Not withstanding all the controversy surrounding the validity of the voting system, but isn't it time the website's appearance changed a bit? You can keep the site layout pretty much as it is, but what about adding some nice animated headers or even an occasional flashy color or two on the different pages? After all, it IS an art site...

Personally I wouldn't be too keen on anything animated (just eats up bandwidth and increases loading time IMO). A new look would be nice but I think it is pretty low on Geri's list of priorities.

Oh well...just making a suggestion...It's no skin off my nose, as I share my time and artwork on other sites, anyway...

I'm not sure that making the site more attractive will bring the level of submissions and satisfaction with the site back to what it once was. I saw a poll chart that was done measuring popularity of a number of sites like Caedes, over a couple years' time and, sorry to report, but it shows the Caedes site dropping. The bars on the chart indicate the number of mentions of Caedes.net elsewhere on the net and the falling dots on the chart indicate the sites popularity ranking out of about 3,780,000 web sites. It was ranked 66,340 in November of 2007 and in February of 2011, it has fallen to 374,843rd. I guess it is still technically in the top ten percent, but interest has definitely waned. The source was ://URLFAN. Not what you want to hear, I'm sure, but there comes a time when one needs to face reality and accept that a change needs to be made to survive.

If Geri wants to update the look that's fine with me, but I would block any animated headers!

I will take the blame for that urlfan email forward. Another caedes member had emailed it to me and I sent it on to Nikoneer. I know of several people who have left caedes and moved on to other sites. I also know and understand their reasons. For some, it's that they have learned there is more to photography than pretty desktop images. For others, it's the anonymous zero ratings in the voting booth with no hint as to why. Still others find themselves remaining silent about constructive critiques in order to avoid accidental hurt feelings or flamings.
Myself, I stopped posting long ago on caedes but I still keep an eye on things here because I have friends here and I love to watch their work. But I stopped posting because no matter how hard I tried or what type of photography I attempted, I never could get as high a rating as the very 1st posting I made on caedes several years ago. Really? I work that hard and I haven't improved AT ALL??? In fact, I've gotten worse? Ya. That doesn't make any sense.
A facelift is all well and good. But there are underlying problems. A darker background on the site might make people's work "pop" a little more but with the other issues, I don't know if it would bring the talented artists we love to see to caedes.

I've always noticed that there is more emphasis on photography-based submissions here, whereas a site such as DeviantArt has more illustrations/designs/drawings/paintings...Don't get me wrong, photography is a nice thing and all, but there's only so much editing/manipulation one can do with real-life based images...I only wish there was more of an openness to illustrative/design types here...

And that c-index thing has never made any sense to me @ all...

Well personally I don't see how anyone could compare a site like DA to this one. There isn't any community spirit there that I can fathom and the "staff" are completely unhelpful (I had several issues with my sales account, which I paid them for, and despite various emails and posts on the discussion board never got a response of any kind). One of the reasons I find caedes much more appealing is probably because it is less popular than sites like DA so you feel like you know the "regulars". I have never really bought the idea that people are "abandoning" the site, a claim that has been made many times during my 7 or so years here; I think it's more that most people tend to move on to other activities after a while or just spend less time here as they grow and develop. I don't think that the fact that an art site (such as DA) might have millions of members and billions of images necessarily means it is "better". Like comparing apples and oranges really.

As far as the original topic goes, I don't know if you recall but there was a contest to design a new look for the site and a winner was chosen, but it was never implemented, hence my impression that Geri must feel that keeping the site functioning properly must be something he feels is more important.

Here's the gallery of the contest entries for anyone who's interested:

http://www.caedes.net/Zephir.cgi?lib=Caedes::Gallery&gallery=Contests-%3ESite%20Design

And the announcement of the results:

http://www.caedes.net/Zephir.cgi?lib=News&action=show_article&article=95

I didn't say dA was better...I just said there's a bit more acceptance of non-photography type posts there than over here...

Here's another (re-)design that was somewhat recently submitted by Lucy; aka +Cain:

"Caedes Website layout"


And note, *caedes' own words on the images's page;

*caedes - 24/10/09 20:57

"Hey! I just caught this in my queue of newly uploaded images. Pretty cool design. It certainly has a "web 2.0" feel to it. I know I had planned on changing the design or at least updating it a long time ago, but at the time I felt like the time would be better used by adding features and fixing bugs. Unfortunately, that is almost always true (hence no significant design changes in a long time). Maybe this will refresh the desire to see something different?"


p.s. Lucy does very nice work. Have a look see for yourselves.

LOL I just came to post the same thing.

Ron: I know you didn't say it was better but it seemed like a good example to use in regard to the other posts which refer to other sites that people have moved on to and top ranked image sites etc.

Any additions such as animations, etc., should be well thought out. One needs go no further than deviant art to see what added "garbage" does to a site, it has gotten so bogged down with "garbage" that it is a pain to maneuver within the site. I prefer that old business model, the KISS method (Keep It Simple Stupid!). ;)