New Look Coming Soon to Uncommon Descent

_{Jack Cole

August 13, 2011

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Tomorrow (Sunday), I will be implementing a new look to the Uncommon Descent website. This will not be an instantaneous process, so there may be a period of time when the site appearance is incomplete. We appreciate your patience in this process.

In addition to the new look, there will also be some new features that we hope you will like. Comments will be threaded, so you will no longer need to refer to comment numbers when posting replies. Your comments and feedback on the changes will be welcome.

On another note, Uncommon Descent has had 5 successive record months in terms of traffic. We appreciate all the hard work of the authors who have been producing excellent content, and most of all, the 100’s of thousands of readers who visit every month.

Comments

Aha! That's what it is right now! =D My...reading...comprehension...low...must...try...harder...material.infantacy_{August 15, 2011
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I'm all for plain old, FAQ, as that three letter sequence is entirely recognizable by practically everyone, but I'm not trying to make a fuss. xpmaterial.infantacy_{August 15, 2011
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Yes, it is a tad on the confusing side. Will check into it.Jack Cole_{August 15, 2011
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I know. Just wasn't sure how to reference it more appropriately in the space we had to work with.Jack Cole_{August 15, 2011
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I'll take this opportunity to point out that the acronym FAQ is often not entirely appropriate for a given context, but on the flip side, everyone knows what it means. Trying to use more appropriate nomenclature is likely to result in confusion. Frequently Asked Questions is ubiquitously recognized, proper web terminology (not trying to start a terminology holy war). Just my 2 cents; and in this economy, not worth what it used to be.material.infantacy_{August 15, 2011
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Nice use of Ajax on the Recent Comments pane. However it could stand to display an "Ajax busy" animated icon after the "Older" link is pressed, if only to avoid confusion.material.infantacy_{August 15, 2011
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Good point on the ad coloring. I'll put that on my list. I do have one above the fold right above the 4 featured articles in the middle. Is that the one you are talking about? It may not have shown up temporarily because I was mucking around with it. :)Jack Cole_{August 15, 2011
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kf, We did have a google site search before. I haven't implemented it with the new design yet. I'll get to it at some point. Foreward is spelled just that way in the FRBWA. I changed that a long time ago. Unless you are talking about something else? I agree on the searching ideas. Thanks for the note on the glossary. I added it to the top menu. The IDEA FAQ could be added to the resources page, or even a link at the top of our FRBWA. I know it's not an FAQ, but had to fit it in the menu somehow! :)Jack Cole_{August 15, 2011
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That will be a down the road thing if I find some spare time to do the programming. Sorry, no time to do it now.Jack Cole_{August 15, 2011
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KF, responses below.
Actually I kind of liked the old RH where we saw recent posts, recent comments, daily popular and all time popular. 10 each of the first two with “more,” and the top five and more for the latter two would be great, I think.
I'm trying to keep the load down on the server a little to avoid needing to upgrade again. Daily popular is still there, and all time popular is in the footer. I might be able to fit all time popular in the RH if I reduce the number of recent comments.
BTW, could the video showed change from one load to the next — or is that too much?
It changes. But we only have 2 vids in the queue. Need to add more.
The dead space was the far RH column, and I think some of the reference sites were deadish — too static for that strategic space — too. Maybe the top 7 or so quick refs and a “MORE” link that takes you to the expanded references page with key related sites and blogs high up on the page?
I put these in the resources page because they were used infrequently by visitors.Jack Cole_{August 15, 2011
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The expanded recent comments in the right nav is good, and load time is much better after breaking up the comments. The adsense blocks are tricky. You had one above the fold under the title the other day and that will increase ctr but the tradeoff is user experience. I would try to keep at least one ad above the fold. also try blending the text color with the url color in the ads. right now it is green/black. The blue is good for the ad link.junkdnaforlife_{August 15, 2011
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Ooookay: Spotted where I missed some features, like the newsfeed. I like the new listing in the recent comments. Though I still think we need to have the toggle on thread views. Also, I would like to see the RH col when I go to a thread. GEM of TKIkairosfocus_{August 15, 2011
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I think the solution is to have a toggle to go between threaded view and chronological view. Both have uses.kairosfocus_{August 15, 2011
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Suggestions on feed for news here.kairosfocus_{August 15, 2011
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Jack: I have become fond of the newsfeed, maybe the format in the old form? [I'd love a news ticker at the top of the blog but I don't even know if these are available. Could it maybe run off a Twitter or Facebook news aggregator that cross links here? No expert here . . . ] Actually I kind of liked the old RH where we saw recent posts, recent comments, daily popular and all time popular. 10 each of the first two with "more," and the top five and more for the latter two would be great, I think. BTW, could the video showed change from one load to the next -- or is that too much? The dead space was the far RH column, and I think some of the reference sites were deadish -- too static for that strategic space -- too. Maybe the top 7 or so quick refs and a "MORE" link that takes you to the expanded references page with key related sites and blogs high up on the page? Are these helpful? GEM of TKIkairosfocus_{August 15, 2011
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Random jottings: Great work in progress! I had to do some thread searching today, for a lost comment, so if there is a view all option that does load the whole of a thread, that too would help -- not as default, to save bandwidth. (I think Sphinx and Google provide site search options?) In that context, it would help to have a more powerful search feature, and if there could be a way to list all comments or posts by a user in chrono order, that would help. This is getting wishlist-y. While I am at it, I would like to be able to access the glossary, still. I have almost given up on suggesting FOREWORD as the preferred and less controversial spelling for that part of the Weak Argument Correctives -- and it is not really a FAQ! For that I have suggested we link FAQs out there, IDEA's is very nice. I'd love a link to a great ID 101 survey. How can I forget, we need to highlight the ID definition somewhere [and I think at the head of that page it should cross link to other definitions and the NWE page on ID]. One of the big headaches is that the very definition of ID is being routinely distorted, willfully so, so that should be highlighted. GEM of TKIkairosfocus_{August 15, 2011
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Also, if we can have the headers for threads hot with the thread URL that would be most convenient.kairosfocus_{August 15, 2011
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My thought on threading is can you give alternative views of the thread [timeline view and nested thread view], with a user able to set his preferred view and/or toggle?kairosfocus_{August 15, 2011
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I like the colour level, now just a tad more green and it will be perfect :-)kairosfocus_{August 15, 2011
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Nice work there, Jack. Your recent comments solution is quite a good approach. Thanks!material.infantacy_{August 15, 2011
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^^That will likely assuage some of the concerns expressed here.material.infantacy_{August 15, 2011
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Hi all, There seemed to be consensus on expanding recent comments. I removed the text excerpt from ID news from around the web and put recent comments by thread in the sidebar on the home page. With regard to threaded comments we have to consider two important factors. The first is what works best for frequent commenters and the second is what is more easily followed by someone who occasionally stops by for reading posts (perhaps once daily). I think a vast majority of our readers fall into the second group, and they'll not want to take the time to scroll up and down the page following comment # references. They can more quickly determine comment threads that may be more interesting based on the number of responses. At the same time, I want our current frequent commenters to be happy with the layout as well, as this is something that UD thrives on. I want to keep working with you to get the best setup for everyone. I think m.i has some interesting ideas that I'll have to give some consideration to. Being on vacation from my "real job" this week has given me more time than usual to give UD a lot of attention. Unfortunately, it may be a few weeks before I have a good block of time again. TBA. Regards, JackJack Cole_{August 15, 2011
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Jack, the "Recent Comments" section on the right-side pane is looking fantastic!material.infantacy_{August 15, 2011
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Ooh CY, you're going to give me a big head! xp. Thanks. I don't mind the threaded comments so much except they have an apparent limitation: they can only be nested so many times, at least with indenting (otherwise, a sizable enough "recent comments" box might do the trick.). Embedded links to replies wouldn't suffer such a limitation, along with the added benefit of maintaining comment order. As for the rest of it, I have some other ideas, but I don't want to overwhelm Jack, nor step on his toes. Already I think the site will see some benefits with the changes, especially considering that paged comments should dramatically decrease strain on the server, meaning less down time and faster page loads! Thanks again.material.infantacy_{August 15, 2011
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Yeah. I like the idea of text boxes.CannuckianYankee_{August 15, 2011
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You have some of the best suggestions I've seen here. I personally like the threaded discussion format, but you've shown a way of compromising with those who don't that could make us all either happy or miserable. :) Thanks.CannuckianYankee_{August 15, 2011
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I think I meant "optimal." We can't have the optimal format without some compromises. I don't think this format is yet optimal, but I think it's closer than the last format. There may be other ways of fixing it so that all are satisfied.CannuckianYankee_{August 15, 2011
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CY don't get me wrong, I am Mr Optimistic. I agree that there are both advantages and disadvantages. If the threaded form stays, then there should be a vast increase in the number of previewed comments - by a significant number. That is a real estate issue, but others have solved it, and so should UD. IMOUpright BiPed_{August 15, 2011
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Plus, for those of us who can only check in every now and then, it would be a great thing if more then the last 5 recent comments were posted.tgpeeler_{August 15, 2011
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I'm with Upright. Plus, why can't these boxes be like a text editor where I can bold or italicize something from my keyboard without having to use these HTML tags and attributes?tgpeeler_{August 15, 2011
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