For Nokia users with problems viewing the site: Instal Opera mobile browser (can be found at Ovi store and it's free)

The new layout works fine with my Nokia C6 with Opera mobile browser so the problem must be Symbian's own browser that is known of all kind of fuck ups.

And seriously people, instead of complaining about big font just use Crtl and - to zoom it in, vóila you have small or even tiny font back

This version burn my eyes...

Written by Angelique on 28.02.2011 at 23:49

For Nokia users with problems viewing the site: Instal Opera mobile browser (can be found at Ovi store and it's free)

The new layout works fine with my Nokia C6 with Opera mobile browser so the problem must be Symbian's own browser that is known of all kind of fuck ups.

And seriously people, instead of complaining about big font just use Crtl and - to zoom it in, vóila you have small or even tiny font back

Yep that's the solution. Luckily I downloaded it a few nights ago.

One possible bug - shoutbox won't let me post anything. The fact is that I'm using Linux with Chromium as browser, which isn't among the most supported ones , but I't worked fine until now..

Written by seafood on 01.03.2011 at 00:11

One possible bug - shoutbox won't let me post anything. The fact is that I'm using Linux with Chromium as browser, which isn't among the most supported ones , but I't worked fine until now..

You probably still have the old javascript in your browser cache.

Written by X-Ray Rod on 28.02.2011 at 23:25

Written by Lucas on 28.02.2011 at 23:22

We wanted to highlight these articles a bit more than before. We used to have +/- 20 reviews on the frontpage, with only one image. Now we have 2, with a couple more easily accessible. Much better imo.

Well, maybe you're right. I'm fully aware that there's still a lot of stuff to do and also like I said before "there's some stuff I think it's ok... which I will probably think it's great after a while" the fancy bar is also included.

Overall I think it's fine, I agree with you... Changes are not easy. We can also see this on the bright side: If people bitch so much about it, it means that they really friggin love this site... They just don't know how to express their love on another way than just writting "go fuck yourselves"

Actually, the bar at the top is very useful because it shows teasers of the text of the reviews. That was one of the biggest concerns we had with the previous layout - that it was just an index and didnt have any actual content on it.

Well, i've noticed mainly 4 PROBLEMS on the new version:

1. Why the fuck should the letters be that big??? I (and all the other users of course) have to scroll a lot in order to see things that I could see much more easily.
2. What was on the center now is on the right of the screen and this is very disturbing. We may get used to it but probably never LOVE it as the previous.
3. Now that it has changed we can understand that it was AWESOME that someone could go in the Forum with the same ease (only 1 click) as he could go in the Top 200 list and in the UPCOMING RELEASES list etc etc...
4. also little thing such as the awful-large interviews pictures on the top left of the opening page and the ONLY 4 "Latest band additions" that are now available to see when they were about 10.

IMO in these occasions little and not drastic changes are much more acceptable and enjoyable.
I really dont like the new look of MS but i am sure i will get used to it (in the possible level), but also, as I said, I doubt if it will be that enjoyable and easy-to-use till a new version is out or major changes happen to this new version.

* PLEASE MAKE SMALLER THE LETTERS AND THE ICONS
* PLEASE BRING BACK TO THE CENTER OF THE SCREEN WHAT IS NOW ON THE RIGHT...

Written by Angelique on 28.02.2011 at 23:49

And seriously people, instead of complaining about big font just use Crtl and - to zoom it in, vóila you have small or even tiny font back

Seriously what? There's a difference between just decreasing font-size on a site that's design is wrapped around huge fonts and watching one a with reasonable looks. Aside the fact that a good website design shouldn't make people want to change stuff in the first place (not many of those around, that's true), with this design, the old MS problem of using too much screen space for nothing is made worse by now showing less information and, good to confuse the user, more pictures on the frontpage at the same time.

Clean looks is everything today. People visit a website and expect to get their information at a glance. And metalstorm. just made a huge step further away from that. So it's not just about font-size, be it alienating or not. It's that decreasing it will make things look even more out of place.

And in all this, the fact that you have to hover the top menu with the mouse in order to get to the links you originally wanted to see isn't even mentioned. Not all of us are using a mouse when browsing. It's arrogant of a page to assume that.

I believe the smaller letters issue has been addressed in prior posts.

as for the reviews, as Jup said, we wanted to add some tease to it. too many reviews go unvisited because the band isn't well known and if the 8 hour "front page with pic" window coincides with Euro sleepy time, folks might miss even the album art entirely.

now it draws a little more attention... which might get folks to check out albums they might not otherwise have looked at.

Written by jupitreas on 01.03.2011 at 00:17

Actually, the bar at the top is very useful because it shows teasers of the text of the reviews.

Yeah, that was actually the thing that maked go all "maybe the bar at the top is a good thing after all" so I agree there .P

Written by Ivan on 01.03.2011 at 00:15

Written by seafood on 01.03.2011 at 00:11

One possible bug - shoutbox won't let me post anything. The fact is that I'm using Linux with Chromium as browser, which isn't among the most supported ones , but I't worked fine until now..

You probably still have the old javascript in your browser cache.

Thanks, it worked.

Written by Deadmeat on 01.03.2011 at 00:19

go in the Forum with the same ease (only 1 click)

Just click on the "COMMUNITY" at the top for a straight link... no need to click the "forum" in the drop-down.

Now that the staff picks are higher up on the page, I would just like to point out that anyone can click the thumbs up on them... it only seems to be the staff that actually use this at the moment.

Written by Baz Anderson on 01.03.2011 at 00:35

Now that the staff picks are higher up on the page, I would just like to point out that anyone can click the thumbs up on them... it only seems to be the staff that actually use this at the moment.

nice adjustment.

I really really don't like this new design, for one simple reason: the font size, awfully... weird. This is so big ! The one thing I loved about MS was the ability to see many tiny, polished things, quickly, without scrolling or cliking 50 times.
Why did you set so large gaps everywhere ? I see basically nothing on my screen (1280x1024) without scrolling, it's very annoying. Why did you make such a brutal change ? ><
I would like to vote for this new design as the biggest letdown in MS awards, such a shame I cannot right now.
I won't be there next year if you dont allow quickly to customize this design or make resolution-dependant tuning, especially font size and vertical spaces. There are some good ideas in it, but this awful font choice screw everything.

Nicely done! I really like the new look except for the position of the sidebars - they really should be on the right... It feels very unnatural to look at the main content that is right aligned. Any chance for this to be changed? An option to choose the sidebars position in the settings page would be enough for me too

Written by vip on 01.03.2011 at 00:56

I really really don't like this new design, for one simple reason: the font size, awfully... weird. This is so big ! The one thing I loved about MS was the ability to see many tiny, polished things, quickly, without scrolling or cliking 50 times.
Why did you set so large gaps everywhere ? I see basically nothing on my screen (1280x1024) without scrolling, it's very annoying. Why did you make such a brutal change ? ><
I would like to vote for this new design as the biggest letdown in MS awards, such a shame I cannot right now.
I won't be there next year if you dont allow quickly to customize this design or make resolution-dependant tuning, especially font size and vertical spaces. There are some good ideas in it, but this awful font choice screw everything.

Once again, any modern browser is capable of scaling websites very well. Please just use that function. The new layout is optimized for scaling so that you can customise the way it looks. I find that a 90% zoom option in Opera makes the fonts exactly the same size on my monitor as the default size in the previous version. However, since my screen has quite a high pixel density (it is a netbook screen with small pixels), I find the previous default size to be too small. Therefore, I like the new default; however, if I want to change it, it is very easily achievable for me in my browser.

You have to remember that people have monitors with different resolutions and pixel densities settings. MSv4 is more suitable for modern screens with higher pixel densities and your browser can easily scale the size of the font to anything that you might find more suitable.

I actually dont mind it, pretty cool tbh. however id prefer if news was the default in its little box rather than reviews

"An option to choose the sidebars position in the settings page would be enough for me too " thatd be a great idea, hopefully calm down a few of the members haha

I think it's a pretty rad lookin' change. Looks slick. From the stuff I've had time to tinker with, it seems like everything is user-friendly and functional. I think it's pretty badass.

CHANGE

Took me about 5 minuets to get used to it. No complaints, like the new change. Spices things up

Great new design! Refreshing, and the main page indeed looks bad-ass with the reviews on top.

Only problem I have is navigating with Chrome: the javascript thingy that lets you switch between interviews and news (yeh, news should be default) doesn't work for Chrome.

I already miss the old design.... the new one looks okay though, but it will take a while to get used to.

EDIT: One problem I noticed from the home page (using google chrome) is that I have to either maximize my browser window or scroll horizontally to view the entire right section of the page...

I like it.

I've been here since 2005 and as much as I love small text, after a few years of being in front of a monitor 14+ hours a day, reading the text at MetalStorm proved to be quite tough, so I had to zoom in (as much as I hate to do that) to be able to read without straining my eyes even more after a long day of work.

The drop-down menu at the top is nice, the Facebook connect is a good idea that I'll probably disregard 'cause I'm a bit old-fashioned, but that's just me, a lot of people will definitely use the feature.

It's odd to not have the menu on the right, specially because of the "Random Album", I picked a few just by looking at that but I can obviously live without it.

Being a programmer / web developer, I'm well aware of the massive work this was, so a big thanks to Ivan and the team, congrats for the new look!

Lol at people taking this change so seriously, btw I like this new outlook, don't really know if it is better than the previous one, but this one is good too. We just need to get used to it.

Is it possible to still use the old version?

To me that new layout is even more a fail than the new youtube start page

This update might have bothered me back in 2003 when I used dial-up.

To people complaining that what was once on the right is now on the left: You are dumb.

Oh, shit, when I logged in, I thought my browser suffered a major malfunction.
I for one, think this update sucks. The site is so much less elegant now. The old version used to have one of the best site designs I've ever seen on teh interwebz, but this one... good lord.

It's a nice and polished template. The only thing which is a bit bothering in my eyes, is the quality of album covers on the newsflash header. I think it's better if whether the size of images decrease or the quality increase. Then it looks much better... I think Metal Storm should go further than 100x100 images to larger images with higher quality.

There is a suggestion. Now I see user shortcuts are disappeared. All the modules on the left side have two tabs but the shout box. You could add user shortcuts tab there..

After all using more java script is always make your website look better. For instance now we have a nice menu on top instead of a long list on the side..

Congrats...

I think the new layout is a bit to wide, on a large display you can't grasp the whole site at once anymore. Well, nothing you can't fix with a FF addon