So, what's everyone's thoughts on the new website design? I wasn't fond of the old design at all, so I'll admit I think this is a very welcome change.

It kinda threw me off a little. The bold text everywhere was hard to read, but I see they've corrected it. Overall, it will take a little getting used to, but I like it.

I have run into a few pages that are rendering a bit funny, but I'm sure the kinks are still being worked out.

Wondering if the forum layout is next since it was redesigned after the last layout was implemented.

Yup the forums will be skinned very soon.

Any feedback is good feedback, thanks for the input so far!


-Dave

Has a software upgrade of the forums ever been considered to like vBulletin or whatnot? Maybe this will cut down on some of the spam.

I can make the suggestion. We have been pretty busy with the redesign (obviously) but an upgrade isn't a bad idea at all.

Yeah, I think some kind of upgrade would be very useful to cut down on spam with features such as "First Post" moderation if you know what I mean. I delete probably 2 dozen spam porn posts a day. It's not half as bad as it was last year though.

Some other nice forum features would be file attachments for viewing code etc, custom avatars, and whatever else.

(Sorry went off topic)

I agree, an update to the forum software with some greater functionality would rock.

Personally... I think the new design is bland. But what can I say? Our websites been "Coming Soon" for 6 months now...

The new site is alright, clean professional. But who the Bleep is Tom Jackson? and why does he get front and center on the homepage? I would like it more if your featured success story rotated on the homepage, and maybe showed some of us real developers. I feel like HMS is moving away from their root of hosting for developers by developers, and more towards the guy with an MBA who knows alot of buzz words but doesn't know what they mean, nor does he have any desire to learn.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that the goal is to fill the racks with dedicated servers, which are alot more profitable than when developers colocate ( by the way you guys still colocate right ? ) didn't see any colocation options in the menu.

So my suggestion is to use some flash on your featured story block ( on the homepage ), and rotate it with some other developers. And maybe even show a real developer in his prime of productivity ( white skin, sleep deprived, empty starbucks venti cups everywhere, unshaved, and eyes focused on too many LCDs )

WhiteSites,

At HostMySite we pride ourself on our support. We feel that we offer the best support in the industry, and that's our primary selling point. When you go co-located you loose out on some of the best stuff HostMySite has got to offer. Of course you can still go col-ocated, just give our sales line a ring!

We'll be colocating in a few weeks at HostMySite. Just getting our server ready. Colocation is by far cheaper than having a high end VPS, or going dedicated. (As long as you want to deal with the hardware end). We aren't that far from the data center, so if there is a hardware problem, we can just take a run down there to fix it.

whitesites,

I love your idea about posting images of real developers in their prime of developing. I'll see if some of our internal development guys want to volunteer for that They always look their best when we ask them to come in at 5am to roll stuff live.

We are looking at implementing code that will change the featured story to rotate through the various customer stories we have at http://hostmysite.com/stories/ This is more of a phase 2 feature of the new website roll out. We will also be adding more customer stories.

-Alan

Colocation will always be offered at HMS, however I doubt it will ever be pushed hard. For one thing, it's quite possibly the least profitable service we offer considering the space it takes up, making it difficult to maintain from a business perspective. Also, support for colo tends to be more difficult since customer hardware varies so much.

Thanks for the reassurance Jamie!
The new site is starting to grow on me, more contemporary than the old site. Though I still don't dig the featured customer on the home page. Need to get some real developers up there.

Yeah, getting more developers/clients on the homepage and the 'read more' section is on our 'to do' list.