We'd like your opinion

I want an interface where I can moon people like I did through my parents' car window when they didn't know.

 

And this is why I said months ago that you would have to create a new and completely separate site if you wanted to go a different direction.

I think someone will build a better mouse trap that goes above and beyond forums and the current social networking sites, but as of yet I have not seen it. If I could think it up, I'd be a billionaire.

 

I appreciate the effort to make that new look in the screen shots, but for me, all those things in the right and left columns are things that can either be on a splash page, or should be in a drop down menu. When I am reading posts, I like to focus on posts... I don't need instant access to my own posts, blogs, user cp, etc. All of that has traditionally been in a drop down type menu on either the top bar, or on a user avatar, and that makes a nice, uncluttered format.

I understand that many folks who are using the internet today are actually only familiar with myspace and facebook layouts, because the newer generation of internet users have never known a time without those, but that doesn't mean that it is necessarily better than what we have here.

I operate a couple of wordpress based blogs myself on and off (more off recently) and honestly managing my posts, making sure that I cross post things correctly, that I am tagging them so they make sense is really more effort than I want to do for my own site, I can not imagine taking that time on a simple wall post on someone else's site. At the end of the day when I look at other blogs I don't really take time to follow their blogrolls, I don't care about their tag clouds, I am not really interested in their orkut integration, or their easy-to-use rss buttons, and I am only to assume that most of my readers feel the same... they are nice tools for me, but clutter for everyone else.

I enjoy sitting down, scrolling through the screen, and picking out posts by title or author that look interesting. I DO NOT spend time on sites like BE because I really could care less what their article writing "experts" think is worth spewing, and then scrolling through the bottom with lots of "click here for more" type layouts hoping for some interesting conversation.

I guess for me, standard message board layout works exactly for what I am seeking. I am active on other social media sites, but I don't generally go there for discussion, I go to those sites for news and updates... they just aren't conducive to conversation, they are better for information dissemination.

Does any of that make sense?

You can see what I do in wordpress, it is similar to the layout you proposed, I understand the functionality... it just doesn't fit for me.

bacchation.wordpress.com