Notes on the Blog Re-Design

The blog is being redesigned by myself in conjunction with Russel Crawford. It’s being modernized and will be tweaked to perfection over the next couple of months. I’ve already reversed the comment thread stream from the template default of LIFO to the more conversational LIFO as was requested by various grousing users. I am keeping nest replies intact. The rest of the scheme will be changed as necessary. I want to thank readers for their input. Suggestions for cool plug-ins that you have seen elsewhere are welcome. The underlying name of the blog has been changed to the Dvorak News blog due to indexing engines seeing the blog as porn for using the word “uncensored.” The graphic will remain and it’s still officially DU or Dvorak Uncensored. It’s just that it will no longer be indexed as such.

Thanks for you patience.



  1. Skywyze says:

    How about an Android and iPhone app?

    • sargasso_c says:

      So long as they aren’t like the Twitter apps, slower than the web pages, yeah!

  2. t0llyb0ng says:

    As long as those damn italics are gone I’m happy with it.

  3. Mark Bucherl says:

    John, I hope things are well! Hope your blog is a hit with lots of white space and tiny icons that intuitively lead the reader though your meanderings. Miss Cranky Geeks. Has a new video forum phoenixed?

  4. NewFormatSux says:

    >reversed the comment thread stream from the template default of LIFO to the more conversational LIFO

    So what changed? Or perhaps you meant GIGO?
    Thank you. I’ll be here all night.

  5. laxdude says:

    The main left column splitting into two part way down turns me off completely. The right hand column is too wide and the main column column is too close to the left side of the page. I thought I liked a lot of white space…but there is too much. It looks like you are trying to stretch a paper by cranking it up to double spaced to hit the page requirement.

    I found the entire design so bad I deleted the bookmark from my quick link bar so rather than coming here the 3-5 times a day I was and now remember to come perhaps once or twice a week. Mind you, I was also using Adblock like a grease monkey script on the old design and had blocked a shit-tonne of ‘crap’.

    Design change for the sake of change rather than usability is as stupid here as it was on the Gawker sites that I still choose to go without.

    You should probably ignore what I suggest, I am a curmudgeon in his 30s who I suppose is now an ex-reader.

    • this makes no sense sense if you were coming 2-3 times a DAY. Ifso you could not care less about the split at the bottom since you’d be constantly caught up. We are not posting at a torrid rate.

      Also all the crap that had been removed by ad-blocker isnt here at all. You should be happy. This is not the kind of random complaining I seek. Furthermore the left column width is exactly the same as the original column posting width. This was done to accommodate 500-px photos.

      • laxdude says:

        I would prefer a long page than a compact page. It also looks ugly because it is not a hand coded split, so the spacing between columns doesn’t match up because of different length headlines, photo size, and paragraph length. The only way around this would be even more white space to balance one to another. It is a little like I am reading a newspaper from the 1880s.

        It would not be a problem with a single column. In the split column it will never look right unless some of the baselines match up between columns. It might be as simple as making the black line between the headline and picture/body on all three rows, rather than just the bottom one line up to the one beside it. Either hard code it, or make sure that every headline has the same line count.

        I like that lack of crap, I would still like more space between the left side of my browser window and the first column (the light blue). It turned out I hadn’t noticed that Firefox was enlarging the page. Now that I have reset it I don’t have as much as a problem. I would still hard code a minimum left ‘margin’ that is the same as width as the gutter between the main column and the full page right column.

        I would often come back to look at new comments, I just don’t see how splitting the main column into two does anything other than make it look ugly.

        The colours and white space, that I could get used to. Although I would probably drop the white space by 50% if I was doing it and the right column either needs to be trimmed or the line spacing tightened.

  6. dans says:

    Much better.

  7. EnemyOfTheState says:

    The damn cheap carbon paper is turning my fingers black reading this thing.

  8. ikelleigh says:

    I like where you guys are going with this, but I’m not a big fan of the pink-on-blue. I’ve been trying to bring back Brown in some of my design work. And with this blue, I would go with one of these two :

    #CC9966
    #996633

    Try it out if you have Firebug. Keep up the great work John. I miss Cranky Geeks too, but X3 works.

  9. sargasso_c says:

    I resubscribed in Google Reader and now (gratefully) have the new blog name in my list of preferred workplace reads. And FWIW i like the new.

  10. IntrepidExplorer says:

    Its fine, easy and quick to find what you are looking for, and no pretentious bloat.
    Oh, and I’m never patient.

  11. jim says:

    I like it so far John. Just don’t put that picture of you at the top with the eyes looking at me. That freaked me out last time.

  12. notatall says:

    JCD: Gotta agree with the anti baby blue/flaming pink complaint from noname. Retro would be cool…black screen with green text like the good old days of BBS and 8-bit machines. How’s that for a cranky old gen-x’er ?

    • Olo Baggins of Bywater says:

      That scheme is gone for a reason…it’s very hard to read.

  13. dusanmal says:

    Modernization – yes.
    Graphic design – what graphic design?
    Suggestion, tame the visual impact and increase contrast text/background. Articles themselves have this well done but comments are gray on off-white and “pink-on-blue” indistinguishable on gray scale…

  14. corvette_lady says:

    Quick suggestion:

    A sans font would be more pleasing to the eye than serif, IMHO.

    P.S., you should be on TWIT more often. Without you keeping the discussion grounded, it just seems like a bunch of young hipsters and a clown. Maybe I’m just getting old.

  15. steve says:

    appreciate the comment and update John,i visit many times a day.

  16. Grandpa says:

    I don’t care what it looks like. I’m sure I’ll get used to it. Just keep the good stuff coming! More, More, More!

  17. Holdfast says:

    Change the main text to black. Grey on white is not the easiest to read.
    A little bit bigger would be nice for those of us who are no longer 40 something. If not – that is what +Scroll is for.

    I would prefer less blank space. Perhaps half the space between comments.

  18. Ken in Berkeley says:

    John, thanks for keeping us updated. We know that you are trying to come up with the best functioning and best looking blog possible and that it may take awhile to get it perfect. So take all the time you need.

    I also hope that you have time to update Dvorak’s CAGE MATCH.

  19. Skeptic says:

    Reducing height of header… good.
    Making comment type gray… bad.

  20. DJ says:

    Humbug! What was broke that needed fixing? Change for change sake => too much time on your hands.

  21. Holdfast says:

    I just made a comment on another article and it seems that there is moe than just plain text entry here.

    I nabaged to put something in bold. What other controls do we have?

  22. Number6 says:

    I just wish when you get to the bottom of the main page you could click for more news, presented in the order that it was published…. If I want to show someone a story I know was here I cant find if unless I remember exactly the title…. C’mon sometimes “If it aint broke dont fix it” 🙁 Sod it….RANT the colors suck the site probably looks best on a 1280×1024 monitor and the columns layout looks weird… Man have you got an ex-HP CEO running the web design….. You may not change it but I feel better now….

  23. Hustler would rate the new design totally limp.

  24. chris says:

    Two things,

    First, on the older collapsed threads you ought to include a counter for posts. It would make it easier to see if a thread has gone dead.

    Second, replies to a specific post seem like they would be out of order( above older posts not being replied to). That makes it easier miss replies.

    The whole thing just seems very cumbersome. I’m not personally offended, but I really liked the absolute simplicity of the old system. It was easy to have group arguments where you could address multiple people about specific things they say.

  25. Thomas says:

    I also note that the RSS feed on comments to posts no longer exists but used to exist in the original design (i.e. prior to the pastels).

    I would also favor using black for the comment text instead of greys for readability.

    The general colors of pastel blue and pink reminds me of a nursery. Assuming that isn’t the intended subliminal message, I’d suggest a different color scheme would be nice.

  26. jpfitz says:

    Thanks for taking the time Mr. Dvorak to address your blog design change.
    You Blog is a favorite of mine.
    Keep on Blogging!

  27. GregA says:

    John,

    Thanks for engaging with us “patient readers” on the site redesign. Having already contributed 2 cents worth, I won’t repeat myself, but here’s a bit more to make it an even nickel. These are the two things to me that continue to represent major issues with functionality:

    1) Most important is the lack of an “older posts” button to allow scrolling back further beyond the posts that appear on the main page. As far as I can tell, content that doesn’t appear on the main page is inaccessible except through searching or clicking a category (which is a hit or miss proposition, and useless for pure browsing). While I am typically here at least once a day, there are times when travelling when I will be away from the site for as long as a week, and I like scrolling back. Even an Archive section that allowed reverse chronological access would be fine.

    2) Black text, at least for the bulk of comments or postings, is key. The grey comment text is really tough on my aging eyes. While I prefer a sans serif font, the font you’ve got isn’t bad

    Keep up the good work. The site is great!

  28. deowll says:

    okay. How many people recognized Roscoe “Fatty” Arbuckle in the picture?

    • Somebody says:

      From the right, I recognized Rush Limbaugh, B. Obama, and Osama Bin Laden.

    • Cursor_ says:

      I did and that Chaplin once appeared as a Keystone on just one film.

      The bulging eyed guy to the right of Fatty was Fatty’s nephew.

      Edgar Kennedy is in the back behind the police captain.

      He was the lemonade vendor in Duck Soup. He would often be cast for his anger expression.

      http://youtube.com/watch?v=XnRGQ88y3fc

      Cursor_

  29. Dave Koss says:

    My constructive crit –

    Redesigns can be done behind the scenes then launched when ready.

    Old design was easier to read for some reason.

    Don’t really like having to click to read more unless the article is very long (understandable)

    Like having a bunch of stories on one page like before.

    Don’t like the mess of story titles and the bottom.

    If I miss a few days, I like having a (previous page) button.

  30. Matt says:

    John,

    NoAgenda fan here. Redesign is looking good, but as a graphic designer I’d like to help out if you need it. There are quite a few things that could use tweaking – as well as that banner on the right side. I’d also like to have a shot at your logo for the blog. Let me know if you need help – thanks!


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