So a few people mentioned that we’d broken their RSS feeds when we upgraded.
True, and sorry about that – I’m not sure what we could have done (although I welcome people using this as a teaching moment and telling me in the comments).
But we’ve dropped from over 900 sbscribers in Bloglines to 2 today (including me). So you may want to consider resubscribing, using the url on the bottom of the lefthand column.
By the way – what do people think of the changes??
The look is still a little cluttered and messy (we’ll work on that), but in terms of function??
I’m the other subscriber.
Yes, the look is cluttered and messy. Space is needed between the title and the byline, and between the byline and the first sentence of the entry itself.
Also, entering posts themselves is now a pain in the ass. I’m sure you’ve noticed. The old system was much easier because I could copy and paste text from Word documents without running into crazy formatting problems that need to be painstakingly fixed. The new system reminds me of the Typekey system, which has always been terrible.
I’m sure there is room for improvement but I like what you’ve done with it so far.
I’m now able to preview my comments and fix any formatting errors before I post so I’m happy (and hopefully so are the marshals who don’t have to spend time fixing as many dumb mistakes).
As far as the layout, I enjoy being able to respond to specific comments, especially when the conversation may break into several sub-topics, and seeing the most recent comments on each particular topic makes it easier for me to see if a post I’ve been following has been updated.
Good job.
A couple of nitpicks:
Signing into one of the services took too long. I think movable type took about 36 hours to e-mail me a password, and by the time I had a chance to respond, it went bad. Typepad was closer to an hour. Not a big deal now that I have an account, but if you’re looking for new blood, you may want to use Google/Blogger accounts.
Having the link to the comments at the top of the post seems counter-intuitive to me and not particularly user friendly for the length of typical Winds posts.
Overall, I like it.
The only issue I have (and it might be just my id) is that I have to sign in before I post or reply — every time. So if I reply to one post, then another one a few minutes later, it’s another login first. Bleah. But it’s an inconvenience rather than a problem.
* Signing in: As Jeff mentioned above, it’s a process that has to be repeated. Cookies? With TypePad, it’s annoying that it takes stepping through multiple screens. I signed on to Movable Type hoping for better, but that doesn’t work at all.
* Preview is a welcome addition.
* Once ‘Preview’ is hit, the post and comments thread are no longer visible. That’s a disadvantage.
* More than one link sends a comment to Moderation, usually or always. Only an email to the author seems to get it released. To write thoughtfully and see the words disappear is discouraging. Perhaps the text under “Leave a Comment” should make the One Link Rule explicit.
* A final nitpick: the “bq.” blockquote command now puts text in italics, lowering readability.