It happens all the time. You become accustomed to something and you really like it and then it gets taken away or changed on you. Like menus at your favorite restaurants, or recipes of favorite dishes served at restaurants, your school could become renovated or your parents scrap the old furniture and remodel your rec room. Or even, a website changes it's layout.
Is change always good? I am one to think not. I have seen several years of changes at Neopets and Whyville respectively, and the new Neopets layout, totally bites the big one. There is nothing I can do as a user, except accept it. I find rather though, instead of learn to love it I avoid having to use it by logging in less and less. Same with favorite forums, if it changes the skin, I use the settings to put it back the way I liked it, and if the layout I was fond of is gone, I spend less and less time there.
Whyville has been polling to see what people want, they are getting a new layout. I say NO. Keep the black, and bring back the shortcut to the log in page. I hate the new front pages lately. They get uglier and and harder to use with each revision. I think back to how much I hated the island and I am sad that I don't have the option of that old log in.
Some, and not many, will remember the Whyville Gates with the friendly octopus sitting there to greet you. One side was log in, the other was register. My question, aside from the heinously bright background color, what was so bad about that? It seemed to work, I mean how many options and junk do you need on the front page really? I know that it might be useful for new users to see what the website is all about but frankly I feel as though the front page doesn't do a thing to explain the website. It makes it look gaudy and childish, and yes, it is a children's website, but, if it is really aimed at tween and teen girls, it doesn't really encourage anyone to want to join. It looks, and no offense meant to the designers of it, it looks incredibly childish and something looks very off about the faces previewed on it.
So, are we merely getting a new front page? Oh no, rumor has it that we are getting a new background and layout completely for the windows with the bus and the chat screen. It will be blue, as far as I have heard. Much too bright, the black works wonders. There will be a new bus. What? Yes . . . a new bus. What's wrong with the old one? I haven't a clue.
So why are we getting a new look when the one we have is neither tired nor non-functional anymore? Who knows. I guess they believe that consumers always like change. No. Most of the time, people do not appreciate it when there are "improvements" made over time. For nine years Whyville has remained pretty much the same aside from new chatrooms and new front pages. The bus went through a change way back in the early 2000s though I can't put my finger on what exactly is different.
It's up to us, the users of this fine site to say hold up. We don't WANT anything new. It works, it's perfect, PLEASE don't change it. There is a poll, and I hope that everyone is taking it seriously. Because, as we know, once Whyville changes, it never changes back. Something is lost to time and it's a sad feeling.
This is BabyPowdr, begging you to consider our future and vote no to the change of layouts.
Nine years and it hasn't been non-functional yet.
-BP
