Goo testing complete

I am used to using Brunel as a skin, and have ever since I joined, but got the idea to test which skins were preferable over others. The Goo skin was challenged, and so for one week I will see if Brunel really is better or not.

Key
• : Excellent! (+3)
• : Good (+2)
• : Not Terribly Important (1)
• : Nitpicking (-1)
• : An Irritant (-2)
• : Morally Wrong (-3)

Brunel vs. Classic Goo

General Comments

Why Brunel Is Better
1. Goo's blue scheme isn't consistent with the rest of the web world's white. It makes some things difficult to read.
2. Goo doesn't have nearly as many good sidebar links as Brunel, including the "Add Entry" link, which is quite difficult to find in Goo.

Why Goo Is Better
1. Goo has a banner ad that goes straight to Peer Review. This is good because Peer Review is an important page, but that fish on a bicycle freaks most people out and is a bit of a nuisance compared to the simple sidebar link in Brunel.
2. Goo has three sidebar links - Read, Talk, and Contribute - that point to really useful pages that aren't directly available in Bunel unless the User knows of them.
3. Goo has more options in the Preferences page for more customizable usage, whereas Brunel doesn't.

Conversations

Why Brunel Is Better
1. Goo has no auto-smiley buttons.
2. Goo has no tree-bobbly-navigation thing except in Frame mode.

Why Goo Is Better
1. In Frame mode a lot more information is shown about a conversation, such as who's posted and what other conversations are. Plus it shows all of the red navigation lights at once for faster browsing.
2. In Frame mode the "Unsubscribe" link is accessible without scrolling to the bottom of the page.

Entries

Why Brunel Is Better
1. Goo has no auto-tag buttons, making it diffcult but not impossible to automatically add tags to GuideML entries.

Why Goo Is Better
1. The headers in Goo, since they stretch all the way across the screen, separate sections within headers a lot better.

Personal Spaces

Why Brunel Is Better
1. There is no link to the Conversations pop-up window, and the on-page list is hard to find and to read.