Every offseason I realize that after looking at this site for a whole year I’m tired of it. I need to freshen things up a little. I also discover there are some functional things that I’m not really happy with, and so I try to fix those as well. So every year about this time I break out the toolbox and start hammering away behind the scenes. With that I present DTW 2009. I’d go with version numbers but I can’t keep track anymore.
I kept things fairly similar to what has been here in the past appearance wise with a few tweaks to hopefully improve readability. But below the surface everything has been gutted thanks to the wonderful Thesis theme. It’s a highly customizable and somewhat sexy wordpress theme that should allow me even great flexibility to make changes in the future. It is also much more sound structurally than my former theme which actually started out as Kubrick at one point and was heavily modified into its current state (if the last few sentences mean nothing to you, just know that the new stuff is better).
Also, older stuff can sometimes break and I don’t have the inclination to go through 3000 posts and see if they all still look okay. So if you see broken stuff please let me know. This is most helpful if you provide the page, the problem, and your browser. Thanks!
The only functional change at this time is Gravatar support. Gravatars are those little pictures by your names in the comments. To get one go that Gravatar link, and when you comment here just use the same email address that you did to sign up for the Gravatar.
I do have some more changes coming to the comment area, and that should happen with the release of WordPress 2.7 which should be soon. In the meantime let me know what you think of the new look. I’m still building out the sidebars with the links from the old site, it’ll just take me some time because I’m going to do it right. And I’ll probably still make a few tweaks here and there.
Hey Billfer, it looks great; cleaner and sharper. As far as version numbers, how about DTW.2009?
I like it so far, except that I think the code needs to be rewritten to always place Vince’s posts under mine, so that it looks like I’m always beating him to what he was going to say.
Is the Search feature new, or was I just blind to it before? It’s cool, in any case. Already too many neat little things to comment on, so I’ll mention just two: The elegant typeface on the Archives, Recent Comments, etc. headers, and the way the comment box is gray before you click into it and goes gray when you’ve clicked out of it.
It’s kinda like it was before, only more so. Relatively uncluttered, not framed and boxed and line-chopped to death. The content is not overwhelmed by the graphic elements. The design facilitates reading. What a concept!
FWIW, I’m viewing the site with Safari 3.2 on a Mac running OS 10.4.11.
Hey Bill
New look is nice, different but nice
As far as avatars go…what would be a no-no?
I like certain photos but not sure if they are…
Snazzy. Nice work, the site looks great.
@david –
I have it set except only G rated gravatars. There is a description on the gravatar site about how images should be rated. Thanks for asking.
@loon
Most of the credit for the type and spacing goes to the folks at Thesis. I guess I get credit for staying out the way for the most part.
As for the search box, that was always available in the navbar.
A couple other things I neglected to mention in terms of new look and functionality, I now have a large image library at my disposal thanks to my partnership with Yardbarker (they’re the ones who serve up the ads at the top and bottom of the page and the news story widget) so you’ll start to see more pictures and the like popping up in posts.
Also DTW will be hosting it’s one millionth visitor sometime in the next 2-3 days. I’ll pop a counter up higher in the sidebar. This is more exciting for me than many of you I’m sure. Not far behind will be the 2 millionth page view served up.
I want to be the millionth customer. Do I get a prize if I am? Seriously, though, I’ve become accustomed to the new look now. I just have to get one of those fancy picture thingys next to my name. Thanks for hosting this site, billfer. It’s a good one.
i like the new look, seems to keep all the things i liked about the old, while looking nicer.
hmmm.
Testing to find out what happens if I don’t set an avatar.
The new look is excellent. Thanks for a great site!
The new layout/textures are great, but the white burns my eyes.
Then turn down the brightness on your screen VTFan
Billfer – I love the update. Nice work. I’m not sure about the pics, I kind of like the mystery of what lies beneath. I’m sure I’ll come around.
Billfer nice work,,,,,,can you Catch or play SS