The approval/disapproval ratings was nice sport when you agreed with someone on one side of the debate, so I understand why you miss it. It also feels nice when intelligent people agree with what you say (and disagree with your opponent) But admittingly, its as Agustino says.

Personally, I think the layout is very bland, and there is also a lot of unused space. — Maw

In my opinion, to say the design is bland is largely a misguided criticism with regard to a web design that exists to optimize the reading of text. And there is no such thing as unused space in a web design, but certain people may, for whatever reason, prefer all or most of the screen space to be filled. This is quite an unusual preference in my experience, aside from clients who want to stuff everything "above the fold". One major problem with the old design was that you had to scan a long way across the screen to read; the importance of limiting line length/characters per line has been recognized for a long time by typographers.

I'm not being defensive: it's not my design and there are several things I would change about it. But when people say they dislike a design it's now second-nature for me as a web developer to find out if there is anything of substance in the complaint so that I can see if I can do something about it, or if it's just people moaning about something unfamiliar or expressing their odd tastes.

But design is a kind of engineering and is certainly not simply a matter of taste. Although we don't have much scope to change things on this software platform, I do want to know what works and doesn't work. PlushForums has been professionally designed to optimize the user-experience, but it's not perfect.

Anyway I'll get off my high horse now.

Wouldn't mind user profile pics being bigger either, but all that is just my 2 cents. — Maw

If you ever want to see a bigger version of anyone's profile image you can click on it to view the profile. And like I say, you can make everything bigger as I do by zooming in.

But when people say they dislike a design it's now second-nature for me as a web developer to find out if there is anything of substance in the complaint so that I can see if I can do something about it, or if it's just people moaning about something unfamiliar or expressing their odd tastes. — jamalrob

As I work largely in programming nowadays (database creation and management mostly, but also things like web-design) I know that the user ALWAYS moans about the unfamiliar and requests changes, even if those changes actually make whatever the application happens to be worse >:O (I think they think that by requesting such changes they are keeping the designer "under control" or some weird thing). It's crazy how many substandard applications I've had to make because users just want it that way, and they don't care about the rules of programming or design. I've broken almost all the rules in database creation for some folks >:O but it's their database. If they want it that way, when they want to expand it and increase its functionality it's just going to cost more :D

But this design isn't bad. The nav menu sticks at the top all the time, the screen is what 960-1000px wide at max (the main screen where the posts/writting goes), and the simplicity makes all the info easy to navigate and get to. But the unlearned brutes will always protest if I may be permitted to speak like this, not meaning any insult to anyone :P

Although I will grant you that just the look of this forum is incredibly easy to make. It's functionality though (the back-end) is a different story, that's quite hard.

When I became a developer I vowed I would never become one of those guys who complained to other developers about "the users", treating them as the enemy. So I'll just acknowledge what you say while resisting the temptation to join in. :D

When I became a developer I vowed I would never become one of those guys who complained to other developers about "the users", treating them as the enemy. — jamalrob

I'm not complaining, I'm laughing at them ;) :P fools are useful, definitely not enemies.

Are you a developer by profession (as in are you educated in computer science with a degree) or self-taught?

Did some programming at university but mostly self-taught.

Many of us are, same for me. It's curious how high the number of self-taught is in this profession in comparison with other professions. In my ideal world, other professions would be like IT having a lot of self-taught and independent producers. I've always wondered why we have barriers for example against self-taught lawyers. It makes no sense to me, and I think this stratification of some professions such that you need a degree and need to be affiliated with such and such a body to practice is detrimental. Degree should be replaced with exams or some other means of testing the practitioners. For example, one should be able to practice medicine if they can demonstrate the capacity to do it, even if they don't hold a medicine degree.

It's because it's a young profession, and maybe also because nobody (usually) dies or goes to jail if things go wrong. Some people think we should be moving to full professionalization, with a professional body and mandatory qualifications. Mature professions need the educational and regulatory paraphernalia to ensure those claiming to be a certain kind of professional can actually do the job.

I want to agree with you, but what you're talking about is maybe just a different kind of professionalization anyway. To "demonstrate the capacity to do it" for the surgeon cannot just be a portfolio of past successful operations, because the next operation is the one that could expose the gaping hole in his knowledge.

180 Proof, Landru Guide Us, and @Paul are members but not active. — Baden

Landru was very active here for a while. I think he got tired of saying "conservative meme," so he left.

I saw enough evidence to suggest that Landru could never get tired of saying "conservative meme". He must be saying it somewhere else.

When I became a developer I vowed I would never become one of those guys who complained to other developers about "the users", treating them as the enemy. — jamalrob

But that's like half of what we talk about in the office. It'd be quiet without it. Also, this is hilarious.

Are you a developer by profession (as in are you educated in computer science with a degree) or self-taught? — Agustino

Professionals are just those who get paid for it.

Some people think we should be moving to full professionalization, with a professional body and mandatory qualifications. — jamalrob

I hope not. I don't even have an IT GCSE.

Totally forgot about Clients from Hell. I used to read it all the time. And don't get me wrong: I've had some horrible clients myself, and I have complained about them very vigorously. Part of the problem might be precisely the fact that we are not professionals in the strict sense that Agustino is using; some clients think it's okay to treat web designers and developers disrespectfully, in a way that they would probably not treat their lawyer.

I hope not. I don't even have an IT GCSE. — Michael

Yes, it'll be back to school for most of us.

To "demonstrate the capacity to do it" for the surgeon cannot just be a portfolio of past successful operations, because the next operation is the one that could expose the gaping hole in his knowledge. — jamalrob

Yes, but then this would hold for the one having a degree as well. The thing is the degree doesn't actually help you that much. I have a degree in engineering but I learned very little about it in university and more by actually doing it. I guess I could've been an independent engineer from the very beginning, I would just have started out taking small works that I was certain I could manage and go from there, just like I started in programming. But the problem is, if I actually tried to be an independent engineer after university, I couldn't legally practice even if I took on, say, building someone's garage >:O

I saw enough evidence to suggest that Landru could never get tired of saying "conservative meme". He must be saying it somewhere else. — jamalrob

I did a search for "conservative meme", Landru. We're first (insert celebratory emoticon here) and some place called "freerepublic.com" is second. Maybe he's over there.

I did a search for "conservative meme", Landru. We're first (insert celebratory emoticon here) and some place called "freerepublic.com" is second. Maybe he's over there. — Baden

@jamalrob, freerepublic.com is an example of great forum design. ;)

Less of your in-jokes! Have you found Landru yet? We'll take him dead or alive.

jamalrob, freerepublic.com is an example of great forum design — Michael

Yikes.

I'm not going to get into a detailed debate over it, but the way this forum is laid out reminds me of watching a video on Youtube that was filmed vertically. Given the dimensions of my laptop, the way the commenting is laid out is simply jarring to me. I am not aware of any other forum or website that features a similar design. I was by the way, taught Design, including website Design in College.

Too bad 180 Proof and BusyCuttingCrap didn't stick around. Maybe they will come out of retirement some day.

I'm not going to get into a detailed debate over it, — Maw

I personally wouldn't mind, but as you haven't made any clear or detailed criticisms except for the profile pics, preferring just to express your dislike, I guess that's that.

Yeah, took ya' long enough, @Maw.
:D

Better late than never ;)