DU 4 - not a big fan

[SpankMe]

Too much white space on the page.

In the upper left, I just see "Latest Breaking News", "General Discussion" and "The DU Lounge".

On legacy DU, I had Announcements, Latest Breaking News, Editorials & Other Articles, Video & Multimedia, General Discussion, The DU Lounge and Community Help. I used these links frequently.

Latest Breaking News is way at the bottom of the page, on the far right. I have to scroll past a bunch of forums that I'm not interested in to get to LBN. I'd like it near the top, like in legacy DU.

I can't find the Video & Multimedia forum any more; there's no path to it. I have to go to Latest Videos, and then click on a "Video & Multimedia" link within a video post.

I can't see or get "Greatest Videos" on my home page. I like them on the home page without having to go to the Latest Videos page first.

[hlthe2b]

1. You might find changing the screen "theme" to Skinner mode might make

you more comfortable--at least initially. Go to "My Stuff" then Account Settings, scroll down to visual appearance and change there. Be sure to save.

[mitch96]

8. I see it's only for star members.. Us "little people" only get the big ugly white screen, yes? uff .nt

[hlthe2b]

10. Even a small $5 donation will get rid of the ads and make you a star member for a year...

Worth it, imo.

[emulatorloo]

15. Star membership is ridiculously cheap. Just a few dollars and it is worth it.

[Yorkie Mom]

14. Skinner mode is MUCH better. I wish it came with the option for a dark mode as well, though.

[herding cats]

2. For videos

Under "Navigate" go to latest videos. All the videos are now there. All of them, no matter where they're posted.

[sdfernando]

3. The only constant in life is change.

There are things I like about DU4 and other things not so much. I'll get used to it and adapt....just like a Borg.

[burrowowl]

4. I'm not either

[mitch96]

5. Same here, not a fan..nt

[Diamond_Dog]

6. Does anyone else have the inability to even see the squares on the left or is it just me?

I have to turn my tablet sideways just to see anything at all on the left, and sideways tablet makes typing very awkward.

[dgauss]

7. Agree about the white space, seems things are more spread out than necessary.

Also seems like a style designed more for cell phones than computer screens. Looks really nice on a cell phone, that seems like a big improvement in style.

On a large computer screen, I just don't like that style as much. Same thing with streaming video services that also remind me of looking at a cell phone. Skinner mode works great though so all is good!

[BeyondGeography]

9. Trying to figure out what was wrong with the old format

Ok, this is sleeker, but much less user-friendly. Stuff just isn’t as accessible as before. At least not on a phone.

Whatever. I’ll get used to it.

On edit, Skinner mode helps.

[progree]

11. In LBN, are you seeing the first 50 or so words of each post? I'm not,

I'm only seeing the subject lines. 10 subject lines and that's it. On my Windows 10 computer.

But oddly on my Android phone, each subject line is followed by the first 50 or so words of the post, that helps me a lot in deciding whether or not to click on the article.

But I almost always access DU and LBN on my computer. I use my mobile phone to access DU only occasionally.

I'm hoping that not displaying the 50 or so words in the computer version is a bug that will be fixed.

Edited to add: Earl G responded:

Do you happen to know what your screen size is on your Windows computer?
The LBN blurbs should only be removed on quite small screens (otherwise the right column gets very long). I just want to make sure you're getting the right version of the page.

I answered that I have a 24" monitor. But I'm glad to see that he thinks the blurbs (the 50 or so words) should be there.

[hlthe2b]

12. While I've been beta testing for some time, what pops out to me now is the really long threads

with tons of replies... They could always be hard to follow, but I find it impossible to do so under the new formatting. There would need to be an option for half/spacing between sentences (posts) to collapse it a bit.

But, as I posted upstream, there is an ability to revert back to something closer to the old formatting (Skinner's)

[hlthe2b]

13. Encourage you to check out the "NAVIGATE" button at the top,where you'll find the options

you mention conveniently located.