New and improved…

August 3, 2007

Chances are you’ve noticed that the site looks a little different. OK, more than a little. Our old template seemed to contributing to server problems, and we thought, “If we’re going to overhaul the template, maybe it’s time to give the ol’ site a facelift, too.” The result is the newly-redesigned Carpetbagger Report.

I suspect it’ll take a little getting used to, but I’m hopeful that everyone will like the new and improved site. There may be a quirk here or there, and if you run into any problems, I hope you’ll let me know.

And in case there was any doubt, the changes here are technical and cosmetic. The content will remain exactly the same as it’s been for over four years.

I’m also anxious to get feedback. What do you think of the redesigned site?

Visually, the redesign looks much better. Functionally? no problems – yet.
Nice work!

  • Looks great, but I’m partial to brighter colors as opposed to the business look. Maybe some fluorescents. Think punk rock meets politics. Seriously though, I like it.

    Cheers!

  • Very nice, but, aside from being a visual cliche for every dumb and pointless Washington pundit-squirt TV show, the photo of the Capitol in your banner implies a kind of institutional thinking that, one hopes, CR should be an antidote for.

    Really, something like an old Thomas Nast cartoon might promote a better vibe.

  • Has a nice clean look. My only complaint would be the 3 inch’s of waste on the right and left margin. Do you have plans for that?

  • The look is fine, although I too prefer the colors to be a bit brighter. Too, and perhaps this is a function of my age, I often find I print posts that interest me and take them to lunch or on the subway. I really liked the print feature of the old format and hope you can include one in the new.

  • Very nice indeed. Crisper and sharper. The only suggestion I’d make is to try to move your left margin over. In my browser (Firefox on a Mac), it looks like you’ve got almost another inch to take advantage off.

  • Rightfully, shouldn’t Smithers be up there atop the Capitol dome making a “powerful political statement”?

    🙂

  • Has a nice clean look. My only complaint would be the 3 inch’s of waste on the right and left margin. Do you have plans for that?

    I can tell you from experience that it is practically impossible to design a single template in today’s web environment. Lots of folks are still using 800-pixel-wide screens, and my newest laptop came with a 1680-pixel-wide screen.

    Even CNN goes with a fixed-width template.

    Looks good, Steve – keep up the good work.

  • If I were a dem with a blog, I would put a big horse shoe on the captial dome- like someone was pitching horseshoes (er hackass shoes) and got a ringer around the flag pole.
    OK, I’m going to steal the thunder of the next blogger after mine who wants to throw mud in my eye: “”well if it was a republican blog, I would put a huge fly-cover elephant pie on top of the dome.” Ha Ha. Very funny.

  • “wasted space” – like JC said, it all depends on your computer & browser and there’s no way to make it look perfect for everyone.

    Print – There is no longer a “Printer Friendly” link because now you can print the page directly from your browser. That’s what happens when you hire professionals to do the site 🙂

    Comment Preview – Anyone yet noticed the cool auto preview for the comments? No need to load it into another page – yay!

    Comments box – I just realized how small this stupid box is….I’ll see if I can make it bigger! Along with bringing back what html tags you can use. Ah, the fun bugs that come with every redesign 🙂

  • WOW! Very professional. Good to see TAISO! Change is good. I like the preview section too.

  • I agree–the new site looks great, but I would like to have back the ‘bluer’ color.

    Also, the comments typing window doesn’t seem to like larger text size (the words disappear into the gray bar at the right).

    Otherwise, great new look!

  • Steve, you could engrave your thoughts on a corner lot dog turd and I’d still read it.

  • One suggestion…how about a top of page hyper link near the comments so I don’t have to scroll back up through all the comments?

  • I agree with #6 that the picture of the Capitol Dome is a bit cliche– it does make the site look a little too “institutional.” Other than that, though, I think the new site is fantastic!

  • I like! Very clean clean layout. Some wasted space, yes, but overall, easier to read and a more inviting look. There’s 2 things I might change, one trivial and one to aid navigation.
    Trivially speaking, I’d be tempted to change the color of ‘Report’ to the light gray, used elsewhere in the masthead. You’ve already highlighted ‘Carpetbagger’ with the larger type, why not go all the way with it?
    From a navigational POV, a link back to the mainpage at the bottom of each page’s comments section would be a nice touch. A browser’s back button won’t always take you to a refreshed front page. With the site’s ever increasing and well earned popularity, it would save a lot of scrolling.

    But those are trivial. Overall? Tremendous!

  • how about a top of page hyper link near the comments so I don’t have to scroll back up through all the comments?

    Your “Home” key will always take you to the top of any page, and your “End” key will always take you to the bottom.

  • mark of The Beast. two G’s side by side in new font look like 666 to me.

    are you Canadian ?

  • Nice update that better reflects the professionalism of Steve’s work.

    The previousnext links at top are ra great addition, and the way articles appear immediately in the archive (assuming that’s happening automatically) makes it much easier to locate recent posts. Previous problems seemed to be related to the importing of ads, so if this template helps that, that alone will make it well worth the effort. I’m assuming guest authors such as Morbo will be able to enter a byline(?). And FWIW, I like the new blue (the old blue looked like an artifact of the old web-safe color days).

    Comments do run off the right at larger text sizes (as terraformer noted) but the instant preview beneath is cool. (I see there’s still a timeout on posting, so it’s still a good idea to copy comments before posting!)

    I do wish there was a way to include more headlines in the “Recent Posts” — Steve often writes more than 10 posts per day, so early morning posts drop off the list before the end of the day.

    Anyway, a nice, evolutionary update that I hope attracts new readers to the quality of the content here.

  • Very good. I like that the “Read More” tag no longer opens an entirely new window. I do see that your captcha is now in text — will that make it easier for spammers to fake it out? Should it be an image, like your contact link?

  • 25. On August 3rd, 2007 at 9:33 am, JKap said:
    No more “tirades”? WTF!

    Ha!!! I think Steve has outsourced that task to us commenters.

  • Print – There is no longer a “Printer Friendly” link because now you can print the page directly from your browser. That’s what happens when you hire professionals to do the site

    Does this mean that I can print a single post or will it print all the posts on a browser page, including the part that is accessible from Read More? Being able to print a single post is very convenient. Is that feature preserved?

  • I like the layout, but that Very Phallic Power Symbol at the top is kind of overdone and pompous.

  • Looks fine. the problem with most blog changes is that they move everything around and you can’t find what your looking for. No here and it’s welcome. I was hoping you could change the orange question.

  • I’m also anxious to get feedback. What do you think of the redesigned site?

    Lookin’ good!

  • I like the new look, the dome conveys the national politics theme very well. Professional look, kind of staid, and I agree with putting your name up front.
    Good work!

  • Congrats on the redesign. You were due for a makeover.

    Steve, you’ve become a commanding presence in the left/liberal (sensible/decent?) blogosphere; this clean, professional look is obviously meant to reinforce that. Yet it seems to me a little too corporate-looking, don’t you agree? And Will Divide’s point (#6) about the graphic is worth repeating.

    Notwithstanding your dedication and seriousness, you’re a bit of a rabble-rouser. You’re not above sarcasm and snark and you’re often the first to cast a jaundiced eye at establishment spin and the latest egregious GOP talking point. You’re a friend of the common people. I hope, over time, you can tweak this design a little to better reflect that.

    What else? Oh, yeah, I think the individual comments need to be differentiated more, perhaps with some spacing and maybe with the commenters’ names a little bolder and better positioned.

    Just a few initial thoughts, hope you don’t mind. Keep up the awesome work.

    Love your blog.

    fp

  • The new design puts the articles at the top of my blackberry/mobile/pda/handheld browser display!
    No more scrolling through all the links first.

    This is a real plus!

  • I believe the proper comment that someone with my educational bakcground and intellect would give would be:

    FRICKIN’ SWEET!!!!!!!!

  • I like the clean, updated look – and the fact you finally came out of the shadows to take the credit you deserve (or you just got tired of answering the “who is The Carpetbagger” question).

    The only thing I have found at all problematic (and maybe I’m just blind) is that it took me a couple of looks to find the “Read more” now that it is on the same line as the Sphere link and in the same font. And, as has been mentioned before, I have a slight preference for the commenter’s name at the bottom. (And really, the answers had to stay orange – what would tAiO do?)

    If you keep cleaning the ol’ place up, I’m afraid you’ll start expecting more respectable clientele! 🙂

  • Blogocalifragilisticexpialidocious! A suburb blending of intelligent design and evolution.

  • Visually and functionally this is excellent. I particularly like the automatic preview, which may cut down on future attacks from Old Fumble Fingers for this spedey tpyist.

  • I fear change, but this isn’t too bad. The sidebar seems a little too big, otherwise fine, I guess… Oh wait… did the preview function go away? No wait… real time preview… I’d just shrink the sidebar a little.

  • Nice, clean, a little staid, perhaps.

    I agree with Zeitgeist (#41) – am used to the commentor’s name following the comment.

    Alternative: would be nice to have a space AFTER the date/name line to offset the comment itself. (I put a ‘return’ before typing, we’ll see if that sets the comment away from the date/name line.)

  • I like the toolbar feature, leading you to next and previous stories, as well as the main page.

    Nicely done. You have increased the functionality of the page.

  • One thing drives me nuts, and I was hoping it would be gone with this redesign. Whenever I click on a link, if I don’t open in a new window, hitting the back button brings me to the top of your page. Because your items scroll so far down, I then have to scan many entries before I find the place I left off. I am using a Firefox browser.

    Isn’t there a way to fix this?

    Otherwise, it looks good.

  • The comment section is much easier to use also. Thanks!

    I’m glad that you kept the same challenge question. It’s much friendlier than a Captcha, and it’s easy enough that even a Republican or two might be able to figure out the answer. Although it seems that few of them ever do.

  • >I’m assuming guest authors such as Morbo will be able to enter a byline(?).

    I won’t let Steve take my byline away!
    I like the new look. And I like that Steve’s real name is posted prominently on the blog. Old-timers might recall when Steve did the blog anonymously and no one knew his real name — kind of like Spiderman.

  • As a long time RSS reader I’ve noticed that longer entries now come with a (more…) link if they are longer than a certain length.

    If there is a legitimate reason to have me click this link to read the whole article rather than being able to read the entire entry’s text in RSS then this is fine. But I had grown quite used to being able to just read The Carpet Bagger Report from within my RSS feeder.

    Can it maybe go back to full length text?

  • Thank you for the redesign. Now when I browse with my mobile device, I don’t have to scroll through tons of pics and links before I get to the content. Excellent choice.

    I do have one suggestion: you should hold a contest to select a new validation question. “What color is an orange?” is simple and to the point, but I think a new question would go very well with your new look.

    Keep up the great work.

  • Love the look Steve. Very clean and shiny! *snark*

    I would ask for one change however. Because I read your blog at work, I like to keep the window small, not full-screen. Perhaps you could put your articles on the left-hand side of the page, with advertising/links on the right-hand side??

  • Tracy–
    I just right click the link and select “Open in New Tab.” Works great.

    Truth is, it’s common Web design standards to NOT have links open in new windows. Not sure why, but that’s the way it is (whereas I always have links on my site open in new windows because that’s how I like it.)

    Maybe they could what Atrios does and have an option you click at the top that opens all links on the page in a new window … ? Not sure how one codes that, though.

    Hope that helps.

  • Great look. Love the preview.
    I am using FF and when I first loaded the site today it looked different. Not different in a good way. Different in a bad way. For example there was no header and the whole thing was taup. It turns out, for some reason, that FF was set to block images from the Carpetbagger Report. This hadn’t caused a problem with the old template, but did with the new. Once I changed the setting everything was looked great!

    I just checked the resize form field extension on FF lets me expand the comment box down and to the right as far as the white portion of the page. It does not let me expand to the left. However, that still allows me to expand the box sufficiently.

    All-in-all a great job!!!!!!

  • Wow!
    I thought at first I had loaded an imitation bloger.
    Looks good.
    Now, can we get more blue in the REAL capitol, and improve the functionality of our public servers?

    Keep on….

  • Ms Carpetbagger here.

    rob – This apparently is the new default for the new WordPress, and it stinks. I’ll see if I can get that fixed. Thanks for for catching that – it is not something we intended!

    By the way everyone, the upgrade/redesign was done by Blogging Expertise, as you can see in the footer (bottom of the pages). So they deserve the thanks even more than Steve & I!

  • Great new look, and it’s much more tailored to the CBReport now.

    My only suggestion, take it or leave it, would be to visually separate the date/time/user line in the comments from the actual comments themselves. Right now first info line kind of runs together with the text, and makes it a little hard to dive into a comment without reading the stats first.

    I would suggest making the stats line a slightly smaller font size, and also perhaps a slightly lighter text color. It would still be legible and there for everyone to see, but wouldn’t catch your eye as much as you were starting to read a comment.

    It’s useful information, the date/time/user, but in my mind it’s secondary to the comment itself.

  • Blegh. Yet another blog with a picture of the capitol bldg? Feh. I always liked the monochromatic lack of distraction, myself, but if functionality demands, can’t you find a picture of a portmanteau? I don’t think anybody else has one of those.

  • The color scheme and type choices are bland and uninviting, and the load time is noticeably slower on dialup.

    But what I really don’t like is the new page width, which prevents those with older, non-wide-screen monitors from seeing the entire page at once. Not everyone can afford the $$$ to upgrade to a wide screen.

    The old layout was a bit dated looking, but it conveyed a lot of information quickly. The new layout seems to use much more screen “real estate” for the same amount of content. Since you’re not likely to go back to the older, more compact design, I will likely be visiting less often.

  • Very crisp, clean, and easy to read. As one with a website that serves highly diverse users, including schools that are still often on the VGA width, you have set this up just right for the widest possible audience.

  • Even though I’m a b**ch by nature, I’m also a bit like a cat — will take me time to get used to the new surroundings. Like cookie (72), I’d sooner see a real carpetbag than another photo of the capitol dome — nothing unique about *that*.

    And could I have the number of comments, posted somewhere close to the top, back? So that, when I come, late at night, for the last look, I can see at a glance whether new comments had been added to a thread?

    And what’s with the delayed reaction all of a sudden? It seems to be taking extra time for the screen to respod to the keyboard. Especially annoying when backspacing (I just erased a whole word, when trying to erase a couple of lettres)…

  • Wow – just logging in today and totally surprised to see the new look. I really like it – clean and crisp and very professional – which is very much in keeping with the content!

    I also love the real-time preview – just noticed it appearing as I am typing!

    If I had a choice about the Capitol Dome v. something else, I might choose the Constitution, or the Bill of Rights, since so many of the issues we are concerned with have their genesis there.

  • The redesign seems to have broken the RSS feed. At least, I consider it less functional if it’s no longer a full feed, but requires me to click “more” to get the latter part of any sufficiently long post. I hope you’ll restore the full feed.

  • Ugh. Black font on a dark gray background?? And not a solid gray either — looks like shading with a bunch of tiny black dots. Very difficult for my eyes to read. I had to change browser settings to use my colors instead of the specified background color. That will get tiresome very quickly. How about an option to show the page in readable colors?

  • Overall, I like the new look (though I do admit that I agree with those who call the picture of the capitol a cliche). But I really miss the variable-width template – it expanded to fill more than a narrow column of text on my widescreen laptop and would contract to allow those with small screens to read as well. I know all the “best practices” prefer a narrow column of text, but I prefer having an entire article on screen at once. Just my two cents, or whatever that’s worth after a century of inflation.

  • New site layout is simple, clean, and refreshing…great job. The content ( which is the real reason I visit ) is superb as usual. Please keep up the good work…you are a very important intelligent resource in today’s chaos of Internet news and opinion!

  • bring back the print-friendly feature — yours was the best on the web… miss it dearly.

  • I was really suprised when I hit refresh this morning and when the new page loaded there was an entirely different color scheme and layout. I should remind myself to get the coffee made before I go to the computer.

    At first glance everything looks really professional, especially the banner – great graphics. Anyhow, give us a couple of days to ‘kick the tires’ and I’m sure that if there are any bugs we’ll find them.

    I’m getting ready to do a site for someone and looking at the masthead makes me realize how lacking I am in the graphics department. *sigh*

  • Looks Good CB!! Nice and clean…no tech issues yet.
    P.S. Just noticed the comment preview window….NICE!

  • I hate to see these signs of how rigid I’m becoming. My first feeling was dismay at this messing with my site…(you know what I mean — this is a place I go every day, and apparently I’m not good for much change any more).

    But I know this is reasonable, and I think you’ve done nicely with giving it a sharper look, while still thankfully keeping the same format.

  • Just to mention that I think the links in the comments need greater contrast — maybe underline them? Otherwise outstanding. Thanks.

  • Slow loading, at least on Opera. Scrolling is hard too.
    Too much wasted space between lines; waste too much time scrolling down.

    Unlikely I’ll be reading this blog in the future if it stays like this.

  • . . . and it appears management is responsive, too: either my eyes are playing tricks on me or the “Read more” link is now bolded, as I had suggested, which it was not this morning. Thanks for all the hard, and great, work on the redesign, but more important on the content today and everyday.

  • cont…

    It’s just very hard too read now, at least for me and my limited eyesight. The very white background doesn’t help.
    Just as bad on Firefox.

  • I love the look. My only request: I subscribe to an rss feed through Google Reader, and the longer posts don’t come through in their entirety, so I have to click through in order to read every last delicious word. (If it matters, I use Firefox as my browser.)

  • As long as it’s quicker loading than before I’ll be happy. Every time I clicked “submit comment” I’d have to wait at least 30 seconds to find out if what I wrote got posted or sent to entropy heaven. Here goes (click)

  • At first I thought I’d gone to the wrong site! Made me want to comb my hair and shine my shoes before entering.

    Love the improved response time and other techno-goodies, but the Capital Building does seem a bit….stodgy. As others have suggested, something to give it more of a rebellious edge would be nice.

    How about adding some picket signs with various snarky slogans in front of the building, just to give it some spice?

    It does look crisp and professional, kudos for that.

  • How about a Dem-Donkey, carrying a carpetbag (as a saddlebag, maybe?), for the logo, instead of the capitol dome?

  • I now have to scroll right every time I want to read the posts, which is always. Scrolling for links would be fine. But it’s backwards. I should be able to read the posts by default without scrolling and scroll only for links, etc. I use Firefox and open twenty different tabs of blogs simultaneously. Only this one has this problem.

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