The simple answer is, because I wanted to do it. And the reason it looks the way it looks is because that's the way I wanted it to look (with the caveat that we're still working on fixing bugs in the layout, so not EVERYTHING looks the way I want it to look just yet).
The more detailed answer: Like most people, I'd often find myself in situations where I'd meet new people and they would ask what I do for a living. Sometimes I would show them DU on my phone. But every single time that happened, I'd catch myself saying something like, "Er, sorry it looks so old-fashioned." Honestly, I didn't want to keep making excuses and apologizing for the look of the site that I ran. I wanted to make something that looked more modern, and more inviting for people who might be just finding DU for the first time.
In the old days we used to update the look of the site much more regularly -- we had numerous homepage overhauls during the first ten years of DU -- but once DU3 was complete we very much rested on our laurels. As the site got older, and the design started to look more and more old-fashioned, it also became apparent that it was becoming harder and harder to make modern-day improvements because of the old-fashioned layout and code.
I started working on the DU4 redesign in 2019, when Skinner still owned the site. By that time he was pretty burned out on DU and wasn't very interested in the idea of putting lots of work into a new look, so I just kinda kept it to myself. When he officially retired and I became the owner, it seemed like the perfect time for an update.
You have to remember that despite DU's longevity and popularity, and the size and dedication of its community, at the end of the day this is a personal project. We've done what we can to democratize the moderating system, but the site itself isn't run by a board, or a committee. There's no fancy market research or focus groups. It's just me -- a self-taught web developer with a background in the arts, not computer science -- doing the front-end visual coding, and Elad doing the back-end coding and database management.
So I simply started off by trying to make something that *I* liked. But of course, part of the reason this redesign took three years is because I didn't JUST design it for me. I knew that there was no possible way to build something which every single DU member would immediately approve of, but I still spent most of the development time making sure that the vast majority of the elements in the redesign were not too dissimilar to the previous design, and trying to anticipate the various ways that people might use the site.
That's why when you look at things like the Latest Discussions page, or the forums, or the way discussion threads are laid out -- what I think of as the "meat" of DU -- those layouts are all almost identical to the way they were on DU3. Even the homepage, which some people seem particularly bothered about, is not too far away from its old layout. That's also why I spent about a full third of the project building out a reverse-engineered version of the previous design, in order to smooth the transition for people who preferred it that way.
But perhaps what is most important to know is that I do not consider the release of DU4 to be the end -- in fact, this is the beginning. DU3 was on its last legs -- all we could do was keep it running; we could not create new features and functions that people might appreciate. Whereas DU4 is a foundation that can be built on. Of course we still have plenty of bugs and issues to resolve -- it's only been a few days since everyone started using it -- but all those bugs will be fixed in time. I'm completely open to making changes and adjustments, adding features, and tweaking things where necessary to improve people's experience.
I get that some people are having difficulty with the transition. There's no way to pull off a project of this magnitude without doing something that's going to annoy somebody. But the alternative was DU3 forever, and that just couldn't work indefinitely.
So all I'm asking for at the moment is a little patience while we continue the update process, and also perhaps the benefit of the doubt from folks who are having trouble getting used to it. We have not demolished the property and started from scratch, all we've done is renovate the place -- put in a new carpet, repainted, and moved some of the furniture around. The house remains the same.
Bottom line: I wouldn't have spent three years working on this if I didn't care about DU and everyone who comes here. In fact the reason for these renovations is because I care deeply about DU -- not just because it's my job, but because it's a great site and community, and I want it to live long into the future.
I hope that answers your question.
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