If you don’t like the new blog design, feel perfectly free to bitch away here.
Now, I realize IE 6 doesn’t do transparency, so the banner looks a bit funny. I’ll try to figure out a solution to this, but to be honest, I have no idea why anyone would be using IE 6 when you can simply upgrade to IE 7 or, heaven forbid, switch to Firefox.
Naturally, I’d prefer constructive criticism. If you really hate the design, you can always console yourself with the knowledge that with the way I go through designs, you most likely won’t have to be looking at it for very long.
PS: Which do you prefer — the flexible-width layout (currently implemented) or the fixed-width (950px) layout currently implemented?
{ 30 comments… read them below or add one }
I can dig the new design, no prob…
And yes i’ve become accustomed to the frequent re-formattings. Dude, it’s all good…
Well, I’m glad you dig the new design. But which do you prefer, the wide-screen flexi-width or this?
flex
Flex, like Dyamilya’s belly.
I really like this new layout. The colours are really easy on the eyes. Flex is probably better though.
The one thing I’m not big on is the new banner.
How about having a banner competition?
This blog is like a young girl who changes her hairstyle every other week.
Your blog looks killer, baby.
OK, restored to flexible.
Let that not frighten the “pro-fixed width” faction from voicing their preference, though.
chiamattt — What don’t you like about the new banner? Is it an IE6 issue or is it just ugly?
Robert, the whole bumblebee thing is kind of an eyesore. It’s unfortunate that previous netizens castigated your “pastel patriotism.”
PS: Thanks for the due diligence.
Fixed width is better.
I like finding new formats each time the blog – can’t wait to see what’s coming next.
And the score is so far:
Flexi-width 3, Fixed-width 1
I like the new banner concept, but too many Buddha pictures remind me of my vacation to Thailand.
Anyway, change is good.
I think you’re using the GIMP as your image editor. GIMP is pretty bad at anti-aliasing text, tending to produce “fuzzy”, out-of-focus text especially when saving as JPG. Try saving your banner as a 24-bit PNG — or, better yet, do the background <div> with the photo collage, and overlay a transparent <h1> element reading “The Marmot’s Hole”. Properly prepared GIFs are razor sharp.
OK, about the text — I was just trying the stuff in this tutorial:
http://www.gimp.org/tutorials/The_Basics/
which, I gather, you don’t like. Thanks for the suggestion, though.
R.Koehler, I just don’t like it. It looks cheap. Perhaps its the text….or perhaps its just that I don’t really dig the collage look. *best friendly*
While I dig the flex layout, I’m also not keen on the masthead. The collage is nice but the lettering is needlessly fuzzy. Incidentally, shouldn’t one of the pictures be representative of “Korean tabloid crap”?
fixed is always better
I prefer the flex-width.
I’m with you on IE6. Having been away from my usual PCs for a couple of days and only having access to my site via a lo-res screen with IE6, I’ve realised what a disaster my site is if you use bad software.
I like the banner, except the fuzzy letters.
Fixed preferred.
Not bad, although with the pictures I feel I’ve entered the Buddha’s Hole. Also the yellow is kind of hard to see, so if you at least sharpen the banner letters, I’ll know for sure I haven’t entered the Buddha’s Hole.
There are three things certain in this world: death, taxes and Marmot tinkering with his blog design.
Four: expats bitching about their adopted nation.
Fixed rocks, Robert.
I like the new banner. Why not feature more photos you have taken and change them from time to time. I liked the view of the roof tops to as it said a lot about the country and the weather. Your changes are always terrific so keep doing them. Thanks!
tastes great. less filling.
Your current banner I think looks great. The only thing I don’t like about the current design is the bumble bee colors on the sidebar because maybe it is just me but reading the yellow on black is hard on the eyes.
The latest iteration of the banner is good-looking, except for the crappy font kerning on the blue tab — free software is nice ‘n all, but gee whiz brother, you want to look good. If you send me the image file only, without text, I can fix that nonsense for you.
I upgraded to IE7 about an hour before this new upgrade. Now every time I load any page in the MH, it takes forever. Actually about 10 or more seconds. IE6 never took so long. Firefox is much faster too. Any guess as to why IE7 is so damn slow or any advice? (I mean advice other than “use firefox.” Having two different browser programs open is a resource hog, and I have no choice but to use IE for work-related stuff.)
That’s odd. My experience has been that IE7 is MUCH faster than IE6.
only the Marmot’s Hole is so slow… blank screen for about 10 seconds any time a load a page, everytime.
Is it still slow? Actually, since I changed design, it’s actually quickened some. I just removed some Javascript that might have been slowing it down, too.
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