Together, we can beat this (VOX) thing.

I know, I made a very bold statement that I was leaving Vox, yet I am still here.  The reason is quite simple: HOPE.

We have all made mistakes in the past, some personal and some business.  This redesign, I feel, is a situation where Vox needs to admit their mistake, and attempt to move forward by correcting the error.

I gave the redesign a lot of thought over the weekend, and I hope that SixApart did the same.  Now that it is Monday, the site is still the same, there has been no statement from SixApart about a possible correction, and there are even more community posts speaking out against the redesign.  I had hoped that the wonderful employees of SixApart would begin their Monday morning with a meeting, where they would discuss the implications of the recent update, brainstorm for possible solutions, and realize the folly of this new release.  As of right now, 6:00pm EST, I have read nothing to indicate that my dream has come true.

Many Voxers have looked at the new design (Release 41) and concluded that it was done to generate more advertising revenue, because activities that were easy before have now become three- and four-click adventures.  While I do agree that this is a strong possibility (it certainly can't be denied that it increases page views), I don't actually believe that Vox had such nefarious intentions.  Instead, I think SixApart had a flawed idea of how to increase the "community" aspect of Vox.  But as the comments have shown, this was proven ineffective almost immediately.

The new design is heavily tilted to show users more posts from other users.  The new Culture section appears aimed at showing us things we may be interested for one reason or another.  The recently added "Vox Recommends" links on our individual blogs (prior to Release 41) was meant to do the same.  I think these are wonderful ideas.  I think they will help to make the community more intertwined.  I think they may help to bring more users into Vox.

But I think in their current form, they do more damage than good.

By placing these new "features" on the homepage, SixApart has taken away the ability of keeping in touch with our neighborhood with ease.  Neighborhood posts are limited to only three on the homepage, and the comments have disappeared completely.  This is much more damaging to the neighborhood.  Yes, I realize that you can click to navigate through the sections for comments, photos, etc, but why add the extra steps to access the most important features?  There is no actual loading of a new page when switching to the different sections, so there is no likely increase in page views and ad impressions.  Yes, I realize that users can click on a few different links to get a page similar to the old homepage.  Why not instead keep the old design of the homepage, and offer the new features in their own section with a click or two?

The redesign (Release 41) essentially got everything backwards.  It removed the trusted neighborhood elements, and replaced them with discovery elements.  It moved the comments away from our initial destination, making it more difficult to keep up with posts that we are actively involved in.  I have said for some time (in posts and feedback alike) that an improvement would be to allow for either a customizable homepage or at least allowing more neighborhood posts and comments on the homepage.  I keep my neighborhood relatively small, primarily so that I am able to keep up with everything.  If there are too many posts to fit on my homepage, I may not have the time to wade through multiple pages to read new posts.  I couldn't even begin to imagine how difficult it would be to keep in touch if I had a few pages of neighbors.  Look at it from the Team Vox perspective, and see how difficult it would be for that account to keep track of the posts in the neighborhood.

This entire problem could be fixed very easily.  It could be temporarily fixed almost immediately.  Bring back the old homepage.  Give us the option of using the new homepage or the old homepage, with a single click to select, and a cookie to remember.  New users that have not used the old design wouldn't know how much easier it is, and could be kept on the new format.  I love the addition of the culture section, but not on the front page.  Vox is not MSN, and we users would much rather prefer to keep our trusted communication up front, and explore other areas when we have more time.

And bring back [TiG].  That has been Vox's "thing" from the beginning.  It may have seemed hokey, but we users loved it.

I doubt I was the first person to denounce the new homepage and insist on leaving, and I am certain I was not the last.  We may have lost a very important Voxer just a few hours ago, though I will not link to her post due to privacy settings.  The best way that we, as Voxers, can work to regain the community we loved is for everyone to stand tall and let your opinions be heard.

If you are unhappy with how things have changed here at Vox, please write about your displeasure.  Tag your post with Vox, SixApart, and release 41.  I know many of us have left feedback, and many of us took the survey, but it doesn't seem to have had an impact.  If we all post our distaste for the new design, and keep these posts completely public, we can hopefully get the word through to SixApart that we, as the community, are not happy with the change.  In addition, by keeping the posts public, we can make our voices heard publicly across the internet, and perhaps persuade those who were thinking about joining Vox.

This is a great place, and I know that we don't want to see it fail, or be forced to go elsewhere.  Let's help SixApart admit their mistake, and bring Vox back to the happy community that it was a mere four days ago.