The news archive shows a page list: [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] .. [247] [>] However clicking on 247 gives: The requested page was not found on the server. It turns out the archive only goes up to 95 which is the number that replaces 247 when you go to a page other than 1. Hope that makes sense.
I really like the frames around the articles, kinda classy. I think it's a nice addition to have the information how long ago the news have been posted. I don't like the news links not chaning color after having clicked them. And I don't really understand the use of the 'discuss' bubble on the front page. I mean: Why'd you want to discuss an article you haven't even read? And after reading it (the time I think most people would like to discuss it) there have always been 1 or 2 links anyways. All in all the visible tweaks are small but making for a more professional look in my opinion. Well done.
It's a step towards having the number of comments listed next to all articles... that couldn't be added in time for this update though. Obviously, articles with lots of comments may draw more people into the forums to read the comments and then maybe post.
Makes it easier to get from the front page to the discussion of an article you've already read and commented on to see the new comments. Makes internet arguments a lot easier.
Quite honestly, we didn't really plan to change the look of the site at all - we didn't even plan the small cosmetic changes that we've made that you're all seeing today. The point of this "change" is purely driven by technical issues - we've replaced our CMS because the old one was really showing its age, upgraded the database software, switched to php5, changed the db to a much better structure (which, for example, allows for better searching), blah blah blah. we've re-written the templates and CSS also. there's literally not a single line of old code that has been carried over. When we do a re-design - which will happen - i'd be a liar if we said we won't allow *some* web2.0-design-esque stuff to creep in somewhere.
So does the search include everything on the main CMS now? IIRC it didn't include certain areas before?
Yup. Before we had articles and news stored in different tables, so searching over two was a headache from start to finish. So news is now an article and has exactly the same functionality (multiple pages etc) where as before it didn't.
Sweet, you tightened up the grafix. I like the backend features more though, the search was getting pretty old and it's about time it was replaced. Nice work.