Shoutbox

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Originally posted by Jieff
I don't believe in miracles, but hey, we never know.

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Seriously, tell your people to invest into a proper design team or to ditch your current one.

Enough people have already stated their opinion on the website so I won't repeat that..

But: rebranding with a different and in my opinion WAY more unprofessional logo than Plus! currently has should be a huge NO or at least shouldn't be taken lightly. (3D-ish exclamation marks in that style were popular maybe 5 years ago, and did you consider all the brand recognition Plus! and its current logo gained over the last years? The new exclamation mark by itself has ZERO recall value, unless you always include "Plus" or "Messenger Plus", which then would look even more similar to this: http://i.imgur.com/zYJ9S.jpg)
How about cleaning up/evolving the current logo a bit instead?

(Or how about employing a certain design team which already has extensive experience with the Messenger Plus! brand and a good track record? )

hey nathalie, i edited the subject of the thread as i found it VERY misleading (made you think that a (public) beta was being released right now ).

Feel free to change it to something better if you want

how long until you have to pay for the online stuff?

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Originally posted by andrey
Seriously, tell your people to invest into a proper design team or to ditch your current one.

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+1

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Originally posted by Jieff
We plan to migrate all accounts to the new site. What is important here is that the forum and the web site are now a single entity. The goal was to bring new online features to Plus!

We tried to keep the current web site and forum, but making it work together turn our to be a nightmare. We had to recreate everything from scratch.

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I don't remember being asked about how difficult the forum would be to integrate, and I'm guessing WDZ probably wasn't either. We're the ones who know the software, and know it probably wouldn't have been more than a day or two worth of work.

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Originally posted by Jieff
Unfortunately, recoding the tree list control to insert the icons did not make it in this version.

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Then why release it? Wait until stuff is complete instead off releasing half-assed stuff.

All that Patchou stood for seems to mean nothing. Oh, and without the logo, MP!L is just another program to people. No recognition, no users.

Yep, still don't like the direction that Plus! is taking with regards to graphic design. The inconsistency between the website and program UI is just too obvious (one being minimal and washed out and the other being over the top busy with unnecessary shadows, bevels and super bright colours).

Either way I'm sure the feature set will be solid and the functionality as well. But the visuals for me are a step in the wrong direction.

If it's easy to skin Plus! 5 I may just do so, otherwise i'll just stick to making Messenger look better

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Originally posted by Spunky

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Originally posted by Jieff
Unfortunately, recoding the tree list control to insert the icons did not make it in this version.

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Then why release it? Wait until stuff is complete instead off releasing half-assed stuff.

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Well, it is not released yet. But I don't think it is a major functional asset anyway. If it does not make it on this cut, it will make it for the next one.

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Originally posted by Spunky

All that Patchou stood for seems to mean nothing. Oh, and without the logo, MP!L is just another program to people. No recognition, no users.

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Funny... and who do you think I work for? (Just a hint .... Patchou). So don't worry, Patchou's values are very present (if it was not the case, trust me, he would tell me since we work together).

I agree about the MP!L logo, but changing it was a legal requirement.

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Originally posted by Jieff
I agree about the MP!L logo, but changing it was a legal requirement.

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Why? Too similar to the MSN logo? Could the colours/shape have not been changed slightly to keep the same recognition with users, rather than changing it to a completely different (and worse) logo?

Why have the GFDD design team been ditched? The website, logo and software UI would have been 10x better if they had continued designing it.

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Originally posted by Jieff
I agree about the MP!L logo, but changing it was a legal requirement.

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Major bummer....

Is that the same reason why the "Live" tag has been removed too?

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Originally posted by Willz
The inconsistency between the website and program UI is just too obvious

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This. With the current design you can rapidly relate the website with the software.

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Originally posted by Jieff
Funny... and who do you think I work for? (Just a hint .... Patchou).

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It is normal to see this kind of complaints and the feeling that Patchou isn't in charge anymore because of many drastic changes, but I'm sure that listening to us (ths users) there will be a win for both sides.