Should or shouldn't

April 25, 2008 4:36 AM

93% say redesign.

[disclaimer: Not saying I agree. I am in fact neutral.]

posted by derMax to MetaFilter-related at 4:36 AM (148 comments total)

AmIWeb2.0orNot?
posted by yhbc at 4:42 AM on April 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

93% is pretty close to my own point estimate of the population proportion who are wrong on any given issue.
posted by Wolfdog at 4:42 AM on April 25, 2008 [18 favorites]

Total votes = 189.
posted by jessamyn at 4:46 AM on April 25, 2008

Redesign may be ahead in the popular vote, but can it win states like Pennsylvania and Ohio?
posted by Pants! at 4:55 AM on April 25, 2008 [24 favorites]

If it was still blue/green/gray I don't think I could bear it, but the white theme is awesome. If the setting was reversed so that white was default and colour an option for the 7%, I think most of that 93% would be sated and god would give the world more kittens.
posted by bonaldi at 5:08 AM on April 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

[advertise here]


[and here]
posted by oxford blue at 5:13 AM on April 25, 2008

Wait. Metafilter is designed?

Huh.

But seriously folks: yeah, maybe it could be purdier. But it works. No need to mess with it. But if Matt decided he wanted to spruce it up, I wouldn't be in the OMG!!! HE MESSED WIF MY MEFI!!!!! camp, either. I guess I'm ok with it either way. Some people attribute such an attitude to maturity and good sense. I attribute it to drugs.
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 5:13 AM on April 25, 2008

I'm not sure why but I found myself tempted to click the Inappropriate Content flag.
posted by Elmore at 5:14 AM on April 25, 2008

the white theme is awesome

and professional!
posted by quonsar at 5:14 AM on April 25, 2008 [12 favorites]

The funny part is 189x0,93=175,77. Just saying.
posted by ersatz at 5:15 AM on April 25, 2008

Hmm, 95% say redesign the Drudgereport.com, 46% say redesign Google.com.... so far so good... 88.83% say do not redesign Apple.com.

Someone's not counting the ballots with hanging chads.
posted by three blind mice at 5:16 AM on April 25, 2008

I hate change.
posted by JanetLand at 5:20 AM on April 25, 2008

The white's pretty hard on the eyes, je pense, but the grey boxes on the 'reccent activity' page are very nice indeed.

And I love the way things sort of fade out when you click remove activity....

Whooooosh. Zoooooomp. SHHHHHhhhhh. Which sound effect works best?
posted by oxford blue at 5:21 AM on April 25, 2008

Oh, I mis-read it as "resign", thought this thread was going to be a snarkfest about a fellow member. All I can say is keep it simple if you do.
posted by haunted by Leonard Cohen at 5:22 AM on April 25, 2008

Physician, heal thyself.
posted by Faint of Butt at 5:22 AM on April 25, 2008 [3 favorites]

No please.
posted by Optamystic at 5:23 AM on April 25, 2008

I've only just got used to the new look.
posted by NinjaTadpole at 5:25 AM on April 25, 2008

dude, what Faint of Butt said x10.

where are the comments?
how come it took me 3 minutes to figure out i could see the other 828 sites from the "search" thingie?

bluurrrgh.
posted by n y my at 5:28 AM on April 25, 2008

This is the relevant link.
posted by Jofus at 5:32 AM on April 25, 2008

Also, "Should" is one of those words which loses meaning the more you look at it. See also "Energy".
posted by Jofus at 5:34 AM on April 25, 2008

Go Get Bent!

Unless, you know, everyone wants it to change.
posted by From Bklyn at 5:37 AM on April 25, 2008

Count me among the 7%. (Even though I wasn't, actually)
posted by Navelgazer at 5:42 AM on April 25, 2008

bonaldi writes 'the white theme is awesome.'

Sure is. Though it seems mean that we enlightened types don't get the new search bar thingy.

Are there any statistics/graphs/complex data visualisations available on how many folk use the plain theme, and how many stick with the colours?
posted by jack_mo at 5:47 AM on April 25, 2008

93% say redesign.

Well, *duh.*

We have no pictures. Of course most of the votes are going to say redesign. TEXT ONLY? OUTRAGEOUS!!!!

Oh, and this is a pointless thing to post to MeTa.
posted by mediareport at 5:47 AM on April 25, 2008

jack_mo, I've found cortex (who presumably is diving for the treches as we speak*) more than accommodating with all such requests. Perhaps a quick mefi mail might get an answer?

*Doesn't it feel weird typing this?
posted by oxford blue at 5:49 AM on April 25, 2008

Yes, that was lobbed in the general direction of our esteemed HURF DURF DATA SPEWER ;-)
posted by jack_mo at 6:00 AM on April 25, 2008

I think the site would be enhanced greatly by a splash page and vector graphics. I vote redesign.
posted by mimo at 6:04 AM on April 25, 2008

And perhaps some sort of unmutable soundtrack. And maybe all the links are presented in little flash animations that scamper away from the cursor like mice away from the Irish.
posted by oxford blue at 6:07 AM on April 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

I use the plain theme. The colored background makes text hard for me to read for long. I don't care which theme you use.
posted by ardgedee at 6:09 AM on April 25, 2008

The opinion of random strangers who may/may not have ever visited the site is pretty impressive, but until mathowie puts the question to AskMe, I'm not doing a thing.

Actually I'm not doing anything either way.
posted by stupidsexyFlanders at 6:14 AM on April 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

they should know people here don't believe in intelligent design
posted by pyramid termite at 6:20 AM on April 25, 2008 [5 favorites]

Instead of opening a new page when you click on comments, the page should just expand to show all the comments. It's annoying having to open a new window/link just to see some stoopid comments. I'm pretty sure what those 93% would want.
posted by jmd82 at 6:20 AM on April 25, 2008

some sort of unmutable soundtrack

gotta be smooth jazz, right?
posted by netbros at 6:23 AM on April 25, 2008

93% say redesign.

MetaTalk.
posted by eriko at 6:26 AM on April 25, 2008

The only thing I can think of that might significantly improve the visual layout of the site and enhance the user experience is hangin' a set of truck nutz on this here sumbitch.
posted by The Straightener at 6:26 AM on April 25, 2008 [6 favorites]

If the white is too hard on the eyes, I suggest using #F7F7F7.
posted by sciurus at 6:27 AM on April 25, 2008

I'm not going to trust the crowdsourced design sense that would 35% approve of yahoo.com
posted by BrotherCaine at 6:35 AM on April 25, 2008

Fortunately, designing is not a democratic process.
posted by bru at 6:35 AM on April 25, 2008 [4 favorites]

I like it as is. Nice and subdued.
posted by owtytrof at 6:41 AM on April 25, 2008

I can't think of any major site redesigns that I've liked. I can think of a few that have directly resulted in my visiting the site a lot less (Chicago Tribune and Tomato Nation come to mind almost immediately).

So if you secretly wish I would go away, you know what to do.
posted by Metroid Baby at 6:45 AM on April 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

Are there any statistics/graphs/complex data visualisations available on how many folk use the plain theme, and how many stick with the colours?

I actually asked pb about this a week or two ago, don't remember to what end. I think he came up with a number on the order of 1000 users, maybe 1200. A hefty minority chunk, then.

I imagine plain-themers are among the more active folks; someone who signed up and left one comment probably isn't going to have as much motivation to make the effort to switch themes. So that would be an argument for said minority skewing toward the more active body of the userbase—still probably very much a minority, I'd guess, but not as small as 1000/37000, basically.

For my part, I use both. Plain at work, for practical reasons; colorful at home because, dammit, that's the site.
posted by cortex at 6:48 AM on April 25, 2008

Fuck 'em.
posted by Artw at 6:55 AM on April 25, 2008

How do you get the white theme?
posted by Miko at 7:00 AM on April 25, 2008

It's an option under preferences, queerly enough.
posted by oxford blue at 7:05 AM on April 25, 2008

Why don't the Mods make pink themes? [more inside]
posted by TheColorBlindSuperhero to grab bag at 10:07 AM - 5 answers (4 new) +
posted by yeti at 7:14 AM on April 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

Most of the "shouldn't redesign" in the top 10 list are hard to use eye candy.
posted by substrate at 7:15 AM on April 25, 2008

metafilter has already been redesigned. we had a contest and everything.
posted by quonsar at 7:17 AM on April 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

Jessamyn: Total votes = 189.

Well hold on; how many of those 189 people have been a member of this community longer than, well, all of us?

Surely we should take that into consideration...
posted by CitrusFreak12 at 7:21 AM on April 25, 2008

dammit, that's the site.

Exactly.

Fuck 'em.

Exactly.
posted by languagehat at 7:26 AM on April 25, 2008

Which sound effect works best?

AAAHGH, OH please god make it stop! Why? Why would you do this to me?.. *slowly trailing off into hoarse whispering sobs*


My wife uses the plain theme, because she likes the professional effect. I use the standard theme, both at home and at work, because... well, like Artw said; Fuck 'em.
posted by quin at 7:30 AM on April 25, 2008

I couldn't find the "Fuck No" button, so much for their design.
posted by Skorgu at 7:30 AM on April 25, 2008

I switched to the white theme awhile ago. I switched back about 5 minutes later. My eyes just couldn't take it. And I missed the colors. Mefi's really usable as is. Maybe creep a few things here and there as needed, but I suspect the "make it all over pretty/shiny" bandwagon doesn't really get the site.

The white theme burns us, precious. It hurts our eyes.
posted by Tehanu at 7:32 AM on April 25, 2008

In the top 5 list we're between "Chess for Dollars" and "Utah State Office of Education".

These guys leave no stone unturned it seems.
posted by GuyZero at 7:33 AM on April 25, 2008

Whooooosh. Zoooooomp. SHHHHHhhhhh. Which sound effect works best?


Zhooomp.
posted by h00py at 7:33 AM on April 25, 2008

Here's your redesign.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:33 AM on April 25, 2008 [4 favorites]

metafilter has already been redesigned. we had a contest and everything.

It's interesting how dated some of those seem, even ones that people loved back in 2005.
posted by smackfu at 7:34 AM on April 25, 2008

We can change our theme?
posted by onalark at 7:40 AM on April 25, 2008

Stop hurting Metafilter.
posted by killdevil at 7:48 AM on April 25, 2008

do not want.
posted by the_very_hungry_caterpillar at 7:58 AM on April 25, 2008

This white theme is nice, but a bit disorienting. I've grown dependent on the color of the page to cue me on how to act.
posted by Miko at 8:01 AM on April 25, 2008 [4 favorites]

When people have been told so many times, by so many mods that the site is for them, that's it's going to meet their needs, and it doesn't, it's not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to font sets or color pallets or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-AsMe sentiment or anti-MeTa sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
posted by psmealey at 8:02 AM on April 25, 2008 [3 favorites]

I wrote a whole argument against this, but then I realized that the Vandals already said it best:

...and dig around in the brains and the blue, for something that looks like old you...
posted by iamkimiam at 8:04 AM on April 25, 2008

The professional theme took me a day or two to get used to (it was like staring into a flashlight). Once my retinas got a nice base tan, I grew to lurve it. Now the colors assault me. Cortex' practice of balancing use makes a lot of sense - might be the best of both worlds.
posted by cairnish at 8:05 AM on April 25, 2008

Here's your redesign.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 7:33 AM on April 25

Needs more bling.
posted by Metroid Baby at 8:06 AM on April 25, 2008 [7 favorites]

For optimal awesomeness a board of your peers recommends white metafilter with the Helvetica font.
posted by oxford blue at 8:10 AM on April 25, 2008

metafilter has already been redesigned. we had a contest and everything.

Too bad so many of them are 404'd. FandangoMatt's really had some nice elements. I'll also add that my absolute favorite thing about MeFi that would induce hand-cutting-off were it changed is the full-width text. It is so much easier for me to read than the 400px wide column most sites seem to like.
posted by Rock Steady at 8:12 AM on April 25, 2008

I don't get people who want white backgrounds. Bright text on black backgrounds is far easier on the eyes, which is why original computer monitors used that system. Bright backgrounds with black text is much easier to print and is fine for reading under passive light, but it's actually a bad idea.
posted by delmoi at 8:13 AM on April 25, 2008 [3 favorites]

93% of people are idiots.

I find it amazing how many designers simply take their cues from Apple. Click on the "Shouldn'ts" for a list of sites that shouldn't redesign. Top of the list is apple. Every site that follows looks like apple.com with a different background color.

That said, could we have a slight redesign? Maybe we could use some java to check threads for meta callouts, and upon detection puts a sad little frowny face tree in the corner of the page. Oh, and we need some spangles and blikenlights on our profiles pages that use Ajax or Amway or whatever to tell us whose HAWT or NAWT. Needs lots of animated smileys of course, but I hear mathowie has entire division working on animated smilies.

Also, please integrate AskMeFi with Yahoo! Answers so I can Twitter text "Guhrl dat man ait nuttin but a dawg. And more whitespace. I'm thinking 4 inch margins and 6 inches between paragraphs. Remember - everything anyone ever designs ever is basically advertising - the less you communicate with actual text, the better. Beware "reader fatigue"!

Finally, we need some 2.0 around here. Can we just get some fucking 2.0 in this place once and for all? And don't forget that the 2.0 stuff should be "Beta". I don't want to be using a site that's finished.
posted by Pastabagel at 8:17 AM on April 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

I don't get people who want white backgrounds.
Well, I spend my days in a word processor or a page layout application, and they're all black on white. Most of the apps that people actually use in offices are black on white, come to think of it. I am trained to spot the minutest differences in little pieces of black. So then if I have to switch to another app, my brain blanches at the chunk of black it's then faced with.

On top of which, light on dark just screams "not work". And is ugly.
posted by bonaldi at 8:21 AM on April 25, 2008

I'm all for window dressing. Heck, I redesign most of my sites once a year, whether they need it or not. There are only so many ways to present the same core bits of information, though, and Metafilter does that well enough. I really don't see how it could be substantially improved over how it is now, aside from some extraneous web 2.0 geegaws that wouldn't really make much of a real difference.
posted by Dave Faris at 8:21 AM on April 25, 2008

And anti-aliasing looks funky
posted by bonaldi at 8:22 AM on April 25, 2008

We just had a redesign.
posted by klangklangston at 8:24 AM on April 25, 2008

The white theme made my eyes hurt.
posted by jeversol at 8:30 AM on April 25, 2008

Bright text on black backgrounds is far easier on the eyes, which is why original computer monitors used that system.

Bright text on black backgrounds is far easier on the eyes on crude old monochrome CRT monitors that were green or orange and had phosphor bleed and raster lines the width of a garden hose. I'm not at all sure that formulation applies when the text rendering is crisp and high-resolution with subpixel aliasing and you're not faced with a field of vivid green or orange with lines through it; I think it's a little more comparable to ink on paper.
posted by George_Spiggott at 8:33 AM on April 25, 2008

The white theme made my eyes hurt.

You know, if the white on your monitor makes your eyes hurt, you should turn down the brightness.

Personally, I think the default theme is yucky and the plain theme makes comments appear 12.7% smarter, but I'm happy to leave each to her own.
posted by ssg at 8:54 AM on April 25, 2008

Witness the white bear of the poles, and the white shark of the tropics; what but their smooth, flaky whiteness makes them the transcendent horrors they are? That ghastly whiteness it is which imparts such an abhorrent mildness, even more loathsome than terrific, to the dumb gloating of their aspect. So that not the fierce-fanged tiger in his heraldic coat can so stagger courage as the white-shrouded bear or shark.

Bethink thee of the albatross, whence come those clouds of spiritual wonderment and pale dread, in which that white phantom sails in all imaginations? Not Coleridge first threw that spell; but God's great, unflattering laureate, Nature.

...

Nor, in some things, does the common, hereditary experience of all mankind fail to bear witness to the supernaturalism of this hue. It cannot well be doubted, that the one visible quality in the aspect of the dead which most appals the gazer, is the marble pallor lingering there; as if indeed that pallor were as much like the badge of consternation in the other world, as of mortal trepidation here. And from that pallor of the dead, we borrow the expressive hue of the shroud in which we wrap them. Nor even in our superstitions do we fail to throw the same snowy mantle round our phantoms; all ghosts rising in a milk-white fog - Yea, while these terrors seize us, let us add, that even the king of terrors, when personified by the evangelist, rides on his pallid horse.

— Melville on the higher horror of the whiteness

Those of you who toil before Word's ghastly pallor, rather than the cool, chthonic murk of a terminal window as God and Ken Thompson intended, do not know how close you tread to the terrible Rubicon of human madness.
posted by enn at 8:56 AM on April 25, 2008 [11 favorites]

Pastabagel, that didn't turn out nearly as droll as you were hoping.
posted by oxford blue at 8:56 AM on April 25, 2008

Setting the comment font to Georgia also makes everybody seem smarter and classier too. Way to go, guys,
posted by bonaldi at 8:56 AM on April 25, 2008

Ask designers if things needs to be redesigned: they will say yes.
Ask a barber if your hair needs to be cut: they will say yes.
posted by milkrate at 8:58 AM on April 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

Honestly, I think MeFi Music could use a makeover. Too dark and somber, if you ask me. That page could stand to look a little more fun, a little more bright.

Yeah, yeah, I know: nobody asked me.
posted by flapjax at midnite at 9:01 AM on April 25, 2008

Ask designers if things needs to be redesigned: they will say yes.

Well, that's just because things do needs to be redesigned.

#FFFFF3 for the background, #CF0E0D for the links, obviously.
posted by signal at 9:04 AM on April 25, 2008

Eh, speaking a graphic designer, the only thing that really bugs me after all these years is the clustering of links at the top of the page (There's 4 rows of links and it's not always clear what's what), the consistent "welcome back" message and Jessamyn's monthly protection fees. A small refresh of the design wouldn't hurt, but it's not needed. But I'd be worried about the design taking on trendy elements as opposed to the unique personality of Metafilter, so not changing doesn't hurt my feelings.

The only thing I would really-really-pretty-please-omg-pony want is CSS styling of the user profile pages. When it was briefly allowed were some of the coolest times on the site.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 9:10 AM on April 25, 2008

Pastabagel, that didn't turn out nearly as droll as you were hoping.
posted by oxford blue at 11:56 AM on April 25

Oh, yeah? Watch this:

...the terrible Rubicon of human madness.
posted by enn at 11:56 AM on April 25

You mean Styx?

How's that for droll!
posted by Pastabagel at 9:15 AM on April 25, 2008

93? of what? the numbers don't count, who these people are. a marketing manager will say "redesign!" in hopes of fitting two more banners in, a web 2.0 kid wants his watercolor effects and your grandpa wants every letter to be 96pt.

single-word declarations on such magnitude help nobody. anyone having a gripe should point out what is missing/wrong/bad/whatever.

I'm in the camp of "fuck the redesigners, let's take them behind the shed and drown'em."
posted by krautland at 9:18 AM on April 25, 2008

Perhaps I meant drool.
posted by oxford blue at 9:20 AM on April 25, 2008

So, what I was wondering last night while watching TV was which came first: the original MetaFilter We're All in This Together slogan or this We're All In This Together song by that Ozzie actor dude Ben Lee, as featured in the recent Kohl ad. How old is that song, anyway ? Inert minds wand to know.
posted by y2karl at 9:20 AM on April 25, 2008

Thanks cortex - I'd imagined it'd be much more folk than that. But going by what other folk are saying, I must have some sort of eye problem (other than being very short sighted).

I just can't read stuff on dark backgrounds without getting a headache, especially if it's as low contrast as it is here, to the extent that I probably click the 'zap colours' bookmarklet in my browser more than any other button. And - sacrilege, apparently - my terminal windows are always set to black on white, too!
posted by jack_mo at 9:25 AM on April 25, 2008

The only thing I would really-really-pretty-please-omg-pony want is CSS styling of the user profile pages. When it was briefly allowed were some of the coolest times on the site.

I agree.
posted by inigo2 at 9:27 AM on April 25, 2008

It's interesting to see how many of the redesign ideas have made their way into the current site. Fandago_matt's tabbed bar, for example. Which bring up my only real problem with the current design: there's too many freakin' bars at the top of the page!

Currently, logged-in, there are 5 "navigation bars" on the top of the page:
1. welcome back/signout
2. Subsites (mefi, ask, etc...)
3. Home, FAQ, etc...
4. New Post, Profile....
5. Recent Posts, My Favorites, etc...

Were I dictator-for-a-day, I'd move 3 to the bottom and merge 4 and 5---I've never been able to remember what the differences between "My Comments" and "Recent Activity" are, for example. I know they're different, but, goddamn, I'd be hardpressed to tell them apart on a dark night.
posted by bonehead at 9:29 AM on April 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

So, what problems, exactly, would this redesign solve? Would it increase the userbase? Lead to better content? Better search results? Improve navigation?

At first glance, "93% say redesign" makes you think there's something fundamentally wrong with MeFi as-is, but I suspect the reality is that when you ask people any variation of "Should X happen, requiring no effort from or harm to you?", people tend to say "yes".

100% of users named mkultra think that site is stupid.
posted by mkultra at 9:30 AM on April 25, 2008

According to my poll, 100% of users want a prominent link to "What does Fuzzy Skinner think?"
posted by Fuzzy Skinner at 9:38 AM on April 25, 2008

I would enjoy a nice 93% gay redesign.
posted by danOstuporStar at 9:40 AM on April 25, 2008

I can't think of any major site redesigns that I've liked. I can think of a few that have directly resulted in my visiting the site a lot less (Chicago Tribune and Tomato Nation come to mind almost immediately).

I totally agree with this. After over 10 years on the Internet I have never visited a website more after a redesign. But on several occasions I really have visited a website less after a redesign. I almost never visit Rotten Tomatoes anymore, for instance, because they uglified the colors, divided their reviews into a cumbersome number of pages, shrinked the text to illegibility, etc.
posted by dgaicun at 9:42 AM on April 25, 2008 [2 favorites]

The only links I ever use in the whole header are Recent Activity and Metatalk (I have bookmarks for MeFi and AskMeFi).

Even so, there's nothing wrong with that, and the current design works fine. Whenever Matt adds something new and it moves the links around, that is what screws me up. If you rearranged everything, it would be a pain in the ass.
posted by smackfu at 9:44 AM on April 25, 2008

Oh my god, I can turn the colors off, and have a normal white screen!? This thread just saved my life.
posted by Grither at 9:59 AM on April 25, 2008

[this is bad]
posted by trip and a half at 10:12 AM on April 25, 2008

I'm surprised you'd stop going to a site just because the colors changed. I could understand it if the usability changed, but a color change?
posted by Dave Faris at 10:15 AM on April 25, 2008

"Setting the comment font to Georgia also makes everybody seem smarter and classier too. Way to go, guys,"

I was using Garamond (or, indeed, Bonaldi) for a while on my old computer, and it was pretty nice.
posted by klangklangston at 10:25 AM on April 25, 2008

I hear Shockwave is a big thing these days.
posted by naju at 10:28 AM on April 25, 2008

The current administration in Washington proves that at least 28% of people probably prefer comic sans.
posted by Devils Rancher at 10:33 AM on April 25, 2008

"I was using Garamond (or, indeed, Bonaldi) "
There's a Bonaldi font? Top! Awesome if it's serif too.
posted by bonaldi at 10:45 AM on April 25, 2008

Speaking of AWFUL site redesigns...
posted by prefpara at 10:46 AM on April 25, 2008

1. Can't even figure out how to vote on there.

2. If I could vote, I'd vote NO. I like MetaFilter as is.
posted by limeonaire at 10:52 AM on April 25, 2008

metafilter has already been redesigned. we had a contest and everything.

It's interesting how dated some of those seem, even ones that people loved back in 2005.

What's even more interesting is how all of them were completely ignored when matt finally redesigned the site to look almost exactly the same as it did before.

I don't especially recall anyone back then saying the site needed no redesign, but I might be wrong. I think we're mostly just used to it and don't care what some OTHER site thinks we should do. But on the other hand, I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks metafilter's current design is perfect.
posted by shmegegge at 10:57 AM on April 25, 2008

It's not perfect. The problem is no one agrees on which parts aren't perfect.
posted by smackfu at 10:58 AM on April 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

I rock the plain at work and the color at home.

Clearly the designers at that site need to stop sippin' the hateraide.
posted by drezdn at 10:58 AM on April 25, 2008

this is like having a choice between Coke and Pepsi and people wanting Tab for everyone.
posted by dawson at 11:18 AM on April 25, 2008

I find it hard to believe that anyone thinks metafilter's current design is perfect.

Well, I do. "Perfect" in the sense of "there is nothing that I want to do on MetaFilter that I cannot do, extra functions that I do not use but can see the utility of, and the whole thing seems quite efficient and well-organized."

When I can't think of any obvious way that something could be improved, that's generally "perfect" enough for me, anyway.
posted by Shepherd at 11:30 AM on April 25, 2008

Please don't redesign based on the purported votes of people who may or may not have any stake in our beloved Metafilter. Who are these folks, anyway, and why do we care what they think?
posted by Lynsey at 11:35 AM on April 25, 2008

Hey remember how we had a redesign contest and then we were going to implement the winning design and then one of the designs was declared the winning design?
posted by Krrrlson at 11:40 AM on April 25, 2008

Why?
posted by deborah at 11:42 AM on April 25, 2008

How?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 11:47 AM on April 25, 2008

I'm not sure why but I found myself tempted to click the Inappropriate Content flag.
I was curious about that, too. What effect would it have to complain about the content on one of these sites to these Shouldred people? Not being the type who would poke the sleeping bear in MY cave, I went to the Chess For Dollars page and reported them for inappropriate content. I'll keep an eye out for a big smoking hole in the Internet where the CfD site used to be.
posted by joaquim at 11:51 AM on April 25, 2008

When I can't think of any obvious way that something could be improved, that's generally "perfect" enough for me, anyway.

I guess. I figure perfect means "not kind of fugly," also, though. and while I love the site, I love it the way I would love a slightly ugly child. like, one whose eyes are just a little too widely spaced.
posted by shmegegge at 11:54 AM on April 25, 2008

Man every website on the Internet should redesign!
posted by iisbum at 11:56 AM on April 25, 2008

gah. Hurts my brain to see so many flippant comments when the site really could be improved in so many small ways.
posted by GeekAnimator at 12:06 PM on April 25, 2008

Keeps 93% of the riff raff out, amirite?
posted by juv3nal at 12:19 PM on April 25, 2008

ryob (redesign your own blog)
posted by Cranberry at 12:20 PM on April 25, 2008

93% of whom? If they aren't Mefites, they're just part of the great unwashed internet at large. The internet equivalent of the fly over states. All their taste is in their mouths, fuck 'em.
posted by doctor_negative at 12:24 PM on April 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

White backgrounds are like staring at a lightbulb.
posted by Pope Guilty at 12:28 PM on April 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

Maybe there's something up, but I can't figure out what it may be....
posted by Jeff_Larson at 12:47 PM on April 25, 2008

How can we give the [ + ] rounded corners?
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:50 PM on April 25, 2008

fuck 'em
posted by Neiltupper at 12:56 PM on April 25, 2008

Hey remember how we had a redesign contest and then we were going to implement the winning design and then one of the designs was declared the winning design?

Yup. quonsar remembers too... like a pissing elephant.
posted by terrapin at 12:57 PM on April 25, 2008

I'd like to vote but that site is designed so poorly I can't figure out how to cast my vote....
posted by JJ86 at 1:20 PM on April 25, 2008

"There's a Bonaldi font? Top! Awesome if it's serif too."

I had it on my old computer, but now I can't seem to find it. If I recall correctly, it came out of that massive .zip file of fonts that was posted either in an AskMe or over on MeCha. But yeah, it was a subtle serif font that looked like it was made for continental literature.
posted by klangklangston at 1:24 PM on April 25, 2008

NEEDS MORE MOUSE TRAILS
posted by loiseau at 1:27 PM on April 25, 2008

NO redesign, please.
posted by Crabby Appleton at 1:42 PM on April 25, 2008

Maybe there's something up, but I can't figure out what it may be....

Woah. Is that for real?
posted by juv3nal at 2:02 PM on April 25, 2008

Might you mean Bodoni?
posted by Iridic at 2:27 PM on April 25, 2008

No, though it's similar, and I would guess that the Bonaldi I had was a knock-off of it. When I was using it, I assumed that the user here had named himself after the font, though that seems not to be true. Could have been named after Aldo, though.
posted by klangklangston at 2:32 PM on April 25, 2008

It's also possible that it was misnamed, or that HOTMAIL HACKED MY FONTS.
posted by klangklangston at 2:46 PM on April 25, 2008

I had a dream once that Jesus came back from the dead with a magic computer virus that set designers' hands on fire when they tried to set web page backgrounds to white and, if they dared to use a serif font on anything but paper, it would mail out the naked webcam shots they took for their significant other to their parents. Then I woke up and cried, because I have to browse the web in a world where people think that miniscule squiggly dark shapes projected on a 200 watt light bulb equals professional and legible.
posted by bunnytricks at 3:49 PM on April 25, 2008

I say D Resign!

RESIGN, D! You know it's the right thing to do!
posted by Astro Zombie at 4:34 PM on April 25, 2008

I'd vote no if I could...
I mean, I'm with the 'it works' camp, which is really all I could ask of MeFi.
posted by opsin at 5:01 PM on April 25, 2008

I recommend the following improvements:

I want video and audio of Keith Olberman reading me all the comments and posts.

To submit a comment or post you simply email or phone keith and he reads it out and re-records the entire website once per hour. Also I want full transcripts of what Keith says, which I can just print off with a single click at work and read on my coffee break.
posted by Deep Dish at 5:07 PM on April 25, 2008

I'm open to new ideas on rejiggering the layout as well as a complete visual redo, but I think of them as two separate projects. The first one, I think everyone can come around to having a better nav bar and improved layout on posts, the second is definitely up to personal taste and I know it's an uphill battle.

Early this year I did contract Airbag Industries to try mocking up a few ideas, with the intention of eventually floating redesign ideas here, refining, and then eventually launching it here as an option with the ability to also let everyone do their own mefi layout template if they wanted (so if you hated the redesign, you could make your own version, as well as revert to the old one). We got as far as a couple mockups and I didn't feel like pushing it onto the community or going forward with it, so nothing really came of it.
posted by mathowie at 5:27 PM on April 25, 2008

I have to browse the web in a world where people think that miniscule squiggly dark shapes projected on a 200 watt light bulb equals professional and legible.

See, now I'm starting to think that my eyes are fine, and the white-haters have their font size set to tiny wee and their monitors on maximum brightness.

I want video and audio of Keith Olberman reading me all the comments and posts.

I don't know who Keith Olberman is, but some people are actually promoting video comments on websites as a groovy modern idea.
posted by jack_mo at 5:34 PM on April 25, 2008

Hey remember how we had a redesign contest and then we were going to implement the winning design and then one of the designs was declared the winning design?

People keep forgetting that I did implement it when Projects launched. People thought it sucked, so I got rid of it. It was nice to get some ideas out of it though, so it was far from a total loss.
posted by mathowie at 5:36 PM on April 25, 2008

Wayback version of Projects v0.1
posted by smackfu at 6:49 PM on April 25, 2008

I do not think anyone wants a true redesign as such, but rather an evolution of the current design to address some legitimate issues people have. Such as the rather ugly and hard to navigate top link section; surely with a little thought, as well as studying what people need to be at the top, and what can be dismissed to the bottom, or all together, many peoples complaints would be allayed.

I agree with people about the Televisionwithoutpity redesign, that is awful. Pleasant redesigns were the apple page, the google page, and the amazon page.
posted by oxford blue at 7:32 PM on April 25, 2008

Just have to chime in about RottenTomatoes - probably the most brainless redesign I've ever experienced as a user. They added all kinds of shit I never use, made it harder to find the stuff I used every day and uglified the whole thing to boot.

I switched to metacritic almost immediately, and now only go back to RT by mistake.
posted by mediareport at 7:50 PM on April 25, 2008 [1 favorite]

TWoP is dead to me now.
posted by mimo at 7:55 PM on April 25, 2008

I think one simple change that could make the header look a less cluttered would be to move the date and time to the footer. I already know what day it is and my OS already has a clock. If I have a burning desire to know the exact server time, I can probably manage to scroll down to the footer. The placement of the date and time in the plain theme is particularly prominent in the plain theme too.
posted by ssg at 8:46 PM on April 25, 2008

I switched to the white theme a few months ago and have never looked back; it is not harder to read, it's much easier to read!

Redesign? Pfft!
posted by fourcheesemac at 5:35 AM on April 26, 2008

Democracy is the wrong way to decide 93% of issues.
posted by hoverboards don't work on water at 5:52 AM on April 26, 2008

I'd like a MetaPorn section, please.
posted by DenOfSizer at 11:00 AM on April 26, 2008

I'd like a MetaPorn section, please.

how many "my little ponies" are you willing to look at?
posted by pyramid termite at 2:27 PM on April 26, 2008