did you not see my post? You clariffied the squishyness - great ... but what about possibly changing the colors on the sidebad so they are not so bright??

I've submitted a small fix on the letter spacing. The forums should be more readable now. Need your feedback!

I know someone already said this but the site is loading veeery slowly for me as well. I don't know if there was some kind of a problem yesterday/this morning, but it was taking so long that I just gave up.

It's going faster for me now (I wouldn't be here if it was still going as slow as it was last night), but it's not loading as fast as it did before.

Need your help on the speed issue.
I want you all to tell me:
a. If you all feel the page goes slow.
b. Is there any improvment after the first page
c. what browser you're using.
d. What country you're in and internet provider you're using.
You can answer in private message, if you feel uncomfortable to say it on the forum itself.

a. If you all feel the page goes slow. Yes, very. It takes sometimes 30 seconds or more for a page to load. Sometimes it doesn't load at all. I've found myself getting frustrated and just going to another site.
b. Is there any improvment after the first page? No. It's like this on every page.
c. What browser you're using. Internet Explorer.
d. What country you're in and internet provider you're using. USA. At my parents' - Verizon Fios. At home - Time Warner Roadrunner.

a. If you all feel the page goes slow. Yes, much slower then before.
b. Is there any improvment after the first page? No, and sometimes it doesn't fully load, I have to hit refresh and then I can see all of the posts.
c. What browser you're using. Internet Explorer
d. What country you're in and internet provider you're using. Canada, MTS high speed

Right after I posted that the side menu was gone and the forum was much wider than before. I took a screenshot of it just in case it helps.

Okay, I know how that happened now, I tested it. It happened when I quoted Formula86 and then just erased her answers and the quote tags and added my own answers.

Several tests I've made indicated the top menu have been causing a slow page rendering on Internet Explorer 7. The menu was removed. We're keeping an eye for more issues that can speed up the site on IE.

Thanks for your patience.

I'm a little confused as to why we need the side menu AND the top menu when they're all the same links. That makes no sense to have two login/logout, home, forum, user cp, etc buttons.

As others have said the color is WAAY off and honestly makes PT look pretty stupid. "Unflowy" to use my own made up word...

I see what you said the negative space under the side bar will be used for, but honestly, as Jane (Formula86) and I think Kay (fstybrat) said, once I see all those ads to come to life on that side bar, I'm likely to abandon FP. :/ I hate hate hate when websites go all greedy and seem like all they wanna do is make money (although I know its important... but the community is what this place has always been about).

I'm not against change. I'm not against ads, but when they're placed directly in my face and infringe on the website so dramatically, its a real put off.

On the new homepage. Well, I can't say that I don't like certain features... But when I clicked to go to PT, and saw this new page... I'll admit that first I thought PT had died, as in, no longer existed, and what now took the space was an ad to BUY the page. Or one of those stupid search engines that pop up when you type in a random web address. It wasn't very appealing. Only once I saw the "login" button did I realize that PT was still, PT... just drastically different and ugly. :/

All free sites have these adds and keeping up a website is a costly full time job, to be honest without these adds there will be no community. I think having them to the left will actually be less distracting.

I am still seeing things squished together though. Specifically I noticed the font in the threads and the numbers at the bottom showing pages. I can't remember which threads do not have the side bar but the font comes up what looks like to be Times New Roman like the screen shot by Nikko. Maybe we should think of moving all menu items to the side or remove the repeats from the top?

I appreciate all of the hard work that you have done. My only wishes are... could please work on bringing back all of the "smilies" and everyone's "avatars", as I live for these! Hee Hee. And, I have to agree that the type is now looking "squished", I am now searching for my glasses. Will the pages load faster soon? Since the change, it is taking forever for the pages to load. Is this just a glitch? Thank you for listening to my concerns.

Just a quick note that we work on fixing all those issues I summarized, plus the crunchy look, and smilies/avatars -
hopefully it'll all be done by the beginning of next week

Mallory, I also want to respond to your post - we'll intro some non-intrusive ads, but these will allow us to invest more in PT- add image galleries, wiki databases, member blogs, and so much more. That, and we'll do all we can to make sure we fix every bug we come up with.. I think gradually PT would become more fun...

Charlene, avatars and smilies display fine for me. Where are you seeing them not work?

Hi, Stephanie, I just see alot of little boxes with red X's in them in posts and some people's Avatar's aren't there anymore. Mine is o.k., thank goodness. It's o.k., I'm not really complaining, just a little worried. You know me and the "picture" thing. Hee Hee.