RCGroups has looked pretty much the same for a decade, and it's time to update our style. Want to peer into the future and see what's coming? You can! It's like having a crystal ball.

RCGroups New Beta Style!

Our new "Beta" project lets you see what we're working on in the RCGroups labs. Offer feedback to help us make the experience positive for everyone.

What to expect from the beta style
Here are some of the things we've changed for the beta style:

• Layout is fixed to be 1000 pixels wide
• The footer has a new layout and look
• New or updated icons for just about everything
• Improved consistency and legibility when viewing threads and posts
• And many small changes designed to make the site more compact and easier to use!

We plan to make a number of additional changes, all of which will be available to the beta users first.

How to turn on the beta style:

• Click on the "My RCGroups" tab on the blue navigation bar
• Go to the box on the left side of the window that says "Settings and Options"
• Click on "Edit Options"
• Scroll down to "Miscellaneous Options" and change the forum skin select box to "RCGroups Beta"

We're working on making it a bit easier to switch back and forth but follow the above directions if you are eager to try it out!

Make sure and let me know if you see anything broken or if you have other feedback as we work to modernize our look.

Terry o-[ : ) ]

Playing with the Beta now and I like it!

It looks nice a clean but one thing I dont like is the fixed width layout. The future of web design is responsive design so I would really like it if you kept the design elastic making the most use out of varied browser window sizes. For example my monitor is 1920x1200 so about 47% of the space unused is the background.

You can still have the background which looks nice but should be about 150px on each side of the browsers viewable area.

one suggestion that would be awesome... instead of the grey background ... have an option where the user can upload his/her own image to use as the bg!

+1 on the fixed width layout. That's one of the big advantages of the current RCG design. It not only helps to fit on bigger screen but it creates a lot of space for big posts with pictures, etc + it's easier to read.

Going to use it for the next couple days and give a more comprehensive feedback.

Like the clean looks of the beta!

But, yet another vote to ditch the fixed width. Looks all crammed up and silly on large resolution screens like 1920x1200...

T

My favourite feature on rcgroups is the blogs option. It keeps me coming back to rcgroups more than any other site. Being able to quickly scroll through the entries, pausing on those of interest is fantastic. Please don't mess with that feature.

Ditch the fixed width. Even on my iPad it doesn't fill the screen - makes no sense to not use all available screen size.

Azarr

Originally Posted by Azarr

Ditch the fixed width. Even on my iPad it doesn't fill the screen - makes no sense to not use all available screen size.

Azarr

+1
On my 22" screen it only uses 1/2 the width. I dont like that. Looks like HobbyKing website

I dont like it

If it aint broke dont try to fix it

OMG the fixed width is horrible. as some of the others mentioned on a widescreen 1920x1200 it is ridiculous how much wasted space there is. I usually keep my browser in a window that is 3/4 the width of my screen and it is still using up a tiny amount of space. This would be a horrible design choice in my opinion.

Please do not go to fixed width, it does really look horrible....

SteveT

1000- Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!1!


But I was happy to discover that there's a mobile skin option...

Well. I'd like the deliminator between posts to be more pronounced (darker). More contrasty color scheme in general, actually.
But most of all: no fixed width please! In contrast to everyone else I mostly browse at 1024px but even so I get a horizontal scrollbar with the beta skin.

Originally Posted by RogueTitan

I dont like it

If it aint broke dont try to fix it

I agree!! Why Why do the computer geeks always have to mess.