AfterDawn redesign goes to beta

Petteri Pyyny
19 Feb 2010 9:54

After nearly a year's worth of work, the new version of AfterDawn's backend and layout is almost ready for the prime time. Still some minor bugs need to be fixed, a few mysterious issues need to be addressed, etc. but it is almost ready (we'd say 99% done) and you can test it now.
So, please visit AfterDawn "v4" at:
http://www.v4.afterdawn.com/
or click here to view this news article in the new layout.
Let us know your thoughts. Post your comments to this news article or use our feedback form to contact us directly. I must also mention that the site wont function properly if you're using IE6, Netscape 3.x, Mosaic or any other browser that is almost a decade old. Furthermore, many sections of the site utilize -- to very small degree, I must say -- JavaScript, so it is recommended to have it turned on in your browser's settings.
Here are some of the most notable changes:

• Complete redesign of the AfterDawn backend
• The page loads should be much quicker
• Completely new look and feel to the site
• The layout is now fixed to a width of 990 pixels. We feel this helps in keeping the content much easier to read.
• Line height of the text has been increased - again to make the content more readable.
• Comment and write without signing up
• You can post news comments, write hardware and software reviews and write to forums without first signing up - new account can be created when you write new content
• Some sections of the site allow comments to be written anonymously as well
• New way to navigate, more distinction between sections
• You now move between different site sections (news, downloads, forums etc.) using the links at the top of the page.
• Navigation within a section is done using tabs and drop-down menus
• New section to the site - Tech support
• Got a small question that's eating you up, but you just don't feel like starting a new forum thread for it? Tech support is the place to go
• Easily ask (and answer) all sorts of questions related to computers and other technology

Please note that the site is still beta -- report us all the bugs, typos, translation errors (in case you see something in some other language other than English..) and 404s. Furthermore, the beta site runs on one server as opposed to current site's server cluster setup, so it is bound to be slower than the current "v3" version until it finally goes live.
Known problems relate mostly to "my" section and to Product comparison section's prices.
-Petteri Pyyny, webmaster
AfterDawn.com