Hey, when did -ve rep come back?

I check the site more now than I did before, but mainly because I'm actively working on a game, while before I was busy studying and then working on telco software and only checking gamedev for personal interest.

One thing I don't like about the new site is that, on the front page, the forum recent posts is hidden way at the bottom, instead of the pre-fold top of the page where its easy to see, at a glance, the latest forum activity. I posted this to the feedback and I know other people have too, but it hasn't been changed. Hopefully eventually it will.
EDIT: Just noticed theres an "active content" page. That certainly improves this a lot! It would be nice if the latest five or so posts were also displayed under/above the link as not to have to go to another page, but this will do. I guess I can bookmark the active-content page and simply visit that instead of the main page.

Also, the recent-posts in my profile seems to only contain the last few posts and threads while before you could browse the entire archive. I found that useful to check, much later, if theres any posts I missed or to find threads/posts to reference later, which I can't do now (at least, couldn't last time I checked).

I've pretty much bailed on Gamedev.Net

the theme changes over the last five or so years have steadily gone from bad to worse; this most recent version is eye-frying, information overload.

I also feel like I've lost touch with the community; like a lot of folks who were very active during 2000-2007 have moved on.


I'm holding on for a better black theme, better formatting of text; and much much less text-noise on all the pages.

I really don't get this attitude. A few changes to colors and layout and apparently the site can't be used. Goodness knows how people cope with all the websites which don't offer any user feedback on appearance, which is nearly all of them. Maybe such people only visit websites based on appearance rather than content?

As much as I love gamdev.net, and all the work the staff is doing to meet the needs/requests of the visitors, the site does look pretty bad. The 'Standard' theme is WAY too bright and the 'Black (Alpha)' is a messy mix of dark and bright. I agree that the Nehe forum is much more visually appealing and less eye straining.

I really don't get this whole eye strain thing.. do you guys not use google? or digg/reddit? or pretty much any other site that uses white as a background? amazon.com, paypal, any travel site, ebay, microsoft.com - take a top 500 list of the web and find the ones using dark backgrounds.

It's hard to find sites that have any amount of traffic using black backgrounds anymore.

I wonder if it's kind of deliberate. Like people who say they can't figure the Ribbon out, because the choose to find it difficult so they can bitch.