Welcome to the new Boing Boing!
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.
Congratulations! The redesign looks great.
Sigh. Make it harder to read through everything, great. Oh well. All good things....
Long live BoingBoing! I think I likes the older format better.
- Andrew
Looks pretty!
FIRST!
Ok, someone had to do that. :)
Nice new look. Congrats.
Your clock is off.
Yay, comments!
...oh, come on, someone had to say it.
frist psot!
Yay! congrats Boing boing! I've been reading the directory for years now, it really fits my way of life.
err, I suppose I'll get used to it, but could you maybe add in a way to decrease font size?
Perhaps a left margin or some padding would be nice?
...I fear change.
It looks nice! Glad comments are back, even happier that Teresa Neilsen Hayden is in charge...
Yay indeed !
I believe in evolution, and evolving is surviving... This is great news for the many years ahead !
My favorite site on the net
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!
I CAN HAZ COMMENTS!
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 ;)
You should move the discuss link to underneath the article.
Otherwise, really digging the new design :-)
Outstanding new look! Now with comments, again. Finally!
oh hai
i IZ in Ur Comnts
.
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/^^^\
kepping ya memez alive
I'm really happy to see the comments back!
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.
wow. this is going to be fantastic! looking forward to having a great community here with all you info-loving-folks
huzzah!
Comments for everyone!
Hooray! Comments!
It looks like any other blog now, I'ts already losing my attention.
Glad to see comments back. With TNH moderating should we expect frequent dis-envoweling?
good to have comments for sure... will probably save floods of emails to the boingboingers too!
Very good. Congratulations.
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?
Comments! Hooray!
Congratulations on all the changes. Things look good. Great choice for a community manager, too.
Congratulations! Great design. Love the resurrected comments feature.
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
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.
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.
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.
Cheers!
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!
It looks like the upgrade broke the site's formatting via distributed boing boing. No love for the firewalled.
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*
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.
Oh God, comments. BoingBoing has comments.
Oh Happy Day! (Oh Happy Day) Oh Happy Day! (Oh Happy Day)
Looks good. Keep up the good work.
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.
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.
omg now i have to wait for all the comments to load too?!? dear god
I can't say I like this design but I like the fact that we can comment again
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.
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.
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.
WOOHOO! That's all
The new design looks good. Looking forward to all the other new features. And, thanks for bringing back comments!
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 =)
This is harder to read, please insert a margin to the left of the text at least.
MOD THIS MOD FACES!!!!!
sorry... had to
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?
Meet the new blog, same as the old blog.
looks great. Good to see Joel on the team!
In addition to the nice outdoor life, there are lots of great restaurants in Boulder!
I'm using Safari 3.0 and the new layout is horribly broken.
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.
Bacn
Very, very cool. I've missed comments, and am really happy to see them back!
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.
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
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?
Hate the new formatting. Only 5 or so posts fit on the first page. Boo.
Like the content, hate the layout.
Wow ! What's happening ? Digg and now BB ??? Is this some kind of design revolution ?
Style looks good, but I agree that links need to be made to appear obviously as links. Thanks for adding the comments!
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.
Wonderful redesign! Boingboing and digg in the same day.... make sure to say hi to the flatirons for me!
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!
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.
nicely done, congrats boing-o-nauts.
Change is always good, but this is actually harder to read than the old Boing Boing.
PS: YOUR TEXT IS HUUUUGE!
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!
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.
There goes all my free time.
Very nice work guys!
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.
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!
Excellent design!!!
very clean and easy to read.
:D
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.
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.
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.
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! ;-)
Yay, comments are good.
New layout is also good.
But serif fonts are bad.
OH NOES!
The conflict, it's immense.
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!
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.
ZOMJ hax!
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!
The new font is uncomfortable - I'm reading it firefox under XP.
Please include more than just a handful of articles on the front page.
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?
Good luck from Poland!
I am addicted to your site for some time :)
b
Yes, yes,
and yes !
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.
Beautiful, readable...very fine job.
Even the unicorns will look nicer! Nice work, BB team!
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.
Hm, typical reaction to going to Boulder, I suppose :P
Boo! I fear change.
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
I think your choice of Joel is a great one--I followed him from Giz to Defamer. Congrats to BB and to JJ.
Is it just me or is the entire right half of the page Yahoo advertisements?
Truly outstanding news... the perfect way to celebrate the new day rising from last night's eclipse.
Thanks, I really needed this.
Much less cluttered, I appreciate that. And the comments, too!
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.
Looks good guys, as with all redesigns, time to take a deep breath and give things a while to sink in.
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.
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.
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.
w00t!
...thought adblock or [shit!] surfcontrol at work was messing with boingboing -- so glad to see i'm wrong! redesign looks great!
Glad that BoingBoing has begun to embrace participation. Needs a little padding on the left side.
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.
I dig it! Nice, clean, easy to read.
Keep up the good work, fellas!
You'll get over it
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
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.
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! :)
Sadly my favorite site now looks like everything else out there....
To bad, to bad.
Besides that, keep up the good work.
Wow, BoingBoing has a site? I haven't looked at anything but the RSS feed in 3 years.
This is better. Not good enough - but better.
;-)
Hooray to You supernerds.
At least make the pogo-girl jump up and down like the last iteration when the page first loads. I miss that!!!
Oh my FSM, now I can say "I Love boingboing" on BoingBoing!
Also, nice design, and cool new blog (welcome Joel!). Thanks!
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.
Congrats to the whole team of people behind the relaunch -- the new site looks great! :)
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.
I like the basic layout. Not sure about the logo redesign, but maybe that will grow on me.
TNH as mod = w00t!
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.
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.
Yay! Go Boing Boing!
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.
Comments are back! Woot!
Nice, clean, and to the point. Looks like a winner to me.
Round of beers for everyone involved!
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.
Nielsen Hayden, not Neilsen Hayden
--Robert
Woot, 63rd! or so..
*social commentary here*
Hitler would have hated comments
/trifecta+godwin
Love the design! Simple and effected, with the focus on the content and comments. Well done!
Nice choice going with Joel! He'll be the cherry on top :)
Phew! Glad you guys were able to keep all your ad space with this totally radical redesign.
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.
Hello world!
Movable Type ? Pah.
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!
New Look: do no want.
Ugly font are ugly.
why cant hav beauty things?
Comments: do want!
I've been w00ting around in the archives, this is gonna be a blast.
The world will never be the same.
I'm very glad to see comments return here on boingboing :) Often the discussion around an issue or article is the most interesting part.
<3 minimalist design and the site loads a LOT faster. 6 hops traceroute and 9ms ping from work to BB.net yay!
Oh how I have waited for this day to come.
Woo Hoo!! gratz on the redesign, its a bit on the plain side, but it will be good for bandwidth!
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.
Let this please be the end of lolcatz and other juvenile posts. Boing Boing's normal spelling and grammar is bad enough.
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.
I like it!
~Clutch
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.
Hmm, looks much more generic-news-site-ish than before. Like a lot of personality was sucked out of the site.
Call me slow but i just found BBGadgets. Now i can add another boing to my BoingBoing. WOOHOO
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!
tuas litteras sunt difficiliores quas legam.
-- Crispinus
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.
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...)
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.
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.
I love boingboing! I had slightly more affection for it before it looked like this, however.
Nice and clean. Good job!
This is great. I always felt something was missing.
plagio, Rome. Italy.
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.
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.
Yay for stylish! Site looks much better to me in Tahoma.
Looks great! Simple and elegant. Links could use a bit of color...maybe the red tint from your logo? Congrats.
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.
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.
I have nothing to add, but that hasn't stopped anybody else from posting, so.... :)
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.
Serif fonts are bad, mmm-kay. Please switch to Helvetica or Verdana.
Looks good, although I wish excerpts from websites were smaller font (as before) or in some way discernible from the editor's comments
I'm insanely glad that comments are back. Awesome redesign too.
Glory be! Comments!
What - no rating system? And, no *markups*?
Congratulations on now looking like every other blog out there, I guess.
Excellent redesign. Love it.
Great design I love how easy and clean it is, the gadget section is great too.
Good job
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.
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.
Here's a comment: The RSS subscription link for gadgets.boingboing.net is broken.
It's also slow as sin.
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.
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!
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?
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.
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.
I'll agree with the others.
It's nice to have comments!
Awesome work, guys... Love the left-adjusted message bodies. Been hoping for this for a while now...
Looks great, peeps.
Woo! Hooray Boulder, I love this place!
-Andrew
Hzzh! Cngrtltns t Trs fr hr nw ppntmnt s mdrtr. knw sh wll d grt jb. ;)
Boing-Boing is Dead!
Long Live Boing-Boing!
Huzzah to all and to all huzzah!
-- SCAM
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.
You are even more fabulous today than you were yesterday!
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.
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.
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
@ 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.
Nice change, and as good looking in its own way as before! Keep up the good work.
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.
Whoa where is Eli and Stephan and Craniac?
To clean for boing boing, but comments are nice.
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? à bientôt, Malkie, Paris.
http://www.welcometowallyworld.com
great changes I hope the coments don't get all stupid but I know we can all play nice
I'm very happy about the comments. The ad column is huge. Please make it a smaller part of the page?
excelente noticia!
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!
Woo hoo, Boingers! Congratulations on Comments and Gadgets. In my book, the more Boing Boing, the better.
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.
I like it! Simple and balanced.
For those of us with old eyes could you make the font bigger?
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...
Are the feeds for gadgets.boingboing.net supposed to 404?
Excellent!!! Always wanted BOINGBOING to have comments enabled!!!
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
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.
Easier to read? I, for one, find it much harder to read. Hate the typeface. Bring back the old font!
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'.
Comments WOOT!
nom nom nom
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?
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Karl: "You should move the discuss link to underneath the article."
Already on the fix-it list.
(Current motto: We are approaching perfection ... incrementally.)
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"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.
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"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.
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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.
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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.
Onw