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Randy Cassingham's BlogHistorical Details and Author's Notes from This is True®
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New Page Design
Frequent visitors will notice a fairly dramatic change here: a totally new page design.
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I got it (very, very late!) via a designer at Elance. We'll be fine-tuning the look -- in part with your comments, so I'll appreciate hearing your reaction -- over the next few days, and then rolling it over to the This is True archive, and then to the main site.
Those three site sections -- blog, archive, main pages -- currently use three different content management systems, and thus have three completely different looks to them. The new design is meant to pull it all together into a cohesive look, and not incidentally modernize the main site pages at the same time. I coded that design by hand many years ago and, while utilitarian, isn't really the look I wanted going forward. I'm very visual, so I know what I like -- but I'm definitely not a designer myself.
I've had a lot of things on an ever-growing "To Do" list waiting for the day that I had a little more time. Now that I finally have more help hired, we'll start to see some results!
3 August Update
The new design has also now been rolled out to the story archive. It'll probably be a couple-few weeks before it moves to the main site, since each page will have to be converted manually.
So much for plans: it wasn't until April 2008 that the main site's pages matched.
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Most Recent Comments
Posted by Melodie, Olympia WA on August 7, 2007:
A dissenter -- I like the brightness. Easier to read on my laptop. Clearly much brighter than other websites -- not sure why.
Also, when I go to the "see all comments" page would like at the bottom of that page to be able to either go to the next/previous item or comment. Currently have to go back to the first page to do either. And since I went to that page to make sure no one has posted my comments.....
Overall, I like it. Only thing is, when I see all the stuff you guys have been getting through lately, I really feel like a slacker. Time for a vacation, Randy? But then I'd miss my Jumbo Joke fix, my This is True, Stella Awards. Hmmm, guess I'll vote for keep up the good work!
Posted by Neil, Calgary on August 7, 2007:
For those who find the page too white, I use a bookmarklet called zap white background (about half way down the page at the url below:
https://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/zap.html
instructions on usage are on the home page of this site.
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Bookmarklets can be really cool. I have one called "remove background image" for those sites where the author things black text over a black & white photo somehow looks sophisticated.... -rc
Posted by Steve: Boulder, CO on August 7, 2007:
The new look is far and away better than the old version, however, perhaps you have seen the Slate.com website (the left-most main content areas)? It's an amazing interface that is both intuitive and easy to navigate. If it's not copyrighted, I would suggest moving in that direction.
At any rate, I've been a subscriber for many years and I admire your work ethic and its results; well done and thanks!