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Hi guys. I’m going to have to step away from this for a few hours, but just thought I’d give you an update on where we are with some of your comments on the redesign:
Re: the comments section
- The pink lines are gone for the moment, but I think I’ve fixed the spacing/padding issues. (Hopefully?) I have a pending question at a tech forum for how to make the first level comments stand out more. If anyone is handy with CSS and can figure it out, I’d love to hear from you.
Re: the fonts:
- I’m bummed to hear that you guys don’t like Arial, which I actually chose because a number of fairly big news sites — including The Wall Street Journal — use it for their main body font. I’ve made the kerning a bit wider, but let’s try to live with it for a few days and see how we’re feeling.
- I’m also surprised to hear that anyone misses the old logo, or thought the one in Courier was more professional. The current font, called Whitney Condensed, was designed by my friend Tobias Frere-Jones for the Whitney Museum. I thought it struck a great balance between being legible, bold, professional, but still friendly. (I was kind of expecting more pushback on the cursive font, a free one called Lover’s Quarrel. Is that still rendering in Comic Sans for anyone?)
Re: the ads:
- Didn’t add any new ones, honest, or make the current ones bigger. I suspect it’s a layout issue (padding or margins or some such), and will look into it as soon as possible (but I thought the comments section was a much, much higher priority today).
Thank you for your patience, guys. Change is hard, but I really felt it was time for it for the site.
CW
Kat, you’re doing a great job, and thanks for being so responsive! I’m using IE, and the comments look odd to me (maybe because they’re centered in the page, rather than left aligned), and it would be great if we could get some sort of thin line around the comments that separates original comments from comments/replies. I’m not sure if I’m articulating that well, but a standalone comment without a reply would have a thin box the size of the comment and a comment/reply thread would have a larger box that expands to fit the size of the thread. But don’t bring back the pink lines!
Good luck with all the changes!
AmyRenee
The text/commenting section looks wider to me today, which I prefer. Maybe I’m just crazy, but it seems better. IE 8, for reference
Anonymous
There’s a space appended after every name before the colon in the message header like this one-
Diana Barry :
Kat, I dont care about the ads and such, but please fix the beginning of the message threads. I always keep corporette open at work but make the window small so that people dont think am spending a long time reading non-work stuff. Having a hard time trying to locate the beginning of this post.
This said, we love you. This is just a feedback to the changes you’ve made to the site. This is no criticism whatsoever.
Kanye East
Kat: Thanks for reading and considering commenters’ input. I think the comment section is looking *much* better than it did on day one of the redesign.
Commenters: Thanks for not flouncing and turning the redesign into Gawkerpocalypse 3.0.
Dessert Doctor
Although I generally can’t handle change, I actually like the new look of the site, overall. I have no objections to Arial, and the new logo is fun — which fits with my mental schema of this blog as being fun *and* really informative. I also have to commend you, Kat, on how incredibly responsive you have been to all the issues with the comments section. Your modifications have made it a lot easier to read as compared to the initial roll-out. Thanks so much for your hard work on this site!
anon
I like the entire redesign. Much more professional logo, too.
CC
The discussion of font has come up for me recently in a few contexts at work. Thought I’d pass along this NYT article about how people react to fonts and tend to “trust” the content more or less depending on the font. http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/08/hear-all-ye-people-hearken-o-earth/.
eastbaybanker
The font isn’t the problem. The logo’s scale and weight are too large/heavy for the subtitle. The logo also overwhelms the headers (Home, About, Contact, etc). Try scaling the logo down by 10-15%, and then increase the kerning (the space between the letters) of the logo. I really think everyone complaining about the font will like it once you adjust the proportions. Any font looks a little off when it’s too big.
Also, in Explorer the G in overacheiving is being sliced off at the bottom. It’s hardly visible but should be fixed.
I hope this helps. I’m summoning all those years editing the high school paper!
Coalea
Nice job, Kat, addressing everyone’s comments and concerns about the comment section. I think it’s much easier to read thanks to the changes you have made.
I really like the addition of the large arrows that let you navigate to the next and previous posts … but am I the only one who thinks it should be right hand arrow = next / left hand arrow = previous? (I liken it in my mind to flipping pages in a book…)