There was some database mounting and database shifting and some cursing but the new site is built and ready to rock. Taa daa!
I hope you like it. My goals with the redesign were to make content easier to find, from features to book reviews to really active discussions, and to make participating in the site easier, with more options and fewer obstacles to joining the conversations. I've said many times when asked about the website that the content up here is maybe half of the reason people come to the site – the other half is all of you and your conversations.
(Squidgy moment: holy crap I missed y'all).
Some of the new features include:
- Subscribing to comment threads by RSS or Email (by request)
- A new comments system that lets you log in via Facebook, Twitter, OpenID, Disqus, and possibly your driver's license number
- Summaries on the main page, with full entries on their own pages
- A calendar of events on the main page
- A special area for the podcasts on the main page
- The ability to like, share, tweet, flirt with, simmer, dogear, question, and shake your groove thang in the vicinity of the comments. Well, some of those, anyway.
- All sorts of upgrades that aren't visible but should make the Bitchery more speedy and lithe, like a Regency heroine dressed in boy's clothing.
There is still little bits of work to be done, but if you notice anything truly and utterly out of whack, please let me know, either in the comments or via email at sarahATsmartbitchestrashybooksDOTcom.
Comments are welcome, too! I hope you like the new design — and that you read something awesome while the work was in progress!
Is now. All I saw was a shadow guy when I first posted.
Thanks!
Like Scrin, I dislike how crowded it is on top, but overall I like the change. It’s not so cluttered and loud.
sorry, but I agree with Ros. First, I hate threaded comments – to follow the conversations, I have to re-read the whole thing, just to find where I left off. Much easier to look for comment 79, for example.
And the moving marquee – what is it called? is it javascript? drives me crazy. Before I’ve half read the description of the article, it’s flashed on past. I have no sense of what I’ve read any more.
I think it’s got a fresh new look, but the implementation is going to make it harder for me to read the site, not easier.
I mostly like. The new site is pretty, and the pink and white is much, much easier on the eyes. But count me as one who hates threaded comments, too. It makes it so much harder to figure out what is new. That means you miss if someone replies to you.
Actually, you don’t miss if someone replied to you because hitting reply sends the notice directly to you. It also keeps the reply with your comment. That’s the reason to have threaded replies! So it’s easy to see who responded to you.
You can also used the dropdown at the top to sort comments by oldest, newest, most popular, etc. 🙂
I don’t mind the threaded comments – for a while I had changed my own blog to use them because I preferred to be able to tell who was answering whom, although I can see why some people would think it’s not so easy to use on such a big scale.
That slide show thing on the front page is the only thing that isn’t working for me. It immediately set off a little mini-migraine trigger of mine and my right eye started twitching like crazy. Combined with the nice bright colors of the page, the speed of it was just way, way too much.
I like the paler pink, and I think in general the new site is pretty. It looks very classy 🙂 But (and there’s always a but, isn’t there?) I’m with scrin in that I liked how I could read multiple posts on one page without having to go into each one separately unless I wanted the comments. Now you have to go in and back, and it’s lots of clicking and loading etc. It would be helpful if at least there were next and previous buttons on each post so you didn’t have to go back to the main page each time.
General liking the new look, but could the scrolling stuff at the top be slowed down long enough for me to read the entire blurb?
Yay! You’re back! 🙂
Yes, please do slow down the slide show on the front page, I feel a bit seasick! And, inspite of my speed-reading abilities, can’t seem to read the whole slide before it… slides.
Otherwise, the new site works much better on mobile now!
Hi Shiny,
Thanks for mentioning that. We should actually have a “previous/next” to go from post to post, but for some reason, it’s not showing up. I’ll look into it. 🙂
To those concerned about the speed of the slideshow:
I’ve just slowed it down quite a bit. Hopefully, that’s better for you. 🙂 It’s just meant to be a teaser, not for full reading digestion, but I hope that helps some. We can’t make it too slow or folks will have left the page before the next slide loads.
Love the new look! Congrats!
I like it! Softer colors are much easier on the eyes. It also feels clean and slick, much easier to navigate. Murder She Writes blog has these threaded comments and I actually like them b/c you don’t have to scroll through the entire list to see if someone replies/d to you. I don’t like getting emailed for new comments – too many emails – so the threaded comments make me happy.
Congrats! I’m definitely boogieing for you!!
I am chasing my own tail on the threaded comments. On one hand, you see specific conversations but then the conversation splinters off as replies stack up.
On one hand, previous comment threads of 50-100-150 comments have managed to get individual people’s attention and address specific comments while also addressing the group as a whole. On the other hand, this method directs comment replies directly to the person who is being responded to.
Why do you like/dislike them?
I really wish I could say I love the new look, but I’d be lying if I did. I actually hate a lot of it; like others have mentioned, the slide show thing at the top is annoying and distracting, as is the threaded comments – I liked being able to remember what number comment I’d read up to. I also hate the fact that each post now has a big photo next to it (what is the purpose of this???) , and each one now must be clicked into to “read more”. I liked the other version where most posts could just be read in full without clicking anywhere. I also loved the previous font being used for the headers – this new one is bland.
I’ve been coming here faithfully for many years, but I hate this new design enough that I’m now going to reconsider coming here at all. Which really is a shame, because SBTB has always interested me, but I know I’m just going to be pissed off every time I come here and not going to be able to skim each post in full. Sorry, Sarah. I truly am.
Previous/Next is all fixed up now. You can find it between the post and the comments. 🙂
Previous/Next is all fixed up now. You can find it between the post and the comments. 🙂
I completely agree with you. I love the softer pink and the threaded comments are easier to keep up with.
Hi Aurora, I should probably let Sarah reply to this, but as the designer, I want to explain some of the features so folks have a better idea of why these changes were made.
The homepage is not meant to be a simple blog layout, as it has been so many years and what everyone is used to. It’s meant to be more of a “portal”, allowing users to access content more quickly. It’s meant to display “snippets” or “teasers” much like most modern web sites with a large amount of content and activity.
Now that there is more to see here, especially promotion of books and calendar events and podcasts, we need to branch away from a more basic blog layout and make it more of a “magazine”-style.
The homepage is showing featured images next to the posts so that you, the reader, can get a sense of what the post is about at-a-glance. Not every post will have a featured image associated with it, so sometimes there will be one of the “bitches” gracing the homepage in its stead.
Not everyone likes change, not everyone is going to love every new feature. 🙂 I can appreciate that and we all have our own opinions and preferences. I think suggesting you’d stop reading because of it is a bit harsh, but hey, that’s my opinion. Objectively, the improvements to the site are many and I think you might consider giving it a chance.
You can always subscribe via RSS feed, if that styling is more appealing. As soon as Feedburner allows us to update the feed, you’ll have that option, too.
Thanks for your feedback! 🙂
I can’t express my deep and abiding hatred for threaded comments. Even sorting by “oldest first”, they’re threaded, and in order to see where I’ve left off, I have to re-read the entire stack of comments. I’m likely to do that once – after that, I’ll abandon the conversation as not being worth the headache.
It’s so much easier to remember that I left off at comment number whatsit, and go on from there.
thanks! Much better now 🙂
Woot! 🙂 Good, good.
Your wish is my command-ish. 😉 I slowed it down. Hope that helps!
Hey Aurora.
I’m sorry you really dislike the new design. I can understand not being able to easily skim the entries is bothersome, since it used to be a extend/contract option on the main page. Unfortunately, that also made load times somewhat cumbersome.
That said, this page:
http://smartbitchestrashybooks…
has more summaries in line without images, if that’s more appealing. I can also try to extend the summary content on that page so there’s more there.
One of the reasons we moved the home page all around was that in the previous version, there were four entries on the main page. If I update the site three times in one day, which happens because people do things that are interesting or there’s a new book out every .03 seconds at this point, then content that was active falls off the main page and the discussion tapers off. People who like specific features, like HaBO or the reviews or the random discussions of man-titty, had to hunt further into the site to find the entry they wanted, and after two or three pages that’s a pain in the tuchas. I’d done it a ton of times myself when I couldn’t recall a URL for a specific entry, for example.
The new page allows more active content to be featured, and allows discussions to continue longer, if folks want them too.
Regardless, I’m sorry you’re disappointed and that you don’t like it.
OH, I see what you’re saying. So if the comments were flat (i.e. not threaded), it’s easier for you to track where you left off, vs. having to peek at several different points of a thread to see if new comments were made. It’s easier to follow one long conversation instead of a conversation with branches.
Am I getting that right?
I’m trying out some numbered comment solutions here, so if you see anything weirdo, it’s just me trying to fix it.
I like it, but I miss the “More, more, more!” and not having to “commit” to a post- you read it, and you scroll down to another one.
Glad to see you back in fighting form! Love the tweaks….and love even more that you kept most of it the same. 😉 Love the look of your blog/site
Can’t say I’m thrilled with the new design. I liked going to the front page and seeing the most recent entry just there. I don’t like the scrolling thingy. It takes too long to load over dialup. (I redirected my bookmark to the blog page. I don’t know if I’ll miss anything important, but it seemed like a good fix for me.) Also, not a big fan of pastels.
Getting to the comments, telling which are new, and just posting comments is harder. I’m just glad I was bored and made a facebook page, or I wouldn’t be able to leave this comment. I do like threaded comments better though, but it does have its trade offs.
And the RSS feed may be screwed up. Clicking on the button just takes you to the feed, but doesn’t give you subscription options. (It’s always offered me them on other sites, even if I already had a feed.) It’s also just listing it as failed to load rather than the new posts. (This problem could be at my end. RSS is unreliable on my browser.)
Is there a way to login with our old bitchery account? I must admit that I do not like to log in using other accounts- but that’s probably just me and my desire to make it harder to stalk me in cyber space.
The new site is … different – but I imagine that I will get used to it. I’m curious if this version will get through our work firewall where it has been blocked.
My only upgrade desire is to change the direction of the top scroll bar thingy. I’m completely discombobulated because it is going backwards. I always expect things to switch / flip like a book page – so going from right to left, not the way it is now.
If I’m remembering correctly, the old Bitchery didn’t have numbered posts. I never knew where I left off and if I came back, I’d start from the bottom and work my way up. I like this much better. The only threaded comments I hate are the ones that just show the title of the replies. Very frustrating.
It’s looking good, Sarah and Joelle. Congratulations!
Very nice! I too especially like the numbered posts, and I’m still checking out the other bells and whistles.
Oh yeah, I miss the reference to man titty in the title. Much classier than bullshit. 😉
You know what, it was my ad-block, I only recently started using it and forget it’s there sometimes. I now see the book adverts where they’re supposed to be.
The sb-tb.com redirect not working, is that due to the redesign or just a coincidence?
That’s how I feel, too.
Plus, non-threaded comments seem more inclusive to me. And if someone wants to respond directly to a previous comment, the way we did before (@name or @name #xx) works just as well I think.
I like the idea of being able to subscribe to comments without actually having to write one myself (that’s the way things work at Dear Author). At the moment, though, I’m not getting notification of any of them (not even of the one that was a direct reply to my previous comment).
Oh good! I just checked sb-tb-.com and it’s redirecting. Will you give it one more go? 🙂 Thanks!
Overall I like the new look. The main thing I miss is the list of recent comments on the homepage. I found it on the other pages, but I miss it on the homepage.
yes, exactly. If there was some way to indicate which posts have been read already (as my husband, who loves threaded comments says that usenet does), that would be better, but still it’s a pain to have to re-scan everything every time, just to see new comments.