Excuse my dust
DMZ · February 20, 2007 at 5:41 pm · Filed Under Site information
I’m working on something (obviously)
If you want to play with the different themes, there’s a picker on the left-hand side. Please keep in mind that I’m at work in public, so “x looks like ass” is not helpful, while “x is a nice feature” is. Thanks.
– update: done for now
Comments
USSM uses and recommends
img tags! Oh the insanity
I really like the style on the block quotes (and the real-time spell-checking in the post).
I like the new look…..
I liked the easy access to the archives while it lasted (that’s more useful to me the links to recent comments)….
The transaction guide is a great thing too… how about the ealuating defense and evaluating pitchers??
Anyway, cool… new stuff.
Holy crap, that thing’s not supposed to be up there.
Also, I know the speed sucks
I think I like the layout– but it hates my screen size, so that all the items at the top of the page are laying on top of one another….
In the fade to blue theme the top banner just says 4null4.de in my firefox browser.
Listing off every month of archives really isn’t that useful and takes up far too much screen real estate.
Comments seem to only be in “true blue,” and then when you go back to the main page, it stays in “true blue,” even if you were in something else to start.
You guys often have long posts, so I find “simply blue” much better than the others, since it allows the text to stretch wider across the window.
Also, blogs/websites with dark backgrounds, like “back in black,” seem amateurish to me. Maybe its because I’m used to reading news sites with white pages, but still, it seems more like a myspace page with the black background.
Agreed on the listing every month of archives – doesn’t add all that much and does take up a lot of space. I mean, can’t you get to the same content either through the search box (useful; it would be on the screen always despite scrolling in my book) or the calendar forward/back?
I like the looks of the back in black and find it most readable. I like the way that the spellchecker and ‘main’ choices stay on the screen all the time despite scrolling on the 4null4de basic scheme – though I’d personally choose other things that might be more important to stay on the screen (like the search box as indicated above).
I do like the ‘by DMZ’ lines to follow the article instead of at the top as it appears on the current (well, before you started screwing around with it) site. That way, I can read all the stuff without any preconceived notion based on who wrote it, and it can be a sort of game as to how many sentences I read before I figure out which author posted it (okay, not MUCH of a challenge admittedly, but I get bored easily…)
I like the ‘follow comments on this article thru rss feed’ option; that’s nice. But I very much miss the ‘add my light’ as ‘post comment’ is just so … blah.
The site-remains-in-x-mode may be a caching issue, I’m looking into it.
The arrangement of particulars on the side is… yeah, if you remember, I ripped out that chunk of the last template pretty quickly, too, and I’d do it here but I’m more fighting people pounding on the site than I am feature-testing.
Not the black theme, please.
I like the new theme, especially the ability to load the comments inline.
I think all it needs is a Mariner logo in the top left corner, or some funny picture…seems kinda blank up there.
I’m not a huge fan of the comments being consigned to pages intead of just a long list. I don’t especially enjoy paging through different screens.
Nice work. I haven’t checked out all the schemes yet, but can tall you right now taht the light text on white background in 4null4.de is difficult to read.
Also, will you server be able to handle the traffic when the M’s sweep the A’s in their first home series?
Nice! Having the archives handy is good. One thing you may not have noticed: the time display could use some tweaking. “7:02 pm o’clock”?
By 2010 we’ll have upgraded a few more times.
there’s a clock?
Where as, my light sensitive eyes like the black theme.
um, where on the left hand side? am I just not seeing the picker?
Depends on the theme, as to where the picker is. Took me a minute to figure that one out.
ok, this is really pathetic, but how are you selecting the theme, and hence the picker? I just have the screen that magically appeared when I refreshed early this evening….
oh, and duh. the clock is in the comment. never mind on that whine.
Bill Stoneman thinks the Ms are going to be a lot better this year.
AHAHHHHHHH!!! NOOOO BOOO BRING THE OLD ONE BACK.
Thanks,
Corco.
From the ussm home page, there should be something labeled “Skheme Switcher” or something (this template’s originally german, though you’d think that would be named UserSchemeSwitchingMenu instead). The switcher doesn’t show up on article pages. Sometimes.
Cough.
Yeah, thanks Corco, the next time I need my lawn mowed I’ll be sure to put a post up that says “please don’t mow my lawn”
If you really have to change the theme (the old one was like the National Geographic magazine, or the Levi’s logo. Something that was perfect. Evolutionary is good, but revolutionary is not), I like the default one I got when I first loaded. Cleaned up a litt,e it would be pretty sick
Don’t worry about that stuff yet.
All hail the return of the archives. Not sure what the calendar is for. I like this search function better. Searching comments is nice, but 95% of the time I want to search, I’m looking for a post.
Tabs at the top of the page are a nice feature. Having that stuff on the sidebar worked, but putting some of it on top is somehow more pleasing to me.
I’m not a fan of separating comments into different pages, and I don’t like big headers between comments. The more comments I can see on one screen, the better, especially if people insist on referring to comments by number. (Also, the whole referring to comments by number combined with comments on different pages would be exceptionally annoying.)
ok, switching over to Mozilla made things much happier. It was Simply blue that refused to change on IE, and whose page overlaid itself.
of the choices, I say True blue .. and, like Marbledog, Back in black is at the bottom of the preferred list.
Is it possible to do an expandable box or scrolling box for soemthing like the archices, which are useful, but do take up a lot of space?
I really like the simple text comments.
Edward Tufte, that guru of graphic design, says a web page should have at least 85% of the real estate occupied by content and no more than 15% occupied by navigation and other stuff. Some of these themes have more than 1/3 occupied by navigation — way too much for a site like this that has a ton of content.
oh, and obviously, switching to Mozilla really wrecks my typing ability.
One other thought, depending on your issues–if you’re open to changing blog software, you could try Bloo, which seems to be working really well (in beta) for another blog I frequent.
I would say that I’m open to changing blog software, but I… I would say that moving USSM would be a substantial undertaking, and I’d need to check off a lot of boxes before I thought about it.
I would not, for instance, move to MT despite it having what I consider a clearly superior fundamental operating model for high-traffic sites.
The inline comment option makes it possible to view all comments on the same page. Unfortunately when you go to respond it brings it back to separate pages. I agree with most others on the difficulty of going through those pages.
I do think the display of the actual posts might be even better than the predecessor’s (which I happened to like a great deal). The slightly larger font helps, and it just seems a bit more clear in general. One thing I did prefer from the previous one was a bit more greyish color, since the excess white/bright is a bit straining (to my eyes, anyway).
One oddity with this template, although it probably doesn’t do too much from a current reader’s standpoint, is that it doesn’t (yet) display the topic in the title. New readers and SEs might be a bit confused though.
Anyway, looks interesting, and I’ll check out a little more of the site. Thanks for the neat update.
back in black is easier on my eyes too.
I like the inline comments, but a bigger graphical seperation between the last post and the next topic would be even better.
keep it up.
-nate
Points:
1. I like the more readable fonts in comments now.
2. Some of the blue themes seem to be minor variants of one another.
3. I would suggest an ever-so-slightly darker background, the current background renders somewhat too bright on my firefox browser.
4. I very much like the integrated spell checker in the comment editor.
5. Posting the Mariner’s schedule in the sidebar would be a good addition.
Thanks for all the effort you put into the site. It is a pleasure to read and superior to the typical dreck in the local papers.
wow, i hate that it didn’t bring up all the comments on one page, but instead makes me click on page 1, page 2, page 3, page 4. eww.
Comment paging concerns have been noted.
derek- as long as you are updating the site, you should put up a link for recommended readings for new guys or people looking for refreshers (like the post explaining how ERA and WHIP aren’t sufficient for evaluating pitching). you could include previous posts as well as outside reading. i’d say there is a strong to very strong chance you’ve already done this, and if that’s the case, let me know where the link is, otherwise that’s my suggestion. thanks.
Hey DMZ, I know I recommended this style, but I actually switched off of it to. True Blue which is a scheme for K2. Its much nicer, in my opinion.
Website for True Blue
http://stevelam.org/projects/trueblue/
Website for K2
http://getk2.com/
Stick with the old theme.
K2 (and hence True Blue) works on wordpress 2.0 and above.
Ok I’ll stop now. This is my testing blog if you would like to see K2 and true Blue in action jdtest.110mb.com, there is only one post there so its not a good representation of what it can do. However you can link to things in tabs uptop like you can with this one.
The host for my test blog is free, and hence sucks, so it will be slow.
See, now here’s the problem, I’d never thought of using K2, and now I have to go figure out what the pros/cons are blah blah blah.
The old theme isn’t Wordpress 2.0+ friendly, unfortunately.
The new look could use some frames, scrolling text and an embedded MIDI. You know, to take us back to the glory days of the Mariners. The M’s haven’t done too well in these gradient-heavy days of the Web 2.0 aesthetic.
Actually, comment paging should reduce the demand on the server during intense game (or OMFG-they-traded-whom!?) threads, since most people will tend to be viewing just the latest page which won’t require (re)generating the entire thread. However, that may be moot if Wordpress 2.0 is more performant anyway (I don’t use it, so I have no idea). But this is really a mismatch of tech to task for the gamethreads anyway (which scream out for a more dynamic mechanism that merely pushes updates rather than re-rendering the whole thead).
With regard to the spell-checker: everybody does know you already get that for free (in any textarea input on any webpage) with FireFox 2.0, right? Of course, names like Betancourt aren’t in there by default…
RE 49
That’s one of the reasons I liked the layout he had up for a short time, and also the K2 layouts. They use ajax live commenting. AKA a more dynamic mechanism that merely pushes updates rather than re-rendering the whole thread.
Or are you meaning something else? I would think, and have read elsewhere that AJAX used in such a way should reduce server load, but I’m not entirely sure how useful it would be for something like USSMariner.
It works for digg.com though, so I’d think on this scale it should be fine.
I must be a massive idiot because I can’t see any way to change the theme.
We had a package of themes up last night. Don’t sweat it, the trial’s over.
Yay!
Oh, it’ll be back Corco. Don’t you worry.