http://www.interguild.org/members/forums/topic.php?id=4969 <--- that link will explain my idea, read the whole page before you ask me any questions about it.

This thread is basically for suggestions of questions for the survey; what do you think will be most useful in terms of finding out what new members think of the site (this also includes the 3 big picture questions)

first I guess we need to decide when people will be given this survey. Will it be after they create a new account? or will it be some kind of randomized popup as they browse the site? Because if we're gonna be asking questions, we need to have an idea of how much of the site they've seen so far and stuff.

Thats true, maybe after 24 hours they can get an automatic PM from you asking them what they think of the site so far, and then explaining about the survey, then finally a link to the survey; while still stating that it is optional

I still want to reach out to non-members, though. Maybe we could track their IPs and after 7-10 minutes of browsing (that's a lot of time to be spending in a foreign site) you get some kind of pop-up asking if you'd like to take an optional survey to help improve the Interguild. That could work.

at least unless your CSD and your IP changes periodically with your connection

well, when i get a popup, i instantly close it, plus some firewalls will block it anyways, and some people will just be irritated by it. So, maybe somewhere on the site homepage or something have a box stating "What do you think of our site? take this short 3 minute survey" now im not saying thats exactly what it will say, just a general idea. And maybe we could have a short survey for people just viewing the site, and a long one for members after 24 hours. only problem here is it would be annoying taking two surveys.

ur idea is good tho, im just not sure it would work 100% of the time. if we had a box with a link to the survey you could make it somehow attractive to the eye without being annoyingly attractive to the eye like popups are

maybe it could come up just like a PM alert except a bit taller. Or actually a better way to describe it would be like how Wikipedia puts up those "please donate" blocks at the top of their pages whenever they're trying to pay their bills.

And have it a completely different color like a very strong green or purple (purple is the opposite to yellow, making them contrast which would attract the eye)

that would actually be annoying. I think if it's tall enough, then it'll be noticeable, as long as it's colors don't blend in with the rest of the layout.

And a popup wouldnt? lol. Yeah, i think weve found a middle ground

Please post ur thoughts people! this is to help the community

Well I guess that though I'm still getting used to this layout, I think the old layout was more user friendly with the side strip with links on it. By all means do a survey, but I don't think we should immediately be looking for things that would make the layout better from newer members, we should of done that before making this one and Livio needs to do more work on Aeon, not on another layout scheme.  

I think we better get some responsible members to help fix the layout. This site also needs more people who know CSS, XHTML, JavaScript, and C++ to help fix the layout (and maybe a custom layout, this one hurts my eyes) and maybe other people to help with Aeon. Then again, one of the nice things about the interguild is that it feels like a small family (unlike other places such as Facebook). And I agree with Harumbai about the user friendly sidebar. But I guess Livio thinks that it leaves more room for content. Maybe have a expandable sidebar?