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Blogs Welcome to bit-tech 2010

Discussion in 'Article Discussion' started by Sifter3000, 19 Apr 2010.

  1. smc8788

    smc8788 Multimodder

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    What? I count 3 adverts, two at the top which are visible when you load to the page, and one at the very bottom when you scroll down. I'm pretty sure the old site only had around 3 ads as well.

    The width criticism is one I can understand though. Although the new site is technically wider than the old one, the entire right hand column (which takes up 1/3rd of the page) is essentially useless and features hardly any content whatsoever.
     
  2. Hiren

    Hiren mind control Moderator

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    Actually there are a lot less ads now that there were on the old site. The old site had 5 on the homepage vs 3 now. That's a 40% reduction. The forums now only have 1 at the top vs 3-4 on the old forum.
     
  3. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    Regarding page width, I do think that a lot of people are only looking at this actual post, which is representative of the whole site because:

    Blogs are, by design, narrower than articles.

    There are way more comments on this page than on any other - you normally wouldn't scroll this far.
     
  4. Tim S

    Tim S OG

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    As Hiren says, the old site had five ads per page, sometimes six or seven, depending on how you counted. That's been cut back, which we felt would go down well with the readership - it took a lot of convincing the commercial guys that it'd be a positive step, but when we were proposing it, we felt it'd be a good way to 'give back' to you for your support instead of just throwing an increasing number of ads on every page, which would more likely lead to an increase in ad-blockers. One complaint we'd seen a lot from readers of was high CPU usage - we're not going to reduce CPU usage by increasing the number of ad slots.

    Yes, the formats have been changed on the front page, but the fact remains that there are now fewer ads on most (if not all) parts of bit-tech. The square ad (MPU) at the top is one that we have had to implement for business reasons - it's the most requested banner type - but it meant that we could get rid of the two skyscrapers on index pages and on the forums.

    On article pages, there are now four ads, compared to five/six/seven previously and the MPU is no longer intrusive and sitting in the text. This is one thing that, editorially, we wanted to do because a) it makes the articles easier to read and b) it makes them easier for us to lay out, too.

    I know I don't work on the site any more, but a lot of this design was scoped out long before I moved onto my new role at Expert Reviews (in fact, a lot of the original layout work was visualised before the Dennis acquisition, but it was in desperate need of some sexing up). So, although I'm not technically part of the team any more, I was attached to this particular project until it reached the closed beta stage, where opinions were sought from the readership, so I am able to at least explain some of the reasoning behind particular choices we made.
     
  5. Hugo

    Hugo Ex-TrustedReviews Staff

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    You mean fewer ;)

    Seriously, though, I'm finding the adverts much less intrusive now. I remain happy having bit-tech on my white-list :)

    EDIT: However - this lack of alignment annoys me:

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: 20 Apr 2010
  6. NickCPC

    NickCPC Minimodder

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    Where exactly do you stand?
     
  7. Blademrk

    Blademrk Why so serious?

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    Hugo used to work in the same office (back when Trusted Reviews and Bit-Tech shared office space). This should answer your question ;)
     
  8. smc8788

    smc8788 Multimodder

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    He also has a tendency to overdo the sarcasm while not using the designated [sarcasm] tags to prevent such ambiguities.
     
  9. Hugo

    Hugo Ex-TrustedReviews Staff

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    I like sarcasm, hence the facetious dig at those readers complaining about the change without even bothering to say what about it they disliked.

    To clarify:

    I think the new site layout/design is excellent and does a much better job of showing off the great content you guys produce, while also displaying the adverts I'm all too aware are needed to keep the site going.

    I'd hope that the bit-tech/CPC guys I've know are well aware they should ignore anything negative I say about the site and/or its content :p
     
  10. smoothie

    smoothie What's a Dremel?

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    I hate it. There is too much going on with the main page. The third column contains content that is uninteresting to me, and it's too wide, in my opinion. The widths of each of the columns, and the way they are arranged is unpleasant to me, I think because that middle column is off-center just enough to bother me; I don't think that would be a problem if the leftmost column were larger and the rightmost column was smaller.

    I don't think it looks as nice as the old layout, and it isn't as easy to read as the old layout or even the one from before the last redesign. I understand that you're producing more content, but I never had trouble finding the content before; I feel like most of your readers check the site at least once a day without missing any articles, as you've claimed we have.

    The search and tags sound great, but I'll admit that I haven't used them yet, and I don't know how likely I am to do so since I don't actually like looking at the main page anymore.
    I've tried to give it a chance but the layout isn't really doing it for me.
     
  11. DarkLord7854

    DarkLord7854 What's a Dremel?

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    +1 to that, I check it a minimum of 2 times a day, or I did anyways, prior to redesign.
     
  12. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    BUT THEY BLEND!!!
     
  13. CardJoe

    CardJoe Freelance Journalist

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    Oh, don't worry Hugo. We ignore everything you say full-stop, just to avoid misunderstandings ;)
     
  14. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    well, if you count the "Latest Issue Custom PC" as an add*.... No you're right. :D

    The scyscrapers didn't narrow the main text on the main page though.
    I agree in the articles the current way is better than the old way. :D


    *which for me, as a foreigner, it is.
     
  15. NickCPC

    NickCPC Minimodder

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    My bad, didn't realise it was sarcasm XD but the number of people of who have asked for the old site back was ridiculous, so when I saw your comment I was like ARGHHHH and decided to put my moaning cap on :p

    Glad you like it ;D
     
  16. AdmV0rl0n

    AdmV0rl0n What's a Dremel?

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    I did not make myself understood. Sorry for that.
    So I'll try again.
    The left column where you guys say your interesting things is now squashed, and is in a thin column that requires too much scrolling downward to read.
    The articles of interest are squashed into the top of the same section.
    Latest news is again in a thin downward column. Adverts are on the right hand side in a third column arrangement, with content underneath.

    Simply put, its a mare.
    The items above Latest articles should be horizontal across the top of the page, under the bit tech tool bar. Instead they are in an odd looking 5 window ugly arrangement that forces you to push content downward on the page.
    The latest articles and latest news should be next to each other.
    Your content should reside in a resized area that matches people's screen size, with adverts running outside the content area, or at least in a better way. I do not mind adverts, not at all, but you have contents underneath the adverts.

    Look, to be blunt, all of your problems are coming from being doced to push content downward because you are not resizing the pages in a good way.

    I'd even prefer you had more averts outside the pages in the now enormous wasted space than having this invasion of your already tight width layouts.

    I'm really hating it and I can't say much more on it.
     
  17. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    ...i only click on adverts by mistake... :naughty:

    And THAT happened a lot more with the old design (clicking the side adverts when trying to bring the page back to front)
     
  18. perplekks45

    perplekks45 LIKE AN ANIMAL!

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    You did read the comment about the site actually being SHORTER than the old design, right?
    And, sorry to say that, but why are you here if you hate it that much?
    Design is always something that polarises people/opinions, but you can't say "this HAS TO go there" or "that HAS TO look like ...", it just doesn't work that way.
    If you wanted to influence the site's new design there was enough time to do so in the beta stages. You didn't participate, did you? Neither did I but I'm not bitching. :p

    If you really hate it that much go somewhere else. The 'net is still a place of halfway free choice. :thumb:
     
  19. AdmV0rl0n

    AdmV0rl0n What's a Dremel?

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    Whoever pitches the premise that blogs are narrow, or that this is a good design is wrong.
    Plenty of blogs offer wide width or resizable reading.

    However great the content is, if you organise it badly, and make it hard to read, these are two absolute no no's. Whatever you may think, here is the thing, Factually, I'm telling you its worse, for me, from my view. This is not a debate.
    On this 1920 x 1080 screen the site looks patently stupid, with a centre section that hard to read, requires dumb scrolling, and has two enormous areas left and right that are complete wasted voids. As well as being narrow, you have had to force multiple columns in so its not just narrow, its three or four narrow sections with adverts being forced in there as well.

    You've given the option to avoid fixed width in the forums, perhaps you can offer this site wide..
     
  20. maximus09

    maximus09 Forever n00b

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    The new site is awesome guys, much more consistent in layout, the colours are more sutble which is nice and it is much easier to read and find info, nice one!! I agree with some comments, on high res monitors it does look a little teeny, is there no way of putting some dyanamic resizing in?

    One question!! When is your iPhone app coming out, tell me you have something planned or are you afraid that people will stop buying the magazine? I would pay for the app and keep my custom PC subscription :D
     
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