This layout is at best intrusive. I understand the need to make money, but this is ridiculous. At a MINIMUM, please restore the message board to its old size. I thought those rollover ads were annoying, but this is awful. Thanks for asking our input.
Well you've successfully made the message board the worst viewing experience known to man so good job on that. Seriously, do you not have eyes? The actual homepage is somewhat passable but the message board is really, really bad. Awful.
1.) The larger frame around the text is going to make any long story on the front page, or a long post on a thread, take much more vertical space and will be harder to follow and read.
2.) "On the Boards" (frontpage) is a smaller text size, might be troublesome for some.
3.) As an office worker, the old format of the site (non-flashy) was conducive to sneaking reads while at work. With the old format, if I scrolled past the header with the logo - the website could be mistaken for any number of random sites that would be acceptable to read at work. Now, however, with the massive purple frame and the ads at the top, I will likely not be able to do much reading during work. Clearly this is personal preference and problem I need to resolve on my own, but the old format of the site made my day much better.
4.) The pages including Puma ads never completely load. There is the constant "revolving circle" at the top of the website insdicating that the site has not loaded. As far as computer performance, or actual meaning, this revolving circle doesn't have any relevance for me but it is annoying.
5.) The ads are effective. I like Usain Bolt and I like Puma's spikes and their apparrel. My first reaction was: I have to get some more Puma gear. However my secondary reaction, similar to at least one other previous poster, was: I will never buy Puma gear again unless they can make this transition a little less dramatic.
6.) Please do not change the logo.
Everyone realizes that the Letsrun owners and operators cannot work for free, right? they need advertising and sponsorship to keep this site alive and running well. Puma obviously made a great offer to advertise on letsrun for a few days and the offer was accepted. this is not a permanent change to the site, so suck it up for a few days. appreciate all the phenomenal coverage that this site provides and quit your bitching.
it takes forever for these pages to load.
and i have no desire to click on any of the ads.
I love Let's Run. And, it is great that you have found a way to make some cash from advertising from the site. You deserve it.
But, what doesn't work for me is the contrast. LR is very austere - not much in the way of design, but good content. The Puma ads are very professional. The two aspects don't fit well together.
I agree with the comments that you need to revamp the site. I think it is possible to design it better without going over the top and losing the essence of what it is. I have worked in marketing for 25 years and while your audience is valuable, I don't know if I'd want my brand displayed on a site that looks so unprofessional. We are very careful in what we let our brands get next to.
So, I think you'd get much more advertising interest if you kicked the site up a few notches. You've got a niche audience that would be an easy sell.
I feel like I bought a newspaper with only one page of articles, and the rest was ads. This ain't Vogue, where ads are part of why people pick it up.
Lots of time people on this message board say "I won't be back unless you change ___," and it's usually something minor. But seriously, I'm out of here until at least the boards are readable. You want to make the front page a giant billboard with little postage-stamp sized bites of content, fine, but you must not even look at your own boards, I mean actually read them, if you think this is OK.
Do I want this every day - no. Is it great to do this for a couple of days - sure. Is it great that Puma wants to reach out to runners in this fashion - yes.
As one who has been with you since day one...and will admit that I log on several times a day just to get my "fix"...
I will stay off until you go back to the "original" homepage...it's bad enough that I have had to try several browsers just to avoid all of the "flash-type" ads...I will check back after Paris...
As one stated earlier...ads turn me off from the product...I know they help make money, but this is getting ridiculous...all of these "ads" that "know" what I want based on my history of surfing the web piss me off...If I come to letsrun.com, stick with running ads at least...
I come to your site to get information from people I truly respect...yet, I find that I am increasingly getting more annoyed because of the lack of updates and actual stories from these same people (wejo, rojo, etc.).
While I am on a rant (and boy do I type slow, so I truly must be annoyed)...your message boards need help...they are getting all sorts of "goofy" posts...not like the "heyday"...BRING BACK more of the quality posts (mlamo, jtupper, Grote, scheifer, etc ...) like we used to have in TnF Media times -pre LetsRun.com
Hope Puma treats you well...
Thumbs down
This really sucks wejo. It's you site and you can do what you want, but when you f*** with the message board you are risking alienating the main reason why people come here.
It really looks like shit now.
Do what you want but I'm off until you make it easier on the eyes. I hope you were paid well.
Visually much more appealing, like the smaller fonts and layout. Might get a little overwhelming on a regular basis, but overall, much better, professional feel.
I'm sorry, but this looks awful. I have no problem with you guys advertising, but this is very visually unappealing. The message board is unreadable. I'm going elsewhere until this is gone.
If this helps the site get money so it stays afloat, I'm all for it. And it IS cool that Puma recognizes us as an audience.
Heres the deal: I'm not one to get worked up over small things like this. It may seem weird at first, but then in a day or so I'll adjust and it'll seem normal.
Roll with it people, its all good.
Looks cool; but makes everything else pretty unreadable.
This
is
a
very
usable
way
to
read
the
web
site
.
I
may
try
back
in
a
few
weeks
.
Until
then
(cough)
shitty
sellout
(cough)
nice
site
lets
puma
.
com
Agree. Too much ad, not enough LR. It is especially jarring on the message board.
Weldon, while I respect you as a businessman, from the perspective of a user, it really detracts from the "Web 1.0" look and feel of your site, which is part of what made it so special and "retro-cool." I wasn't much in favor of the update you did a while back either (2008 I think).
I really think you should put your Yale education to good use and find some creative revenue streams besides OTT advert campaigns. I've got a few good ideas if you were willing to dial the Satanic Hotline (1-866-666-3772).
That being said, I hope you made a lot of money from the Puma ads!
Jason
My suggestion would be to use the money you make on the puma promotion to hire a decent web design firm and build let's run 2.0 from scratch.
I'm not a fan. Too much ad space. Not just a little too much. Way too much. I could live with this kind of thing on the front page every now and then. But on the message board it is not going to work at all. Ever.