Recent site redesign

[MarcR]

Here is a list of changes along with a brief rationale for each:

1. Modernize, simplify, and coordinate the visual appearance of the main site and the forums. (We envision a similar update to the wiki in the future.) The objective is to make the site more cohesive, accessible, and usable.
2. Consolidate our 19 public forums to seven. We hope by having a smaller number of non-overlapping discussion areas that the presentation will be less confusing and more useful.
3. Disable the Recent Topics display above the forum listing. By filling the first page anyone sees with a list of new posts, it encourages us to avoid learning and using the forum categories. Since the Active Topics menu item does almost the same thing, we think members who miss Recent Topics can click on or bookmark the Active Topics button instead.
4. Adopt a comprehensive set of site policies to provide clarity and legal protection to all website stakeholders.
5. Disable birthday listing at the bottom as it doesn’t get much use.
6. Disable the Friends & Foes feature as it does not suit our aspirations for the site’s culture and emotional tone.

If you have suggestions, comments, concerns, please post them to this topic.

[Stavia]

Looks fantastic! Many thanks to the team who put an awful lot of hard work into this.

One small question: the little circle thingy to the left of the topic or thread. Why are some green and why do some have a star?
Sorry to be so noob.

[Julie G]

Hmmm, try refreshing your browser. You should see little green leaves to the left of each forum topic... no stars.

[SusanJ]

Marc, fabulous work! We are so grateful that you put so much into making this site simplified, and very up-to-date. I know how much work it took, and the results show your attention to detail. Thanks!

For most anyone, refreshing your browser will likely take care of any strange things you see when you first click around in the pages.

[Stavia]

Hmmm, try refreshing your browser. You should see little green leaves to the left of each forum topic... no stars.

No to the left of the leaf. Its a circle with lines that probably represent text. Some are green, some are black, some have stars. They cant be denoting unread because I've read literally everything.
Btw when will Tapatalk be connected?

[MarcR]

The circular green icons do indicate unread topics. The upgrade included a new release of the phpBB software. Perhaps the upgrade lost track of per-user read status? If you click on "mark forums read" and reload, the icons will change.

I also noticed the problem with Tapatalk. I'll post here once it's working.

[ru442]

Awesome job Marc.... these are great improvements, very clean.

[Starfish77]

Great work Marc! I like having the intro come up first. It will save so many messages to newcomers directing them where to find the information. It will cut down on having to answer basic repetive questions. Having fewer major categories makes it easier as well. We are so fortunate to have such a talented person so willing to work so hard to make this site even better.
Starfish

[circular]

Love it! And my biomarker spreadsheet matches Hope to get back to working on that in January. I like green because I associate it with health and vitality

I think Teazer gets some kudos too for getting us from the 23andMe transition to this transition.

[MarcR]

Tapatalk seems to be working at the moment. It may go away again for a bit as I am still working on it. I'll post updates here. If you notice a persistent problem, please report it here.

Thanks for the feedback, all.