Welcome to the new Boing Boing!

I'm writing this from Boulder, Colorado, which seems like a good place to make this announcement -- it was in this town that Carla Sinclair and I launched bOING bOING as a print zine in 1988. During the past 19 years we've gone through many changes -- from zine to webzine to directory to blog. Today, Boing Boing is changing again, in three exciting new ways: a redesign, the return of user comments, and a blog about personal technology.

The new look comes from Jemma Hostetler of Studio Sans Nom. Her redesign is cleaner, easier-to-read, and built to incorporate additional new features that we'll be adding to Boing Boing in the near future. The redesigned logo and new character mascots were created by the fun-loving folks at eBoy, a collective of awesomely talented pixel-pushing artists from Germany and New York.

We're also happy to be reintroducing comments to Boing Boing, a feature we reluctantly dropped a couple of years ago. At that time, we lacked the resources to manage the comments, and felt that a lousy comment system was worse than no system at all, so we pulled the plug. We've never felt good about it, though, because our readers' comments added a great deal of value to the blog. To correct this, we hired a terrific community manager to oversee the conversations: Teresa Nielsen Hayden. At her own blog, Making Light, Teresa has proven herself to be a wonderfully wise and talented tender of online conversations. Teresa worked closely with our designers to develop a commenting system that supports the Boing Boing community while preventing noise from drowning out the signal. "We want this new community system to make Boing Boing even more fun and informative," says Teresa. Under her supervision, we're sure it will be.

Our third major change is the launch of a brand new blog: Gadgets.boingboing.net. While Boing Boing has always covered personal technology, the four of us (Cory, David, Xeni, and I) believed a critical, intelligent, optimistic, and selective blog about personal technology and consumer electronics would be a fine addition to Boing Boing. But who could we trust to oversee a tech blog that the four of us would want to read? Actually, it wasn't hard to find that person. We went straight to Joel Johnson, a former Gizmodo editor and founder of Dethroner. Joel is smart, funny, knowledgeable, and curious about technology. He was our first, and unanimous, choice to run Gadgets.boingboing.net. And we're grateful he agreed to come on board.

We'd like to thank the happy mutants who helped make this major relaunch possible. These folks went under the hood and untangled the mess that Boing Boing's code had snarled into, and created an elegant, powerful system that positively shines. Federated Media's Jonathan Schreiber and Ivan Kanevski did an amazing job of dealing with the technical aspects of the redesign. Our beloved system administrator Ken Snider worked his magic on the server side and made sure all changes to the site wouldn't impact the speed of page reloads or clobber us with high bandwidth costs. David Jacobs at Apperceptive upgraded Boing Boing to the newest edition of Movable Type, and designed and implemented the new comment system to Teresa's specs.

Special thanks go out to the gang at Federated Media: John Battelle, Chas Edwards, Josh Matison and everyone else that contributed a significant amount of time and hi-octane mental effort on making this relaunch a success. We're grateful to all of you for everything you've done. Extra special thanks to FM's Jason Weisberger for endless advice, encouragement, and, well, adult supervision. Thank you!

We hope you enjoy the new Boing Boing. Let us know what you think by clicking on the "discuss" link and adding your thoughts.


Comments

#1 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:34 AM:

Congratulations! The redesign looks great.

#2 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:35 AM:

Sigh. Make it harder to read through everything, great. Oh well. All good things....

#3 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:36 AM:

Long live BoingBoing! I think I likes the older format better.

- Andrew

#4 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:37 AM:

Looks pretty!

#5 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:37 AM:

FIRST!

Ok, someone had to do that. :)

Nice new look. Congrats.

#6 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:38 AM:

Your clock is off.

#7 posted by bottlerocketscience Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 8:38 AM:

Yay, comments!

...oh, come on, someone had to say it.

#8 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:39 AM:

frist psot!

#9 posted by Blinky Pitz Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 8:39 AM:

Yay! congrats Boing boing! I've been reading the directory for years now, it really fits my way of life.

#10 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:39 AM:

err, I suppose I'll get used to it, but could you maybe add in a way to decrease font size?

#11 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:41 AM:

Perhaps a left margin or some padding would be nice?

#12 posted by -=[ArcSine]=- Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 8:42 AM:

...I fear change.

#13 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:42 AM:

It looks nice! Glad comments are back, even happier that Teresa Neilsen Hayden is in charge...

#14 posted by Maffiou , August 28, 2007 8:43 AM:

Yay indeed !
I believe in evolution, and evolving is surviving... This is great news for the many years ahead !

#15 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:43 AM:

My favorite site on the net

#16 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:44 AM:

Looks different than the last iteration, but as long as the info's still the same, great stuff that we've come to expect, I'm sure everyone'll still be happy. :) Congrats!

#17 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:45 AM:

I CAN HAZ COMMENTS!

#18 posted by seyo , August 28, 2007 8:45 AM:

w00t! comments are on! Thanks boingboing! Now I can leave snarky remarks and corrections with ousing the suggest a link interface...

(that planetarium timepiece you posted last week WAS NOT A CHINDOGU btw ;)

#19 posted by Karl Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 8:45 AM:

You should move the discuss link to underneath the article.

Otherwise, really digging the new design :-)

#20 posted by The habman , August 28, 2007 8:46 AM:

Outstanding new look! Now with comments, again. Finally!

#21 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:48 AM:

oh hai
i IZ in Ur Comnts

.
\`-"'"-'/
} 6 6 {
=. Y ,=
/^^^\

kepping ya memez alive

#22 posted by Sensoz Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 8:48 AM:

I'm really happy to see the comments back!

#23 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:49 AM:

Very nice redesign, left hand formatting makes for an easy read. Having comments is like a dream come true. I remember hearing about the redesign a few months ago and when commenting was mentioned I wanted to shout for joy! Now if I could just get the registration to work, I'll have to work on that one.

#24 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:50 AM:

wow. this is going to be fantastic! looking forward to having a great community here with all you info-loving-folks

huzzah!

#25 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:52 AM:

Comments for everyone!

#26 posted by BWJones Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 8:52 AM:

Hooray! Comments!

#27 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:53 AM:

It looks like any other blog now, I'ts already losing my attention.

#28 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:53 AM:

Glad to see comments back. With TNH moderating should we expect frequent dis-envoweling?

#29 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:53 AM:

good to have comments for sure... will probably save floods of emails to the boingboingers too!

#30 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:53 AM:

Very good. Congratulations.

#31 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:53 AM:

the archive page is currently broken. i guess that it's a work in progress? are there any plans to import all that legacy content into the new look and feel?

#32 posted by JM Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 8:54 AM:

Comments! Hooray!

Congratulations on all the changes. Things look good. Great choice for a community manager, too.

#33 posted by mojojojo , August 28, 2007 8:54 AM:

Congratulations! Great design. Love the resurrected comments feature.

#34 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:54 AM:

Hmmm... i dunno... seems I'm one of the early birds. Comments: GREAT, Design: hmmm... i actually liked the old logo better...
Now excuse me I HAVE TO EXPLORE

#35 posted by tumblingwall , August 28, 2007 8:55 AM:

I like it. It looks really clean and nice.
But what I liked about the last design was that it was roughish and fun. I'll probably get used to it soon.

#36 posted by John Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 8:55 AM:

Outstanding! You've made my mornings even better, I always say 'the day don't start until I've had my cup of Boingboing!' Love the comments (a bit obvious that) and the page is easier to read, much coolness is had by all.

#37 posted by lummels , August 28, 2007 8:56 AM:


yay, comments!

by the same token, i immediately noticed a couple of bothersome things you should consider tweaking.

1. because of the narrower content column there's a lot more scrolling required. bah.

2. discussion link is more effective at the bottom of the entry.

#38 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:58 AM:

Cheers!

#39 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:58 AM:

i appreciate the large type from a usability standpoint, but it is a bit harder to scan the site.

i second (or maybe third by now?) the suggestion to add a font-decrease option.

the design is super awesome by the way. much less clutter, and the adverts are so much more managable this way.

kudos!

#40 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 8:58 AM:

It looks like the upgrade broke the site's formatting via distributed boing boing. No love for the firewalled.

#41 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:00 AM:

I love the new logo redesign! But I feel like the page is too squashed now, it looked like a lot less can fit on the main page... Love the comment option, but maybe it should be put at the end of the entry instead of the top?
*is still a fan of the old boingboing but is open to trying out this new layout*

#42 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:01 AM:

On one hand the design is an improvement and is obviously very professionally done and polished, but on the other, lots of other blogs have done something similar already. Now BoingBoing looks a dare I say it, a little generic and doesn't have the rough edges 'zine style of the old.

#43 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:02 AM:

Oh God, comments. BoingBoing has comments.

Oh Happy Day! (Oh Happy Day) Oh Happy Day! (Oh Happy Day)

#44 posted by Bob , August 28, 2007 9:03 AM:

Looks good. Keep up the good work.

#45 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:04 AM:

I will miss the Old format. Sorry but the new font looks like a million other blogs now (literally). The value of comments is debatable, after all you did post responses conservatively in a few cases.

It's like a Doritos or Lysol label makeover-- decided to be an improvement by management but no one would have complained if you left it alone.

#46 posted by adamrice Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:04 AM:

Nice job on the redesign. But you should do something to style links differently. If you have link-underlining turned off in your browser (I do), they look no different from the rest of the text.

#47 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:04 AM:

omg now i have to wait for all the comments to load too?!? dear god

#48 posted by method77 Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:06 AM:

I can't say I like this design but I like the fact that we can comment again

#49 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:06 AM:

Sorry to be a wet blanket, but I can't say I was excited about the new look. Less efficient, and the headlines don't stick out as boldly as before. Does seem more bland, and more like other blogs out there. FWIW, my experience visiting boingboing is now less enjoyable than it was before. It wasn't broke, don't fix it.

#50 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:09 AM:

Hooray for comments! Thanks for bringing them back - I've often wondered how BoingBoing could call itself a 'blog' without them. As far as I'm concerned, a blog that doesn't allow comments is just traditional broadcast media by another name.

#51 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:09 AM:

The new "design" is much harder to read. Actually, close to impossible. The type choices and headlines bleed together in a way that fights readability. It is why people should PAY for professional graphic designers- as opposed to free favors from ambitious friends with little or no talent. You need to find someone else- or go back to what you had-- it was better.

#52 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:09 AM:

WOOHOO! That's all

#53 posted by Ethan Foxywombat Ambabo Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:10 AM:

The new design looks good. Looking forward to all the other new features. And, thanks for bringing back comments!

#54 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:10 AM:

Good stuff! Always glad to see an oldschool publication continue to grow in current times. I may not always like comments, but I like to be able to leave them =)

#55 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:10 AM:

This is harder to read, please insert a margin to the left of the text at least.

#56 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:11 AM:

MOD THIS MOD FACES!!!!!

sorry... had to

#57 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:11 AM:

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned that the font is far more difficult to read. I've tried resizing it past the point where it gets bold just to see if that makes a difference. I thought serif fonts were harder to read on a screen in general. Does anybody else find this?

#58 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:11 AM:

Meet the new blog, same as the old blog.

#59 posted by Carlos Rodriguez Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:11 AM:

looks great. Good to see Joel on the team!

In addition to the nice outdoor life, there are lots of great restaurants in Boulder!

#60 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:12 AM:

I'm using Safari 3.0 and the new layout is horribly broken.

#61 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:12 AM:

I really like the new font and layout, but the titanic add space and smaller content space is really pretty aggravating. i love me some boingboing, and am down with the whole add space is necessary thing, but to have the awesome content undermined to this extent is no fun. trust me hp man, ze goggles, zey do nothing.

#62 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:12 AM:

Bacn

#63 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:13 AM:

Very, very cool. I've missed comments, and am really happy to see them back!

#64 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:14 AM:

HOLY CRAP THANK YOU.

Three years on reading this website, and lately it has made me want to kill myself. This is soooooooooo much better, that it is almost overwhelming.

#65 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:14 AM:

Change is scary, but this is wonderful. Really like the Gadgets page. Okay, okay, I have to say it: I just love you guys!
AnonyDave

#66 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:14 AM:

LongLive BoingBoing!

Mark do you have any speaking engagements in Boulder, Colorado, or are you just visiting for a small taste of that Rocky Mountain High?

#67 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:14 AM:

Hate the new formatting. Only 5 or so posts fit on the first page. Boo.

Like the content, hate the layout.

#68 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:15 AM:

Wow ! What's happening ? Digg and now BB ??? Is this some kind of design revolution ?

#69 posted by Drew from Zhrodague Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:16 AM:

Style looks good, but I agree that links need to be made to appear obviously as links. Thanks for adding the comments!

#70 posted by CountD , August 28, 2007 9:17 AM:

Aesthetically, the change isn't huge, so I like it. (I hate having to relearn how to navigate a site.) However, I love that comments are back.

#71 posted by ralphleon Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:17 AM:

Wonderful redesign! Boingboing and digg in the same day.... make sure to say hi to the flatirons for me!

#72 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:18 AM:

Much harder to scan down- the headlines don't stand out nearly as much, and the left border is sadly missing.

Massively worth it for the presence of comments- congrats on the upgrade!

#73 posted by rrenaud Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:19 AM:

Is there any rationale on not using some user community comment rating system? I think browsing slashdot at +4 or +5 or reading highly rated comments on reddit tends to work well and is automatic. I guess I just really don't trust a single subjective human "tender of online conversations" to be fair and unbiased.

#74 posted by nothingistrue Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:19 AM:

nicely done, congrats boing-o-nauts.

#75 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:19 AM:

Change is always good, but this is actually harder to read than the old Boing Boing.

PS: YOUR TEXT IS HUUUUGE!

#76 posted by DaveX Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:20 AM:

Not sure I care much for the re-design, honestly. Looks like a lot of wasted space on the right, even without AdBlock enabled.

Still, a comments section is nice. I imagine you had a lot of trouble with it before-- here's to hoping it works out this time around!

#77 posted by Ivan Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:20 AM:

You should consider the innovation at HackerNews for comment policy. Allow users to mod comments up and down. In addition, have oracle users whose mods count as truth. Users who approximate the votes of oracles matter more. Low modded comments go unseen by default. In this fashion, you can have a few people guide a community to stay on the right track.
http://ycombinator.com/hackernews.html

Also, it is essential that you allow threaded comments.

#78 posted by K8t , August 28, 2007 9:21 AM:

There goes all my free time.

#79 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:22 AM:

Very nice work guys!

#80 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:22 AM:

All this negative space on the right side of the layout is a tad disappointing.

As I scroll down the numerous daily links, I can't help but question how the added empty white space is an improvement.

#81 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:22 AM:

I've been reading for a long time. I'd like to say that I miss the old format, but it would be a lie. The new look is truly sleek and modern, giving a fresh, and yes, more easily readable design. Congratulations on the upgrade, and thank you for comments!

#82 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:22 AM:

Excellent design!!!
very clean and easy to read.

:D

#83 posted by Zan Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:23 AM:

I like the redesign. However, since we are all used to reading web sites with a left-hand margin and the content on the right, having the content on the left is very disorienting.

#84 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:23 AM:

seriously, adding comments back is great. that was always the biggest thing lacking for a site that supposedly promoted the openess of the internets.

but... BUT...

this design looks like every other damn page on the internet. is it clean? yes. is it new? NO.

it's harder to read through because it's designed to be a one article page. like the nyt site or something.

so good and bad, but bad outways.

#85 posted by HaweyW , August 28, 2007 9:23 AM:

I don't really like the serif font for the heads and body text mixed with the sans for the posted announcement; it's somehow distracting from the otherwise clean new look. Thanks for the comments section.

#86 posted by Longboxes Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:24 AM:

I just want to say THANK YOU! I am so glad to have a comment section back on this site. And I promise, I will resist the urge to shout "FIRST!" every time I find the possibility!

~Longboxes
ps - "FOURTY SEVENTH!"
pps - sorry, had to do it once! ;-)

#87 posted by j.black Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:24 AM:

Yay, comments are good.
New layout is also good.
But serif fonts are bad.
OH NOES!

The conflict, it's immense.

#88 posted by Kristian , August 28, 2007 9:24 AM:

Looks significantly less cluttered than the previous incarnation, which didn't start that way, just got crufty over the years.

Really happy to see comments come back!

#89 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:24 AM:

I preferred the previous design. It was much easier to read, and a much better "traditional web" design. This web2.0 design asthetic will be dead in another two years, and this will be a prom night haricut.

#90 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:24 AM:

ZOMJ hax!

#91 posted by RadioGuy , August 28, 2007 9:24 AM:

Nice redesign.

I was going to suggest that the font size should be bigger, but I see that an Anonymous commenter above wanted it smaller, so maybe it's a happy medium.

I'd also echo the comments above that suggest moving the "Discuss" link to the bottom of each post.

Also, comments are great!

#92 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:24 AM:

The new font is uncomfortable - I'm reading it firefox under XP.

#93 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:26 AM:

Please include more than just a handful of articles on the front page.

#94 posted by Darth Paradox Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:27 AM:

RRenaud, having seen her work her magic over at Making Light, I suspect Teresa's job is going to be less making sure insightful comments are more prominent, and more making sure that trolls are contained and flamewars are doused.

Editors: I have a (somewhat) related question. With the reenablement of the comments section, will we continue to see important and insightful comments edited into the main post?

#95 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:27 AM:

Good luck from Poland!
I am addicted to your site for some time :)

b

#96 posted by MonsieurLâm Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:27 AM:

Yes, yes,

and yes !

#97 posted by Megan Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:28 AM:

Redesigns are like haircuts; it takes a few days to decide what you really think. Yes, there's a lot of lost space on the right, but it feels like the main text area's about the same size as before. And as already mentioned, it's not a dramatic change, so we can all just ease into it. I confess I'm a bit neutral on the comments--I've pretty much broken myself of the habit of reading very long threads, because I'm often annoyed when I do read them--but the prospect of disemvowelling is enticing.

#98 posted by beerzie Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:29 AM:

Beautiful, readable...very fine job.

#99 posted by Mark Hurst Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:29 AM:

Even the unicorns will look nicer! Nice work, BB team!

#100 posted by knowles Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:29 AM:

I don't know how I feel about this yet. I do agree with threaded comments and implementing the slashdot system of karma points, user moderation, and meta-moderation. Good lucks.

#101 posted by DragonerDriftr , August 28, 2007 9:29 AM:

Hm, typical reaction to going to Boulder, I suppose :P

#102 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:30 AM:

Boo! I fear change.

#103 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:31 AM:

I posted a poll about boingboing's new design on pollsb.com. Check it out:

http://www.pollsb.com/polls/poll/1837/boingboing-s-new-design

#104 posted by Thud , August 28, 2007 9:31 AM:

I think your choice of Joel is a great one--I followed him from Giz to Defamer. Congrats to BB and to JJ.

#105 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:32 AM:

Is it just me or is the entire right half of the page Yahoo advertisements?

#106 posted by Rian Fike Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:32 AM:

Truly outstanding news... the perfect way to celebrate the new day rising from last night's eclipse.

Thanks, I really needed this.

#107 posted by Miss Cellania Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:32 AM:

Much less cluttered, I appreciate that. And the comments, too!

#108 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:32 AM:

I like the redesign. Smaller font size would be great.

Is there anyway to have more content on the front page? I liked how long the old page was.

#109 posted by Jeff Kramer Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:33 AM:

Looks good guys, as with all redesigns, time to take a deep breath and give things a while to sink in.

#110 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:35 AM:

Oh, my boyfriend and I were just talking about you yesterday Mark, and we live here. Maybe we need to get together and have a chat.

#111 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:35 AM:

Aside from the comments, which are awesome, I'm going to have to pan the redesign. Don't fix what isn't broken. The previous design was easy to read, and I'm not taking to the realignment.

Don't fall into a Diggtrap, wherein you throw out the system that got you popular in favour of a "refresh" that turns out to be flawed, but you stick with due to the psychology of previous investment.

Again, comments awesome and long overdue. RIP old easy to read format.

#112 posted by extra88 Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:36 AM:

As a dedicated RSS feed reader, the redesign won't have much impact on me *except* that the return of comments may drag me out of that backchannel.

I'm curious why you chose to manage your own user accounts instead of using TypeKey, particularly since you're already using Movable Type, so users wouldn't have to create YA username/password for a web site. I like having slightly more identity than being Anonymous and creating & managing logins at each individual site is a disincentive to participation.

http://www.sixapart.com/typekey/

Post-Preview: oh, and no HTML support in comments (but thank you for the Preview button!). Bummer, particularly the lack of linking. You're autolinking URLs like the one above so I'm not clear on the benefit of disallowing em's, b's, i's, a's and so on.

#113 posted by jonathan hickman Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:36 AM:

w00t!

#114 posted by alex nydahl Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:36 AM:

...thought adblock or [shit!] surfcontrol at work was messing with boingboing -- so glad to see i'm wrong! redesign looks great!

#115 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:36 AM:

Glad that BoingBoing has begun to embrace participation. Needs a little padding on the left side.

#116 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:37 AM:

I love Boing Boing.

I don't love the lack of padding, the huge wasted space on the right, or the nasty serif font.

Tough call.

#117 posted by Dan Tentler Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:37 AM:

I dig it! Nice, clean, easy to read.

Keep up the good work, fellas!

#118 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:37 AM:

You'll get over it

#119 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:37 AM:

Although you've cut the main page to a few articles this is a godsend for dial-up users. I was using the RSS to pick and choose what I read, now i can check it at least daily without having to wait for aton of images to load.

thank you

#120 posted by stephthegeek Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:38 AM:

Wow, looks great! Congrats!

I agree with the comments that the discussion link would be better at the bottom. But yeah, awesome! I usually read BB through Google Reader, but I know I'll be bouncing over here more often with the addition of comments.

#121 posted by Tee Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:38 AM:

I agree with those who say it needs a little sumfin sumfin on the left side, such as another sidebar.

I LOVE that comments are back!!

Viva Boing Boing! :)

#122 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:39 AM:

Sadly my favorite site now looks like everything else out there....
To bad, to bad.

Besides that, keep up the good work.

#123 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:39 AM:

Wow, BoingBoing has a site? I haven't looked at anything but the RSS feed in 3 years.

#124 posted by mrdantefontana Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:41 AM:

This is better. Not good enough - but better.
;-)
Hooray to You supernerds.

#125 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:41 AM:

At least make the pogo-girl jump up and down like the last iteration when the page first loads. I miss that!!!

#126 posted by Eduardo Padoan Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:42 AM:

Oh my FSM, now I can say "I Love boingboing" on BoingBoing!
Also, nice design, and cool new blog (welcome Joel!). Thanks!

#127 posted by plumb , August 28, 2007 9:42 AM:

First thing I saw was the large ad at the right. I dunno. To me the re-design looks over-simplified... America-dumbed down. Not representative of the readership. The design is horrible. Terrible layout. Looks like a first year web design student project. I'm disappointed. I guess I would have expected more. You should get your money back from who ever "designed" this for you.

#128 posted by Anil Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:43 AM:

Congrats to the whole team of people behind the relaunch -- the new site looks great! :)

#129 posted by shortfatsteve , August 28, 2007 9:45 AM:

I'm still warming up to the new look--it doesn't look as good on my work computer (Firefox, Windows) as it does at home (Safari, Mac)--but as they say the only sure thing in life is change. One teensy suggestion to consider might be a way to view the two blogs together so that you don't have to go to two pages to catch up on everything. But you guys do excellent work, so I suppose if an extra mouse click is all it takes to see the gadget blog I can live with that.

#130 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:46 AM:

I like the basic layout. Not sure about the logo redesign, but maybe that will grow on me.

TNH as mod = w00t!

#131 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:46 AM:

The Good:
Comments are back!

The Bad:
Comments on comments are awkward.

The Ugly:
1. The leading is awful--harder to read, not easier.
2. The new logo is even worse--isn't a logo supposed to be attractive?
3. Advertisements are more prominent than they used to be.

#132 posted by Peter S. Conrad Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:46 AM:

Yay, comments! I wish I had been able to comment on the story of books shaped like cigarettes (http://www.boingboing.net/2007/07/31/books_shaped_like_ci.html) because I did that years ago. (http://www.attemptednotknown.com/index.php?page=about&selection=ank9.php) But Technorati never could make sense of my home-built blog.

#133 posted by doggo Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:47 AM:

Yay! Go Boing Boing!

#134 posted by Matt Jones Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:47 AM:

Wow, congratulations on the new design. I shall miss the old look as it seems like it's been round forever.

Keep up the great work.

#135 posted by yotta , August 28, 2007 9:48 AM:

Comments are back! Woot!

#136 posted by Seth Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:49 AM:

Nice, clean, and to the point. Looks like a winner to me.

Round of beers for everyone involved!

#137 posted by mingo Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:49 AM:

Nice design. Glad to see some user-feedback on boing boing. Now everybody has got to tolerate the trolls and spammers. Hopefully Teresa has enough experience dealing with this.

#138 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:49 AM:

Nielsen Hayden, not Neilsen Hayden

--Robert

#139 posted by Axias , August 28, 2007 9:49 AM:

Woot, 63rd! or so..

*social commentary here*

Hitler would have hated comments

/trifecta+godwin

#140 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:50 AM:

Love the design! Simple and effected, with the focus on the content and comments. Well done!

#141 posted by wonderama , August 28, 2007 9:51 AM:

Nice choice going with Joel! He'll be the cherry on top :)

#142 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:52 AM:

Phew! Glad you guys were able to keep all your ad space with this totally radical redesign.

#143 posted by ckd Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:52 AM:

I definitely like the new look, though I wouldn't mind the comments link going at the bottom of each post; I generally want to read the post first, then the comments.

One nitpick: it's "Nielsen Hayden" (i-before-e); it's part of the Making Light "spelling reference" section because it's often misspelled.

#144 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:53 AM:

Hello world!

#145 posted by Webbie Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:53 AM:

Movable Type ? Pah.

#146 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:53 AM:

I like the new design. I was starting to worry that BoingBoing would get overwhemled by the two columns of ads that took up more than 50% of the page in the old design. Now that you've gotten on board with a more traditional ad-based design, the stories are going to be easier to read...

Glad to see that comments are back, too. Yay!

#147 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:54 AM:

New Look: do no want.
Ugly font are ugly.
why cant hav beauty things?

Comments: do want!

#148 posted by Rian Fike Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:54 AM:

I've been w00ting around in the archives, this is gonna be a blast.

The world will never be the same.

#149 posted by Eric Skiff Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:55 AM:

I'm very glad to see comments return here on boingboing :) Often the discussion around an issue or article is the most interesting part.

#150 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:55 AM:

<3 minimalist design and the site loads a LOT faster. 6 hops traceroute and 9ms ping from work to BB.net yay!

#151 posted by georgewbush , August 28, 2007 9:56 AM:

Oh how I have waited for this day to come.

#152 posted by jojowasher Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 9:56 AM:

Woo Hoo!! gratz on the redesign, its a bit on the plain side, but it will be good for bandwidth!

#153 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:58 AM:

I notice that the font size appears to be fixed - a mistake. It's hard too read because it's too small, and it doesn't take the font-size settings of the browser into account. Always remember to use relative font-sizes, and to make everything in your layout scale accordingly.

#154 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 9:59 AM:

Let this please be the end of lolcatz and other juvenile posts. Boing Boing's normal spelling and grammar is bad enough.

#155 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:00 AM:

Have you thought about sending this through an independent usability tester? There's lots to like here, and I'm sure your creative team already did a lot towards the thankless, unseen task of usability, but one of the areas where there's room to grow is being friendlier to users. For example, as several have pointed out, putting the comment link where it's most logical - after you've read through the post.

All criticisms aside, congratulations on the big move, the change is refreshing.

#156 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:00 AM:

I like it!

~Clutch

#157 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:01 AM:

Why God, Why? This was my favorite site EVAH! Now I feel like I'm visiting some generic corporate website. At least center the column on the page so I'm not looking slightly to the left for years to come.

#158 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:04 AM:

Hmm, looks much more generic-news-site-ish than before. Like a lot of personality was sucked out of the site.

#159 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:05 AM:

Call me slow but i just found BBGadgets. Now i can add another boing to my BoingBoing. WOOHOO

#160 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:05 AM:

Add my voice to the chorus suggesting that the comments (or "discuss") link belongs at the bottom of an entry.

Also, neverminding the fact that I'm posting this anonymously because I don't have time to register at the moment, I think that anonymous commenting frequently changes the tenor of a comments section for the worse.

Finally, I think that the new design will take some getting used to. I'm especially not fond of the font. I'm respectful of the need for design evolution though, and really I'd be willing to overlook even the ugliest design because it's BoingBoing. (And the worst that could be said about the new look is that it's a tad generic.)

But anyhow. Long live BB!

#161 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:06 AM:

tuas litteras sunt difficiliores quas legam.

-- Crispinus

#162 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:07 AM:

Don't know if i missed it or what, Glad you put the BBgadgets at the top i hope i havent been missing it for long.

#163 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:07 AM:

Congrats on the redesign, looks nice and clean! (and marginally less quirky, which helps when I'm surfing^H^H^H^H^H^H working on the clock :) )

My two cents:

$.01 - I second the above suggestion to style the links to differentiate them more from plaintext; maybe it's just me, but I'm not a fan of having to wave the cursor over all the text to discover the links...

$.01 - you may want to consider a bit more vertical space above the horizontal rule between posts - it's not entirely visually obvious which post the title and comment links belong to...

(of course both of these could be accomplished by a Stylish lazyweb-created css sheet...)

#164 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:09 AM:

Oh good grief, so we have to wait for the moderator to approve posts before they appear? Sort of odd that a site that's so opposed to authoritarian control of information requires its comment be approved in advance.

#165 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:10 AM:

I think the old one was more readable. What is the deal with serif fonts on websites? Sans serif is much much easier to read on a screen. Any chance of allowing the user to select a font?

And make the pogo girl jump, that was cool.

#166 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:11 AM:

I love boingboing! I had slightly more affection for it before it looked like this, however.

#167 posted by Christine Palma Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 10:12 AM:

Nice and clean. Good job!

#168 posted by plagio , August 28, 2007 10:14 AM:

This is great. I always felt something was missing.

plagio, Rome. Italy.

#169 posted by Sway , August 28, 2007 10:15 AM:

Best wishes, Boing. I've read since the print days and I'll continue to read until the pixels are all rusted shut or worth through.

The header is a little Christmas-y, though. As long as it doesn't break my rss reader, I'm a happy puppy.

#170 posted by Binaryloop , August 28, 2007 10:19 AM:

The new format is nice. I like it. One observation: the sign-up process for adding comments is a bit awkward and could use a bit of tweaking.

1. You leave the page you're on and are taken to a page with a Moveable Type logo. You might consider putting the BB logo on the "Sign In" and "Create Account" pages.

2. The confirmation email has the subject line: "Movable Type Account Confirmation". You might want to add something about BB in there so people know it is coming from you w/o opening the message.

Good work guys.

#171 posted by Yaotl Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 10:19 AM:

Yay for stylish! Site looks much better to me in Tahoma.

#172 posted by chesterfly Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 10:19 AM:

Looks great! Simple and elegant. Links could use a bit of color...maybe the red tint from your logo? Congrats.

#173 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:20 AM:

Named anchors are the spawn of the devil. Their resurgence among blogging sites is making me reconsider how much time I want to spend on the web.

Does anyone know a Safari and/or FF hack that will ignore them?

Secondarily, I think boingboing would benefit greatly from a standard "page 2", "page 3" archival paradigm. The current organization to look at "archived" posts (a misnomer in it's own right) is awkward -- it sends you to the middle of a long page with the top half of content being stuff you've already seen.

Let me read the stories on the front page. Give me a button to read more. Don't show me the same stuff again when I click "nexte page". A simpler interface which is designed for the user, not the database schema, would be better in this case.

#174 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:20 AM:

Comments could be fun, though I usually frequent blogs like Boingboing for the articles and links, not endless and somewhat repetitive discussion. There's Slashdot for that. Or Digg. Or a million others.

I'll be honest: not a big fan of the new look. Guess it falls under the "If it ain't broke-" philosophy: the old design worked wonderfully, and comments could have been added without drastically changing things.

The extreme left align is annoying, the vast wasted space on the right is especially ironic on a web-design-savvy site like Boingboing, and the loss of color and visual variety makes it look crisp and soulless, the exact opposite of what Boingboing is all about. But worst of all are the ads. HOLY CRAP guys. Is Boingboing hosted on Blogger.com now? There's nothing wrong with advertising: just do it in a way that doesn't make the blog look cheap.

All that said, I'm a loyal reader and it'll take more then a bad makeover to shake me off. But to paraphrase one of Cory's favorite DRM sayings, I'll be reading in spite of the new design, not because of it.

#175 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:24 AM:

I have nothing to add, but that hasn't stopped anybody else from posting, so.... :)

#176 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:25 AM:

There's a sign up process? I don't see one anywhere. Not that I'm gonna create another login for yet another website anyway, but it would be nice to have the option that I could then ignore.

#177 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:26 AM:

Serif fonts are bad, mmm-kay. Please switch to Helvetica or Verdana.

#178 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:27 AM:

Looks good, although I wish excerpts from websites were smaller font (as before) or in some way discernible from the editor's comments

#179 posted by Jason Cosper Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 10:28 AM:

I'm insanely glad that comments are back. Awesome redesign too.

#180 posted by dogpurse , August 28, 2007 10:31 AM:

Glory be! Comments!

#181 posted by bithead , August 28, 2007 10:31 AM:

What - no rating system? And, no *markups*?

#182 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:32 AM:

Congratulations on now looking like every other blog out there, I guess.

#183 posted by Philipp Lenssen Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 10:32 AM:

Excellent redesign. Love it.

#184 posted by cfrau15 , August 28, 2007 10:32 AM:

Great design I love how easy and clean it is, the gadget section is great too.

Good job

#185 posted by romulusnr Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 10:36 AM:

I would like to say THANK YOU for restoring comments. It has really bit not to be able to add $0.02 to all the good (or not so good) stuff that gets posted on BB. IMO a blog ain't a blog if it's one-way. I believe this is the third manifestation of comments I've seen; hope it will stay this time.

#186 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:36 AM:

So it appears that anything but the mildest criticism is being filtered (i.e. censored) by the moderator? It's certainly your right to run the site as you please, but it seems very hypocritical for a site like BB that professes to be about "openness" and "freedom" to present such a sanitized view of reader opinion. Very disappointing.

#187 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:37 AM:

Here's a comment: The RSS subscription link for gadgets.boingboing.net is broken.

It's also slow as sin.

#188 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:38 AM:

I REALLY liked the old site better. It was more original looking. The new site looks like every other blog out there.

I'm also not a fan of comments. Have you read the comments on Digg, Reddit, or YouTube lately? At least I can ignore the comments.

I just hope the content stays the same, and this won't be the end of Boing Boing. It already has less draw to me.

#189 posted by rucres , August 28, 2007 10:40 AM:

I like almost everything: the new logo is great, the site is much cleaner, and I'm very excited about the gadgets page. Don't like the font for some reason, it's hard for me to read. w00t 4 comments!

#190 posted by Halloween Jack , August 28, 2007 10:40 AM:

Takes a bit getting used to, but I like it, I think. And TNH is a great choice for the mod. Wll w s dsmvwlmnt?

#191 posted by kirkjerk Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 10:43 AM:

Man, it's always jarring when a site changes it look!

I had forgotten how much I missed the old comments. Frankly, they never seemed that broken to me back in the day.

#192 posted by 44oz , August 28, 2007 10:48 AM:

Very nice design, but the site feels very sterile now. The great thing about boingboing before was it was a feeling one gets when visiting a flea market. Tons of great stuff to discover all right in front of you. Now that everything is clean, only a few posts per page... etc. It is very... boring and a feels like just another blog.

You took everything that boingboing had going for it and removed it.

#193 posted by Dillenger69 Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 10:48 AM:

I'll agree with the others.
It's nice to have comments!

#194 posted by Christopher , August 28, 2007 10:49 AM:

Awesome work, guys... Love the left-adjusted message bodies. Been hoping for this for a while now...

#195 posted by Kables Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 10:49 AM:

Looks great, peeps.

#196 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:54 AM:

Woo! Hooray Boulder, I love this place!

-Andrew

#197 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:55 AM:

Hzzh! Cngrtltns t Trs fr hr nw ppntmnt s mdrtr. knw sh wll d grt jb. ;)

#198 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:55 AM:

Boing-Boing is Dead!

Long Live Boing-Boing!

Huzzah to all and to all huzzah!

-- SCAM

#199 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:55 AM:

Wow a redesign I actually like. There have been some crappy ones lately Gizmodo, Fark etc. But this one really is a nice improvement.

Comments are really nice. Probably was the biggest thing missing.

#200 posted by erindipity , August 28, 2007 10:56 AM:

You are even more fabulous today than you were yesterday!

#201 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 10:58 AM:

The site has lost some of its personal look, and looks more like other blogs now. its a little harder to read too. padding on the left would be nice, to centralize the design. it leans.

#202 posted by klg19 , August 28, 2007 10:59 AM:

Very pretty, very clean--but it does make it more difficult to get an overview of a lot of entries at once. It's a compromise, though; I get it.

#203 posted by Brandon N Schory Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 10:59 AM:

Love the new look and the bbGadgets blog.

I have to agree that some coloring on the links would be awesome for readability, but other than that it looks great.

Here's to many more years of excellent reading!

Cheers,

- Brandon

#204 posted by Binaryloop , August 28, 2007 11:00 AM:

@ Anonymous who said: "Named anchors are the spawn of the devil. Their resurgence among blogging sites is making me reconsider how much time I want to spend on the web."

Well... we'll miss you. Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.

#205 posted by Vanwall Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:00 AM:

Nice change, and as good looking in its own way as before! Keep up the good work.

#206 posted by Michael Brutsch , August 28, 2007 11:06 AM:

Sigh. Looks like every other blog out there, and that's sad. Don't like the ads all on the right, but I guess it was necessary, so you could run those huge HP ads, and please your masters at Federated Media.

#207 posted by ernie , August 28, 2007 11:06 AM:

Whoa where is Eli and Stephan and Craniac?

#208 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:12 AM:

To clean for boing boing, but comments are nice.

#209 posted by Welcome to Wallyworld Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:13 AM:

I'm really pleased you've brought comments back. I could never understand why you ditched them. Comments is a really quick way of adding information to a thread. It's frustrated me in the past when you've posted something I know to be wrong and I can't add my comments so you can correct it. BUT I don't understand why I can't click on a commenter's name and go through to their blog via a hyperlink? I thought that was pretty much a standard in the blogging world? Ă  bientĂ´t, Malkie, Paris.

http://www.welcometowallyworld.com

#210 posted by swestcott Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:14 AM:

great changes I hope the coments don't get all stupid but I know we can all play nice

#211 posted by spatulalilacs , August 28, 2007 11:18 AM:

I'm very happy about the comments. The ad column is huge. Please make it a smaller part of the page?

#212 posted by ylek Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:18 AM:

excelente noticia!

#213 posted by David Pescovitz , August 28, 2007 11:18 AM:

Wow. Thank you all so much for these comments, both the positive and the critical. Obviously we'll be tweaking things so all of your input is greatly appreciated. And thanks for hanging out with us!

#214 posted by Chas Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:19 AM:

Woo hoo, Boingers! Congratulations on Comments and Gadgets. In my book, the more Boing Boing, the better.

#215 posted by Cowicide Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:21 AM:

Everyone get out of here, this is my new section of Boing Boing and a horrible mistake has been made where you are allowed to add comments here.

#216 posted by Ape Lad Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:23 AM:

I like it! Simple and balanced.

#217 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:23 AM:

For those of us with old eyes could you make the font bigger?

#218 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:25 AM:

Maaark! Come up to Fort Collins while you're out. About the re-design...can you drop the serif fonts? This new design makes you blend in like every other blag out there...bb was something special, and the re-design kind of took that away...

#219 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:26 AM:

Are the feeds for gadgets.boingboing.net supposed to 404?

#220 posted by BSUWG Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:29 AM:

Excellent!!! Always wanted BOINGBOING to have comments enabled!!!

#221 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:30 AM:

soy un fiel lector vuestro desde hace 3 años y me agrada ver buenos cambos. Los felicito y les envio los mejores deseos desde Chile, Southamerica

#222 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:31 AM:

I wanted to congratulate you and thank you for comments, but by the time I got to the end of the page I wanted you to disable comments again.

#223 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:31 AM:

Easier to read? I, for one, find it much harder to read. Hate the typeface. Bring back the old font!

#224 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:32 AM:

Hooray for comments, and the redesign is serviceable, but did anyone else click over to boingboing today, see the new layout and wonder when Gawker Media bought the blog? Just sayin'.

#225 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:34 AM:

Comments WOOT!

#226 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:38 AM:

nom nom nom

#227 posted by Teresa Nielsen Hayden/Moderator Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:41 AM:

Hello, all. It's been an exciting morning. The relaunched version of Boing Boing is definitely a work in progress. We're keeping a list of things that still need to be fixed, so thanks for your input.

One of the fixes waiting to happen is that comments are supposed to be sequentially numbered. They aren't yet. I'll do my best to identify which comment(s) I'm responding to.

Anonymous commenting: The line that's missing from the sign-in box says that you're free to post anonymously, but all anonymous comments will be held for moderation.

Registration glitches in general: Until registration got shut down for repairs, a bit after noon today, *I* wasn't being allowed to post comments. That's part of the reason I'm so far behind on this thread.

Crispinus, lege atque lacrima.

Hmmm. We don't have HTML in comments yet. I'll have to use separators:

=====

"Perhaps a left margin or some padding would be nice?"

I'm seeing a left margin. Do you have none at all, or is that a vote for a bigger one?

=====

Karl: "You should move the discuss link to underneath the article."

Already on the fix-it list.

(Current motto: We are approaching perfection ... incrementally.)

=====

"Glad to see comments back. With TNH moderating should we expect frequent dis-envoweling?"

Only if it's warranted. I doubt I'll have frequent cause to use it.

I'll be posting a piece about moderation when I have a place to put it.

=====

"the archive page is currently broken. i guess that it's a work in progress? are there any plans to import all that legacy content into the new look and feel?"

Work in progress, check. The legacy content is not going away.

=====

Adamrice: "Nice job on the redesign. But you should do something to style links differently. If you have link-underlining turned off in your browser (I do), they look no different from the rest of the text."

Thanks; that's another one for the list.

=====

Rrenaud: "Is there any rationale on not using some user community comment rating system? I think browsing slashdot at +4 or +5 or reading highly rated comments on reddit tends to work well and is automatic. I guess I just really don't trust a single subjective human "tender of online conversations" to be fair and unbiased."

Yes, I do have a rationale:

1. I believe that there's a fraction of the internet community that interprets all online environments as potential games. The more hard-and-fast the rules, the more game-like it becomes for them. This is fine if you're trying to run a game. In a conversation, it's not so good.

2. I believe that no system of automated numerical feedback has more than a tiny fraction of the potential range, power, flexibility, and motivating force of verbal feedback from your fellow commenters.

3. Yes, I do believe in the exercise of arbitrary power by me; but I'm grossly biased in favor of good conversation, so you still win. Think of it as a benevolent kink.

Onward.

We're slated to get a couple of small unobtrusive buttons that will let you indicate comments you think need our scrutiny, and comments you think are especially good. They'll be advisory, not determinative.

I promise to do my best to be fair, and to remember that I'm fallible. I don't pretend to be unbiased -- no human is -- but I do try to cultivate biases that produce interesting, lively, and reasonably civil conversations.

=====

I'd better post this lot of comments before you guys get much farther ahead of me.

-tnh

#228 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:41 AM:

I've decided to comment just because I can.

#229 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:42 AM:

Your redesign is awesome. Not so sure about the distraction of the comments, however. Just kidding.

Best wishes for the new Boing Boing,
Loren Coleman

#230 posted by Dave Bullock (eecue) Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:46 AM:

Very cool... although I do kind of miss sending in my comments through the submit a link form and then waiting to see if I got picked up as a commenter. =]

Congrats!

#231 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:46 AM:

not sure.

i generally like clean designs, but i find i liked boingboing's clutter. for example, i miss the links to thumbtack press, etc. i might not have found thumbtack press if it hadn't been there. although, i do note that mark's, cory's, etc's links are now at the top, which is also nice. undecided on this. maybe put thumbtack and the others that don't get space at the top over on the right?

serif typeface is awful and hard on the eyes.

comments link should be at bottom of posts.

waste of page space beyond the end of the right column. maybe wrap that column in a div an stick it inside the main content wrapper so that posts can expand to full page width below it?

and the end of the day though, it's about the people and the content. that's what makes boingboing what it is =)

sum.zero

#232 posted by popechunk , August 28, 2007 11:48 AM:

I hope the comments thing works out.

#233 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:50 AM:

The redesign looks terrific! I love the big text and the clean, light, open layout! Here's to another two decades of BoingBoing!

I'd suggest going back to "permalink" instead of "#", though. It's very obvious what "permalink" means, and it's also possible to search a web page for the text "permalink" to find one. "#" is cryptic and searching for it may not be fruitful.

#234 posted by Adam Backstrom Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:51 AM:

I like the new look. Threaded comments would be a nice feature down the road.

#235 posted by Andy Baio Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 11:54 AM:

Lovely redesign. Congratulations to everyone involved. Needless to say, I love the comments too... Beats the holy crap out of the old QuickTopic forums.

#236 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:55 AM:

The use of serif'd font looks somewhat miserable at the chosen font size on an lcd display in firefox on OS X.

#237 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 11:58 AM:

F1RST!!!!

#238 posted by kpmcguire Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:01 PM:

Hoo-boy, people hates on redesigning. But I like it. You boingers did a good job.

#239 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:03 PM:

this site always had a number of problems, and it only took you a few short years to fix a fraction of them, woo!

#240 posted by pa Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:08 PM:

Great, I always wanted comments for the site. The new design looks great, but I think that there's some wasted space between the articles.

#241 posted by cyenobite , August 28, 2007 12:09 PM:

Too soon to comment on the design, but I'm SO glad comments are back. I look forward to hearing other boingboingers sounding off.

#242 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:11 PM:

WAH! Do not want!

#243 posted by lars_ , August 28, 2007 12:17 PM:

Holy shit. This feels like someone broke in to my home and redecorated my apartment - changed the shabby old cabin into a classy lounge.

I mean, it's great, but doesn't quite feel like home yet.

#244 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:19 PM:

I'm not a fan. Now I have a narrow Boing Boing column and a full 1/2 of my screen is taken up by Google Ads.

Yeah, I could've done without the HUGE reduction in Boing Boing space.

#245 posted by betatron , August 28, 2007 12:20 PM:

clean reading sweetness = ponies

Comments = *Glitter* ponies!


#246 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:20 PM:

Another gadget blog. I am almost starting to miss my old newspaper that used to be delivered to the door.

#247 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:21 PM:

I notice you just removed author attribution from the RSS feed -- I just wanted to say that I hope it's coming back. It's very valuable to know who wrote the BB post I'm reading.

#248 posted by Scalzi Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:26 PM:

Go Boing Boing!

And go, TNH. You're going to be awesome in this role.

#249 posted by Idaho Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:28 PM:

Wow, never thought i would see this...
Gratz!!

#250 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:28 PM:

Much cleaner look, I like that the article title is the permalink, and I'm optimistic about the comments.

#251 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:28 PM:

Times Roman (or whatever the hell font): DO NOT WANT.

Or do I need to use firefox to select my own display font???

#252 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:28 PM:

It's not only that I don't like most of the changes, the thing is that I found the older version absolutely perfect.
I'm thinking about Jennyfer Gray....

#253 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:30 PM:

it`s great! another site post my inane comments!

#254 posted by orsted , August 28, 2007 12:30 PM:

hot damn

#255 posted by Halfadrop Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:31 PM:

Jubilation!
...but I agree with others: comments at the END of the article.

#256 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:32 PM:

Looks better, and loads WAY faster!

#257 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:32 PM:

Just two things with the redesign i'd recommend a tweak:

1. A bit more padding on the left margin. the content area feels unbalanced in the browser window.

2. The 'discuss' link at the bottom of the article instead of at the top.

#258 posted by Bloo , August 28, 2007 12:34 PM:

I never missed the comments much.. and the site seems slower. Is that because it's being commented to death?

The design is not bad, but the other one seemed more fun somehow.

#259 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:36 PM:

As many have commented sruf fonts are bat on the screen.

Trhe serif function is to easily distinguis small print on paper, so they are used in newspapers.

On the screen, small artifacts like the serifs blur the font borders, and make reading harder.

Change Georgia (which is a good font for serif) for Verdana, sans serif. Verdana is present in almost every machine and much nicer than Arial.

#260 posted by Crux Mondrian , August 28, 2007 12:36 PM:

Huzzah! Comments are back!

#261 posted by TomTheGeek Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:37 PM:

Probably not going to happen but I would like a way to filter out posts by certain authors, Cory to be precise. Actually I just want to filter out his Disney World/Haunted Mansion posts. We get it Corey, you are obsessed with Walt Disney. I have obsessions too but you don't see me plastering them all over arguably the most popular website on the internet.

May be a sign of the times but my first view of the new layout was from my Windows Mobile phone and I'm happy to report the site is very readable.

I also concur that the comments link should be at the bottom of the post. Very annoying to have to go back up to read the comments.

P.S.

I probably shouldn't post this here but I'm guessing Corey will have a higher chance of reading this since you will all be watching the comments on this post more closely.

Anyways, Corey: WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU SMOKING WHEN YOU WROTE THE BOOK "Someone comes to town, someone leaves town"??!?!?!?

First of all, worst. title. evar. Maybe add a couple more sentences to it and go for the record of longest title. Not only that, it doesn't tell you anything about what the book is about. You might as well have named it "book". Next, a kid that's the result of a mountain and washing machine?? How does that make sense on any level? I dunno, maybe I'm just not cultured enough to get it. Overall the plot was good but the details kept me asking "Is he for real?".

I have to give you props for the wuffie idea though in your other book. That was pretty cool. The whole civilization living in Disney World though, not such a good idea. No one is that obsessed with Disney World. Well except maybe for you I guess.

#262 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:38 PM:

i like the new font and the layout.
glad you brought back comments.
will check out the gadgets blog.
it's all good!

#263 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:39 PM:

Baby please don't take my vowels,
You know that we love you.
Beep-beep, beep-beep, yeah!

#264 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:40 PM:

Squajo here--I've followed bOING bOING since 1989 and I've been a big fan. Love the new design!

#265 posted by studio2f Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:40 PM:

The glorious return of comments.

#266 posted by ThomW Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:41 PM:

Like the new look, and it's great to have comments back.

The only suggestion I have is to add a discuss link at the bottom of articles on the front page. I had to scroll back up to the link at the top of the story to leave this awesome comment.

... maybe you should leave it at the top. haha

#267 posted by Xopher , August 28, 2007 12:41 PM:

Just thought I'd come and have a look.

I see no left margin at all on the comment thread when I use my normal window size. If I stretch it or maximize it, a margin appears.

As for Teresa's moderating style...IME she seldom intervenes, and when she does it's clearly justified. That said, ll yr vwl r blng t s.

#268 posted by Jean-Marc Fontaine Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:43 PM:

Hooray for comments!!!

#269 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:44 PM:

i like and appreciate the new thought processes behind this design upgrade, but the main page doesn't look very good in my browser right now. i'm running camino on a 12-in g4 p.book, and the right margin takes up 1/4 of my screen, google ads the next ~1/4, and then the bb column itself uses the remaining little more than half, with a small/normal-sized left margin (~1/2in). it's not as if i would stop hanging around here even if the format was annoying to read, but since you, TNH, asked about the lack of left column, i figured that i would share what my browser sees.

#270 posted by ThomW Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:45 PM:

If you're logged in, the comments link says "DISCUSS" as mentioned in your post, but if you're not logged in, the links to the comments say "COMMENTS"

It's a little weird and maybe not something you'd notice if you were logged in all the time. :)

#271 posted by Roy Christopher Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:46 PM:

Congratulations, Mark, Corey, Xeni, et al. It looks great so far.

Peace,

-royc.

#272 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:47 PM:

Love boingboing, but hate the new blog-generica design. Where's the quirkiness? The old look had a personality, this one doesn't, at all.

Oh well. Love that I can now comment though.

#273 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:51 PM:

How wonderful! Several screens full of text, with only half the screen with text on it. That's a fine use of browser real estate.

I kid... it's incredibly stupid and wasteful of my time and available space. Yeah, there was less use in the previous design, but at least it was all in the CENTER and easier to read than left justified with HALF A SCREEN of blank space on the right.

At least you haven't matched the incredibly f***ed-up-new design recently done at Wired (gee, let's make things harder to read and not use icons or graphics to help queue in advance what you're looking at).

And unlike most everyone else, let's put "discuss" with the title of the post with other information about the post just 'cause it wasn't that way before and people will love reading a long post then scrolling way back up to comment/discuss.

Bonus points for putting "subscribe" "don't Miss" and "Extras" at the BOTTOM of the page where they are likely to be missed.

You've made changes without really thinking this out and your designer outta get back to the basics:

1) make it EASIER to read

2) make GOOD USE of screen real estate

3) provide GOOD navigation aids

All in all, a classic re-design when one wasn't needed but "gee, shouldn't we because we haven't in awhile?" Your designer needs to learn that just because it hasn't been done that way means "let's do it" without understanding basic user interface principles.

Bad design, ill-thought out, wasted more of my time. Please post information about what you were smoking.

#274 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:51 PM:

First!

#275 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:56 PM:

boingboing? comments?

i was wrong, this IS the end times!

#276 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 12:57 PM:

Left margin, please. Reading on Safari on dear old Mac 12" Powerbook. I've tried inching the window up the left edge of the screen, but this is a difficult precision operation --- too far and I lose pixels When not inched to the left, the drop shadow drawn to the left edge of an OS X window is not enough to obscure text from a window below. This is a pretty big oversight in usability design, not -- am I missing something here? My Safari/OS X settings are pretty standard. On no other site must I choose the window beneath the current window carefully -- have to find a nice empty text-free one.

Please fix left margin!

Nice to see comments back, though.

#277 posted by Andy Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 12:59 PM:

I think it looks great. I would just recommend that you add your author's byline to the RSS feed. I read BoingBoing via Google Reader, and now I don't know who posted what. I always like to see, because sometimes I'm just in a Cory Doctorow mood, y'know? (-:

#278 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:00 PM:

How about a "Recommend" system like sfgate.com has for their comments. That's a good noise filter IMO, kind of like getting people to help with transcribing old texts via CAPTCHA. I'm not going to read through zillions of unrecommended comments. I'll be surprised if you read this request, I'm like number one million or something.

Thanks for the anonymous option though, saves time, you don't have to get freaked out and remember any passwords. Of course that means more noisy comments.

#279 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:03 PM:

The font is quite uncomfortable to read. Serif fonts feel awkward for on screen reading.

#280 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:05 PM:

Your Serif font for your body copy is really hard to read.

#281 posted by sum.zero , August 28, 2007 1:07 PM:

photoshoped! ;)

sum.zero

#282 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:09 PM:

Who cares. You would think you were The NY Times announcing the smaller-sized page format. You're no different than any of the thousands of other blogs out there. Truly mind-boggling.

#283 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:09 PM:

"Anonymous" ????

HHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHA

#284 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:11 PM:

Ugly. Looks like every other blog. Font is hard to read. Lack of left margin stinks.

#285 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:12 PM:

no, sir- i don't like it.

*much* harder to read. sure the headline size ids bigger, but doesn't stand out nearly as well as a smaller boldface. and serifs??? are you trying to be contrarian/ironic as some kind of statement? cos right now its mumbling "i am boring and difficult to read".

hate to be a hater but sorry....it's awful.

#286 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:12 PM:

Hooray for anonymous comments!

#287 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:14 PM:

Thank God (literally) that the comments are back. Now there's some way to respond to the unrelenting atheistic anti-Christian rhetoric that that this blog has spewed forth without any chance of rebuttal.

#288 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:15 PM:

Movable Type? Really? So if we want signed comments we have to register with a Six Apart client? Even after this very site reported on 6A's misdeeds this summer?

Other than that, I'm excited. Last night my pals and I were happily discussing how much we love and use BB.

#289 posted by Erin Kissane , August 28, 2007 1:16 PM:

Crap, another TNH-modded community? This just doubled the amount of time I'm going to accidentally spend on the internut.

Welcome, congratulations, and nice job with the redesign. (The typefaces look great to me.)

#290 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:17 PM:

I can no longer scan articles, bummer. Perhaps I'll get used to it eventually or start reading the rss feed instead.

#291 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:17 PM:

Love the new look. Welcome to Web 2.0! Now, if we could just get that logo looking a little more 3D and shiny...

#292 posted by Vitaly Chernobyl , August 28, 2007 1:21 PM:

Spiffy. Like the new layout, still love the site. Rock on.

#293 posted by waugsqueke , August 28, 2007 1:23 PM:

I like the design, cleaner, less cluttered. Hated the ads down each side.

Glad to see comments back, but I wonder if you'd be better off to disable anonymous comments.

#294 posted by bobarke Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 1:24 PM:

Wait, you're not doing away with the practice of siting insightful reader comments directly in the original post, are you?

#295 posted by JohnKruksLoveChild Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 1:25 PM:

Comments are great, about time ! Glad you guys finally settled on a system. Personally I like the center justified site layout a little better, but it might just be because I'm not used to this yet.

In terms of content, BoingBoing consistently delivers, keep up the good work.

#296 posted by Scott Johnson Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 1:26 PM:

Hooray for comments! The new site looks awesome!

#297 posted by Xopher , August 28, 2007 1:27 PM:

I have always preferred serifed fonts.

One thing about the comment thread itself: it's a bit difficult to scan for commenters by name. Could the names (even if they're "Anonymous") be bolded, maybe? That would also make it easier to find the boundaries between comments. The pale all-caps unserifed font that the POSTED BYs are in is about the least readable thing I can imagine.

#298 posted by roro Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 1:30 PM:

Congrats! Its gonna be interesting to read the comments and the feedback.

#299 posted by B-Trom Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 1:35 PM:

I don't have much to add, other than an echoing of others' comments that the layout seems a little left-leaning (no pun intended), but I did want to try out the new commenting system and wish BB x.0 luck!

#300 posted by Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz , August 28, 2007 1:36 PM:

I like it.

I'll add my vote to the pile about the typeface though, this one looks dated and is hard to read.

Oh, and very much don't dig the new logo.

#301 posted by Pop Astronaut Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 1:37 PM:

Very, very nice and long overdue. Congratulations!

#302 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:37 PM:

No offense, but I think that the old design looked way better. The new one is to close to the left, it makes it hard to read. There definetly needs to be much more of a left margin, so that the text is centered on the screen. I think the old boingboing
design made it easier to read the other blogs. Now it looks worse then most blogs.

#303 posted by ~C4Chaos Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 1:37 PM:

congratulations! nice. love the redesign. but why Movable Type instead of Wordpress? just wondering :)

keep it flowing...

~C

#304 posted by Prostetnic Vogon Jeltz , August 28, 2007 1:39 PM:

I like it.

I'll add my vote to the pile about the typeface though, this one looks dated and is hard to read.

Oh, and very much don't dig the new logo.

#305 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:40 PM:

Hmmm, I will get used to it. I probably already have. I am glad to see Joel on the team, he left a vacuum at you-know-where.

#306 posted by Sunfell , August 28, 2007 1:41 PM:

Nice redesign. And I am glad that the minor bugs are being worked out, and there's a good moderator at the helm- her rules for running communities are a lot like my own. I agree that the rating system is like a game to some, and if they can game a system to destruction, they will.

But this Happy Mutant is happy to see BoingBoing evolving, and I'm looking forward to the little tweaks that will make it even more magnetic than it already is.

#307 posted by Tony Indindoli , August 28, 2007 1:43 PM:

I miss the funky bar of links on the left. Well, in with the new. I've been a reader for a while, so I'll try not to abuse comments, nothing more humbling than being banned by people you like.

#308 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:43 PM:

I welcome the addition (return? Not sure, only been around for 12-18 months ;^) of comments, but I have a nit to pick - once you scroll down past the first couple (top) stories, the screen on a fairly typical display (1280x1024) is 1/2 empty. There is nothing on the right side of the screen while scanning down the page. This give the appearance of "wasted space", esp. since your home page is fairly "long".

Have you considered adding "collapsed" links to stories over 24 hour old, to trim down the length of the home page? I feel strange arguing that you are providing too much of a good thing, but the home page does get a bit long some times, and can take a long time to load on my smartphone ;^)

Ken

#309 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:45 PM:

I confess to not reading all of the comments but several of the initial comments mentioned the large font size. Maybe it was changed already, but on FF/Linux it is now one size too small to be comfortably readable. Alas . . .

#310 posted by raybot , August 28, 2007 1:45 PM:

meh, i dont like this layout at all. like other have said, things bleeds together, nothing stands out, even the site itself is now... "boring"


i am excited about the gadgets blog though. +1 for that, -1 for new layout. E for effort

#311 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:48 PM:

I didn't wade through all the previous 300+ comments, but...
Don't like the font.
Don't like all the white space to the right with nothing in it.
Don't care much about comments or gadgets.
Looks like a zillion other blogs.
Seems to me you fixed something that wasn't broken.

#312 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:49 PM:

Now you guys look like every other blog. :(...

The old design was better.

#313 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:52 PM:

Dear Boingboing staff and readers,

I've been an avid reader of this site for years. Aside from great content, the one thing that has kept me here has been the simplicity of design. The re-design of the site doesn't really seem to make much sense to me. While more and more individuals are adopting widescreen monitors, web 2.0 sites seem to be focused more on vertically scrolling pages. Why? It only seems to add to wasted browser real estate and difficulty in browsing through content. Call me anal, but here are two images that illustrate my point:
Digg's wasted space (red squares): http://eightchainedourangoutangs.com/boingboing/digg.jpg

Boingboing's wasted space (red....blocks) http://eightchainedourangoutangs.com/boingboing/boingboing.jpg

I'll continue to read the blog of course, but just wanted to voice my concerns on behalf of my poor scrolling finger.

#314 posted by Vox Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 1:52 PM:

I think the new design is pretty nice, minimalistic and interesting.

I don't know about the typeface (unlike most people, I enforce my own fonts on my browser), but I do agree that the faded-out names of the commenters makes it hard to parse who said what...maybe keeping the faded look for Anonymous and bolding out the subscriber comments? That'd help make the comments thread better, I think.

#315 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:52 PM:

Anon, somewhere up there ^^^^:

"As many have commented sruf fonts are bat on the screen."

The research (e.g. ) doesn't agree with your assessment. Serif fonts are no worse on-screen than sans-serif. According to that research, while it makes little or no difference to reading time or comprehension, Georgia is perceived as more legible than Verdana.

TomTheGeek, not so far up there ^^^:

Are you trying to tempt TNH to disemvowel you, or what? Testing the limits of how far you have to push?


-- Jules.

#316 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 1:57 PM:

Please make the Boing Boing girl bounce again!

#317 posted by Anonymous , August 28, 2007 2:03 PM:

I like the new design, but I mostly view boingboing via RSS feed. One difference I've noticed is that the RSS feed no longer lists who posted each article, which is something I really liked. Any chance of changing the RSS feed to include the author of each post?

#318 posted by kawika Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 2:06 PM:

Given all the suggestions for improvement to Boing Boing's new site, it appears as if you have lots of pent-up love. Keep up the good work.

#319 posted by ducksauce , August 28, 2007 2:19 PM:

New redesign is not too bad, and comments are wonderful, so that averages out well.

#320 posted by Shawn Struck Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 2:22 PM:

wsnt rlly dsmvwlld; jst wntd t b th frst s tht lkd cl. hpflly, tnh thnks ts fnny, t.

#321 posted by CD , August 28, 2007 2:25 PM:

A second vote for the Boing Boing girl going boing boing, again...

#322 posted by Chasqui , August 28, 2007 2:28 PM:

OMG - comments! - I haven't read a single post denouncing them. That is because this is a wonderful thing.
I am not enamored with the new layout (too spread out, not enough on the page) but if it is the cost of comments, so be it.

#323 posted by runciter , August 28, 2007 2:31 PM:

1. Although I'm dead, I don't feel the design fits boingboing. It's a very surprising choice. I can understand however it has great potential for new widgets.

2. You're business is all about links. Come on:
links must show even with underline_links turned off. And once visited, links must look different, otherwise it's a loss of information.

3. Left margin matters for legibility.

It needs some tuning, but you're very courageous and right about changing. Thanks for all the good stuff!

#324 posted by theRat , August 28, 2007 2:35 PM:

I'm enjoying so far the clean and simple look, and the registering process was quick and painless.
Well, I can't add much to the discussion by now, with the massive ammount of comments and all, but I agree this is a great change, and the comments system was much needed.

#325 posted by SAP Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 2:50 PM:

Nice look, Mark. Very clean.

#326 posted by iankennedy Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 3:16 PM:

Congratulations. This is a wonderful showcase site for Movable Type and its ability to support community on a large scale.

#327 posted by antipax Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 3:25 PM:

I love the new design. It looks so clean and streamline, like a nice new zen white couch.

#328 posted by Xeni Jardin Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 4:04 PM:

Hey everyone, thanks -- seriously -- for weighing in with your feedback here, both the praise and the criticism. We'll be mulling over all of this, and reworking the site in days/weeks to come. Your thoughts matter a lot to us.

I'm glad the general vibe seems to be that you like what we've tried to do here, though! A lot of people worked super hard to make this smarter/funner/easier/more crossplatform friendly thn before.

We still have kinks to work out, though, and we'll do our best to address those quickly.

XJ

#329 posted by Phil J Leitch Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 4:09 PM:

Love the new design. Honestly I'm a full time boingboing rss feed reader but had to check it out when I read about it. Love it. Love the comments but I already spend too much time reading bb, now i have to read the comments too. Ack!

Hope you continue placing good comments with the story.

Otherwise nice job. Love the footer.

#330 posted by Stef Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 4:20 PM:

Wow! Lovely. Everyone involved has done a fantastic job, it really shows.

One tiny suggestion: make the Google search page pretty like Khoi just did for Subtraction:
http://www.subtraction.com/archives/2007/0828_now_fully_co.php

(Oh, and previewing a post doesn't seem to work at the moment? It says: "Publish error in template 'Comment Preview': Error in tag: error in module Comment Detail: Error in tag:")

#331 posted by caesar female Author Profile Page, August 28, 2007 4:24 PM:

Looks hot and cool at the same time. Well done.

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