Please stop thrusting the "news" at me
It makes me feel uncomfortable.
Do not adjust your set, er, browser: This is our new page-one design
Today's the day we flip the switch, and make our new homepage design live – with an opt-out for those still unsure of the layout. We've been gradually redeveloping the front page over the summer, and we will continue to do so, pushing out fixes, nudges, and features here and there. What you see today is not its final form, …
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Friday 14th September 2018 00:19 GMT VikiAi
Re: Please stop thrusting the "news" at me
It is only somewhat less-reading-friendly than the one it is replacing.
The thing I like about arstechnica is they let people who want a tile view have one and they let people with better things to do than squinting at news sites all day have a list view they can easily scan down for headings indicating things they actually want to read.
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Friday 14th September 2018 00:19 GMT Mark 85
I don't like change. Please, no. I don't like change.
But we're in IT. We're supposed to love change. I guess we should all go install Win10 if we haven't already.
Side note.. I miss the "hours" for post (posted X-hours or X-days ago). GMT Is not my cup of coffee/tea/adult beverage. I note that the articles "time" isn't in GMT... yet.
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Friday 14th September 2018 02:48 GMT onefang
"I guess we should all go install Win10 if we haven't already."
I think most people don't install Windows 10. It comes pre-installed on most non Apple computers these days, or they upgraded from an earlier version of Windows, or the earlier version of Windows upgraded itself (even if you didn't want to), or they buy a Mac, or they install a proper operating system.
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Friday 14th September 2018 12:19 GMT Marco Fontani
Side note.. I miss the "hours" for post (posted X-hours or X-days ago). GMT Is not my cup of coffee/tea/adult beverage. I note that the articles "time" isn't in GMT... yet.
Could you elaborate on where you're missing what, please? Email to webmaster@ if you fancy.
The date/timestamps in the HTML usually show the date/time in GMT, but there's some JS which runs and changes them over to relative time.
So if you're running JS, you should be seeing relative timestamps in most places (but some, as for example an article's "date line" isn't one of them) and any other "full" timestamp is meant to be displayed in GMT.
If you (are running JS and) aren't seeing a relative timestamp, or if a "full" timestamp doesn't look like isn't in GMT, that's a bug on my book, and I'd rather hear about it (at webmaster@ please!). Thanks!
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Thursday 13th September 2018 11:38 GMT Charlie Clark
MS went full on mobile first without developing a full set of widgets and ignoring the mouse. Responsive web design doesn't have to be binary but having the same HTML and using CSS (and some JS) for different screen sizes is how it's supposed to be done. Having less code to manage should mean fewer bugs…
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Thursday 13th September 2018 12:56 GMT tiggity
Responsive can often be irritating.
For most sites I go the approach of having site content as XML.
Different XSL transforms produced mobile and large screen html
So same base content, the transforms give device tweaked html.
Lots of nice descriptive XML elements and attributes so your initial content can be documented in great detail.
Nicely fits model of content & presentation separation of concerns.
And change to content XML just means reapply XSL and both sites updated, nice & easy - plus it allows it all with no f****g JS required.
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Thursday 13th September 2018 11:00 GMT NonSSL-Login
Argghhh
Too much white and too much empty space. Exactly how shit the BBC site looked when they made it to look better on mobiles. No care about those that use huge monitors due to stats saying a mobile users are a larger percent of viewers.
In this day and age it should be easy enough for technology to format on the fly better for mobile/large screens yet no one seems able to do it. Web 2 maybe not fit for purpose if it can't handle that.
My browser removes cookies that it hasn't blocked on exit, so im guessing every visit I will have to opt-out.
From using the BBC site daily I now use it once a month at best since they made the changes everyone hated. I guess im now going to have to find another way to view register content which isn't so dreadful or it will go the same way as the BBC in my viewing habits.
/Obligatory Rant
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Thursday 13th September 2018 11:26 GMT NonSSL-Login
Re: Argghhh
The BBC admitted to changing their staple of lots of information down to smaller byte sized generic sentences so they could fit on mobiles too. So even the stories got shit and more tabloid looking amongst all that white space.
The register shouldn't have that issue at least as stories are still a decent length.
In the past I have used the Stylish addon to change the look of sites/pages but that addon got pulled from both browsers app stores when an update started sending data back to their servers. Don't want to create security risks just to fix horrible formatting for a site.
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Thursday 13th September 2018 11:43 GMT onefang
Re: Argghhh
"In the past I have used the Stylish addon to change the look of sites/pages but that addon got pulled from both browsers app stores when an update started sending data back to their servers."
"Page Colors & Fonts Buttons" has been working well for me for a long time. Shitty name, good addon.
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Thursday 13th September 2018 11:01 GMT iron
The new front page looks ok but there are a couple of large empty spaces that should probably contain stories and the story tiles aren't a uniform size. As someone with a background in printing newspapers these issues make it look scruffy and untidy to me.
I'll be interested to try the compact mode, it sounds promising for mobile. Any chance you could work up a dark theme for my tired old dev eyes?
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Thursday 13th September 2018 11:33 GMT NonSSL-Login
Reddit
Reddit also allowed the old design to be used too when they made major changes recently. Link was prominent at the top too so easy to access.
There is am opt-out at the bottom of the register page, It might be hidden under a floating toolbar asking you to click OK to accepting cookies though, requiring you to click that before you can reach the opt-out link.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
