Where is the button to put it back the way it was?

Not answering any one question directly yet, I wanted to at least make this statement.

Trust me when I say I did not want to make the change. BUT and a BIG BUT... This is all about the future of the forum and for that I had to make a change. We did not comply with any protocols in regards to search engines and specifically mobile devices. Actually we were being penalized and not listed because of that. That put the site at an extreme disadvantage and would eventually phase us out of any search results, leaving us to whither away with just each other as company :)

Since the site is all about the history, I wanted to make sure it would reach more people and inevitably a new generation of collectors in the future.

The actual structure (not the colors, logo and physical appearance) of the site, the main center sections, upper navigation etc. have not changed. The addition of the gallery and two section on the right have. Those are there to help navigate the site displaying new and popular posts at a glance. The gallery has not been upgraded yet. That is another investment on my part. We are in the $1,000's now for the server change, upgrade, clean-up and now the responsive site for the search engines.

In regards to the logo, colors etc.. That can be changed to a certain degree, but we had to get to an agreeable point so that I could get to the end result of prepping the site for the future.

Many of you have probably noticed, unlike other similar sites, we are not using ads or Google ads. I was on a site the other day which I will not mention and things were popping up everywhere including between threads and posts and it made the experience far less enjoyable and rather distracting.

I think in time I can tweak the look and visually bring us closer to what we were, but for now my concern is the rankings and fixing our detriment with Google.

It will be a few months before I can afford the gallery upgrade so that it presents a lot better and makes searching and navigating the 125K + images in a more professional and seamless manner. I already miss my images at the top!

That should cover that.

Thanks!

David...I get, appreciate, and support what you are doing here. We need to adapt to the future and make sure this valuable site is around and attracting the next generation of vintage drum fans. Thanks for all of the work that goes into this (and I know it's A LOT!). This forum is an incredible resource. I'm kicking in to help with the expense and hope others will consider it as well.

Love to check in here almost daily. Thank you for all the effort

All kidding aside, good job moving forward. I have yet to notice any loss of the most valuable information here and at VDG.

Diggin' the updated look... thanks for all the work/effort to make the site a better experience for us.

I like it.

I am sorry. I definitely do not like the changes made to the website of this forum. Let me explain: when I log in, I like to go directly to "new posts". The page showed me the new ones since my last visit. If I see a post titled, e.g. "Baseball bat muffler" in the "For sale" section, I don't directly open it because I don't need to buy a muffler at that moment. Now, if I open "New posts", I don't have a chance to check which section the post belongs to until I click on it.

This and all that information on the right side that cuts the width of the text, makes me even more discouraged from visiting this forum as often as I did.

And I think anyone who has dabbled in the world of vintage drums is going to find this forum on Google anyway, no matter how dumd he/she is. Fans we form a small community, even worldwide.

I hear you, trust me on that. I never want to change anything :) I see what you are saying and there might be a work around option yet to be figured out. With change there is a learning curve. Plus, I'm listening and trying to resolve as much as possible. I do agree, there is a small group that will always find the information. Just an FYI and information which I normally do not share is that we are getting 10's of thousands of visitors (people that are not members and never leave a comment) and 100's of thousands of impressions on Google for potentially getting more visitors a month. Hopefully meeting all of todays web standards more people will visit and want to learn about drums and learn from the core members here.

In time as we work through these things, the forum which we all know and remember will sink into a more comfortable groove... Currently the drummer is out of the pocket and until he settles in, we can't feel the groove as it should be.

David

I have noticed that we have more new members that have registered...This is a good thing in my opinion...It is nice to see more people interested in our Forum...

I like the new look!!

Cheers