Comments on: Should or shouldn't

Should or shouldn't

derMax — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:36:34 -0800

93% say redesign. [disclaimer: Not saying I agree. I am in fact neutral.]

By: yhbc

yhbc — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:42:26 -0800

AmIWeb2.0orNot?

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:42:34 -0800

93% is pretty close to my own point estimate of the population proportion who are wrong on any given issue.

By: jessamyn

jessamyn — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:46:19 -0800

Total votes = 189.

By: Pants!

Pants! — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 04:55:58 -0800

Redesign may be ahead in the popular vote, but can it win states like Pennsylvania and Ohio?

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:08:42 -0800

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.

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:13:23 -0800

[advertise here]

[and here]

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:13:50 -0800

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.

By: Elmore

Elmore — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:14:14 -0800

I'm not sure why but I found myself tempted to click the Inappropriate Content flag.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:14:14 -0800

the white theme is awesome

and professional!

By: ersatz

ersatz — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:15:13 -0800

The funny part is 189x0,93=175,77. Just saying.

By: three blind mice

three blind mice — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:16:13 -0800

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.

By: JanetLand

JanetLand — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:20:01 -0800

I hate change.

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:21:26 -0800

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?

By: haunted by Leonard Cohen

haunted by Leonard Cohen — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:22:39 -0800

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.

By: Faint of Butt

Faint of Butt — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:22:54 -0800

Physician, heal thyself.

By: Optamystic

Optamystic — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:23:40 -0800

No please.

By: NinjaTadpole

NinjaTadpole — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:25:04 -0800

I've only just got used to the new look.

By: n y my

n y my — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:28:44 -0800

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.

By: Jofus

Jofus — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:32:52 -0800

This is the relevant link.

By: Jofus

Jofus — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:34:18 -0800

Also, "Should" is one of those words which loses meaning the more you look at it. See also "Energy".

By: From Bklyn

From Bklyn — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:37:31 -0800

Go Get Bent!

Unless, you know, everyone wants it to change.

By: Navelgazer

Navelgazer — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:42:39 -0800

Count me among the 7%. (Even though I wasn't, actually)

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:47:22 -0800

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?

By: mediareport

mediareport — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:47:26 -0800

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.

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 05:49:42 -0800

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?

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:00:54 -0800

Yes, that was lobbed in the general direction of our esteemed HURF DURF DATA SPEWER ;-)

By: mimo

mimo — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:04:52 -0800

I think the site would be enhanced greatly by a splash page and vector graphics. I vote redesign.

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:07:57 -0800

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.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:09:52 -0800

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.

By: stupidsexyFlanders

stupidsexyFlanders — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:14:05 -0800

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.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:20:20 -0800

they should know people here don't believe in intelligent design

By: jmd82

jmd82 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:20:42 -0800

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.

By: netbros

netbros — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:23:58 -0800

some sort of unmutable soundtrack

gotta be smooth jazz, right?

By: eriko

eriko — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:26:06 -0800

93% say redesign.

MetaTalk.

By: The Straightener

The Straightener — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:26:13 -0800

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.

By: sciurus

sciurus — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:27:20 -0800

If the white is too hard on the eyes, I suggest using #F7F7F7.

By: BrotherCaine

BrotherCaine — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:35:31 -0800

I'm not going to trust the crowdsourced design sense that would 35% approve of yahoo.com

By: bru

bru — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:35:50 -0800

Fortunately, designing is not a democratic process.

By: owtytrof

owtytrof — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:41:58 -0800

I like it as is. Nice and subdued.

By: Metroid Baby

Metroid Baby — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:45:58 -0800

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.

By: cortex

cortex — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:48:29 -0800

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.

By: Artw

Artw — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 06:55:45 -0800

Fuck 'em.

By: Miko

Miko — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:00:20 -0800

How do you get the white theme?

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:05:22 -0800

It's an option under preferences, queerly enough.

By: yeti

yeti — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:14:03 -0800

Why don't the Mods make pink themes? [more inside]
posted by TheColorBlindSuperhero to grab bag at 10:07 AM - 5 answers (4 new) +

By: substrate

substrate — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:15:44 -0800

Most of the "shouldn't redesign" in the top 10 list are hard to use eye candy.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:17:42 -0800

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

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:21:19 -0800

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...

By: languagehat

languagehat — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:26:53 -0800

dammit, that's the site.

Exactly.

Fuck 'em.

Exactly.

By: quin

quin — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:30:02 -0800

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.

By: Skorgu

Skorgu — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:30:14 -0800

I couldn't find the "Fuck No" button, so much for their design.

By: Tehanu

Tehanu — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:32:34 -0800

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.

By: GuyZero

GuyZero — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:33:13 -0800

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.

By: h00py

h00py — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:33:33 -0800

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

Zhooomp.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:33:39 -0800

Here's your redesign.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:34:25 -0800

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.

By: onalark

onalark — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:40:23 -0800

We can change our theme?

By: killdevil

killdevil — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:48:21 -0800

Stop hurting Metafilter.

By: the_very_hungry_caterpillar

the_very_hungry_caterpillar — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 07:58:10 -0800

do not want.

By: Miko

Miko — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:01:27 -0800

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.

By: psmealey

psmealey — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:02:59 -0800

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.

By: iamkimiam

iamkimiam — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:04:21 -0800

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...

By: cairnish

cairnish — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:05:11 -0800

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.

By: Metroid Baby

Metroid Baby — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:06:53 -0800

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

Needs more bling.

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:10:55 -0800

For optimal awesomeness a board of your peers recommends white metafilter with the Helvetica font.

By: Rock Steady

Rock Steady — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:12:26 -0800

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.

By: delmoi

delmoi — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:13:54 -0800

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.

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:17:23 -0800

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.

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:21:48 -0800

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.

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:21:55 -0800

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.

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:22:07 -0800

And anti-aliasing looks funky

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:24:04 -0800

We just had a redesign.

By: jeversol

jeversol — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:30:48 -0800

The white theme made my eyes hurt.

By: George_Spiggott

George_Spiggott — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:33:17 -0800

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.

By: ssg

ssg — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:54:42 -0800

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.

By: enn

enn — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:56:04 -0800

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.

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:56:11 -0800

Pastabagel, that didn't turn out nearly as droll as you were hoping.

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:56:54 -0800

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

By: milkrate

milkrate — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 08:58:31 -0800

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.

By: flapjax at midnite

flapjax at midnite — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:01:13 -0800

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.

By: signal

signal — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:04:54 -0800

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.

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:10:57 -0800

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.

By: Pastabagel

Pastabagel — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:15:33 -0800

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!

By: krautland

krautland — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:18:47 -0800

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."

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:20:08 -0800

Perhaps I meant drool.

By: y2karl

y2karl — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:20:29 -0800

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.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:25:19 -0800

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!

By: inigo2

inigo2 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:27:16 -0800

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.

By: bonehead

bonehead — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:29:27 -0800

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.

By: mkultra

mkultra — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:30:56 -0800

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.

By: Fuzzy Skinner

Fuzzy Skinner — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:38:23 -0800

According to my poll, 100% of users want a prominent link to "What does Fuzzy Skinner think?"

By: danOstuporStar

danOstuporStar — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:40:25 -0800

I would enjoy a nice 93% gay redesign.

By: dgaicun

dgaicun — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:42:29 -0800

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.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:44:01 -0800

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.

By: Grither

Grither — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 09:59:40 -0800

Oh my god, I can turn the colors off, and have a normal white screen!? This thread just saved my life.

By: trip and a half

trip and a half — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:12:36 -0800

[this is bad]

By: Dave Faris

Dave Faris — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:15:44 -0800

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?

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:25:10 -0800

"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.

By: naju

naju — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:28:19 -0800

I hear Shockwave is a big thing these days.

By: Devils Rancher

Devils Rancher — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:33:24 -0800

The current administration in Washington proves that at least 28% of people probably prefer comic sans.

By: bonaldi

bonaldi — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:45:59 -0800

"I was using Garamond (or, indeed, Bonaldi) "
There's a Bonaldi font? Top! Awesome if it's serif too.

By: prefpara

prefpara — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:46:45 -0800

Speaking of AWFUL site redesigns...

By: limeonaire

limeonaire — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:52:59 -0800

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.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:57:06 -0800

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.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:58:31 -0800

It's not perfect. The problem is no one agrees on which parts aren't perfect.

By: drezdn

drezdn — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:58:54 -0800

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

Clearly the designers at that site need to stop sippin' the hateraide.

By: dawson

dawson — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:18:03 -0800

this is like having a choice between Coke and Pepsi and people wanting Tab for everyone.

By: Shepherd

Shepherd — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:30:36 -0800

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.

By: Lynsey

Lynsey — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:35:42 -0800

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?

By: Krrrlson

Krrrlson — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:40:24 -0800

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?

By: deborah

deborah — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:42:12 -0800

Why?

By: Brandon Blatcher

Brandon Blatcher — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:47:29 -0800

How?

By: joaquim

joaquim — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:51:42 -0800

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.

By: shmegegge

shmegegge — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:54:16 -0800

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.

By: iisbum

iisbum — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 11:56:09 -0800

Man every website on the Internet should redesign!

By: GeekAnimator

GeekAnimator — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:06:44 -0800

gah. Hurts my brain to see so many flippant comments when the site really could be improved in so many small ways.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:19:49 -0800

Keeps 93% of the riff raff out, amirite?

By: Cranberry

Cranberry — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:20:32 -0800

ryob (redesign your own blog)

By: doctor_negative

doctor_negative — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:24:24 -0800

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.

By: Pope Guilty

Pope Guilty — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:28:36 -0800

White backgrounds are like staring at a lightbulb.

By: Jeff_Larson

Jeff_Larson — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:47:18 -0800

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

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:50:21 -0800

How can we give the [ + ] rounded corners?

By: Neiltupper

Neiltupper — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:56:30 -0800

fuck 'em

By: terrapin

terrapin — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 12:57:09 -0800

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.

By: JJ86

JJ86 — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:20:25 -0800

I'd like to vote but that site is designed so poorly I can't figure out how to cast my vote....

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:24:45 -0800

"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.

By: loiseau

loiseau — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:27:32 -0800

NEEDS MORE MOUSE TRAILS

By: Crabby Appleton

Crabby Appleton — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 13:42:23 -0800

NO redesign, please.

By: juv3nal

juv3nal — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:02:51 -0800

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

Woah. Is that for real?

By: Iridic

Iridic — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:27:41 -0800

Might you mean Bodoni?

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:32:22 -0800

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.

By: klangklangston

klangklangston — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 14:46:16 -0800

It's also possible that it was misnamed, or that HOTMAIL HACKED MY FONTS.

By: bunnytricks

bunnytricks — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:49:24 -0800

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.

By: Astro Zombie

Astro Zombie — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 16:34:39 -0800

I say D Resign!

RESIGN, D! You know it's the right thing to do!

By: opsin

opsin — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:01:13 -0800

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.

By: Deep Dish

Deep Dish — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:07:32 -0800

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.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:27:03 -0800

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.

By: jack_mo

jack_mo — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:34:21 -0800

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.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 17:36:03 -0800

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.

By: smackfu

smackfu — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 18:49:31 -0800

Wayback version of Projects v0.1

By: oxford blue

oxford blue — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:32:06 -0800

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.

By: mediareport

mediareport — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:50:19 -0800

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.

By: mimo

mimo — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 19:55:32 -0800

TWoP is dead to me now.

By: ssg

ssg — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 20:46:04 -0800

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.

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:35:09 -0800

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!

By: hoverboards don't work on water

hoverboards don't work on water — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 05:52:55 -0800

Democracy is the wrong way to decide 93% of issues.

By: DenOfSizer

DenOfSizer — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:00:09 -0800

I'd like a MetaPorn section, please.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 14:27:17 -0800

I'd like a MetaPorn section, please.

how many "my little ponies" are you willing to look at?