The Giveaway of the Day home page has completely changed. Just in case that happens with the Game Giveaway of the Day home page, is there a way to get to these Forums if the link is not showing?
New look of Giveaway home page
(23 posts) (12 voices)-
ChrisS
AdministratorThe links that used to be at the top of the main page are now at the bottom of the main page. The ads get top billing.
If you want to save your mouse for important gaming activity then just create a bookmark for the forum page and you can skip all of the scrolling.
Posted 8 years ago # -
mikiem2
ModeratorI'm guessing that quite a few folks are going to miss the link to game.giveawayoftheday.com as it's in the so-called hamburger menu - the 3 short lines in the upper left of the GOTD home page.
Makes some sense from a design standpoint, since the games aren't everyday like the mobile apps or the forum, but when you see the iOS & Android apps & the forum at the bottom, & no game link, it's easy to assume there's no game offered today.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Suze
MemberIf you haven't done so already, you may want to post your comments & suggestions in the GotD blog: http://blog.giveawayoftheday.com/giveaway-of-the-day-rebirth/. If enough of us post there, hopefully we'll be heard and the team will make changes. Hopefully . . .
Posted 8 years ago # -
Harvey Macken
MemberThe GOTD site appears to be under daily revision, making various small changes. I find that the changes are improvements and the format of the site is getting better.
Posted 8 years ago # -
krypteller
MemberRe Suze: I entered a comment on the blog yesterday. It is still awaiting moderation ...
Posted 8 years ago # -
krypteller
MemberRe Suze: my partly critical comment did not make it in the end.
Posted 8 years ago # -
ChrisS
AdministratorI don't see how anyone could criticize the new design as it fully meets the two primary criteria:
(1) give greater prominence to the ads
(2) make the site more readable for those using mobile devicesOne the other hand, you can certainly question the design specs. In particular, the new design says to me "come for the ads, stay for the software" but that's largely the newspaper business and they haven't announced a layoff in the past couple of hours. It doesn't bode well when the most important thing on the page is the ad (at least that's how it strikes me). I also question the wisdom of chasing mobile users but, as Mikiem posted in Blame Apple, iOS and Android are allegedly the future so the consultants will insist that you design your PC software site around people who can't use your software. Oh, sure, they can "window" shop but they aren't your target buyer.
Posted 8 years ago # -
krypteller
MemberChris: when I visit this page, I do not see any ads. So it seems you mean the ads on the home page. Actually, I do not really notice them. Possibly because of some selective process in my brain: I only see, hear and read what I want to see, hear and read using a built-in brain filter (I am joking, of course}. I am interested in content, not make up.
The new design looks wonderful on my Windows phone, my Google Nexus Android tablet and my iPad. But as I cannot perform a "cleaning by rebooting" operation on these devices, I do not experiment with giveaways for these devices. Period. Giveawayoftheday is barking upon the wrong tree for me by prioritizing mobile devices. I am not interested in apps for my mobile devices from this site. I stick to the official AppStores.
In the first half hour of every giveaway day my primary concern is downloading the giveaway without any e-mail fuss or likes, testing it in a virtual machine and making a portable to test it without installing on my real machines. After that, I write my short daily blog. Next I start looking for comments. Later on the day I visit the forum. When not at home at the desk, I use a mobile device for that.
Posted 8 years ago # -
Whiterabbit-uk
Games GuruStill not sure about the new layout. I'm not a mobile phone user (mainly due to being house bound, so I really have no need of one - we do have an old blackberry, but the battery is almost dead due in part to hardly ever using the thing. After almost two years we realized we'd been paying every month, but never using it, so changed the contract to a pay as you go. We put £40 on it 18 months ago and there's still over £37 on it., so I wouldn't know what the new site looks like on a phone.
I miss the old look, it was familiar, I knew where I was and the ad's were not as intrusive. I understand that the team want to earn extra income, so I don't blame them, so long as they don't start adding buttons that look like the giveaway buttons so as to make community members 'accidentaly' click on them. Then I think it would be time for me to retire from this site.
Personally I buy any program I really need. I've used the giveaways mainly to see if a program is better than the one I'm already using. If it is, I'll upgrade to that one.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I like the new layout to be honest. I understand it is new and different but I think as the web evolves they were bound to change at some point. Plus I remember reading about Google starting to prioritize mobile friendly websites in search results and pushing the non-mobile friendly ones back a few pages. So this is a good move on their part to make sure they remain relevant in search results. And now that they have changed the layout they probably should try to make these forums match a little bit in my opinion but if and when they do I'm sure there will be mass confusion lol.
https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/6196932?hl=enPosted 8 years ago # -
mikiem2
ModeratorAnd now that they have changed the layout they probably should try to make these forums match a little bit in my opinion but if and when they do I'm sure there will be mass confusion lol.
That would probably mean a lot more work -- depending on the software they use for the forums, it might mean redoing that portion of the site, transferring the forum archives to the new setup etc. I've seen sites take days of work to do that, & then they often only transferred the last year or two worth of forum posts. I wouldn't wish that on anyone. :)
Posted 8 years ago # -
They don't really have to redo the whole setup just change the stylesheet a bit to match the site better.
Posted 8 years ago # -
@White Wabbit - Stephen, I actually logged in so I could say hello to you, and ask you to please not retire!!! :( These forums would be a dark and murky place without your presence! BTW I HATE the new look, AND am practically house bound as well, so no smart phone or tablet for this hamster ;)
Posted 8 years ago # -
Whiterabbit-uk
Games GuruHi Hamstergirl, not seen you around in a while. A lot of the old regulars seem to have disappeared (sadly a few such a scuba guy and pavid have passed away). As yet I remain faithful to the giveaway site. I still feel I've gained a lot by being here, though I've not been as active since we moved house, partly because we are still really busy with house renovations, the legal battle to get compensation from the first builder who ripped us off for well over £45000 as well as other issues that have kept me really busy.
I'm hoping once everything has been settled to return to a more active role such as reinstigating the free games project. I've still to update the free games synopsis, which is really out of date. It only covers the first 100 weeks of the 250 plus weeks of the project, so there's probably well over a thousand games to add to the synopsis, plus some of the older posts need updating with images and in some cases new links as some of the sites that had the free games have either deleted them or closed.
Plus I do enjoy coming here.
Maybe Chips suggestion that they update the forums would reinvigorate them, though (as Mikiem points out) I'd hate to see older posts disappear because there has been a fantastic treasury of information posted over the 8 years these forums have been running.
I wish they would add the section that used to be located at the bottom of the main page showing who had visited that day.
Posted 8 years ago # -
I still can't believe these forms have stayed unchanged all these years. It's like a time capsule at this point
Posted 8 months ago #
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