience as a whole.
-It doesn't appear as if the space on a page has been used efficiently. This goes hand-in-hand with the icons thing, but the character posts have been widened, yet the font size is the same, which means it was pretty unnecessary. In fact, the only things the new space in the posts accommodates are the giant icons. On the home page, while easy access to the tier list and such is nice, they're so big and bright it's almost forcing your eye to split the page in a skewed manner; if these icons were to go somewhere else (honestly I can't give a suggestion here, so forgive me for sounding hypocritical) I think it may be easier to look at and be more efficient because that new space could be used for something else.
-This one is purely opinion, so take it with more than a grain of salt, but I did prefer SWF's old font better. I don't quite know how to explain it, but that sort of grayish, boldish-but-not-quite-bold like font style was quite fun to type in.
Hmm, that's about all I have to say for now. If I think of more, I'll be sure to add it in. Though, if I may, a few suggestions:
-One of the things that really caught my eye was the section of "Major Tournaments" up at the top. This gave me an idea; could there be a way to monitor tournaments that you choose yourself? I'm not talking about subscribing to threads, I mean sort of like a shopping list on Amazon; you hit "add to cart" and then it's there, accessible at all times. So if I want to follow a tournament that's going to happen in the middle of June in Florida, I may forget about it by the time it comes around. Unless there'd be a little link that says "Upcoming Tournaments You're Watching" or something to that effect. My apologies if something like this already exists and I was not aware of it.
-I'd like the option for Revolution back, just because I feel the option should be available.
If I think of any others, I'll be sure to post that as well.
