I’ve been reading the Pro Blog Design blog for a long time now, as they have very informative and interesting posts about how to make blogs look and function better. When the author of the blog, Michael Martin, announced a few months ago that he was going to start offering premium WordPress templates, I was definitely excited. I had been itching to do a bit of a revamp with the site, and I knew that whatever Michael came up with, I would love.
Out of all of the new themes that Michael offered, I simply fell in love with Chameleon. I loved the white space, the Features graphic, the clean magazine feel of the site. So I purchased the theme and got to tinkering. Unfortunately for me, our site has been around for four years, and we have a lot of parameters we have to have before our content will fit into a template. But Michael gave me tons of personal support to work through the kinks and add the functionality that I needed to be able to go live with the template.
The new template has a magazine feel, with condensed information so that there’s more on the front page with less scrolling. However, the posts are still featured in a linear fashion, unlike true magazine sites (think HuffPo or NYT) where you have to hunt and peck to find the newest information. I’m terribly enamored of the features bar, not only because it has flashing pictures of Stephen, but because it puts our biggest and hottest news front and center on the front page of the blog. We moved our blogroll to its own “Links” page and cleaned up the sidebar. The comments are also crisper than before, and if you haven’t gotten a gravatar before now, I would highly recommend it right about now. But if you don’t, that’s okay, too, you’ll just get the default Zoner “Z”. I’ve also added back the Support Us information, in the footer, so if you’ve been wanting to give us support for the server fees, you have a place to go to help.
Another feature I’ve added to this template, on request from a Zoner, is the Tip/Wag comment rating system. After we’ve got a few votes, I’ll add a widget to the sidebar that will feature some of the highest tipped comments, to feature our rock star commenters. So if you see a comment you like, tip it! (And be gentle with the wags, kids!)
I also spent a lot of time looking at other fan sites, figuring out what I liked and what I didn’t like about the site. And the thing that I absolutely hated was that so many sites were so jam-packed with widgets and ads and garbage that it was almost impossible to find new information. But I also found a lot of very good fan sites, fan sites that were crisp and clear and modern looking, and allowed me to learn more about their passion. I took elements I liked, like the Submit Us button from GleeFan.com, the helpful intro paragraph from jessica-biel.org, and the delicious white space of Lady-Gaga.net, and added them here. I also brought back the beloved Stephen Sewing the Flag pic, and rearranged the content in the sidebar to highlight the RSS Feed and Social Media links without things getting too crowded.
I hope you like the new look!
It’s GORGEOUS! Good job!
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I was seriously hoping that the font was big enough and dark enough, it’s one of the reasons that I picked this template. Glad you like it!
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It’s excellent! Great job!
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Fantastic! Clean lines and great landscape. Thanks for making this site shine!
LOL… reCAPTCHA: vixens to
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The new layout looks fantastic, I absolutely LOVE it! Especially love the top runner of featured stories, and I like that the user pics are bigger. Awesome job DB!
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I’ve had Vampire Weekend on repeat on iTunes for hours. I can’t stop listening!!! gaaaagh. And I blame you.
Just so you know! ;)
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Haha! Well, I accept the blame, and I am okay with it. So glad you like them! They’re addicting, for sure. :)
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Its beautiful! Seriously, I’m well impressed :-)
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Oooh, shiny and pretty! I like it!
(reCAPTCHA: house yummy. LOL!! Yes, he is.)
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Wow, this is fantastic!! Beautiful job! Ooo, and a tip/wag thing, too! Guess it’s about time to get myself a gravatar.
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Oh my goodness! This is lovely! Well done, DB! :D
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This is so beautiful! I love love love the scroll! What a magnificent job.
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Speaking of magnificent, I absolutely love your userpic! :)
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Looks beautiful, definitely more like a magazine.
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I love it! It’s PERFECT!!!
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Looks great! Just a comment on functionality– it used to be that if you were reading a specific post, you could click on the banner and it would take you back to the main page. It doesn’t seem to be doing that anymore. Maybe it’s an easy fix, but if that’s just the nature of the new template, that’s cool, too.
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What browser are you using? The only browser that I saw that had a problem with the header was IE6. I’ll get an e-mail out to the template designer and see if we can get a fix for that.
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Yup, I’m using IE6 at work. I’ll check it with Firefox when I get home.
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DB beat me to it!
I had the same probelm with the banner using Internet Explorer, but then when I logged on at home using Firefox, it worked fine. So I’m wondering if maybe it’s just an issue with IE.
Also DB, because I just now thought of it – with the new email comment notifications, it used to include who the comment was from, and now it doesn’t. If that is just part of the new template, that’s totally fine, but I always kinda liked knowing who it was from before I jumped over to the site. :]
reCAPTCHA: war jimmy
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ok, yeah, I’m having that problem now at work, in Internet Explorer. The banner is not clickable so that I can get back to the home page. I was using Safari at home last night though, and I don’t quite recall having this problem.
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Just got word from the theme designer from PliablePress, Michael Martin. WordPress is about to get a big revamp, and while you won’t see any changes on the front end, my job is about to get a LOT easier! One of the neat features of the updated system is the ability to edit the links in the navbar and I can add the Home button then. So if you can be patient for just a few more days, we’ll have a work-around for the IE6 users!
ReCAPTCHA: Eloping house – wonder who House is going to get hitched to?
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oh db!!! its beautiful!!
and thank u so much for putting in the tip/wag feature, its very clever and convenient.
great job and i know im not alone when i say that i am very thankful for your devotion to this site- my colbert experience is nothing without NFZ
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Pretty! I just have one comment that I’ve actually had since I think the first time you really started changing the look.. One thing I really liked was the randomized intro sayings! You know, the “[insert hilarity here]–This is the Colbert Report!”
I don’t think anyone else cares though. ;P I’m just weird and really liked having it around. :) But I always like what you all do with the site, and I especially love that the flag sewing picture is back!
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Whoa, there’s a trip on the Wayback machine! I loved that quote generator, too, but unfortunately the plugin that supported it wasn’t being updated, and didn’t work on the newer version of WordPress. I’m sure that there’s another one out there that I can use, but now I’d be putting in almost five years worth of quotes, and I just don’t have the bandwidth for a project like that right now. I’ll keep it on the back burner, though – maybe I’ll have a free weekend here in a bit and can do some digging to find one!
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Awesome! I am therefore just glad to have mentioned it. ;D
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DB, I’m having problems with the recent comments section. When I click on the first new post in recent comments, they don’t come up and I just get sent to the blog before the new post was entered. Example: I can’t get leorabk new comment on either my google chrome & IE.
Sorry I’m posting on this comment. I kind of screwed up. :(
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I had the same problem temporarily when we were testing before launch. Thankfully, it soon resolved itself. Perhaps try clearing your cache?
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Thanks for the the advice wren.
Unfortunately, clearing my cache didn’t help. It’s taken me an hour just to get to your post to answer it. :(
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DB, this is fantastic! Love the scrolling pix of Stephen – so fun. The site has always been shiny and beautiful, but it’s even better now. The Tip/Wag buttons are great.
I so appreciate what you do for us. You redecorated the house while we were out! :-)
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Wow! Colour me impressed when I clicked on here! I do miss the bigger pics in each item but I’m loving the picture scroll on the top. Sharp and lovely to look at -just like Stephen in his suits.
reCaptcha: be mandarin. Well, if they insist…
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The big pics are there, you just have to click through to read the article. :)
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That’s cool, I just liked some of them on the front page, so I was greeted with cool SC-ness when I first visited each time -but a minor quibble as the sheer loveliness of the site makes up for it and I’m finding the scrolled pics work just as well to satsify my SC eye candy need.
Looking forward to the new episode!
reCaptcha: debate ashamed. They do come up with some strange ideas…
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This site looks fantastic. Great job.
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This really is a nice layout. :) It feels so fresh and clean.
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Oh my goodness. I love it! The flashing pics, excellent.
I feel though that the headlines need to have more weight. Too similar to the text. Perhaps more thickness in the lettering. There’s an impression the thinness, not enough gravitas to carry it off as headliners. San serif, maybe? Or more ‘bold’ in the lettering to separate it from the text.
Excellent work, lady!
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Love it!!! It is very shiny, new and fun to explore! Thanks for all the time and effort you put into this blog, DB! I wish there were a way we could pay you for all that you do!!! :)
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There’s the “Donate” button at the bottom of the page (to pay for server fees), if you’re so inclined :) Praise and appreciation go a long way, too!
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I looove the magazine style of the layout! And I’m glad the picture of Stephen sewing the flag is back in the header! Looks fantastic! =)
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This is absolutely beautiful…love the headlines style, it makes the ‘front page’ rich and full with lots of glorious content to explore!
The scrolling pics are so cool! Worried me a bit that the Links were gone =:o I use those a lot, but so much nicer on their own button…kinda miss a ‘home’ button, maybe that’s too old school?
This is just delightful! Thanks DB!
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Coming out of lurkdom to say THIS IS VERY NICE. Well done!
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Well done DB. I’ve been MIA for the past lil while…had a bunch of stuff all happen at once. On top of that, Vista crashed on my computier, the recovery disk failed to recover the OS and toasted the drive. Still trying to figure out a way to repair the sectors—-but I finally got around to repairing my other laptop and here I am to a nice shiny new site. I absolutely love the layout and its pleasant to the retinas.
Must reiterate a big thanks for all the heart and soul you put into this blog—it is truly a must read—and now (again) comment on. That ipod touch is nice, just not great for reading and commenting.
So a big tip of the hat for the redesign. I think this layout will stand the test of time.
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It’s nice to have you back Roland! :)
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Wonderful!
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Hey DB! Thanks very much for writing up this post about the new theme. I’m so glad that you’re so pleased with it, and it’s been awesome reading everyone’s great reactions to it here! It’s fantastic seeing our themes put to such good use like this!
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DB I was away also for about 10 days (in fact still catching up on the show because I couldn’t get Colbert Nation to play on my netbook ) – but I think this upgrade looks great. It just gets better and better. I really like the use of the white space and the navigation is even better than it was before. I like that the gravatars are bigger too. I enjoy seeing Stephen sewing the flag back too.
Great job and thanks.
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