Ballou HS Rocks the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
Morning Roundup: Black Friday Edition
Photo of the Day: November 27, 2009
Caps Thankful for Varly in 2-0 Win
Thanks to This Week's Advertisers
So, District and environs: How do you like me now?
DCist got a makeover, as you can plainly see from the edgy streamlined template and abundance of Web 2.0 texture. What you might not realize is that the backend also experienced an upgrade this weekend, and the tremors from the seismic shift to Movable Type 4 continued to ripple through the site even this morning. Naturally this has led to a few aftershocks, and the editors appreciate your considerable patience.
But what about your tolerance, readership, for the new and unfamiliar? Are you flocking to RSS readers to disguise the new presentation or have you fallen in love all over again with the site for its new look and feel? Tell us what you like and don't.
No Sleeping in Libraries: Because D.C. Public Library system branches are so absolutely overwhelmed by patrons, officials made the decision (more in sadness than in anger, no doubt) to banish sleeping in the library. The Washington Post reports that under the new dispensation, patrons will also face limits on the bags they bring into the library. Having taken steps to eliminate their primary bag-carrying, nap-taking demographics — students and the homeless — librarians are freer than ever to serve the interests of amateur genealogists. Legal eagles may be led to wonder: Didn't the courts strike down DCPL's prior effort to eliminate the twin scourges of academia and indigence, when the library tried to ban the stinky? See Armstrong v District of Columbia Public Library for the precedent.
Christmas Spirit Still Lingers in Maryland as Christmas Lights War Twinkles On: WTOP notes that one Frederick, Maryland homeowner remains steadfast in her resistance to her homeowner association's demands that she cease and desist her Christmas lights display, facing down a $25 per day penalty for every day they remain up. Debra Sachs persists with the help of well-wishing neighbors, Christmas-loving strangers, and fans of Enlightenment-era property-rights philosophers everywhere. Really, with just a few more days until the traditional date that folks take down their Christmas lights (that'd be New Year's Day), the Frederick homeowner association runs the risk of transforming Sachs into that monster that homeowner associations dread most: the person who doesn't take down her Christmas lights at all.
Briefly Noted: River Road still closed . . . Cable fire cuts power to some Northwest neighborhoods . . . D.C. area enjoys unseasonable warmth . . . Mother charged with stabbing of daughter found in burning house . . . Redskins free agents hope to stay in Washington despite poor NFC East performance.
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I don't like that it is centered on my screen (not in line with the left side). Is this something I can change, or just the new design? I have Firefox and a widescreen computer.
The pages are loading goofy for me. Everything is a bit askew. I'll have to try it from home later. I can get passed it though. The lack of Morning Roundup threw my day off more than the new presentation.
the new site design is garbage. what motivated this? change it back please.
How do I get to previous pages? I often fall behind in my reading and need to be able to page back.
I don't know about the design, I need more time to play with it (why can't we go back to previous pages??) but I do like the fact that the sign in box no longer appears behind the logo in the top left. I found that especially annoying.
Ditto, abc123. Although it's not the centering that bothers me; it's the narrowness. I have a Macbook with Firefox, which leaves almost 2" of wasted space on both sides.
Yeah, what happened to the previous pages links?
The last sentence makes it look like the Redskins team is planning to leave DC, rather than a reference to certain players wanting to come back next season...
The links on the left side don't appear properly under IE (which I'm stuck with at work) - they're all scrunched up and unreadable. There's too much white space at the top of the screen which isn't being used for anything, not even more ads. The overall site is too far too the center - the left justified site was easier to deal with. Also, the center portion tends to bleed over past the little line boundary on the right side of the screen on the comment pages.
I do like the rolling list of cities, though that may be causing the too-large white space at the top.
I'm using IE and the left column links aren't scrunched.
The new design looks like Wonkette, which somehow seems appropriate because DCist and Wonkette are the best blogs for DC news and gossip.
I'll second everything Moose said.
I do like the thumbnails of the postings at the top, but are they most recent or most popular?
The last sentence makes it look like the Redskins team is planning to leave DC, rather than a reference to certain players wanting to come back next season
That I can fix.
Yeah, good luck with that anti-stinky people campaign. If that actually got enforced, there'd be nobody left in DC except the guy who cuts my hair and the barkeep at Stoney's with the pigtails.
And as someone who reads this site via a VT220 terminal window, I just wish you'd bring back the American Apparel porn star ads. Thanks.
This really is cluttered and kind of cumbersome. It was really pretty nice before this. Why oh why...
I prefer the old look, too.
i can has old dcist site back? kthxbai!!1
objectionable appearance? excessive bags? sleep-deprived? general stinkiness? shooooot. by these standards, i can't enter either. thanks for the link to armstrong. very nice.
Overall, I like it. The summaries are very clean and I have no problems viewing w/Firefox on a Mac. But yes, I do wish you had kept the link at the bottom for previous posts. Have they gone into oblivion?
The javascript is murdering Camino 1.6.6 on a MacBook Pro. Safari doesn't seem to have as much trouble with it, but there's still something wrong with the hover code on the thumbnails at the top.
The site isn't refreshing automatically for me...Is anyone else experiencing this?
i really like the new site, i'm a big fan. but i wish the front page had two or three full features before crunching them into snippets, like the old site. I'm not going to go all LOL cats on it like no more caffeine(though, i love going LOL cats!) and ask for old site back, but i REALLY liked extended front page features.
WTF is with the new design? Did the elections not teach us anything??? Change is BAD! We don't want change! We want the same ol', same ol'!
Ahh...
The site is slowly becoming crowded with ads. The narrow format is garbage. Not everyone has a 2.8" laptop.
Not a fan of more ads, I just feel like I'm ignoring a more significant portion of the screen at any given time.
Do like the compressed header information though.
I'm still undecided on the new design. For those complaining about ads: Adblock Plus
I want Campbell Brown back.
Me no likey....I'm using a normal laptop and it appears way more narrow than what it used to, just like when the Washington Post narrowed it's pages and for weeks I kept reaching my had out further to turn the page, this narrowness bothers me...
And the little snapshots at the top look like they should correspond with the home/arts&entertainment/etc. below them, but they don't.
I want to be a panda again.
I don't want to be a some gray head.
Second fedward. This shite chokes Camino on a Mac. Like a thalidomide kid on bennies.
Do not like the thumbnails at top. No, no, no. Maybe if there were one or two strong photos it wouldn't be so bad, but because these first five are so exceptionally bad (computer screen, blown out howard county type, no photo, then two teensy illustrations) it looks ridiculous - and odds are, you'll have more days without strong photos/illustrations than with. Just let that part go.
If you ban sleeping and take the pr0n off the computers, folks would only use libraries for their intended purpose. Which is no way for a DC agency to behave, frankly.
The only one who likes change is a baby with a dirty diaper. Having said that, the new design reeks but I'll just have to get used to it.
The content areas don't really stand out against the gray backdrop. I think if the background was darker (darker than the "Recent Comments" and "Most Popular" nav headers), the page would pop more.
That said, the narrow centered column doesn't really make the most of a browser window. Either expanding the content column to take up 80% of the screen width, or a left-align flush with the browser window edge might look better.
To visually separate stories on the homepage, it also might look cool to make the headers either a bigger font or heavier weight fontface.
I do like the new sleekness overall, and think it's a cool refresh for the look and feel. My suggestions pretty much amount to just a few small layout tweaks. I think it's kindof a jolt to see the new design, but it really is improved. I just think making the content stand out a little more, and taking full advantage of the size of a viewer's browser window would be even better.
The content areas don't really stand out against the gray backdrop. I think if the background was darker (darker than the "Recent Comments" and "Most Popular" nav headers), the page would pop more.
That said, the narrow centered column doesn't really make the most of a browser window. Either expanding the content column to take up 80% of the screen width, or a left-align flush with the browser window edge might look better.
To visually separate stories on the homepage, it also might look cool to make the headers either a bigger font or heavier weight fontface.
I do like the new sleekness overall, and think it's a cool refresh for the look and feel. My suggestions pretty much amount to just a few small layout tweaks. I think it's kindof a jolt to see the new design, but it really is improved. I just think making the content stand out a little more, and taking full advantage of the size of a viewer's browser window would be even better.
If I'd wanted gray empty spaces on each side of my computer I would have scotch-taped unused portions of my empty, gray existence to each side of my computer.
its not a bad design, its just that the content is too small now relative to the ads.
I will second the notion that the thumbnails on top look really bad. They add nothing, and ultimately just clutter the site even more and make it look unfinished or unorganized since the photos are pretty inconsistent and useless.
I'm sure I'll get used to it but for the moment this is the Xmas present I didn't want. Like the cardigan I got from my Grandma. Except I can't throw this site out of a moving car.
I'm in the "no likey" camp. Too much wasted space and the font is smaller and harder to read. It looks similar to the Gawker site redesign - and who wants to look like Gawker, right?
Yeah, how do we get to older pages? It's not obvious
I like the direction you're headed, actually, but I definitely have to echo everyone's complaints about the wasted space on either side. Really very silly.
For what it's worth, I'm a sucker for nostalgia. Can we get a post on DCist's incarnations over the years? I can't be the only one who would secretly think it's cool.
Oh, and the fact that posts are now date & timestamped is AWESOME.
For now, manually navigating to http://dcist.com/index2.php, index3.php, etc. works in terms of getting to archives.
agreed on the timestamp thing. that's one that i griped about often (sorry, sommer), but i'm glad to see that new functionality.
Agree with Moose. Too much white space at the top, and the left links are unreadable. Also, the frames are kinda wonky? This is with IE on my work computer, so I'll have to look again at home...
Comments preview is cool!
I know everyone hates a change, but c'mon. This is not a good layout. Sorry - big fan, but I vote fail.
i feel like i'm reading the wall street journal with this revamp. What happened to all the white space: the site is crammed to the gill. Please reformat to a wide screen. Also, the handy links to prior pages are not showing at the bottom of the pages anymore (with the exception of the first page).
i'm viewing the redesign for the first time on my parents' PC (windows vista with firefox). i'll save final judgment for when i get home to DC and can see this on my mac, but so far, i like it.
who's in charge of the back end? is it tom lee? maybe we could get some updates and feedback from the editors regarding some of the constructive criticism here?
i do agree with those who dislike the thumbnail icons on the top of the page. any post without an image just gives us a truncated version of the dcist logo, and that just looks silly.