New Site Design

Unless you're reading this post by RSS, you should be looking at my new site design, which I spent the past week working on. My design skills aren't that great, but I'm hoping it's an improvement over the old design. One of my main objectives was to emphasize that the site isn't just a blog and forum, but also has a large archive of info about hoaxes throughout history. Which is why I put the new archive links front and center.

One feature you may not notice immediately: when you load the site you'll currently see either a pair of jackalopes or nessie to the right of the main banner. I've set it up so that random images will load in this place -- and clicking on the images will take you to the article about whatever hoax they represent. I just need to make some more images to add into the random rotation.

Miscellaneous

Posted on Sun Aug 28, 2011


Comments

Overall I like the new design. My only comment is that the top banner is too large (it takes almost 50% of the vertical width of my laptop screen) with the top part rather empty. Together with the timeline below it, this means that over half of my screen is taken by the website banner & menu (instead of main page content). Which really is too much.

Since the only thing there is the small banner for the MoH sister site, I suggest placing that somewhere else, so that the top of the screen coincides with the top of the Museum of Hoaxes banner. This reduces the vertical with by 50%.
Posted by LaMa  on  Mon Aug 29, 2011  at  05:49 AM
LaMa -- I'm guessing the google ad in the top banner didn't load for you, or you're using ad blocking software. Because the part you're talking about eliminating is exactly where the ad should be appearing. It would be nice to get rid of the ad, but if I did that the site would go from breaking even (I've neglected it too long for it to actually make a profit), to being a large financial drain, which I couldn't afford to maintain. So the ads have to go somewhere.

The ads are definitely the hardest element to design around. They're big and ugly. I can't just tuck them out of the way somewhere, because that would defeat their purpose. But on the other hand, they allow the site to exist.

Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Mon Aug 29, 2011  at  06:31 AM
I should add that I'm considering eliminating the ads for anyone who's logged in. It's fairly easy to do with the new setup. There are so few members, it wouldn't make any financial difference, and I don't want people who know me to click the ads anyway. So it would prevent you all from doing that. I've already done this in the forum.
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Mon Aug 29, 2011  at  06:50 AM
Looks great, but I kinda miss the "recent comments" link.
Posted by Fred in na gadda da vida  on  Mon Aug 29, 2011  at  02:57 PM
The software upgrade killed the recent comments page. I'm trying to figure out how to get it working again.
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Mon Aug 29, 2011  at  03:24 PM
Well, the old link still works...
Posted by Smerk  on  Tue Aug 30, 2011  at  04:39 AM
The difference is that the recent comments page used to be paginated, so that it showed every comment ever posted on the site. The new software can't handle that. Also, it used to show every new comment on the site, from wherever it was posted (old forum, top 100 april fool list, etc.). Now it can only show comments posted to the main blog.
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Tue Aug 30, 2011  at  06:15 AM
Alex, I indeed use an ad blocker - like most people using Firefox 😉

I noted you did something meanwhile, because the banner now is now taking sligthly less vertical space.
Posted by LaMa  on  Tue Aug 30, 2011  at  01:58 PM
I made the top google banner disappear for anyone who's logged in.
Posted by The Curator  in  San Diego  on  Tue Aug 30, 2011  at  02:31 PM
Easy on the eyes, clear and aesthetically pleasing layout. I like it a lot better than the old one. Good work
Posted by Tobester  on  Tue Aug 30, 2011  at  07:05 PM
I like the new layout muuuch better than the old one. It's a huge improvement. :D
Posted by Sakano  on  Thu Sep 01, 2011  at  08:17 AM
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