We're here! We're tired, but we're here. We've tried to deflect your attention all month by celebrating our fifth birthday at length, with a riotous selection of gigs and articles, but the time has really come where the new site we've been getting exciting about for ages hath finally come to fruition.
We'll not be adding a slew of new articles for a few days, whilst Matt adds some more exciting new features and your experience is refined via your feedback.
Needless to say, the message boards are live and there's some lovely little bits for you to play with, as well as even more to come. We're going to get some sleep. So here's to another five years, or even more and we all look forward to reading your comments and arguing with you on the message boards.
Colin Roberts
Editor - Drowned in Sound
The lowdown from Matt:
So the new site is up! before you dig in though, please be aware that this is very much a work in progress. A lot of things are working, and a lot are still to come. Don't worry, we haven't lost your ratings, notes or anything - all the features you're used to will re-appear gradually over the next few days. If you notice any bugs or errors, or have any constructive suggestions about the new site, do post on the boards.
Of course we're working on new features too, so here's a taster of what's to come:
- Post your own user reviews of releases and shows
- Contribute your own listings
- Create your own photo galleries and contribute pics of shows
- Coordinate your social life with our gig attendance calendars
- Tell us your location and get location-specific content
- Lots more...
Enjoy, and look out for future announcements.
And it works!
Yay.
Note to anyone who has javascript turned off - too bad. go turn it on.
JS?
Why, what doesn't work if Javascript is off?
Boards & user login
They're all Ajax-ified, didn't you notice? :)
Notice how when you reply to something the reply submits and appears immediately without having to reload the page. Neat huh. Same for logging in at the side - no page reload
posting
Ah, that's what I thought. But sometimes it means your post is in a diffrent position once you refresh the thread, like if someone posted while you were writing yours.
Nice feature though.
Okay cheers
I'll take your word for that. I hadn't really noticed just yet and aside for a random mention on Slashdot I don't know what 'AJAX' really is.
Ah I see.
Oh right, I see how you mean.
It's like TiddlyWiki.
Cool.
javascript
how do i turn it on?
You already have it turned on
Or else you couldn't have posted that :)
Don't worry about it
EW
whats up witht the way large font. where's my old DIS?
mega
qual
Yay
Wooo!
Oh my giddy aunt gee golly gosh
It hides my password aswell now! wow...
yeah
coo
like woah!
Lovely Jubbely
This is just lovely isn't it?
Good job DiS, liking the new stylee.
site
Hope everyone is enjoying the site.
I love you all x
Speed
The whole site moves way quicker now as well.. A.C.E.
more blue needed
but yeah... this Site is the future. The future begins here.
wow
those new features sound great.
nice job matt, crabbers & co!
Oooooh
The new site looks ace. Nice work.
Kudos to it all
It's all very exciting, isn't it?
I'm even more excited because Chelsea are losing, and Im wrapped up in my big duvet...
hurrah for Sundays with the laptop in your lap. as it should be...
listening to the new My Morning Jacket album.
..I'll stop wittering now...
xg
I dont really like this
its alright. not great though. not that i could do better but still. is it gonna be like this for another 5 years?
Re:New site
I prefered the old site's look.
I hope this one will grow (it probably will)
Even if it doesn't DiS has given us so much for nothing, we owe them the benefit of the doubt over it.
Those features sound great though
I do so nerrr...
I likey likey it a lot.
Site
I'm sure it'll be fine once people get used to it. Two things though - the data at the bottom of message board posts (username, time etc) - didn't this used to be at the top of the message, not the bottom? I keep finding myself having to scan down the bottom of a post first to see who wrote it, then go back up to the top to read the post. Also, the text seems slightly faint and headache inducing - maybe a darker gray? Anyway, those are my only suggestions.
silence-r, see?
The egocentric among us could type our names into the subject box. But this will probably be the last time I do this as it might be nice to read what is said first rather than prejudge it.
The site definitely seems more geared towards communication (weblog commenting, being able to review other responses while constructing your own etc) which I like.
Agree on the text colour issue. And the vastness of the white background gave me a big shock when I first saw it. I miss the blue but in a week I doubt I'll give a shit about that anymore.
Look forward to the rest of the additions before making a proper comment.
Board design
I'll have a word with our design guy about the text colour... personally I wouldn't mind it a little bit darker too.
As for subject lines, I am experimenting on you folks to see if you actually create useful subject lines for posts in the absense of a default.
Because having 'Re: the parent post' all the time is kinda redundant no? but it needs some kind of subject line to break things up visually, I think.
These could be good
Especially when a specific question is asked like what is your favourite radiohead album? Answering the specific album in the text line - then look to the reply box for explanation. Or for yes/no questions etc.
I think it's ridiculous that people can't think of a couple of words and are already resorting to 'dfghdfh' which soon would make it redundant. It seems like a fun new feature to play with right now.
i like
having to enter a subject line. it also makes longer threads easier to read. if you had a long thread with 're: subject' in the subject line not only will it look very boring (esp. in this new format) but it'll be more difficult to keep track of things.
anyway, i think people have got the hang of it already. :o)
GREAT WELL DONE!!!!!
Looking good well done. I hope it all goes well for you. I am looking forward to using it.
Band Ratings
Aww, we can't give bands ratings and see how much everyone hates certain bands any more :(
don't worry!
ALL THIS STUFF IS <B>COMING!</B>
new site
Congratulations! The new site looks so awesome, I completely love the re-design. The new logos are killer.
new site
A great job guys... Matthew Wilson you are a ledgend... just a couple of slight problems...
1) When you reply to a post the subject line has to be filled in... can it not just be automatically there?
2) When you go back to the site after leaving it you have to sign in again. Which is annoying.
And LOL at Crablin's post above, with him messing up his HTML... it happens to us all.
g
I didn't mess it up. It doesn't support it.
No one is allowed to LOL at me or I will ban them from DiS, Pitchfork and Myspace.
I CAN DO THAT YOU KNOW.
It's a bit white down here
Wot about a bit of colour behind the headings or messages? It all gets rather white at the bottom of the pages otherwise.
Beautiful otherwise, obviously!
yeah...
This was one of my first suggestions when I was testing it out. It'll be something we're changing.
yes
looks a lot like pitchfork
uh?
whatever.
lame comment.
eye strain
is all good and that, but anyone else having problems with the text size? it's incredibly (unreadably) tiny. and yes, i can increase my default size but then the text on every other site becomes massive and it's just irritating. :)
Technical gubbins
What browser are you using? And on what operating system? Maybe your browser has been meddled with.
eye strain
IE6 on Windows 2000. i doubt it's been meddled with and to be fair, it's hardly a massive problem, it's just curious- the text on my standard setting is two-three times smaller here now than the old site had it, but if i up the size just one notch it's slightly bigger than the old site, if that makes any sense.
Rating system
So far its pretty good. I'm annoyed I can't highlight words anymore as thats how I can follow what I'm reading but I'll get over it. I'm kinda confused by the new rating system. What was a 2 1/2 is now a 0 but I'm sure I'll get used to it and it's definatly something different. Like the new layout. I think it's just some time getting used to stuff.
RSS Feed?
I can't see an rss link for the new site... is there going to be one?
yeah
it'll follow when sites fully ready.
we're still waiting!
Dudes, please can you reinstate your RSS feeds asap? I don't have time to visit the DiS site every day unless I have a feed of new headlines telling me what's waiting to be read once I get there - it's all good to use AJAX technology but RSS is the future of information distribution...
Thanks in advance !
RSS feeds are back
Hey thanks !
RSS feeds now back in full working order.
Cheers...
Nice :)
Looks good, yep. I'd moan about the backgorund repeating on the right, but its my fault for having a widescreen laptop...
Like it :)
paulie
ha ha ha
"coordinate your social life" ha ha
New Site-ish
Blah blah blah, great new site etc.
More importantly where is the Sennen album review?!
couple of wee things i've noticed so far
one, you need to change the favicon from the old logo to the new.
two, it would be nice to have the "post a new comment on this article" hyperlink at the bottom of the user comments aswell.
Is grey the new black
yes
Comments and carriage returns
re: html breaks
yes
i designed this shit
Menhinick
You are a good man Simon.
SIMON!
You are our office hero. More so than you'll ever know. xo
I apologise
My pitchfork comparisons were unfair, as this site kicks it to death in the balls.
to death.
in the balls.
I love the redesign. All hail Simon.
Hmmmm..........
Definitely don't like the new design and missing the new band downloads. It used to save me loads of time trawling pure volume and MySpace. All the white hurts my eyes and isn't very non-user friendly late at night if you get my drift.
Bring back old new DiS!
looks weird
and clunky.
Quite like it
No really. Very useable. Like the instant replies.
I'm going snowblind thought.
though*