We've become theFretBoard

TTony

Some of you may have noticed that we've subtly tweaked our identity on the site, and may also have noticed a slight change on email notifications too.

"The Fretboard" has gone, and has been replaced with theFretBoard.

We've a new logo to roll out too, which will replace the big banner image at the top of the screen, and give us more room for adverts.  

A version of the new logo should also be appearing wherever FavIcon is used, and on our Twitter feed updates too.  We've hopefully also made a slight tweak to how Google describes us in search results, so rather than seeing "Recent Discussions on the FretBoard" as our site description, there should be something a bit more meaningful, that might result in more new members dropping by.

We'll see ...

I mention all of the above specifically in case anyone uses email filters that rely on "the Fretboard" as an identifier in filtering rules.  You might need to update that to "theFretBoard".

And who says that we never do any site development ...

(I might have been joking about the adverts).

Moe_Zambeek

Can we capitalise the T in 'The'? Just for consistency, like...

Flink_Poyd

Moe_Zambeek said:

Can we capitalise the 'The'? Just for consistency, like...

It does look a bit like some L33t_SNiP3r has h@cK3D the logo

Sporky

I don't like that tagline about it being the something's most something something. If it is then it doesn't need saying, if it isn't then you shouldn't say it. It just adds noise at the top of the page.

TTony

Sporky said:

I don't like that tagline about it being the something's most something something. If it is then it doesn't need saying, if it isn't then you shouldn't say it. It just adds noise at the top of the page.

That'll disappear if my latest attempt at SEO proves successful.

robinbowes

Flink_Poyd said:

Moe_Zambeek said:

Can we capitalise the 'The'? Just for consistency, like...

It does look a bit like some L33t_SNiP3r has h@cK3D the logo

This.

What's the reason for the change? I'm curious...

R.

Sporky

TTony said:

Sporky said:

I don't like that tagline about it being the something's most something something. If it is then it doesn't need saying, if it isn't then you shouldn't say it. It just adds noise at the top of the page.

That'll disappear if my latest attempt at SEO proves successful.

Then I shall toast its success.

TTony

robinbowes said:

Flink_Poyd said:

Moe_Zambeek said:

Can we capitalise the 'The'? Just for consistency, like...

It does look a bit like some L33t_SNiP3r has h@cK3D the logo

This.

What's the reason for the change? I'm curious...

R.

A few reasons.

In our formative days, I'd always intended it to be displayed as theFretBoard, but we didn't implement it given everything that had to be done in those 6 days (we rested on the 7th) leading up to 3rd August 2013.  

The intention is to remove the emphasis on "The" as the first thing your eye sees when you read the text.  By using the lower case "the", running it into FretBoard and capitalising FretBoard as we have, the visual emphasis should be on "FretBoard" which should be more meaningful and descriptive of what we do.  Though that's probably going to be more true for people looking at it for the first time, rather than for people who've looked at it every day since 3rd August 2013.

It's a bit of a cheeky "emulation" of another site, which I believe has become fairly well known, which started out life as theF***B***, and gives us consistency with our various email addresses (which are @theFB.co.uk) and the form of our PP address (theFretBoard.com - we've had enough issues with people trying to add an underscore to that address to denote the space in our apparent name).

And finally, our logo designers all came back with designs using "theFretBoard" text format being the most visually appealing and effective.  Yes, we've *finally* sorted a new logo which we'll get rolled out onto the site and the new t-shirts in the coming weeks/months.

But, apart from that, it's just a random change

Emp_Fab

...a random and unilateral change.  I know I'm not an admin, but unless you discussed all this with the other admins outside of the admin section, it's just your personal preference !  Speaking as an ordinary user, I think it was fine as it was.  

axisus

TTony said:

We've a new logo to roll out too, 

Still OK if you wanna use mine.

TTony

axisus said:

TTony said:

We've a new logo to roll out too, 

Still OK if you wanna use mine.

monquixote

I love that logo

Drew_TNBD

Admin team needs a bloody designer on it, and a proper project manager!

viz

monquixote said:

I love that logo

Me too, espec if the writing were changed to theFretBoard

Chuffola

Regarding banner ads...

If you decide to go that route, I've no real issue with a few scattered around as long as they don't open up into full page nonsense of mess up the formatting on my tablet.

Also, we'll expect all profits to be split between the early adopters. With a licensing fee on top.  And free stuff from the advertisers who should be restricted to Lazy J, Fender Custom Shop and Strymon. 

TTony

Chuffola said:

Regarding banner ads...

If you decide to go that route,

Read the last line of my post

We've always said that ads are a no-no for us.  We prefer the clean design, we don't want to be "obliged" to the advertisers, most people block them anyway and - last but not least - they don't generate the revenue that they used to because most people now block them.

Oh, plus there'd be a shitstorm like never before on here.

Sporky

TTony said:

Oh, plus there'd be a shitstorm like never before on here.

As a bystander I think it'd be hilarious. So many flounces, so much handwringing, so many threads...

On balance not worth doing just as a funny though.

hobbio

You should run some fake ads that just link to threads here and see how pissed off some people get about selling out to The Man. Like, run a Pete Cornish ad that links to @Gassage's board pics or a online guitar building course that links to the Modding board.

I'm happy with any logo or name change, ads or not (I know you're not planning on having them), whatever. I'd even pay an annual subscription as long as it wasn't too dear.

TTony

hobbio said:

I'd even pay an annual subscription as long as it wasn't too dear.

A number of people have said that very same thing.

I like those people.

ChrisMusic

I have always used theFretBoard as a style when communicating.

You can easily de-emphasise the "the" further, by typeface selection, font size, or grey text, if required.

Chuffola

TTony said:

Chuffola said:

Regarding banner ads...

If you decide to go that route,

Read the last line of my post

 And read the last of mine  :P