It's flat out gorgeous. And it has a look of permanence, like maybe you're thinking of being around for awhile.
That's good.

This is lookin good! The old blog (although great content wise), was a little too bare bones for me.
Now please don't "jump the shark"

Nope. Like most seikmori designs, it's very slow loading for those of us with dialup modems. Not everyone has broadband, ya know.

Bah. Another blog ruined.

The yes men will pile on, but trust me, guys, this new format just took you off the A list...

evrything evolves {except me spelling everything} it was just a matter of time before this great site became better....{at least no pop up adds yet} sure us old farts will now have to break out the bi focols {and i could include my own conspiracy theory here about optometrists and alan conspiriring together} but i wont.... evrything changes especially in war...the battle field is fluent, and lines are irrevelent...so should the COMMAND POST....viva la command post....sorry i said some french words did'nt i?.

Suggestions: Remove the left or right sidebar. I have 800x600 and the middle website component is just too small (thus the page length is horrendous).

Also, have a way to set "View __ Posts Max" on one page!

Alan, michelle...do you want I should take theese turncoats out and shoot them before the fireing sqaud?. wAHHHHHHHHHHH WAAAAAAAAAHHHHH ok enough already you all are starting to sound like FRENCHMAN.......

Baaad. I go to Command Post to get the latest war news at a glance. Think about how many clicks I now have to make to do so.

Also, don't use Tahoma. Use Times New Roman, it's easier to read.

Looks good, but I don't like the "intro" page.

Either default to the Iraq page, or shove a cookie that remembers the last main topic one selected.

Or (maybe even better) the toplevel should be a view of all the topics merged.

Some suggestions:

- allow cookie based customizations (low bandwidth mode - no graphics - look at slashdot as an example)
- bring back the box with one headline per line
- bring back the logo, the dude with the binoculars. This was your identitiy, stick with it.
- extra credit - "My Command-Post", totally configurable.

WAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Give me a while to get used to it. Like a new hair style on a favorite actress.

Test: do comments do italics or nold yet?

aby, put something in it. you're not funny.

Uh, feh. I know these things are hard and do evolve, but it doesn't look like an evolution for the good.

The left bar does nothing but since I do read left to write it is very disconcerting. The logo at the top gives the impression that soon there will be a command-post store where I can military themed cargo pants.

What would I rather see? A way to moderate stories/comments up and down. The ability to search comments. News for nerds and stuff that matters. Or something very farking different.

Seriously, I would like to see a submit this link/story ala kuro5hin.

But thanks for all your hard work.

Now that I think about it again, why not put all the stories together in one page again. One example, "war on terrorism". The war in iraq is part of this, then you have a post about Syria, under "war on terrorism", but the Syrian issue is tied to the "Iraq" issue.

Let's just put everything togthere, and then later as an extra, you could have people filter by other categories.

it's about time you put a story up about the new design. Now I can say it here as I have in other strings.
turn it back to normal!!! LOL

I suppose I'll get used to it, but the other format was better, conformed to the KISS system better.
(iss= Keep It Simple Stupid) not that any of you are stupid, it's just a saying I use when things get over engineered in my business.

Does this cost you more bandwidth?
For a while there, it was loading very slow.

Thumbs down, principally because of number of clicks to access Iraq news. maybe pretty, but I doubt I'm going to visit this site as often as I did before. I miss the immediacy of the old site.

damn people you didnt design the 1st command post nor this one....you either come here for the news being brought to you under one roof?, or you came here for what? ice cream? the news will still be the same think of it as a new girlfriend , sure she don't stick her tongue in your ear, but give her a week and she will be nevermind....i think u get my point?......

enough of this whineing, i like change, and i will still come here evryday until the WAR IS COMPLETELY OVER.....my attention span is longet than a 60 second comercial....i am loyal to the post.....alan if you come out with t shirts do i get one free?....

I can understand the need to catagorize things, iraq war won't be big news forever, but drop the left side panel, maybe just add a link for achives on the right. This small text is an eye killer for "old" people like Aby and I.

front page like is sort of is now, and click into the section you want, maybe links to other sections on top when your in a catagory, so you can click back without going back to the front page.

There will be, no doubt, many more countries in the news in the future, and this site must grow to accomidate them, but text base is so much better, no need for glitz

The news design is a trimuph of style over substance--awful!

Hint--I come to the site to read the stories. In the new design, the stories are less than 50% of the page area, and vast amounts of real estate are used for two columns of useless info. Even the individual story pages devote lots of space to blank grey columns on both sizes of the text.

PLEASE bring back the old design!!!!!!!!

Jim

prefer minimalistic websites, but either way the content is the same so its all good. Just like to to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved with this site. Its probably been my most visited site in the last month or so. So... thanks.

You PAID for this?

man, you can make this with an old netscape gold program in about a hour. you don't even need to know any html

AHA! REGIME CHANGE THE COMMAND POST!

Actually, I don't come in here for the format, I come here for the news.

But this is a bit harder to read, as the print is smaller. Using the 'view' menu doesn't enlarge the text, which isn't good.

Otherwise, who cares? Still the same links and info. Just will take a bit to learn the new controls. Dang, you'd think some in here had never traded in an old car for a new one.

BY THE WAY, go read David Warren's new column. OUTSTANDING.
(davidwarrenonline.com)

Great Web Design = KISS

Sorry, but I agree with many others here, your site just became less useful

I've travelled to a thousand blogs and back, and this was the best during the war because of both content and ease of use. you can't claim the latter anymore, oops...

Nice improved format,now that there is a variety of news items.Much appreciated source you are providing,keep it up.

I don't mean to be rude either, the look is changed, but not the value I hold for the content, or the people that work to keep the headlines as current as possible.

I live in a remote area, and command post has been my lifeline to news,
Many times I heard it first on command post. great job people.

LMAO
there is just no pleasing Aby....

yes, what the other post said, bring back the guy with the binoculars, it was kinda like a trademark.

And, I'm not as old as ABY I guess, I don't have bi focals yet, but I'm on the verge of needing them

What a bunch of whiny fuckers you people are. Waaah, the font is different, waaah I only have dialup (loser), waaah i have to make ONE EXTRA CLICK to get to the Iraq news page.

Guess what people? The site evolved. There is more news in the world now than just Iraq. Having a splash page to choose the latest news from is a perfect idea for a great site.

How is the content not still great? How is not still easy to use? Explain this one to me.

I don't like the new format, either. I'm reading a little center strip that goes for miles down the page, while the left and right side is totally blank.

Please revert back to the old version. It was simpler, easier to read, and straight to the point.

I don't recall anyone complaining about the previous format.

Yep... I am getting old too... I need to look for a good eye doctor tomorrow so I can get some glasses to read this small print....

I greatly appreciate this site and thank the creators very much. But one of the things I loved was it's ease of use (and I'm a database designer, so it's not that I can't navigate fancy stuff - I just don't like wasting time.) I have a 17 inch screen and the story is now about 1/3 of the width in the middle. I *really* don't like that part. Also, I live in the hinterland with dial-up, so it's taking forever to load.

Try again...redesign...warning....KISS violation.
Nice try though - almost ready.
glty

Dick,
I only have dial up as well, and even then, my phone company has to bounce off a chineese satalite, then to a russian one, and down to alabama to connect.

but thats not a problem, at least for my speedy 46666 connection, LoL, maybe its so fact because i live in an igloo and the conductivity in my pc is better due to cool running

Wow! This is great!

I have to say I agree with most of the comments; the site is now much less functional than it was.

The new site looks really good but since it is a change will take some getting used to. Somehow I found comfort in the simplicity of the site during the stress of current events. LOL! I also miss the original "logo". It was your identity! The title bar, though "pretty", seems to generic.

Having said all that, I *do* appreciate the site. I probably refreshed a million times in the last few weeks. Thank you!

Is the concept of "bookmark/Blogroll the Iraq news page" directly so hard to understand for some people? You're going to quit visiting a site often over that? Because quite frankly, if that's the case, I'm lost. And it's not just because I'm a natural blonde. I always head to the MSNBC gossip section each day, but darned if they don't accomodate me and put it right there on the front page because that's the way I want it.

This site just doesn't work without the guy and his binoculars. The 3-star motif is well executed, clean, and professional looking and I loathe it.

I vote for the return of the binocular guy.

Bah. This sucks. Time to find a new blog for quick updates.

MOE strikes again. (ministry of overengineering)

Michele, Alan

NEW FORMAT IS CRAP

I have been visiting your site for news - on the minute.

You are now editing the inputs, categorising - whatever.

Check out how many comments/responses you are getting. It looks like 20% max. of what this site has been receiving.

You are likely to lose much of your audience.

Which is sad - you have done an amazing job.

We are in Internet time. No kid - the original concept of CommandPost, news-on-the-minute, could be copied within days.

For example - links to CommandPostNew.

No kidding. get your act back together.

We loved it the way it was

I was shocked and overall not pleased by the new format.
1. slow to load
2. all down the middle with no real use made of columns on the sides.
3. smaller font absolutely makes it more difficult to read. This was designed by someone with 27 year old eyes?
4. I was lost until I randomly hit on the "Read More" tag. Need some help with navigation.

Overall, it's a change, but not an improvement. As has been said, "Just because you have a right doesn't make it right." -- fjd

Someone please tell me what is so hard about clicking this link http://www.command-post.org/iraq_index.html and then seeing all the Iraq posts?

I like this. I like being able to see what's new on the other pages right away rather than having to click them all on to find out.

Iraq is not the only story anymore. Get with the program, kids. Command Post has evolved as teh news has evolved. And isn't all about the content, anyhow? It's the same great coverage of news, minute after minute, hour after hour.

I don't think I'd leave over a design change, but they will prob. boot me off for some of the comments I make, LOL

it seems a command post spinners coffee room, (like this) is a good idea though

You didn't get 1.5 million hits because we were concerned about N.Korea or America's war on terror. You got them because this is the premier place to quickly catch up on the latest developments in Iraq.

Now, with the current design in mind, I want to ask, how does this redesign make finding the latest information on the war any better?

From what I see, the bread and butter of the site has been deemphasised in place of features that I have no use for. I don't need to search, I could care less about yesterdays news, and I surely don't want to hear about the wonderful opportunity to translate the page into 8 different languages. I don't want any of these new features if they make it any harder to *read news*. The 3rd column has got to go for it adds nothing the previous design didn't do, and it makes it only makes it harder to quickly see whats new.

... I know you guys have wild dreams of making this a great news portal, but don't forget why you are so successful.

Jeff, all that shit (search, translate, etc.) was there with the old design too!

The war in iraq is winding down. News isn't happening at a frenetic pace anymore.

If michele and alan want to take this into the future, they have to expand.

My god you people are picky.

aby, put something in it. you're not funny.

Posted by americanstreet at April 16, 2003 09:35 PM
niether are you you whineing fuck......what do you think they should kiss your ass about this site....shit i think your post name has went to your head....americanstreet? you watch to much tv, is that{your post name } supposed to be like american idol? or some such shit?....hell they pay the rent on this site and your a geust...fuck leave if u dont like it.....the web wont fail if your not on it.... and this site wont fail if you leave....oh and by the way
WAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
WAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
obviously you dont know how to use the scroll i have a number of posts ......

Well, I'll try to be nicer on the comments, considering what we pay for the service, even though I did hit the tip jar shortly after I found the site.

I do agree that the narrower news column isn't an improvement. One place that really needs work now is the area with links to other blogs. That's kind of a mess now with no clear delineation between lines.

People who just want Iraq news can simply adjust their bookmarks, so the title page isn't a big issue.

I guess a question to the owners is whether this site will exist temporarily during the war, or will it continue until the war on terrorism is won several generations from now.

If it's only a short-term project, I think the original design met the needs better. If the contributors have the ambition of doing this for years, the professional look is probably appropriate. A larger font is requested though.

Jen

Michele and Alan (God bless their cotton socks) are taking a great site to oblivion. Which is sad.

There are many, many other blogs out there. CommandPost had the lead, simple, go there to get the latest news etc etc.

All gone now. Plus many of the "mechanics" of the site are crap.

The new smaller font makes it really hard on us old farts with old eyes. I also liked the simplicity of the previous format. Less is more!

I like Command Post.

My $.02:

Go back to a 2 column format. 3 columns is too narrow, even at 1024x768.

Ease up a little on the eye candy. This looks beautiful, but is not as raw. The nicest thing about the Command Post was it's emphasis on Functionality over Form.

Too many categories - this can get out of hand. It's like a cost-accountant on chrystal meth. Don't separate Iraq / N Korea from the global war on terror - the issue is the US at war, with whomever (I think the enemies are all one and the same, but that's just my opinion). Separations for Op Eds should continue.

A better separator for individual comments would be nice.

Keep the new header, it looks good.

Include a chat room for the play-by-play. Although this is likely to happen less, during live battles and other live coverage, it has been thrilling to chat with others in real time as news breaks. Doing this in the comment section is difficult, and the thread can get buried as other news articles push it further down the list. Keep links to live streaming video, as well.

Lastly, the designer is brilliant. The site looks great. Our criticisms should be taken in context - the great layout and eye candy just doesn't work for this site. You have all done a wonderful job, please take these recommendations in the constructive manner in which they are intended.

Oh please people. Get over it. I think the new design is great. Keep up the great work guys!

My take:
Prettier and slicker-looking.
Less readable.
Utterly impossible to scan quickly.
Sluggish.

The day-by-day archives pages are considerably less reader-hostile than the main pages, but they also seem impossible to find on the main pages - I had to dig into the history file and hope that the URL format for these pages hadn't changed - which thank Gopod it had not.

(obligatory disclaimer: It's your blog and you can do whatever you choose with its design. You can shut it down tomorrow and nobody'd have a right to demand you didn't... but presumably you're doing this because you want it to be useful to people, and it sounds like the design change just made it considerably less useful for a lot of your readers.)

Overall, I like it. The text could be a bit bigger, I'm not wearing bifocals yet but I do spend all day, every day, looking at a comp screen and my eyes could use the rest. Def bring back the binoc guy. He Ruled.

Consensus seems to be that the old site rocked, due to its simplicity.

I would agree. While I appreciate the efforts of this new site, there was something wildly simplistic about the old site that plain'ol WORKED. It reminded me of the early days on the net.

I understand you guys would like to "appear" more credible with a more polished site, bit it really detracts from what made this site so wonderful.

Please reconsider, and/or set it up for people to view it in the old style.

I can read it fine, but I'm not wild about the graphics. The header is bland looking. I preferred the photo of the soldier looking through the binoculars. I think it's perfectly usable, though.

I can read it fine, but I'm not wild about the graphics. The header is bland looking. I preferred the photo of the soldier looking through the binoculars. I think it's perfectly usable, though.

The new design is fine. I probably would have stuck with the old one, but I'm also pretty lazy. :)

One thing: Please consider changing your CSS to set font sizes in relative units, like ems or percentages. That will ensure that the font size will be adjustable across all browsers and platforms. Easily resized fonts are very, very handy for those who have systems set at high screen resolutions (like me), or for folks with poor eyesight.

It may take some tweaking to get the relative sizes right, but I think many visitors would be grateful. The old template had the same problem, but now that you're changing everything anyway it's probably a good opportunity to fix it.

One other thing I just noticed. These comments all seem to run together when you're scrolling through them. A more prominent seperator between items than the little dashed underline beneath the author info would be helpful, I think. Like on the main page.

If there is one thing we need in times of turmoil, it is something familiar. Bring back the old design. We loved it. Good content doesn't need to be dressed up. It is a class act on its own.

What Bryan said: the new design is gorgeous and rocks the casbah, but please make the fonts resizable :)

For what it's worth, I love the new design! My only suggestion would be to return to a 2 column design, the news kind of gets lost in the center.

its awful. theres nothing to like about it. command post quickly hit the top of my blog link file of about sixty blogs, but now, its freekin ruined, its like new coke, anyone remember new coke? NO because it sucked. im sure you guys will stick with it though cause you dont want to step on the toes of those youve thanked, but god people, youve freekin ruined it.
it was sleek and mean and all business, like a shelby cobra or a m16, now its some freekin bloated slow busy heart break. i loved this place. passed the link to all my family, many whom are in the military, they all threw me cyber high fives.
i freekin hate it guys, now i have to begin the long search to replace it.
aint you ever heard not to fix something that aint broken ??

Ok, now that I've been browsing around the new site a bit more, I must say I miss some of the edginess of the original. I think that the narrow column width and smaller, non-relative font sizes do detract from ease-of-use.

Whatver you guys do, I hope you'll PLEASE keep Flash content off this site. Text rules.

I liked it better before, or more like this:

http://www.command-post.org/iraq_index.html

The new format is slow loading and unreadable. Bye, bye! It was nice while it lasted. Deleting you from my favorites list.

Sometimes I wonder what planet I am on. On my planet yesterday, the old format of the Command Post had smaller text, and was harder to read, all the posts were jumbled together, and the page scrolled forever. Now the font is larger -- or maybe Verdana (not Tahoma as someone said) just looks larger and cleaner --- and the column does not look too narrow on my 17" monitor set at 1024 x 768. And my screen needs cleaning, and my eyeglass prescription is about six years overdue for replacement. I thought the previous design of the site was more cluttered. But then again, that was on my planet.

My verdict: the site looks great now, and is much easier to navigate and read. But I am using a standard monitor and a mainstream browser at a common setting.

I just wanted to say that I like the format.

I find it clean and easy to read.

Sorry...I think my reaction to the new format falls in the negative column.

1. Many more clicks to get to the information.

2. Type is hard to read...how about a better font like a Times Roman, and please, please, a little larger.

3. Takes much longer to work thru the site to catch up...to me this sharply reduces the utility of the site.

This has been a great resource (many thanks), but I don't think this is just a "change is bad" reaction...it is pretty...just not as useful.

Don't like it, it seems somehow leftist to me.

Aby, you're obnoxious and thin skinned. And rude. Just cause our opinions are different doesn't give you the right to be nasty.

Alan/Michele/Sekimori/ScriptyGoddess-I like the new design, but as someone above pointed out, it doesn't work for what I believe is the purpose of the sight: the latest news delivered quickly. I have broadband, and I immediately noticed the delayed appearance.

I also agree with the comments about the three columns...too much wasted space.

Lastly, I also agree that the categories are too subjective--things that are Iraq related shouldn't be in the Terror category, etc. Perhaps multiple categories for posts that deserve it? I know MT can do that....

In the hopes that I can bribe you to get rid of one of the columns, and maybe consolidate some stories in multiple categories, I'm about to hit the tip jar.

Great work, and keep it up.
I am very grateful for what you are doing.

-Ron

I have been using your site as my main source of news since finding you a couple weeks ago. I've also recommended the site to quite a few people who now stop by here on a regular basis. It's a great site and I appreciate the tremendous effort on your part, but I have to say I liked the old design better. To me, this site's appeal was it's simplicity--not that I can't navigate the web. I liked being able to quickly scan the headlines and catch the latest news from wherever it was happening, all on one page. The old design especially appealed to me as a SAHM with little free time to spend online. If I found a spare minute, I could read the headlines and be back to another task without having to expose my children to the television news. Please consider getting rid of the categories. Also, I'm another person stuck with dial-up, and the new design loads pretty slowly on my computer.

I have been using your site as my main source of news since finding you a couple weeks ago. I've also recommended the site to quite a few people who now stop by here on a regular basis. It's a great site and I appreciate the tremendous effort on your part, but I have to say I liked the old design better. To me, this site's appeal was it's simplicity--not that I can't navigate the web. I liked being able to quickly scan the headlines and catch the latest news from wherever it was happening, all on one page. The old design especially appealed to me as a SAHM with little free time to spend online. If I found a spare minute, I could read the headlines and be back to another task without having to expose my children to the television news. Please consider getting rid of the categories. Also, I'm another person stuck with dial-up, and the new design loads pretty slowly on my computer.

I liked the simplicity and the edginess of the old site. Regardless, I still appreciate the content very much.

Ditto Comments: Johninlondona, Cowboy Bob, Bill Beeman, & Sue. I'm slooow dial-up (from the edge of nowhere)....but I'd tab The Command Post at an almost constant reload! Now it's a bitch to reload, so off to more productive headline hunting grounds. (Damn, I have to ask my kids for reccos on blog sites!).

Aby, you're obnoxious and thin skinned. And rude. Just cause our opinions are different doesn't give you the right to be nasty.

ron you pencil dick little twat.....
free speech gives me the right to be thin skinned , obnoxous, and nasty.....as long as i am not threatening or violent....funny your the only one who took offense....so who is thin skinned....i think you should take a GOOD look at my post name MORON....its ABBY NORMAL...does that tell you anything?. evedentaly not. i really could give a shit what you say to me it does'nt bother me in the least....i may be all those things ...NOT....lol...i just love to put the needle in peoples asses like you....lol

Use a news reader for the RSS feed if you just want quick headlines on Iraq (download.com has a bunch of news readers). Then you needn't worry about loading times.

I personally find no fault with the layout. Two columns might be better though, since this text space seems a wee bit small. But aside from that, it's all good. :)

If it's not broke , don't fix it.

WMD! Weblog Mostly Destroyed!

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

The content remains top-notch, which is the most important quality, of course.

It would be nice if one could enlarge the font, though that would make for a longer scroll.

It loads very slowly on modem.

And Dick, folks who throw around the epithet "loser" are rude. Your whole post was rude. Get over yourself

Now now Aby, be nice, or Igor may put your brain back in the pickle jar.

Been around since Day 1. The site has evolved. Agree with the comments of going to two columns and bringing back the old logo. This site has been great! I will continue to contribute to the jar and patronize this site.

This is sort of a "New Coke" thing. I liked the "Classic" better. The new version is very corporate-styled and pretty but that seems to miss the point. Content is still great though!

I have no problem with the way it looks (in fact, it looks nice; simple, clean, straightforward for a graphical design), the load time even on a 56k modem and a 64k fixed connection (depending where I am), the font type or size, or the resolution to which it's oriented.

But I suspect most people wanted first and foremost to get to the Iraq section without an extra step, making the UI change a classic anti-Cooper move. That was my initial reaction (accompanied with an "eeeww" aloud, but a mild one). My only thought is (apart from "hey, whaddaya want for nothin"), what about someday, perhaps real soon, when Iraq is NOT the foremost priority? What then? So in that regard, a central launch point makes sense, and sections can be added if there are other conflicts or issues inherently large enough to merit their own separate area.

The best UI design of all worlds would be to allow people to set a default if they wish. Then again, if people feel strongly, they can just bookmark the direct URL to whichever section they prefer. End of problem for them, and no hoop jumping required by the folks who've so generously brought us this site.

Ultimately, I don't think there's a big need to get excited about it.

The new format serves what is important: content. Without organization into distinct topics pages a lot of content on important issues like Korea or the War On Terrorism was lost in a linear flood.

People hate change and people love grousing, that's always the case. I say good work, the new format is perfect for content, and from a visual standpoint simple yet elegent.

On the loading speed issue, I spoke too soon. I hadn't paid a lot of attention before, when I took a look at the main page at the same time I brought up a bunch of other pages (so by the time I got to it, it had long since loaded), and then the Iraq page loaded okay. A while ago when I clicked one of the other pages (opinion maybe) I had to wait forever.

I normally won't notice, because I open a bunch of sites at once, read the first one that finishes loading (usually A Small Victory, ironically, and formerly Command Post), close that window and go through the others. Anything slow gets looked at last. Of course, I slow it even more by opening a series of sites before I start reading, but it's all relative.

Command Post was also good as a fast loader because it's updated so often that by the time you've read a few posts, you might want to hit refresh and see if there are new ones at the top.

On a second look at the main pages and the way navigation is setup, I decided I really do like it, much more than I thought I did at first.

Last comment, really. I decided to measure to get a feel of perception versus reality. On a 56k modem connected at 45.2, about normal, no other traffic at the time, from clicking the link on the main page to being loaded took:

Iraq: 23 seconds
Op-Ed: 33 seconds
N. Korea: 15 seconds
Global: 12 seconds

By comparison...
A Small Victory: 10 seconds
Ain't Too Proud to Blog: 12 seconds
Instapundit: 32 seconds
Lileks: 4 seconds
Little Tiny Lies: 10 seconds
NoodleFood: 11 seconds
Rachel Lucas: 3 seconds
Scrappleface: 13 seconds
Sofia Sideshow: 8 seconds
VodkaPundit: 10 seconds

Totally unscientific of course. And I'd imagine bandwidth and traffic on the hosting end might affect things. Just thought it might be interesting to compare.

32 seconds for InstaPundit...? I've had DSL for over a year now, and I guess I've forgotten the dial-up experience, but 32 seconds sounds longish to me...

Yer html-pro ain't... only works to satisfy IE, screw the netscape folks. Bad policy - cuts a lot of viewers out. I won't be back much until that shortcoming is fixed.

Caveat clicktor: The Main links on each story are somehow broken.

Click on a Main link in Mozilla or IE and you get a blank page.

Excellent job!

Jeneane summed it up:

"Prettier and slicker-looking.
Less readable.
Utterly impossible to scan quickly.
Sluggish."

She's right.

THE STORIES: The center column is crowded. The lines around the stories make it seem more crowded still. If the stories are in italics, then the lines are redundant. If they're already separated by lines, then the italics are redundant. Why do we need both?

THE HEADLINES: There's a line skipped between the headlines and their link; this makes the eye stop twice, where a quick scan requires it stop only once. Maybe make the headline itself the link?

And the date/time line blends into the headline. Maybe put date/time in non-bold text.

Basically the way I read is: scan the headlines, then read the excerpts that interest me. If I can't scan the headlines I can't use the site.

The big fat type in the comments is missed.

Also War on Terror and Iraq should really be the same section. Saddam payed Pali bombers after all.

I'm not so pissy that I'll leave in a huff or anything, but it is less handy than it was.

Another thing on the excerpts. Why do they need to be centered?

You're currently using three ways to differentiate the excerpts: lines around them, text in italics, and centering. Each one of these makes it a little harder to read, and all three together is bigtime overkill. Pick one of these three and can the other two.

Hell, you could get the job done merely by using a serif font for the titles and a sans serif for the excerpt, or vise versa. Less is more, you know?

And I just noticed that the comments all run together. Maybe a line between them, maybe smaller text for the signature line, whatever. It's a jumble the way it is.

You'll work it out.

You site was great because of its simplicity. Now,
instead of looking like a blog, it looks more like a
"for-profit" site.

Also, the navigation, and the extra frames reduces the attractiveness of the site.

I hate to pile on, but after having given my first reaction of "EWW!" time to settle down and having spent last evening and much of the morning "test driving" the new design, I'm afraid I'm firmly in the New Coke camp. :-(

I went to school for Communications Design, and spent hour after hour in the "form versus function" debate. Both are important, and need to be balanced, but in the end *function* really must take precedence. That is, the form must not be allowed to compromise the end utility of the product, no matter how visually appealing that form may be.

In this case, the form *is* visually appealing. The color scheme is subtle and sophisticated, the overall design sleek, uncluttered and clean. These are positives. But your overall function is to provide large chunks of textual information in an easily digested format, and this new form hinders that mission. Fully half of your available screen width (at any resolution--your scalability seems to be functioning excellently) is reserved for non-mission critical use in sidebars. This pushes your primary offering--the textual content--into a thin center ribbon that is far less reader-friendly than your old format. The message this design conveys is that your content doesn't merit the space it previously took up. I disagree with that message vehemently. :-)

Another problem I see is that the form should also convey a message about the *philosophy* or *character* of the product provider. For example, everything about the Target retail chain is trendy and edgy, while Wal-Mart goes for folksy and simplistic. These two chains have very different "personalities", and all of their packaging--ads, displays, store design, etc.--reflects those personalities.

This new format looks very corporate and professional and slick. It makes me wonder when the sponsorship ads will pop up. Your old design lent your content a certain...authenticity, if you will. Part of the appeal of blogs is that they are NOT part of the so-called mainstream media. They're independent, almost anti-corporate. Yes, there are expections, but in general, it is their place outside of the mainstream that makes blogs popular. A sleek, professionally designed interface sends the message that you're more concerned with being taken seriously not by the readership who made you popular, but with the suits in Big Media. You've lost your gritty, edgy, vox populi appeal.

I'll still check here for headlines, but I can't help feeling a bit saddened. It's like having a favorite hole-in-the-wall bar that's been written up in a big magazine and suddenly feels the need to get out crisp linen and fine china to impress all the "tourists" who start coming in. The food's the same, the waitresses are the same, but it just feels different, and you don't feel right coming in with grungy jeans and old sneakers any more.

Any website is *always* a work in progress, and I do hope you'll consider some of the user feedback here as you move forward. Thanks as always for the tremendous personal effor a site like this requires. I'm not unaware of what that must entail--even a bimonthly ezine such as I publish takes more time than I can comfortable come up with, and something like this is many orders of magnitude more demanding. I'm grateful to have a site like this to use and enjoy, and am very happy to see it getting the recognition it deserves.

Sorry, I have to agree that the new format is harder to read. In particular:
- smaller type
- 3 columns vs 2 columns
- horrible boxes around quoted text

Plus, before, I could hit refresh, and then abort the transfer early, just to get the latest articles. I can no longer do this, and it makes it harder to get breaking news.

I have a 21 Inch monitor and a full T-1 connection.

So, for me, it r0x0rz!

Great job guys, very much appreciated this last month!

PS. I think all the people complaining are anti-bush commie pinkos who hate America and think NPR is a bastion of fairness and bulwark of truth. NO NEW CP FORMAT FOR OIL!

After living with it for a while I also agree that the new format isn't as nice. I'm using a laptop, and right now I see this narrow strip of text occupying about 1/3rd of the browser window, surrounded by two gray bars. Total waste of usable space.

I wouldn't mind if the sidebars actually added something useful, but there's no way anyone can claim that lots of empty gray area does *anything*. It doesn't even look particularly nice.

I really liked the look of the old site. It was distinctive in its emphasis on function over form, a trait to be commended in the world of "American Idol" and "CNN: We Lie Just for You".

Bah! All this bickering about design! Everyone should be using a newsreader ... so I'm just wondering where, oh where, is the RSS 2.0 news feed for this site? Please? Pretty please?

is there no way to ban this aby normal idiot ??