I don't mean to cause any controversy in saying this, but I agree with Medved.
The look and feel of the site is one of the lists of reasons why I've been on here
going on almost 7 years.

I'll try to get back to looking at the forum upgrade once again.  It is something we ought to do given that our current version is no longer maintained by the SMF development team.  As always, feel free to suggest changes.  We have made a number of updates over the years.  A few that come to mind include YouTube videos, Member Spotlight, Random Recent/Older photos, upload limit (I know it's controversial), Off-Topic photos, Members with New Photos box, a feed to Facebook, allowing for larger files plus increased capacity, automatic image rotation, improved mobile device support, and the recent gallery field reorganization & headings.  We realize there is still room for improvement.  This site is a hobby for myself and the other administrators, and there is only so much time for us to spend on it.  We may not implement every recommendation, but we have and will continue to look for ways to make the site better.

Anything without "Improving experience" element, Javascript, AJAX and plain HTML and anything that don't consumes CPU and aren't Web 2.0, is the best.
The current appearance of LG is excellent, compared to most modern web 2.0 websites.

I visit here only for the excellent photos and interesting comments made by other members, there is always much to learn from each other.  The visual appearance, layout, icons etc are quite unimportant to me.  Everything works the way I would want it to and its easy to quickly navigate.  Sometimes things are just made good right from the start and we should accept that - no point in changing things just for the sake of change.  I really hate it when some other websites adjust their style and layouts - too often it feels like a backward step instead of an improvement, even though the technical specification might actually be slightly better.  So if you do have to make some changes for technical reasons, please try to keep the appearance and layout as close as possible to what we have now.

I have an idea, what about being able to switch between old and new styles? Then everyone could use whatever version they wanted.

Behind the visual style stands the UI logic, behind that the software logic, and behind that the database structure. As long as both styles have compatible logic behind them, this can be implemented. If they dont, this option can be rejected right away as impossible

Then, we are left with question of manpower to do it. Small UI changes are one thing (just reorder or restyle the queries on the generating page). Big logic changes are big stuff

And if you change the logic in a way that requires new fields in the database, you gotta plan what will be the default value in this field for all the existing material, and how it is to be treated by the software - or else you get some problems like all the old posts being unreachable / undisplayable even though they are still in the database

As far as I'm concerned, when talking about websites... "upgrade" is a dirty word, its really a "DOWNGRADE"
I'd really hate to see ruined and become basically un-usable (been a couple forums I gave up on in the past year after their downgrades)

If you must downgrade LG...please no: JavaScript, CSS, or especially that HTML-5 s-h-i-t
And for the life of it (on the current site): get rid of that thing that censors words!

Javascript is the one and only bad thing, and is ultimately responsible for ALL "smart experience" fiascos across the internet. (there also used to be Adobe Flash too, but the thing is obsolete now). CSS and HTML/XHTML (any version of it) are out of this business. They are properly working simple and reliable technologies

.ug. flash. but even as much as it sucks, its still best for video. (purposely never installed it on my main computer, but have it on a couple others - only because i need it if I want to watch vid's)

And yeah JavaScript is the root of most of the evil-ness on the net.

But HTML 5 (and the dirty little tricks than can be played with it) is the most vile thing ever to be released on the net.

If it ain't broke, don't fix it, I'm not fussy if it's not the prettiest website on the internet, it works and is full of good people and good info, and free from trolls..

As far as I'm concerned, when talking about websites... "upgrade" is a dirty word, its really a "DOWNGRADE"
I'd really hate to see ruined and become basically un-usable (been a couple forums I gave up on in the past year after their downgrades)

If you must downgrade LG...please no: JavaScript, CSS, or especially that HTML-5 s-h-i-t
And for the life of it (on the current site): get rid of that thing that censors words!

What harm does the language filter do? It only blocks a few words and it can easily be bypassed (as seen here  ).

HTML5 enables embedding video with a tag, same as one would embed a picture. Very appropriate, after all they are both rectangular graphic objects. The HTML code gotta provide the position on the page. The actual content of the graphic is none of the HTML's business. HTML5 is the first standard that got this right after years of half broken workarounds and hacks with HTML4 / XHTML 1.1

HTML5 is safe from security standpoint - when visiting websites, you download data (video), not code (video player made in Flash). The player is part of your system. With Flash an individual video player was automatically downloaded from every website you visited, some of which may well be ill intended. While Flash player (from Adobe) was supposed to restrict what the video player (from random website) could do on your system, i would not place bets on that

HTML5 requires an up to date browser and media libraries - any ones of your choice. For Flash you needed Adobe Flash, no alternatives and no way to escape



HTML5 is the same plain HTML with which plain and workable web pages have allways been made. All the dirty tricks - and especially data transfer without page reloading (AJAX, ...), stupid animations, .....Its all Javascript

I'm happy with the site how it is - everything is easy to find, and its layout is clear, and un-cluttered.

I agree with most of the people here; let's keep the site looking like it does.

Let's not forget that Patrick and company are volunteers. They have day jobs and maintain this site out of the goodness of their hearts. I am very grateful for their service and would not like to impose unnecessary work on them.

I find this site to be mostly user friendly, works quite well, does the job. After all, what makes it good are the pictures and the comments. We have no competition as we're not a business, and since it works well, let's keep it as it is, unless a security vulnerability becomes too much of an issue.