Official New Hub Changes Mega Thread

[AshAuryn]

Hub Remodel - March 2025​

As you may have noticed, the Hub has undergone some changes since the release of Vam2 beta this month!
Here we will outline some of the biggest changes, as well as keep track of your feedback and adjustments/fixes that will be incoming.

More in-depth guides for use of the new Hub will be released in the FAQs/Guides section later this month.

NOTE: If you are experiencing wide-spread display issues upon returning to the Hub for the first time, please try clearing your browser cache/data and updating your browser to the latest version, then refresh the page.
This should fix most issues.

Hub Landing Page​

The new Hub landing page serves three main purposes:

• Presented as what we want new visitors to the Hub to see, to showcase our brand
• Container for the information on how to get VaM and the different subscription options
• A way to give certain resources more visibility

Navigation​

Navigating the landing page is done using the single-page website design pop-up menu.
This menu will auto-scroll to the sections you are interested in, and is activated as soon as you begin to scroll down from the main video.

To return to the top of the page, simply click the VaM logo in the main navigation menu, use the quick-scroll buttons in the bottom right,
or choose a different destination from the main menu.

To quickly jump to any other section, simply select it from the bottom menu. No scrolling required.

Newest Resources​

The hub will fetch the 100 newest (brand new, updates excluded) resources within the last 2 months and shuffle them.
Each time you load the page, you will see different resources.
The purpose is to allow newer resources a chance to be viewed for up to 2 months after posting.
Previously, newer resources would be "buried" underneath new posts and updates within a few days.

About​

This section gives a little bit of information about our products, as well as detailed information about subscription options, downloading and purchasing.
Additional information about the VaM2 beta will be added soon.

Gallery​

This section will fetch the top 1000 most popular media items and shuffle them.
Each time you load the page, you will see different gallery images. The purpose here is to showcase VaM to new visitors.

Popular Resources​

This section will fetch the top 100 resources with the most Likes, shuffled randomly.
Each time you load the page, you will see different resources.
"Likes" is a new take on the old star-rating system. We will go into more detail on likes further down in this post.
Think of this section for now as the top 100 resources with the most 5-star reviews. While this is less valuable for long-time members, this is a good showcase for new visitors.

Discover aka "Hidden Gems"​

This section will fetch the top 100 resources with the most downloads that have never received any reviews or ratings, shuffled randomly.
Each time you load the page, you will see different resources.
The purpose of this section is to highlight resources that have been very popular but may not have received the attention they deserved.

Always-On Side Navigation​

The mobile navigation menu is now always accessible for those that prefer the vertical-style navigation.
We have added your user profile information to the mobile navigation menu to make it easy to tell when you're logged in.

Main Navigation Menu​

The main navigation menu has undergone some improvements. Icons have been added for visitors for whom English is not the primary language.
Dropdowns are hover for quicker response times. We have also added several much needed links, such as the "add a resource" link.

The menu is a smart menu, so it keeps track of where you are while you browse. Clicking the resources link will highlight the resources tab while you are browsing resources.

Hovering over the resources tab while browsing resources gives you a visual cue by highlighting the dropdown menu in blue:

The drop-down menu is duplicated in a quick-access horizontal sub-menu while you are browsing within each primary section of the hub:

Each primary menu tab is also a link. Here is a brief overview of some of the important links in the navigation menu:

• Clicking the VaMHub logo will return you to the landing page
• Clicking the main "Resources" tab will take you to the original Hub landing page, the "Free Resources" category
• Clicking "All Resources" will take you to a list of all resources, including Free, Paid, and Paid Early Access
• What's New -> Followed Content will display all recent activity from members that you follow
• Clicking the "Media" tab will take you to the media gallery
• Media -> Mark Viewed will mark all new media as "viewed" so that it doesn't show up anymore in "New Media"
• Clicking the "Members" tab will take you to the "Notable Members" rank lists, as well as member name search
• Clicking the "Search" tab will take you to what was previously known as "Advanced Search"
• All "Advanced Search" options are now available in the "Search" drop down and quick-access menu
• Our Discord and Patreon links, as well as our Help pages are now located in the website footer menu at the bottom of the page

Additionally, clicking your username will display the account preferences and settings menu:

Browsing Resources​

​

First, a word on buttons... It may seem like a trivial detail, but buttons on the Hub have undergone significant changes.
Nearly all buttons on the Hub now include icons for ease-of-use for non-English speakers. In mobile views, most buttons will revert to icon-only for better space.

Critical buttons, or buttons that have recently moved, will be highlighted briefly by a flashing animation on page load to help you familiarize yourself with the layout.

Menu buttons will remain highlighted while a menu is open.

"Switch" buttons, or buttons that have different modes when you click them, now display icons for ease of use.
For example, the "Watch" button will change to "Unwatch" when clicked.

The Action Bar​

The action bar contains all the important features you need while browsing resources.

First, the "Add Resource" button has moved to the action bar and is available on most pages where you might view resources.
"Add Resource" is also always available from the main navigation menu.

The resource Category list as well as the filters menu are now full-screen pop-out menus that are activated by action buttons.

Filters​

When filters are active, they will appear in a filter bar beneath the action buttons.
Filters can be quickly deactivated by clicking the individual filter to clear it.

View Modes​

The View Modes action buttons will customize the resource list to your preferences, and will save those preferences between sessions automatically even if you are not logged in.

The first two buttons give you the choice between "Card" (grid) view, or "List" (classic) view.

The second two buttons give you further customization for your specific view.

• In Card view, the second set of buttons gives you the choice between single-image card, or side-by-side card with more info
• In List view, the second buttons toggle the display of the resource image galleries just like in the old Hub design

Finally, the last two buttons give you the option between Paginated results or Infinite Scroll

Here are some examples of the different view modes:

Mini-card View (maximum results per row)

Side-by-side Info Card

Classic List

The Resource Page​

Resource pages have undergone some changes as well. Most notably, the Download button has now been moved to the top of the resource sidebar on the right. This has been updated to move the button back to the header where it was previously.
Important buttons, such as "update" "download" and "support me" will highlight when the page loads.

The changes on this page are mostly visual/style related, so we're going to move on to the big feature changes...

New Reactions​

​

We have added several new reaction emojis taken from our official Discord server.

"Love" is the default reaction in order to differentiate the button from the "Like" button next to it. Classic "Like" thumbs-up emoji is still available.

Conspicuously absent are the Angry and Frown emojis. After listening to a lot of feedback, having a lot of internal discussions, and researching how other major companies and communities have chosen to handle negative-style reactions,
we made the decision to completely remove negative reactions from the options.

The Like System​

The outdated 5-Star review system has now been upgraded to a more modern and more widely-used "Like/Dislike" system, as can be found on popular platforms such as Steam, Civitai, or Netflix.

Clicking the "Like" button on a resource will contribute to its "Like" count which can have an effect on rankings and search results, and will also contribute to the creator's overall ranking.

Clicking the "Dislike" button has no effect on rankings whatsoever and does not "negate" the Like count.
The "Dislike" button is simply a way for you to mark resources which you don't prefer, and gives you the option to leave constructive feedback about why you disliked this resource.
This prevents members from "Review Bombing" a resource with negative likes, such as has been an issue on platforms like Steam.

Clicking either button will instantly bring up the new review form.

The ease of this form should hopefully increase the number of reviews received by creators for their work.

Leaving a review is optional, so the form can be closed by clicking the "X" icon or clicking outside of the review form box.

Both Likes and Dislikes have the option of selecting "Neutral" for the review.

All existing Star ratings and reviews have been converted to Likes as follows:

All 3 to 5 star ratings have been converted to a "Like".
All 1 to 2 star ratings have been converted to a "Dislike".

4 to 5 star reviews have been converted to "Positive" reviews.
3 star reviews have been converted to "Neutral" reviews.
1 to 2 star reviews have been converted to "Negative" reviews.

You can now view your ratings/reviews both given and received from your account menu:

If you are curious about the discussions and process that led to this change, there are several forum threads that can be found by searching "star system" or "review system" as well as many, many discussions on Discord about the same.

For the most part, this change was brought on by community demand and has been "in the queue" for over a year. We are excited to finally bring this much anticipated change to the Hub!

Media Gallery​

The media gallery has undergone some cosmetic changes as well.

First, we have increased the number of viewable media items per page to enhance the widescreen experience.

Most notably, we have converted the outdated side navigation to a more modern horizontal nav bar:

One feature that couldn't make it to this update was the infinite scroll option for Media, which will be coming in a future update.

Notable Members​

This page has undergone some cosmetic changes, as well as now including the new "Like" count for resources with Likes.

The top 3 members from each category will have a special hover effect, and the top member will receive the "crown" icon.

The Member Profile​

The member profile page has undergone some remodeling as well.
More space has been given to the banner image, as well as moving the action buttons to an action row underneath the member stats.

Profile menu tabs are now buttons, which highlight depending on which section you are currently viewing.

Most notably, the member statistics have been reworked. Each stat will now show a progress bar so you can see how you compare to the member with the highest score in that stat.

Members who have achieved the highest stat in a particular category will receive a "crown" icon:

Style Modes, True Widescreen, and Mobile Responsiveness​

For those that are nostalgic for the "old hub", we've left an upgraded version of the original "Bikini Girl" style available in your style choices button in the website footer (which some of you may never have known existed):

More styles and options will be added here at a later time. I will leave the Bikini Girl style as a surprise for now, and focus on the new default style "VaMHub Widescreen" THAT YOU SHOULD ALL BE USING.

Hub's new widescreen style is optimized for monitors at 2560x1440 resolution, and is customized for monitors up to and including 5120x1440 resolution.

To get the full effect, you'll need to view on an ultrawide display:

Conclusion and Important Notes...​

This has been a tour of some of the many, many changes that have come to the Hub in the March Update.

We understand this is a big change, and will be listening to your feedback over the coming months. We believe we have ironed out most bugs, but there may still be a few lurking.

A lot of the really fancy stuff goes on behind the scenes, and we have made it easier to make corrections on the fly which will increase the speed at which we can address issues.

Here are a list of some of the recent feedback items we've received, which we will update as things progress:​

• Reports of some rendering issues on Brave browser

This seems to be consistently a need to clear your browser cache by hitting ctrl-F5 or clearing the data and cache from your history/settings.

• Requests to make Resource Icon 1:1 ratios consistent across different viewing options

This is now fixed, with some caveats: The side-by-side card view must be off-ratio on mobile sizes by its nature.

• On Firefox, sometimes hovering over a main menu item would immediately close the dropdown menu before you could click on it.

This has been resolved.

• Resource action and view-change buttons not working.

This has been resolved

• Too many Media gallery images, I'm overwhelmed.

....seriously?

• Reaction scores for resources no longer visible.

This is now fixed.

• "VAM Download" button in main menu leads to "About" section instead of directly to purchasing options.

This is now fixed.

• Requests to make landing page more useful for long-time members.

We have listened to some of your feedback regarding this, and will consider changes we could make.
However, first and foremost, the landing page is a place for new visitors and new users of VaM to be introduced to the Hub for the first time, and therefore is a critical element and must retain some of that purpose.
That being said, we believe there are ways we can make the landing page more "browse friendly" and enjoyable even for long-time members. Please stay tuned.

• Trouble navigating Landing Page

Although the navigation menu instantly appears as soon as the page is scrolled a few pixels, we will try to make the navigation links more obvious by including direction indicators or "scroll now" prompts.

• support tickets area not displaying correctly on mobile
• clicking next page in "ratings given" goes back to "ratings received"
• some users having trouble with dropdown menus on firefox browser
• hierarchy of members in "most liked" notable members section is incorrect
• infinite scroll option when viewing resources on an author's profile page returns resources from all creators
• @hazmhox doesn't like the color of standard hyperlinks on the Hub

For all other feedback, bug reports, and suggestions either reply to this thread or make a new post in the Hub Feedback forum. Thank you!! ​

 

[14mhz]

This is a really great remodeling job.
Thanks for the great work.

 

[bill_prime]

1 feedback for the Download Button
You can no longer download the resource from the Updates page (the download button used to be on the top bar)
A bit annoying clicking on notifications, click on resource that was updated, then have to click overview and then download.

 

[SlimerJSpud]

I stumbled into the new hub yesterday thinking, "What the? They changed everything!" After a few clicks, I found I like it a lot.

 

[AshAuryn]

1 feedback for the Download Button
You can no longer download the resource from the Updates page (the download button used to be on the top bar)
A bit annoying clicking on notifications, click on resource that was updated, then have to click overview and then download.

This makes sense to me and honestly I think I had that on my list and it just got swept away. Will take another look.

 

[SlimerJSpud]

On the old version it was easier to select Free when looking at Resources. Now, you have to move over to the right to open Categories and select Free from the sidebar on the left. Too much moving around. I think Free deserves its own place of honor on the top somewhere.

It does default to Free if you just click on the Resources button at the top.

 

[Farger]

The updates look very nice and are well organized. I like that the ratings system was changed to the like system.

 

[Chokaphi]

Is there a way to un-fuck the hub cause this designs information density is terrible in comparison to the previous? I feel like I am stuck viewing a 6in mobile first website on a 32in PC display.
Grid view at least makes it more tolerable.

 

[NephilimGod]

the old way felt dated. This looks great

 

[Chokaphi]

the old way felt dated. This looks great

Having lived through activeX and flash...etc. I guess have a low threshold for pretty but low information than you. The landing page/index just screams Web 3.0 My First flash page\Startup thats 1 day from broke vibes. . Lotsa ooh this is pretty scrooll scrooooll scroooooooll scrooooooll,. oh something useful that explains WTF this website is about.
The design is pushed by marketing to "keep the user occupied so engagement numbers look better".

The content page is ok in grid view but is not as nice as 30 seconds of glancing at the free and new tabs to see whats new.

 

[AshAuryn]

1 feedback for the Download Button
You can no longer download the resource from the Updates page (the download button used to be on the top bar)
A bit annoying clicking on notifications, click on resource that was updated, then have to click overview and then download.

This is now fixed.

 

[AshAuryn]

Is there a way to un-fuck the hub cause this designs information density is terrible in comparison to the previous? I feel like I am stuck viewing a 6in mobile first website on a 32in PC display.
Grid view at least makes it more tolerable.

Is there a way to un-fuck your mouth?
*edited to add hearts because fuck you but with love*

 

[AshAuryn]

Having lived through activeX and flash...etc. I guess have a low threshold for pretty but low information than you. The landing page/index just screams Web 3.0 My First flash page\Startup thats 1 day from broke vibes. . Lotsa ooh this is pretty scrooll scrooooll scroooooooll scrooooooll,. oh something useful that explains WTF this website is about.
The design is pushed by marketing to "keep the user occupied so engagement numbers look better".

The content page is ok in grid view but is not as nice as 30 seconds of glancing at the free and new tabs to see whats new.

Your web browser has a little "star" icon that's called a bookmark. And I guess if the grid view is "ok" then you can, well, select the grid view because it's there. Or does the knowledge that there are other types of views for other visitors just rub you the wrong way because you'd prefer it all be just for you? Let me know, I'm interested in your feedback.

 

[AshAuryn]

On the old version it was easier to select Free when looking at Resources. Now, you have to move over to the right to open Categories and select Free from the sidebar on the left. Too much moving around. I think Free deserves its own place of honor on the top somewhere.

It does default to Free if you just click on the Resources button at the top.

?

It does default to Free if you just click on the Resources button at the top.

 

[VirtuaBanger]

Looks nice, aesthetically. Is there a setting somewhere to turn it all off so it's more usable?

 

[SlimerJSpud]

I think what's putting some people off is that the tiles are a lot bigger than in the old format. With grid view you lose the gallery. In list view, with the gallery, the tiles for the thumbs are rather large. Perhaps there could be a preference setting for smaller tiles.

I think I'd like having the Attach files and Post reply buttons swapped. Twice I've clicked on Add files instead of the right one.

 

[Chokaphi]

Is there a way to un-fuck your mouth?
*edited to add hearts because fuck you but with love*

No worry's Ash, I am not going to get offended by language. This is a Adult site so I don't tend to filter my language and tend to use more explicates. "Why do we cuss, because its fucking fun!"

I know you and others put in work on the new look but fuck me it seems like web devs want to design the same landing page style that just makes me close the tab, open google and enter "this is what i want" site:fancyplace.com.

Now if you want actual constructive criticism instead of my earlier destructive criticism:

Decrease the stack view to show 3 across, reduce the waste space and increase font size 18 to compensate for the smaller rectangles, its small change but makes the view feel less barren on a 2k display. **edit in SS I just increased the font size and shrunk windows to fit 3 across, I did not reduce the padding which could expand the text area a bit more towards the Thumbnail

 

[Weyoun]

Is there a way to access categories in mobile view? I can't seem to find them. I see them on desktop view, but a little inconvenient having to switch.

 

[Chonzales]

I kinda agree with other people's sentiment in this thread. It looks like utility was sacrificed on the altar of aesthetics.
New hub homepage reminds me of one of those B2B SaaS vendor websites.

Let's assume that we need a landing page for new users who have no idea what VaM even is, and that /resources is the "homepage" for experienced users.
Was there really no way to make the "Filters" or "Categories" UI pop up on the side of the screen so that they are always visible without covering the search results?
Why could we not replicate the in-game hub browsing experience where the search parameters are always visible on screen and they don't interfere with the search results? (Please don't even think about redesigning that layout, it's perfect in its current form and not sure I'd even trust the new design direction anymore)

I know I come across as hostile in my remarks, but between this and the recent Nexus Mods UI redesign, I am really struggle to understand why devs feel the need to take a perfectly functional UI and change it in a manner where their priorities don't align with the user's priorities.

 

[AshAuryn]

Looks nice, aesthetically. Is there a setting somewhere to turn it all off so it's more usable?

Yes. I have a button I can click that will make it so you won't see any of it. Let me know if you'd like that.

 

[AshAuryn]

One of the ironies is that the resource "list" style hasn't changed very much. What has changed is the community asking for more and more data to be displayed in the resource lists.

While I appreciate everyone offering helpful examples of how they would reformat the list view, it's actually not helping us much because they aren't taking into account that different resources will have different amounts of information.

So I'm going to try to explain with this post why the resource images are larger and why there is empty space.

1. Why is there empty space?

Not everyone adds images to their descriptions as they should. This results in resources in the list having a blank space where the image gallery would be.

2. Why is the resource image larger than before?

There are a couple reasons for this.

- In the previous hub design, you were limited to a screen width of a maximum of 1200px, which is tiny even on standard monitors. The only way to display resources was in a vertical stack

As such, resources that had more data (had reactions, ratings, etc) would appear larger than other resources with less data. There was still a blank space when there was no image gallery.
In this example, the top resource has no dependencies or favorites. The middle resource has dependencies and favorites which adds 20px to the height.
A resource with only views and downloads and no interactions would be even smaller.

- New hub allows you to fit more information on one page by allowing resources in a list to exist side-by-side in a grid. In order to make this possible, all resources must have a standard height.
That standard height is naturally the maximum height a resource *could* be if it contained the maximum amount of information.

The amount of information in one resource item varies based on:

Labels: Hub Hosted, CC License, Unpublished, Locked, etc
Meta data: Likes, Reactions, Dependencies, Favorites, etc
Reactions: Reaction emojis
Additional: You can't always see it, but moderators require the checkbox seen in the bottom right. That space when not used by moderators includes the "Featured" indicator, "Team" indicator, and "Watched" indicator
Image Gallery
Maximum characters used for Title (100 chars)
Maximum characters used for Tagline (100 chars)

Here is an example of a "Full" resource from our development environment:

If you want to offer helpful suggestions, you will need to include *all* of this information in your example.

You will also need to show me how you plan to make the heights of each resource the same on each row of the grid.

I am certainly open to ideas!! I hope this post helps some who have had complaints to understand the nature of the issue.

Before suggesting "hiding" some information or reducing the amount of data on the resource, that is a non-option.
There are many, many members in this community and over the past few years there have been many, many discussions about what information users want to see in the resource list.

This is why there are alternative "simplified" views for those that don't need all of that data and want to fit more resources on their screens.

A note on those "simplified" views:

Here is the current size:

Here is that same resource with the size reduced by just 10%:

Notice how now the title, which is the full 100 characters, now takes up almost half of the entire image.

Similarly, here is a side-by-side card with all available information and a full title:

And here on the live site is an example of a "leaner" resource with a shorter title:

This is the "empty space" users have complained about.

In order to offer useful suggestions, your examples will need to make both of these types of resources work in the same template.

If you are tech savvy, the best suggestion and the tool I would use would be to open the browser console by right clicking the resource and selecting "inspect" on Chrome or Mozilla.

You can then right click the code for the resource and select "edit html". Paste that html into a code window or text editors and you can re-arrange the parts as you see fit.
You can then add css to the "styles" tab in the browser console to adjust how you would like things to be seen. You will need to do this for both a "lean" resource and a "full" resource.

Here is a great example of a "full" resource you can use to test your template:
https://hub.virtamate.com/resources...nsion-and-the-rise-of-the-third-season.39064/

Here's a "lean" resource you can use to make sure they both work with the same rules and are the same height to fit in the grid:

https://hub.virtamate.com/resources/tittymagic.4067/


Here they are side by side for comparison:

To summarize:

Helpful suggestions are ones where you've shown how to make the resource on the left look as interesting and condensed as the resource on the right,
while keeping them the same height and reducing the overall height significantly to meet the expectations of those users who have complained about larger resource images.

I look forward to your examples. Seriously, not sarcasm. The new hub represents at least 4 or 5 months of full-time work, so you will at least have a head start.

 

[AshAuryn]

View attachment 476754

Clear your browser cache, ctrl-f5. Something is wrong with the render here.

EDIT - not sure if the render is messed up because you modified it in the browser console, or if there's a caching issue. I had one other report about some weird css issues that appears to be DNS caching. If it's still messed up, give it a few days and it should correct itself.

EDIT #2 - This appears to be a browser compatibility issue with Firefox.

 

[AshAuryn]

Now if you want actual constructive criticism instead of my earlier destructive criticism:

Decrease the stack view to show 3 across, reduce the waste space and increase font size 18 to compensate for the smaller rectangles, its small change but makes the view feel less barren on a 2k display. **edit in SS I just increased the font size and shrunk windows to fit 3 across, I did not reduce the padding which could expand the text area a bit more towards the Thumbnail

Believe it or not, I appreciate this response. Thanks for being cool after us dicking around.

Hopefully the post I just made about why things are as they are will help explain why your example won't work, unfortunately. Simply putting a longer title in the example breaks that version of the template.

I'm not trying to be snarky here, but I am curious. I know this won't appease anyone who's determined to be unhappy, but I would like to point out that on "new" hub, no matter what anyone thinks of the size ratios or layout of each resource item, you are still seeing two or more items on one row on most screen sizes, whereas on old hub you would only have been able to view one? So, I get it but I don't get it -- the complaints that is.

 

[AshAuryn]

For posterity and comparison, here are some screenshots from old hub:

Same pages same screen size on new hub:

......

Ok I think I see the problem here. You all are using 1920x1080 monitors? So you're seeing this?

If that's what you're seeing, that's gross. Get a new monitor! Just kidding, but seriously, this just requires an an adjustment to the media size breakpoints.

This is what you should see, at minimum:

 

[AshAuryn]

So I pulled out a spare monitor and set it up at 1080p resolution and realized this is what some of you are seeing:

A quick fix is to reduce the browser zoom to ~80%.

In the meantime, I will work on improving the pages on this aspect ratio.