The site re-design is, for now, done.
A few quick things- don’t change your bookmarks or blog roll, things will catch up in a few days. Also, permalinks to previous posts in the archives will be screwy until things settle down.
New features:
site scales to fit window
wider center column
new feeds located in the lower right (RSS 2.0, .92, and ATOM- I will add feedburner and other stuff in the future)
an option to open links in a new window, as well as an option to resize the font on the whole page (scroll down to the lower right below the feeds)
banner is now a hyper-link to the main page (except, inexplicably, in IE- working on that)
inline comments (with buttons, click the little arrow to drop the button bars)
title of post is the permalink
comments can be permalinked
commenter name appears before comment
if you insert more than three hyperlinks in a comment, it will not work (for site protections against spam)
And there is more I am sure I am missing. Over the next few days, there will be some comments lost here and there, some confusion, but all of this should sort out by the weekend. Much thanks to the anonymous folks who helped (did) this redesign.
If you have anything that needs to be addressed, please let me know in the comments.
If you hate the site, I would rather not hear about it.
McMartin
Hmm. I don’t know if it needs to be addressed, but the bullets in the bullet list there are rendering outside of the box. Slightly wacky.
Backword Dave
Cool.
Backword Dave
PS. A link back to the home page would be appreciated, but it’s still cool.
jr
The new design looks great
Brian J.
The bullets for the bulleted list in this post appear outside the border of the center column in Firefox.
NYCmoderate
It looks terrific! Clean, easy to read, scalable main column. If only we could get Sullivan to change to something more like yours. In case it helps, my RSS feed has already switched over, without my having to do anything.
My one slightly negative comment is that while the main column is perfectly sized, the blogroll is comparatively tiny. I’m on Mac OS 10.3.9. I’ll be curious to see if I can access the site at work now. You’re currently blocked by our, ahem, site filter.
Halffasthero
An online magazine with no “Letters to the Editor”?
Jill
Sorry, great content, but the new design looks amateurish compared to the old look. Also, takes forever to load up, the old site used to load instantly.
Rick Lee
Wow… what an improvement, visually. You still need a new logo though.
Rick Lee
err… by logo, I mean the balloon and “barker”. The title logo is great.
John Cole
Dunno why the load time is slow- I switched to Hosting Matters, and it loads in no time for me. Weird.
Sorry you don’t like the look, but a lot of people were really having a hard time reading the site. I loved the old look, but something had to give.
JKC
Nice job, John. Looks good.
ppGaz
I like it.
vianna
Can now read without my halfsies! Very good!
bg
Love the new look. Very clean, easy to read.
Mr Furious
Looks great. Much better. Take my word for it as a graphic designer. My only constructive design criticism would be to beef up (make bold?) the headline text. The entries are clearly defined by the boxes, but they could use a bit more oomph to stand out.
Loads fine for me on a Mac in Safari–no problems.
One technical note–once I’ve added a comment, it doesn’t have a clear link back to the main page. I suggest adding a link at the top labeled “home” or “main” or at least have clicking the Balloon Juice banner take you back.
John Cole
Mr. Furious- The hyeprlinked banner appears in Firefox, but not in IE for some reason.
Mr Furious
Oh, and I miss the comment preview.
Mr Furious
I’m using Safari right now, and it doesn’t work.
p.lukasiak
A “preview” option would be helpful….
John Cole
I will check into it.
Anderson
Congrats on the site redesign!
My only suggestion would be to make the main text a *little* smaller, maybe by just one point? It’s pretty huge right now, tho I’m sure that’s to most people’s liking.
Catfish N. Cod
You’ve removed the lnks to your email and IM. Is that intentional?
John Cole
No. I will add it.
Wrye
The text is a bit large, but I guess there’s no happy medium. Definitely big and bold. And the scaling works like a charm.
arnott
nice and clean
prob
looks great to me. Like the larger print – much easier to read. Agree with arnott…very clean presentation…
Christie S.
Looks good, John. Very easy to read. I like the larger text as I’m visually challenged (damned near blind in one eye and can’t see out of the other)and really appreciate not having to wipe the screen of nose prints every day.
I’d like to see the return of the comment preview, though.
Mason
Looking good. No visual flaws at all in Opera.
Nikki
Love the new look! The only thing I would change is with the buttons: some people may not know that Strong=bold and em=italics. You might want to change those button titles if you can. Otherwise, looks great!
Mr Furious
The banner link back to the main page now works in Safari.
scs
Why change it? I liked the old look much better. Its like my MSN messenger, everytime they make me down the new one, I always think the old one was better. Old one had a no -nonsense practical look about it, this looks more like any other old blog. Plus don’t like how you have to go back and forth now from comments to main page. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it John!
Reid
It needs more cow bell.
However, pay no attentiuon to me, as no redesign will please everyone. Especially those who are resistant to all change.
Stormy70
How do I get the comments to remember my info, some site’s say remember info? Do I have to type my name and email each comment? What if I need to tell someone off quicker, and I have to waste time typing my info? The world might end.