The coder read the previous comments threads and informed me she needs to stop for the night before she uses IP addresses to hunt people down and beat them to death with old COBOL texts.
So, that means we are at a moment of stasis in the site redesign, so if you have any suggestions, please offer them now. Constructive criticism only, please.
I will throw up another open thread for your other random bullshit. Please use this post for site comments only.
Tom Johnson
What does “lexicon” mean? You guys ought to put up some kind of glossary or something that explains what “lexicon” means.
Baud
Don’t see a way to read and write comments on the mobile version.
The recent posts box keeps coming in an out. Are you getting rid of the recent comments box? I liked that.
After editing a comment and saving, the screen does not automatically return to the thread.
Yutsano
@Tom Johnson: And right out of the gate…
Overall I’m happy with things. I’d be happier with comment numbers. Also. Too.
Egg Berry
That was her first mistake.
dead existentialist
Uh, it’s like a FSU field goal, a little wide to the right.
(Though if I do a control – the whole page fits.)
And I don’t see any unicorns.
MikeJ
I’ll repeat a previous comment:
main area is fixed size. Bleh. Left column, with nothing in it, expands to any size needed. WTF?
text is more difficult to read
comment count is nonsensically at the top of the post instead of the bottom. for one liners it doesn’t matter, but for long posts it’s really annoying
the limited area given to categories display on the post is optimistic at best
Is there any reason why the text can’t be black? It’s worked pretty well since gutenberg first tried it. A sans font (very little weight) and non black text makes for difficult reading.
H3 text is still the same color as hyperlinks
ant
the crap on the right side of the screen that i never read is too big.
which makes the useful content too small to read.
pixelpusher
Looks sharp. Scales up nicely on my system. Thanks for the nice job, John.
MikeJ
@MikeJ: And hey, half my list is fixed!
Callooh! Callay!
Rome Again
I like it. :) Looks great on my wide screen monitor. I hope it looks as good for others. I do agree we need comment numbers though. Nice job, John (I assume it’s John, you didn’t sign your name).
Citizen_X
WTF COLE?!? THIS DESIGN LOOKS LIKE
actually I kinda like it so far.
schrodinger's cat
I liked the previous 3 column format better than this one, Two smaller columns with the comments in the middle. This looks too much like the Daily Dish.
Bago
You still have the goddamn script that resets the scroll position on the iPad. I think it’s an ad.
eco2geek
Are you attracted to her? Try this pickup line: “Hey, baby, let’s co-ball.”
Seriously, it would be good if, after editing your comment, clicking the “Save” button took you back to your comment, or at least the comment page.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
In the post “Credit Where Credit Is Ignored And Stuff,” the tags extend beyond the bottom of the box on the main page. This does not occur if you go into the post.
And editing a comment does not take you back to the post.
Warren Terra
At least in Chrome, some of the spacing is odd: there’s a large gap after “Commenter Says:” and before the time stamp.
And why is “Says:” capitalized?
ETA I’m not sure I like the current masthead, in that (1) it only shows the top half of a hot air balloon, which is odd; and more importantly (2) the rotating taglines are gone.
ETA2 As stated elsewhere, when you edit a comment and save, you aren’t returned to the thread.
RAM
I like the new balloon. The juice is just okay.
Spaghetti Lee
I like most of the changes. I think the font is too small. Or is it a different font? Either way, it’s harder to read.
David Koch
the fonts are STILL tooo small.
Rome Again
Whoops! Found a problem: the text margins are wide enough that the text goes directly under the reply button’s arrow and I can’t see part of the text as a result. (I was trying to be non-troublesome, guess I just failed in that respect).
Bnut
I will say that the font size and type is not the best. Also, comment numbers. The circled arrows on the side next to links make it look like you should be able to expand something when it actually doesn’t.
TaMara (BHF)
PROS:
Colors are nice
Like the organized area of recent posts, categories, etc.
CONS:
Numbers for comments. On long threads it’s impossible to find your place after you comment or refresh.
I prefer the blog centered with ads on one side and the archive, categories, blog roll, etc on the other side. Just feels more balanced.
I think the rotating tag should be in any color but black.
The heading should be bigger. The ad below it overwhelms it.
Yeah, I’m thinking I don’t much like this redesign and I’m not one of those “I hate change” people…so there’s that. If we get comment numbers back, I’ll live with it. I didn’t have a lot of complaints about the old design so a new one would have to super-duper for me to really be all ‘wow’ about it.
That being said, all the hard work is appreciated. I’ know we’re all pains in the ass.
PurpleGirl
Comment numbers would be nice.
You’ve already had the font size made larger and it’s readable.
I’d change the rotating tag line with the PayPal box/symbol.
Overall I like it.
amk
ok.
How about adding a line break between the post and the reply button ? The last word is being eated by the button.
Left orientation sux. Especially if the thread goes long past when the right side runs out of gas.
Now get on it.
Amir Khalid
Well I guess it’s not too bad after all, now that some of the kinks have been worked out. But yes, I’d like numbers back on the comments too. And I presume the block-quote, italics, bold etc. buttons for comments are in process?
Spaghetti Lee
I tried to delete a comment and it took me to a new window. Is that supposed to happen?
I pretty much agree with what TaMara said.
handy
@schrodinger’s cat:
Yeah it’s definitely a little too crowded. Is there a way you can move the ad space container to the left thereby putting comments in the center?
Also glad the Reply js element is there but can we have it only appear on hover?
Comrade Mary
Well, some of us LIKE that sort of thing, as long as you leave out the “to death” part. My stopword is “Tunch”.
The place looks really, really good overall and you guys have done a great job. I just threw some bucks in PayPal that are seriously meant for beer, ice cream, hookers, blow or all of the above, OK?
Constructive criticism (which I’m probably duplicating from your to do list, but you did ask):
1. Can the Reply button be forced to a new line below any comment text to avoid the occasional text overlay?
2. I presume the HTML shortcut buttons are the third party app that will be slotted in later.
3. When editing a comment, I think it still doesn’t return you to the thread after a successful submit.
4. The Home/Lexicon/etc. links at the top right just don’t look right in their current state. A little larger, sans-serif and bold, maybe?
5. When people bold text within a comment, the bolded text is the identical size and weight as the commenter’s handle. Can commenter handles be treated a little differently?
6. VERY picky: the header in each comment currently reads “[commenter name] Says”. Can you make it lower case so it reads “[commenter name] says”? It looks especially jarring with commenters with purely lower case names.
Thanks!
Warren Terra
@PurpleGirl:
I agree with this, with the slight caveat that it always causes problems when moderated comments appear and shift everything posted more recently down a number. But since we’ve got the reply button, this is less of an issue.
Rome Again
I’m also in Chrome and I only see half of the balloon and no rotating tag line as well. (the balloon looks like 3/4’s of a beach ball, pretty beach ball though.) ;)
Citizen_X
Hey, constructive criticism:
The post authors’ name needs to be placed more prominently, embiggenated, or whatever. It’s a little bit hard to find on the front page, and now I notice that it doesn’t even appear when you go to the post page.
Oh, and is the rotating tagline gone? I don’t see it.
Oh, and ETA: Thanks for adding links to the various post authors right up top. That was something the old design needed.
dmsilev
The ‘Reply’ arrow can overlap the last line of the comment text if that line extends most of the way to the margin. If it’s just that the code chunk that only shows the button on mouseover hasn’t come online yet, then fine, otherwise consider moving the reply icon down about half a line or so.
It looks a little weird having the commenter name fairly large, then on the next line a small date/time stamp, and then bigger again for body text. Consider moving the timestamp up to the same line as the commenter name, and keeping the size uniform.
Polish the Guillotines
@PurpleGirl:
Comment numbers would be nice.
Yes.
Sarah Proud and Tall
@Yutsano:
This. The numbered comments were helpful for finding your way back to particular comments, and for referencing comments if the reply button didn’t work…
Warren Terra
One serious stylistic comment: Didn’t the old format used to have the post author’s name just below the title, rather than only having it in tiny print at the bottom as “posted by”? Or were the people who writing the posts inserting their author credits by hand each and every time? I don’t have irrational hatreds of particular authors like some regulars of this blog, but I do like to know whom I’m reading before I start reading the post.
Ked
On the whole, looking pretty good.
If I were to make just one comment, it would be that on a blog like this one where multiple people post on the front page, you really need to put a credit line (“by John Cole”) at the top of each post. You can keep the attribution at the bottom – it makes sense to have it there as well with all the other post detail stuff – but there are things that get posted here which mean very different things depending on who wrote them. So top-line bylines please.
Something’s… off about the use of white space on the page, but that may just be my adblocker + new format cognitive dissonance.
LTL-FTC
I for one miss being able to identify the author of a post right away from scanning the title and header (I admittedly scan to look for John’s posts first). It’s not that I don’t want to read all of the posts but it would be ideal if the authors’ names weren’t buried in small type at the bottom of each.
My two cents.
mcd410x
Design is pretty decent. There are cosmetic changes I would make (CSS and jQuery), but that’s just one person’s opinion.
The one thing I think I might do is switch the placement of the two columns on the right — I would place column that begins “Google search” on the very right.
Comrade Mary
Agreeing with:
1. Comment numbers.
2. Putting the timestamp close to the commenter name and away from comment text.
OK with:
1. Going back to left and right sidebars and centered content. The large expance of white at the right doesn’t bother me as much as it bothers others, but I’m fine with the move to change it.
2. Slightly larger text. I’m fine, but it could probably go up a smidgen for others.
Amir Khalid
Did you just remove the post bylines?
eemom
I constructively agree with all the others who have constructively pointed out that the left orientation sucks great big ugly rhinoceros dicks. Constructively, of course.
Nutella
Yay, blog title is a home link! The sinking balloon image is cute. Little arrows for top links are handy.
One big thing: Comment numbers are really, really important for finding my last-read place in a long or fast-changing comment list.
One small pedantic thing: Title of tab for posts is RECENT POST. (wince) Please change to RECENT POSTS. But the tabs for the four sections are a good choice for keeping the page uncluttered.
TooManyJens
@handy:
That’s not so great for touchscreen devices.
So far, so good on my phone, though I agree with others that comment numbers would be nice. Edit: yay, I can edit on the phone!
eemom
wrt the font size, as Raven pointed out earlier, if you’re on a Mac you can click command + to embiggen it. Works like a charm.
amk
@Ked: Agreed. The byline of the author should be next to the thread title, not at the bottom of the post.
All in all, what exactly this redesign was about ?
Of course, I am glad the fucking mobile site is gone…. Or is it premature to celebrate that ?
Warren Terra
RE the calls for larger text, if you use Chrome as your browser it will remember what zoom setting you use for different sites, and so the next time you go to a site you had to zoom in on, it will be pre-zoomed for your convenience, without affecting other sites. This works especially well when the actual content starts in the left column, rather than the center.
Citizen_X
Oh, and: You can successfully edit your comment (yay!), but the WordPress editor doesn’t return you to the post. It just kind of leaves you stuck there.
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
@Bnut: What comment numbers?
@Warren Terra: The tag line is above the Recent Posts area.
notio
I would prefer author credit under the headline, rather than the post footer. On a multi-author blog, it’s helpful to know the bias of the writer prior to reading the post. Currently I find myself scrolling down to see the author then up to read the post.
Because I am insane, I do the same thing in the printed New Yorker “talk of the town” pieces, though using a page-flip rather than a scroll.
Warren Terra
Cleek points out (in the wrong thread) that not only is the authorship of each post hard to find on the main page, on the pages for each post the authorship doesn’t appear to be displayed at all.
Gin & Tonic
Holy shit, this design is ugly.
Comrade Mary
Additional: Can’t you just slide the rotating tagline under the main header and above the ad in its own div? It might need a little additional styling to integrate it visually with the header, maybe just another blue rule.
Joseph Nobles
@eco2geek: Is Cole attracted to her? She wants to beat commenters to death, right? I didn’t think there would be a question there.
Overall, I like the redesign. I like the mobile site, too, because I often read the blog on my phone. You can’t comment right now on the mobile version, though. I figure that’s something you’ll turn on later.
Warren Terra
Oh, hey, what happened to the “recent comments” box?
Warren Terra
@Belafon (formerly anonevent):
Good eyes. Thanks.
SiubhanDuinne
All in all, I like the new look. And I can get used to the bits I’m not as crazy about. But if there’s still some tweaking to be done:
1. Please restore comment numbers.
2. Please move the reply arrow down a couple of lines so it doesn’t cover comment text.
3. Please consider putting in a button of some kind right after the main post that will jump directly down to the reply comment box so we don’t have to scroll all the way down each time we refresh or revisit a thread. Years ago (before the LAST site redesign) you had this feature, and I’ve really missed it.
But in general it looks good. Thank you, John (and the person who actually did the designing).
P.S. I am basing comments only on iPad/Safari. Will also check it out on the BlackBerry and desktop/IE and
complain loudly and bitterlycasually and politely mention any further requests.Xantar
@Rome Again:
The same happens to me when I view the site on an iPad.
Mark B.
Ok, now that I’ve switched the iPad to landscape mode, it’s way more tolerable.
I’ll just hold my comments related to the process, I think I’ve already worn out that subject.
eco2geek
One long-running gripe: I swear that the text color looks like it’s some version of gray, not solid black. It did in the last version of BJ, too. It would be easier to read if it were black.
Then again, it could just be that I’m pushing fifty and my eyes are going.
Justinb
Will the mobile site ever work again?
PeakVT
1) Please take out the hardcoded [br] tags being used to create white space and use CSS instead.
2) Please make the comment edit box a floating pop-up again.
3) Please make the comments numbered again.
4) Please provide a byline at the top of each post.
5) (observation) The recent post list does not show the most recent post (right now, the open thread).
6) (observation) There are some minor mis-alignments of the boxes at the upper right.
Arclite
Cool! Nice clean look. Easy to navigate.
I see some constructive criticism already, so I’ll just say positive things for now, and see how things shake out. Long live the new Balloon-Juice!
chrismealy
Play button icon for bullet points is weird.
amk
All you had to was to fix the mobile site appearing in the desk top version, cole.
Sheesh.
Snowwy
I’m sure that people have had a ton of gripes. As BJ’s resident Mr. Johnny-Come-Lately, let me say that I like the new design. A lot.
That is all.
MikeJ
@eco2geek: It’s #4d4b4c
Justinb
Any chance the mobile site will ever work again?
Bane of Our Existence
i would like to see the author of the post and the date under the headline of each post – not at the bottom of the post – otherwise, i have to scroll down to see the author and then scroll back up. thank you.
buster
On my wide screen monitor running Chrome it looks great: clean and readable. Comment numbers would be nice, but that’s not a big concern for me.
COB
It’s your website, Cole, do what you feel like. I can adjust.
SarahT
Like it for the most part, but author names aren’t showing on my blackberry browser – will try it with firefox, too. But I do wish the font was a little bit bigger.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
is it me or my browser or was there more color in the old format? This is like staring into a snowfield at noon on a cloudless day
Comment numbers and by-lines at the top of the post would be my suggestions, and the old style of block commenting. But I’ve hated every site redesign ever, for a few days.
p.a.
like the font, very legible. I also would like the return of comment numbers- makes it easier when returning to a thread. The black text on gray background kinda hard on older eyes. Like the white stripe for scrolling on my phone- nothing worse than accidentally clicking on a Coulter ad…
ShadeTail
The only thing I’ve noticed so far is that when the “posted in” tags run down onto a third line, they spill over the border around the article. I don’t know if I can show you an example, but on my display, Zandar’s “Credit Where Credit Is Ignored And Stuff” article does this on the front page.
Just look for a post with a ton of tags and maybe you’ll see what I mean.
EDIT: By the way, it appears comment posts aren’t being numbered anymore. Hopefully, putting that back in is on the to-do list, because it helps me keep track of the conversations that happen in the forum.
Schlemizel
I don’t see any tag line after the Balloon Juice header in either IE or Firefox.
Agree that I miss the numbers.
I actually prefer the comments on the left instead of in the middle, its a cleaner look. The whole layout looks cleaner and simpler, I like it.
Corner Stone
No seriously. The webmistress has to put back Recent Comments.
SiubhanDuinne
@SiubhanDuinne:
Huh. Okay, apparently the strikeout/del code doesn’t work, rendering (or is it rending?) my earlier P.S. a nonsense.
Also, would like to see author names restored to the top, next to the thread title.
Kthxbaifornow.
Jeffraham Prestonian
It’s too wide for 1024px-width resolution (netbook). Other than that… excellent.
eco2geek
@MikeJ: Thanks! Dear webmistress: Please make it #000000! It would enhance the site’s readability.
danielx
A lot of what I see has already been covered. These apply to Firefox and IE 8 64 bit. So….
1. Needs posting time as well as date to new threads – currently only date shows.
2. I’ve got one big thread column taking up about 2/3s of the page on the left, two smaller columns on the right. First one has ads and sitemeter, second has bloggy stuff and ads. Listing of recent posts, comments, etc spreads across both right hand columns.
Overall look is no worse than most and better than some, but this column arrangement under these two browsers sucks.
Jane2
1. Comment numbers needed.
2. Two right-hand columns dominate the page at the expense of readability.
3. Black font, please.
Quaker in a Basement
Yep. Still like it.
dance around in your bones
I think the date and time stamp should be on the same line as the commenter’s name, as before.
I think the commenter “Says” should not be capitalized.
I hope Recent Comments will be put back.
Last post/Next post links at bottom of page is useful.
Still not crazy about new logo with colored balloon >.< and liked the rotating tagline just below the main header instead of off to the side.
I'll get used to the new look; as they say in old Mexico "¡no hay opción!"
Again, thanks for the hard work. We complain because we care!
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
Can we say socialist yet? How about shoes?
ETA: Apparently not. Fix that please.
LunaSea
I’d like to see the tag lines set off a bit more, maybe with a little image (the megaphone man?) or color or something, or even just centered.
Agree on the comment numbers.
But suggestions aside, great job, John & Mystery Coder. Site redesign is a pain in the butt, especially when you have a “live” audience, armed with bags of tomatoes. Kudos.
Baron Jrod of Keeblershire
Change the spam filter to allow the word soc-ial-ist. Sho-es should be allowed as well, but it’s hardly as important. A political blog that doesn’t allow its commenters to use basic political terminology is kinda dumb.
Nemo_N
I would prefer the titles a little bigger.
And another vote for the author’s name after the title.
TooManyJens
@Baron Jrod of Keeblershire: That’s still not fixed? Seconded — it’s ridiculous. Stupid boner pills.
longtime lurk
please please please put the author right at the top under the post title.
Ron
Consider me another vote for having the author’s name by the title. Also, at least on my phone going to http://www.balloon-juice.com does not send me to the mobile version of the site.
noodler
Just to empathize with you, I changed all the icons around to different screens for my tablet on my phone too. I cant find a damn thing there either now. Bring back the BJ barking man. Didja learn anything from the new coke?
boss bitch
Sorry John but this looks cheap. I don’t have fancy coding knowledge or knowledge of these website design terms but it looks cheap. Its too much blue, it doesn’t feel inviting and I like I said in another thread it looks like some secret underground forum. I love website redesigns but this? nah.
SIA
Sorry but i CANNOT read this on my brand new galaxy ii smart phone. i don’t get a mobile site at all. the text margins are too wide when if i pan in so i can read the blasted tiny font. the previous mobile site was bad but at least it was readable. I will be really bummed if im not going to be able to read on my phone.
Can i be constructive even while grouchy?
WaterGirl
Please make the comment numbers searchable again, like they were before the previous site re-design.
Agree that rotating tag lines need to move left so they show up underneath the Balloon Juice header.
Agree that the text feels more like shades of gray than actually black. Black would be more readable.
Agree that the grey text on light gray background is hard on older eyes.
Agree that fixed column width should go away.
As someone who uses an ad blocker (sorry Cole, but as someone who even has trouble with flickering lights, some of those ads are so awful I’m afraid they might cause a seizure… there’s a long column of blank space – maybe you could put the ads in the right hand column instead of the middle.
Paypal link should move over to the right, centered in the blank space under the lexicon links. You could have it trade spaces with the rotating tag lines.
Agree that name of front pager should be prominently displayed with the title and should show up once you open a post.
Could “search me” also allow you to search comments? Right now it only searches the original post.
There’s something funky about the location of the date.
Agree on lower case “says”.
I like the new balloon, but it would be even better if the rest of the balloon could show up below the line, only really faded out. In color, though, just really faded.
Haven’t looked at mobile versions yet.
trex
I’m using Mobil Safari to view the site and…my god – its full of stars!
And I would like to see which of those stars have commented recently on the front page via Recent Comments. Thanks in advance.
boss bitch
Oh and that balloon? sucks. Can you have it look a little deflated or with a hole in it or something? Its just there. Its like you took the image from Windows image gallery.
wmd
@Warren Terra: Rotating tags were the first issue I saw.
Dustin
I like the design with one major caveat: The site is completely worthless on a mobile device.
No. Really. Complete junk. The main page restricts titles to 10 letters before it goes …, and text shows about 21 letters before it does the same. You can’t read anything without going directly to each article. To top it off… no bloody comments. I can’t see them, I can’t make one of my own. They’re just plain not in the mobile version. 90% of the value of this site is the community, and now I have to sit down on my wife’s laptop to even know it exists instead of just read it from my iphone like I’ve been doing for ages. Hell, there isn’t even a site specific “see full site” link to get out of your new mobile mode.
/endrant
I’m not your programmer to give you advice on how to fix it but please, for the love of the FSM let me at least read the comments from my phone again.
Merp
The strength of the old design was the wide text width for posts, which meant stand-alone sentences were stand-alone sentences and paragraphs were paragraphs. With the new slimmer post widths, a lot of individual sentences are going to appear as paragraphs because they occupy two or more lines. Not only is this harder to read, but it makes the design appear to be more “high school kid gets a blog” than “place to go for informed commentary”.
You must have thought about this, and so have reasons for making the switch to slimmer post widths, but (in my humble opinion) almost certainly anything your gaining with the slimmer widths is not worth what you’re giving up.
Also, the blogroll alphabetizes by the first word, so blogs starting with “The” are all grouped together in the “T”s. That’s dumb. But blogrolls are dead as Dillinger, so that’s probably low on your priority list right now.
Corner Stone
No seriously. Put back the Recent Comments or be prepared to face off with an extremely handsome man schmeared in bear grease ala Kirk v Spock style.
2liberal
want comment numbers back. please.
Gromit
No more shitty mobile site on my iPhone! What’s not to love? Hope it sticks…
Dustin
@Gromit: Ok seriously, what ios version do you have any why am I looking at a commentless cludge using ios 5.0?
stibbert
new look is lookin’ good for me, but i’ve had no probs w/ the site over the last 6 months.
acid test will be the next “what is southern rock?” youtube war, if the phone-posters get to add links, it’ll get messy.
i like the new header, but the rotating tagline should still be part of the header, instead of being relegated to top-right of the 2nd level.
Emma Anne
Next post/previous post links at the end of the comments, so we don’t have to scroll up to the top.
Jamie
I love you, and I love your coder. You both make the world a slightly better place.
I am a coder too. I like to think myself a software engineer, and I am. But mangling CSS for fucking stupid shit happens, and who else do you call?
gocart mozart
Might I suggest a “Like” button. I like “Like” buttons.
TG Chicago
Yet another vote for putting the author’s name up top.
dance around in your bones
I also just noticed that the pie filter stuff is gone – I was reading an older thread and saw a comment from someone I’d pied long ago…does the pie filter have to be updated to work with the new design?
Tell me it ain’t so!
A Humble Lurker
Ah, okay. I like it all except how the content is squashed to the right.
Kay Shawn
Author’s name right below the post title, plz. Darker type for your many 45-and-over readers, or bolder type in that dark grey. The body type is pretty, but not practical for everyone to read easily, especially late at night and after a couple of 6-packs. Yes, numbered comments. No No No “Like” shit. But I think you already stated that before.
These are just tweaks; the new design looks good!
Irony Abounds
Just want to add my support for a) numbered comments; b) author’s name at top of post not at bottom; and c) most importantly, put the barker with the megaphone back in, PLEASE. Removing him is like getting rid of the Monopoly guy. The little guy is Balloon Juice. And now he’s unemployed and his little barker family will starve. How cold and heartless.
srv
Well, my ipad likes all the ads on the right, so I can live with that.
Also, the auto-troll and tunchcam features are nice.
Joel
I generally like the redesign, but two things stand out:
1) A lot of whitespace
2) The authors are now deprecated (lower left corner instead of subheader).
Joel
I generally like the redesign, but two things stand out:
1) A lot of whitespace
2) The authors are now deprecated (lower left corner instead of subheader).
Emdee
@Comrade Mary:
Change this to the more recognized “safeword” and it should be a rotating tag line. Well done.
Comrade Mary
@Dustin: It’s really weird that you’re having problems on your iPhone, because Safari on my iPhone is showing this main site perfectly. (I have not yet tried to hunt down the mobile site.) I can read post headers in full, the text is a readable size (best after I double tap to have content fill the entire width of the screen in portrait mode) and I can see and reply to comments.
What happens if you clear your cache and try the site again? You may have an older version stuck in there.
Comrade Mary
@Emdee: Whoops! Yes, safeword is probably what most people recognize. God, I’ve been changing header text to tagline and revolving to rotating and such all night. I no longer trust my own judgement.
Joey Maloney
1. Big white band below the banner containing nothing but date, twitter and feed icons, and donate button.
2. All cols are fixed width; no way to grow or shrink the content column; would like it to stretch as the window is pulled wider.
3. Post byline div is fixed height, so when there are a lot of tags, the text slops down over the outline on the main page. (As an example, scroll down to the “Credit Where Credit Is Ignored And Stuff” post.)
4. When the last line of a comment goes all the way to the right margin, it overlaps the “Reply” arrow and the word itself.
5. Too much vertical space between commenter name and comment dateline.
6. Would like to have comment numbers back.
All these observed on Safari on a fully-patched Snow Leopard system.
hamletta
I think it’s swanky!
The Web Mistress has done a fantastic job!
novum
haven’t played around with everything but i really like it so far, and really dig the clean, uncluttered style.
Anne Laurie
Comment numbers would be really, really helpful.
Also, it’s not that the new typeface is too “small”, but that it’s insufficiently bold. It probably works better on hand-helds, but on a widescreen desktop it’s spindly, especially for those of us with visual defects.
ETA: I predict the new “Authors” tab is gonna be popular, though — at last, a chance for readers of delicate sensibilities to shun unpleasantly discordent ideas!
Thatgaljill
I actually like it a lot! As I am “of an age” now, I would like the option of upping my font size like they have in the articles @ mercury-news.com.
I love the list of recent articles on the upper right, and that all of the ads, etc. are on one side.
Plus, I’m just happy to have some B-J content back before bed! I felt like Josh Lyman in “20 Hours in America”
Comrade Mary
Those of you who want the content width to be liquid, not fixed, so you can make it wider — for the love of Presbyopia, the Goddess of Squinting, WHY? My browser currently shows acceptable line lengths, perhaps on the edge of a little too long, at the default text size for the site (Firefox 11, Windows XP). If the content area were to be stretched any wider, this would make smooth reading a challenge.
Baymard on line length and readability
Your browser settings may vary a lot from mine, so we may be seeing different things. Those of you who want a wider content column, what is the typical character count for a line in the current fixed-width design? (Make sure you haven’t turned on text magnification in your browser, which is what a lot of us did earlier when the text was truly tiny.) You can copy and paste into Word and use Word Count (which will also count characters), or you can count by hand.
Typographers generally recommend that you keep the number of characters per line to a range of 50-65, maybe 75. The site is currently giving me 85-ish characters per comment line, so if the text size is nudged up a bit, it should get a little closer to standards. (You may find a study that suggests speed is fine if you use a line length of up to 110 characters, but from what I can see, this research was done on one small sample of people and hasn’t been replicated with a larger sample.)
MazeDancer
Thank you for having space on the left side margin. Too many sites leave no space, so the entire flush left first word of every sentence is very hard to read. Especially when slammed up against the black side bar of an iPad. Even GrandMaster Pierce at Esquire has that hideousness.
However the teeny font size on an iPad screen makes for a very bad reading experience. Sizing it up is too large a widen. Please go back to the previous size. It should be a reading pleasure to visit a favorite site, not a juggling chore.
Also agree with everyone hoping the post author name can be back with the title. Otherwise, will have to scroll down and back up. Would like to know whose words I’m reading.
Jamie
@Bago:
… Yeah. I mainly use an iPad these days when browsing Sites Like These, it blows that the JS fucks up commenting.
I’m putting up with it here, I hope that it can change.
(data, iPad 1 and 3, I don’t have a 2. 5.1 IOS, same behavior is Safari as in a third party browser, or ‘hosted’ Safari. Sometimes, the JS crashes hosted, I think that’s likely a third party memory leak. Yes, I am a developer.)
PeakVT
I made a Userstyle that makes the comments wider and comments font larger.
I also wrote a greasemonkey script that will clear out the blank lines in comments. I don’t have a greasespot account, so it’s embedded in the style above.
ETA: Let me know here if you have any problems or want some other change.
Merp
@Comrade Mary: Your false god “science” can say whatever it wants. As for me, personally: shorter columns are harder to read, because
1) Shorter columns = more lines = more moving from line to line = more chances to mess up moving from line to line.
2) The flow of reading is interrupted. When an author separates a single sentence from the rest of the text in its own paragraph it provides a sort of emphasis and is read differently than if it were just a part of a larger paragraph. When columns are wide, it’s easier to tell which sentences are stand-alone paragraph sentences before you read them, and easier to incorporate the emphasis while you’re reading. If a stand-alone sentence wraps onto another line or two, making it look like there’s a paragraph with multiple sentences, you have to read the text, then acknowledge that there was a stand-alone sentence, then acknowledge the emphasis which the author intended that stand-alone sentence to have. It makes reading much easier to be able to do that in one go by seeing that the sentence you’re about to read is a stand-alone sentence, and wide columns make that much more likely. Finally, blog writing has a much higher frequency of these stand-alone sentences than other kinds of writing, so wider columns may make more sense in a blog than other formats.
3) I’ll just re-iterate even though it’s not really germane to your point: the smaller columns give off a much more amateurish air than the old wider ones. I’m not sure why. But the shorter columns look more like some random dude’s blog than one that’s a lot higher up in the food chain.
dance around in your bones
I remember when we had the little curved arrow on the top right corner next to the date/time stamp to click on to reply. Lots of people couldn’t find it until it was pointed out to them.
THEN we got the scary pop-up reply+arrow when you hovered over the lower right corner – that was freaky when it was first introduced.
NOW we have an always visible reply+arrow in the lower right corner that gets run over by text and needs to be moved down a line.
This reply + arrow thing is tricky!
Alison
Just in case you missed the first 1837827 people who said it, I would love to see numbered comments back. They’re especially needed on a site like this where threads routinely reach three-digits in comments and where multiple threads remain active for hours.
Other than that…eh, nothing that’s a huge deal for me. I expect I’ll get used to the aesthetic things I don’t like right now, just as I do every time Twitter suddenly changes and I flip out for a day and then pretty much forget what the old site looked like anyway.
So yeah. Numbered comments and I’m peachy.
Alison
Wait, another thing I just noticed. I don’t see the authors’ names anywhere on the posts. I see the date and “posted in ” and then in the box below it shows the time and date and such but no author! The heck? On a site with eleventy people posting, you can’t leave off the author’s names, yo…
PPOG Penguin
Another vote for putting the author name back at the top of the post. For short posts it’s easy to glance down and see who wrote it, but the old way worked a lot better for longer posts.
Comrade Mary
@Merp: Re shorter = amateur: yeah, I’ve seen that on a lot of blogs, and it irks me to no end, but the current line length doesn’t trip my irk circuit.
Anyway, my one true God is Elvis. Come on over to the Open Thread he made for us and hang, eh?
Alison
@PPOG Penguin: Help – where do you see the author name at all? I am not seeing it anywhere on the posts, not in the post box nor in the box below with all the time and category data. Am I blind?
Warren Terra
@Alison: it can only be seen on the front page, at the lower left of each post.
Ripley
The obvious shit’s been addressed: Needs bylines, comment numbers, more CSS/less whitespace, and the blue is very blue and it’s too everywhere. I like small fonts, but yes, it does lose emphasis, so snark will fade a bit.
Example: This blog needs more VICTORY!
Looks weak, doesn’t it?
Alison
@Warren Terra: Aha! Thank you, I was going nuts.
Also too, that’s dumb. Post author’s name should also show on the individual post’s page IMO plz kthx.
GG
I always read through the comments before I post. Srsly. Possibly that’s why I rarely post, and always late, besides the lack of enough alcohol consumed. I’m breaking that rule tonight.
Overall, I’m listing to port reading. Not the booze, the Left side of the page thing.
I miss the comment numbers. It was hard enough to remember which comment I was on when I went to a reference, so I could go back. Hopeless now.
Also too, I think the contributers’ names should be still featured under the titles.
I really do like the new banner, but will miss the little comments.
Oh, and the Reply button overwrites text. Perhaps even we idiot readers could do without the “helpful” arrow part, which seems mostly to be the problem?
Softail
Would like the authors name back on the posts.
PPOG Penguin
I’d kinda like to see the return of the ‘recent comments’ list. I have mixed feelings about it, but it was sometimes useful for seeing what threads were alive, and whether they were alive with interesting people or trolls.
Warren Terra
@SIA:
It looks OK on my Galaxy SII, although the font is a touch small in portrait orientation (not too small for me, quite).
On the other hand, my iPod Touch shows the most incredible, awful, inconceivably horrible mobile site I’ve ever seen in my life. Rather than try to describe it, a (terrible, angled) snapshot can be seen here. The four buttons at the top don’t do anything, the posts but not the comments are accessible, and – critically – there’s no way to turn this abomination off and get the full site. I suspect from Dustin’s comment that he may be getting the same effect on his iPhone, though a couple other people reported success with their iPhones.
Rich C.
Sucks.
Rotating tagline needs to be more prominent-along with post authors.
I like the logo though.
The old site + new logo = sweet.
Also moar pictures of Tunch please.
Rich C.
Sucks.
Rotating tagline needs to be more prominent-along with post authors.
I like the logo though.
The old site + new logo = sweet.
Also moar pictures of Tunch please.
Percysowner
I generally like the design. Maybe it is a bit too white, but it’s clean and I can deal. One tiny thing. Upthread on the Trayvon Martin post there is a read more link. Previously when I hit read more, it took me to the rest of the article and the comments. Now, I get the rest of the article and then have to click the comments link to see comments. If I enter the article from the sidebar, I get everything. I know one extra click is not a big deal, but it is annoying.
For some reason, I haven’t had the Reply button over write anything Mac OSX 10.5.8 Firefox 11.0. I haven’t tried my Android yet.
Starfish
I am not sure what some of the commenters are doing; but to me (on a Mac using Chrome), it looks like some commenters are linking to images that do not exist in their comments. I get that broken image picture in some comments on the post before and after this one.
Summer
I can be a “hate change” kind of gal in certain things, and this is one of those things. I loved the old banner and thought the overall look was really elegant and cool. Loved the font. The problem with the change to me is that it makes Balloon Juice look … suburban. No here here, visually.
But I guess it’s a bit late for that, other than to lament. More practically? Bring back the little guy and make the banner a little bigger? Numbered comments certainly, and the names of post authors up top. My two cents.
Thatgaljill
Maybe I’m missing it, but where is the poster listed now? I liked the byline under the post title. Other than that I still like it a lot.
passerby
Three things:
1) Site looks good.
2) I prefer the author’s name to appear under the post’s title.
3) I will miss the numerical notation next to each comment. Numbered comments made it easier to navigate the thread.
That is all.
SammyV
I’d like the author’s name back at the top of each post. Otherwise I like the new design.
Rich Webb
I like it; nice clean look. Column widths and typeface sizes work well here (Opera, WinXP). Overly-wide columns are actually harder to read.
As with others, I do miss the tag-lines.
The Golux
@Citizen_X: Allow me to be the 20th (or so) person to second this:
On the other hand, the site is now blazingly fast, and the inline expansion of posts is brilliant.
Bravo!
capt
Who are you calling Bitch? (kidding)
I love the new design, colors – the whole thing seems to be a ROCKIN’!
Cheryl from Maryland
@Rome Again: Same here in Safari. No rotating tag line, can’t find the FPer’s name on the post, and I miss the Victorian Man.
But fast, fast, fast.
Mike R.
I think it’s a pretty fine redesign. I’m more of an occasional commenter than a frequent commenter so I don’t have all the experience of some of the commenters above but from a readability standpoint I love it. Also Tunch seems to be ecstatic.
Maude
The white background is hard on the eyes.
I prefer the center column.
Comment numbers.
Poster name under the title.
A pony.
BrianM
I have old eyes. If I expand the size of the font (command-+ under Safari or Firefox or Chrome) large enough to read comfortably under bad lighting, the end of the text is past the end of the screen. (It doesn’t ever wrap.)
I sometimes use Readability on pages like that, but here Readability only picks up the main post, not the comments.
This is on (I assume) the non-Mobile site, since I’m using it on a Mac laptop.
My eyes aren’t that bad, so I’m surprised I haven’t seen more complaints. Perhaps there’s some trick I don’t know?
Gromit
@Dustin:
I wish I knew what to tell you. I do know every time I got redirected to the old terrible mobile site I would scroll down to the bottom, tap “switch to desktop site”, get an error message (something like “server not responding”) and then had to reload the main page, which would then load the desktop site. Maybe I still have a cookie set to show me the desktop site?
I hate mobile sites. And sites that roadblock me with stupid ads for their apps EVERY TIME I VISIT, like I want to go download a stupid app for your stupid site when I only ever visit it because it is linked from somewhere else (i.e. not in a dedicated app). So many people just have no clue how folks really use these devices.
THE
I’ll go with
comment numbers.
darker font.
Poster’s name near title.
Distinguish subheading colors from active-link color
Bring back the new comments list or recent comments list.
Other than these small tweaks I like it.
And I love the new selection tool in the top right corner.
Miss Rumphius
Looking good….
buckyblue
@Tom Johnson: I think it’s BJ’s version of a Moore Award.
Cassidy
I like the rotating tag lines. They were funny. Other than that, it looks good. Will take some getting used to, but that won’t last long.
debbie
I like the look — line length isn’t too long for me, font size is okay for my old eyes — but I don’t see the time of the original post anywhere.
Also, the ads are off-screen for me on my elderly version of Firefox.
debbie
I wish the comments were still numbered so I could more easily pick up where I left off on return visits.
jimmiraybob
Looks good and clean (firefox). But I always enjoyed the little byline snippets that used to appear in the top banner.
YellowDog
@Egg Berry:
Back in the day, when I did such things, interactions with users were the most frustrating part of the job. I like the look–clean, organized, nice fonts. It’s a professional job and it’s JC’s blog. He pays for it. Oh boy, does he pay for it, judging by some of the comments. Personally, I’d use a PL-1 manual.
Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason
1 I prefer the byline by the title instead of buried at the bottom.
2 I liked the “mouseover” reply better. This one blocks a little bit of text.
Other than that, it’s swell.
WyldPirate
Probably to late to get notice, but there’s a huge difference on the mobile appearance of the site now on my phone.
I’m running a Froyo.uckh1 kernel 2.6.32.9 on a Samsung Infuse. The BJ site rebuild looks awesome on it and is a huge improvement in appearence, but you can’t access comments. There is no link for comments period. Also, the home, categories, tags and pages icons all take you to the exact same layout of posts arranged by day.
The site runs great on my tablet running Android 3.2.1. No problems at all other than the cosmetic complaints others have noted.
bvac
:(
kideni
Now that I’ve figured out where the rotating tags are, I’ll get used to looking for them there. Now I’d just like numbers back in the comments, since that’s helpful for navigating long threads. I also agree with everyone else that the poster’s name should be at the beginning of the post if that’s possible.
Otherwise, the look is clean, and my aging eyes can read it fine. I do like the Recent Post/Categories/etc. box; it’s handy to have it all right up on top. I also appreciate having a button for John’s Twitter feed right there. You also need to add Charlie Pierce to the blogroll. I mean, really, how is it possible that he hasn’t been added yet?
Gromit
@Brother Shotgun of Sweet Reason:
Agreed on (1) but as for (2), mouseovers aren’t very helpful on devices that don’t use mice. With the old reply buttons on a touchscreen you had to tap the link for a comment to get the reply button to show up, which isn’t the most easily discoverable behavior.
Buck B.
Another vote for having the author’s name at the top by the title.
gogol's wife
@ant:
I agree. Also black, not gray type. Best of all, like it was before.
The Reverend T
Ballon Juice was one of the nicest sites on the web. It had typographical class. This new version is a mess, but it’s one that I could live with if you made two changes:
1) A Serif font, please. Or at least a more readable Sans. Just not this Arial late 90s nonsense.
2) Line spacing – blocks of text look like a chore.
The Reverend T
Ballon Juice was one of the nicest sites on the web. It had typographical class. This new version is a mess, but it’s one that I could live with if you made two changes:
1) A Serif font, please. Or at least a more readable Sans. Just not this Arial late 90s nonsense.
2) Line spacing – blocks of text look like a chore.
The Reverend T
Ballon Juice was one of the nicest sites on the web. It had typographical class. This new version is a mess, but it’s one that I could live with if you made two changes:
1) A Serif font, please. Or at least a more readable Sans. Just not this Arial late 90s nonsense.
2) Line spacing – blocks of text look like a chore.
Warren Terra
@The Reverend T (thrice!):
When did Balloon Juice have a serif font? Not in the last two years, I think …
Your comment about line spacing is opaque.
But please: continue to live! I’d hate for this site’s format to do make you unable to go on!
Summer
@The Reverend T: Yes! Submitted maybe two times too many, but Yes!Is everyone who likes this seeing the same thing I am, part of a balloon and the title in very plain font on a narrow banner? Because that’s all the banner is on my screen, and it’s dominated by the ad beneath it.
Please change the text font at the very least. And the little man? Please bring him along!
SIA
@BrianM:
THIS is my problem viewing on my Galaxy Sii phone. Maddening. If I enlarge the text so I can read it, the test doesn’t wrap and the line extends way past the screen.
I’m not getting a choice at all to use a mobile site.
Please, please fix this. I read BJ on my phone all the time, but this isn’t working.
The site is much faster. Doesn’t help me if I can’t read it.
/grumble grumble
cyntax
@Citizen_X:
I agree. Definitely would like to see the poster’s name more prominently displayed. Just under the title of the post and in a larger font seems much more useful than hunting for it among the meta-tags.
Other than that, very happy with the redesign and the cleaner feel.
Also thanks for getting the blog-roll back up, was bummed not to see that yesterday.
SIA
@Irony Abounds: Haha. Agree completely, bring back the barker, you’re right, he IS Balloon Juice.
Will abstain from any comments on the site cosmetIcs as superfluous. I just want to be able to read on my phone, dammit! And that’s my 3rd and last comment on the subject. :-)
ronobot
Just wanted to put in a vote for the bylines moving back under the post titles. I liked knowing who the writer was before I started reading.
AlanDean
I’d like to see the authors name more prominently displayed, like “ronobot” says: just under the post title. I use Safari on a PC(don’t ask) it looks fine but does not scale at all, the white margins just get bigger. I’d say with a few tweaks you have a winner.
karen marie
@Warren Terra: I mainly come here for the rotating taglines. Having them gone is like having the streetlights shot out.
karen marie
@PurpleGirl: Thank you, PurpleGirl. I would never have noticed the tagline’s new placement without your assistance.
But it’s no longer a tool to refresh. Super bummer.
Also, too, what, no edit? Or is that something else I’m slow to figure out?
Steeplejack
My input (without having read this comment thread):
In general, I am okay with the rebuild, if not ecstatic. I appreciate all the effort that went into it. Sorry if the criticisms below sound overly negative.
On the main blog page, move up the bylines to be just under the titles of the posts. Also include the time as well as date.
On the individual post pages, include the byline. Who is the author of the post? Also, move it up to the top. Putting it at the bottom of a (potentially long) post makes the reader hunt for useful information, i.e., who is writing?
Comment numbers would be nice for those times when you don’t want to reply to a comment but want to reference it. Or even to remember approximately where you were when you last looked at a thread. Also, some readers are incapable of, or unwilling to, link/reply to a comment, so at least give them something to glom onto.
Strikethrough doesn’t seem to work.
The comment edit-mo-tron just sort of leaves you hanging in limbo after you’re done. You have to go back to the post page and refresh it to see your comment. The old system did that automatically.
I agree with someone’s point that it was nice to see a list of recent comments. It gives you an idea of which threads (and commenters) are active.
Finally, and most important: Please change the “text” font for posts and comments! Decades, if not centuries, of typographic research have shown that serif fonts are much more readable for body text than sanserif fonts. If not the previous font, then try something safe like Georgia, which was specifically designed for readability on computer screens. Also, the default font is too small, although I can alleviate that somewhat by using my browser’s “text embiggen” function.
kc
@Polish the Guillotines:
Yes, needs comment numbers.
Also, I would like to see the post author’s name at the TOP of the post.
And, this is minor, but I agree that “Says” should not be capitalized.
Steeplejack
@kc:
Didn’t even notice that! “Says” is lame, especially so capitalized.
Gretchen
@Warren Terra:
Second this. I like the writer’s name next to the title, and I like comment numbers, so if I read all the comments and come back later, I can find where I left off to read the rest.
Corbin Dallas Multipass
+1 to the bylines at the top request.
edit: Good job Sekimori.
Jonothan Cullinane
No! A thousand times no!! It wasn’t broke. Don’t fix it.
Steeplejack
@SiubhanDuinne:
The End key will do this. (But I don’t know if the iPad has an End key.)
SIA
@SIA: Ok one more comment on unreadable small and non-wrapping text on phone. I went into phone web settings and un-checked “open pages in overview”. Also, too, must check “Auto-fit pages”. Problem solved? Think so, especially if I read in landscape position. Hope this helps others having the same issue on their phone.
How constructive was THAT, eh???
SIA
@Steeplejack: I think it should read
Steeplejack SEZ
mohagan
@Warren Terra: I agree! I too would like the posters name at the top of the post, not at the bottom. Otherwise, looking pretty good :-)
Steeplejack
@SIA:
Why, I oughta . . . [stooge fist shake]
wrb
Some way of knowing where recent comments have been made would be nice.
It also would help if next to the name of each thread in the list on the upper right
was the total # of comments on that thread.
Then if an interesting discussion dies then restarts while you were away you’ll know: “Oh there are 20 more comments, guess I’ll go look.”
scav
Much faster, but the Errant/AWOL author, especially when the post is the main page when the author can’t be found at all is a problem — or at least a reader-side cause for grumpiness. Comment numbers are handy in internal navigation. Minor detail, but when I see the main page, the twitter / facebook / paypal icons result in a ridiculous (two inches?, more than the balloon image certainly) amount of white space across the top of the entire front page – whereas perhaps if they were moved to the dedicated side column they’d still be visible on every page and not eat up such front page space. Speed is very nice so kudos on that.
Steeplejack
Okay, have now read through the comments, and I see that most everything has been mentioned. Two final points:
1. Yeah, enblacken the text. The gray text on white or off-white background is hard to read and makes me want to move up my hypothetical but probably inevitable cataract surgery.
2. I cannot believe the socialist spam filter thing has not been fixed. That should have been priority number one, before any of the cosmetic/graphic stuff. Jeez. Really.
Kiril
Hi. There are little “Play” radio buttons next to all the links on the right hand side. For someone like me, who must push buttons, it is irritating that they don’t do anything. I humbly request that you make them do something, or use a different thing. Thank you.
mark
is it too late to comment?
after having used this site for a couple days now, i’m so very sorry, but, it kinda sucks.
the logo… where is the rotating tagline? where it the guy spouting Balloon Juice??? just a hot air balloon looks like a balloonist site, the guy spouting off Balloon Juice made the pun work right.
Authors names were better at the top, under the post title, not at the bottom.
The ‘read more’ link is antiquated and should really be changed.
The right columns, the ‘recent, categories, archives, authors’ box should be UNDER the google search and contact links. There should also only be 1 search box on the front page, most certainly not 2.
The two column -on-the-right layout is a bit too much realestate used. Is there no way to get it down to just 1 column, maybe at 133% the width of each of the 2 columns?
I have tried to list just ‘fixes’ and not ‘desire/wish list’ things in this post, its 2 days old, so maybe no one read it still, but please take these things into consideration.
I have left out the most common stuff, like BLACKEN THE TEXT — This is IMPORTANT for Visually Impaired folks who use certain Screen Readers, the way they handle auto formatting, but yes, this is hella important.
— Now cole, i know you will poo poo all over this last suggestion, and I can tell your site designer is designing on a PC, but I IMPLORE you, do some site testing and design for TABLETS, find someone with an IPad, t. Prime, and Xoom or something obscure, and see how the site works with it. The 2 columns on the right are wasted, too-much realestate, and the way the flow works needs to be changed slightly. Comments are still very unpleasant on tablets, and they don’t need to be.
And yes, I DO mean the regular site should work beautifully with tablets, NOT a ‘mobile’ version for tablets, and worst is to auto-sniff iPad version different than a ‘mobile’ version different than regular version. There are too many different types of tablets, windows8 tablets will be out before the year is over, this fall in the run-up to xmas, half the US will get tablets as gifts, you really really really need to be NOW making the changes for a tablet-friendly site, MAIN site, not a ‘mobile version’ people on tablets hate.
Also, if you can’t get all youtube versions of videos, you should really start to consider a h.64 custom video player to convert ALL posted videos to, like TalkingPointsMemo does, so that all your videos work on tablets/mobile computers, (Again, NOT mobile phone site) – some tabs won’t do playback of certain videos, and a few just wreak havoc on the device performance.
Thanks
Loneoak
I think all of these have been covered, but I’ll add my vote:
1) lowercase the ‘Says’ in ‘[commenter name] Says.’
2) time stamp on comments needs to be by the name, not the comment text.
3) put the post author’s name up at the top of their post—at the very least put it before the jump on long posts.
@mark:
4) what Mark says about tablets times elebenty.
5) comment numbers.
scav
Testing, ignore this.
ETA: OK, right click to edit?
ETA: Again?
ETA: Apparently yes. Veddy interesting.
SG
I won’t bother listing the stuff that needs fixing because it’s broken or otherwise behaving badly.
Instead, I’ll just take a moment to mourn the loss of the old logo. The new one is nicely sleek, modern and sort-of abstract in a referential way, but it’s also static and oddly detached from the blog’s moorings in people and their opinions and ideas. It’s just a cut-off balloon top. Meh.
Oh, and I’ll second everything Mark says a few posts above.
I liked the guy with the megaphone and the balloon sailing away. That logo had movement. It had a nice old-fashioned literalness that made me smile every time I visited the page. I’ll miss it.
dearolddad
COBOL ? Who uses that new fangled stuff. Real men use assembler
bmcchgo
Even on my turn-of-the-90s’ shitbox with the beta speed processor, BJ loads faster than ever! Even the comment section.
One other thing, please position the blog post byline at the top of the entry so I can continue to ignore any posts from ABL.
DJAnyReason
I’d like the bylines at the top. There are certain front-pagers who I tend to find un-interesting, and being able to skip the posts from the get-go would be a large bonus to me.
DaddyJ
My feedback:
1. Yes to returning post-author to prominance at the top of posts.
2. Please restore space between paragraph tags in comments. It makes comments very difficult to read to have no visual break between grafs.
3. Site looks good on an iPhone, but is a disaster in IE 9 on my wife’s laptop: every text block is centered! IIIEEEEEEEE!
Nanette
I hope it’s not too late to complain!
1. I wasn’t going to mention the logo even though I think it’s a huge mistake to switch, 10 years in, from one so fun and relevant to the name to one so… blah. But it just happened that when I visited the site today that the banner ad was for AT&T, with their little blue striped ball, and I realized why I found the new logo so irritating. Makes this look like an AT&T satellite site.
Did you secretly hate the little man, Cole, is that why it’s been changed?
2. I dislike the mobile site (BlackBerry, Opera mini browser) but then I dislike most all mobile sites. What I really hate, though, is not having a link to switch to the full site. I understand that some phones or phone browsers don’t handle the full sites well, but mine does and I would like a link, thanks.
Also, what others said about the names on the posts, for the mobile version as well. And everything else, too.
What was wrong with the old look?
ETA: I have not read everything but I hope someone has mentioned the lack of paragraph breaks in comments?