back to article 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, …

  1. Aladdin Sane

    Please stop thrusting the "news" at me

    It makes me feel uncomfortable.

    1. BillG
      Mushroom

      LinkedIn?

      It's a lot better than the disaster of a design LinkedIn groups pushed out this week. Their website finally jumped the shark.

    2. MyffyW Silver badge

      Any chance...

      You could just make the news better? It's not been very nice recently, I'd quite like this to change.

    3. m0rt

      Re: Please stop thrusting the "news" at me

      I feel I should be honest.

      I fucking hate it. Less information over the screen. Again.

      Glad it makes your life easier, however. Just not the actual consumer experience.

      Just like every other fucker.

      1. m0rt

        Re: Please stop thrusting the "news" at me

        Sorry. I was in shock earlier. I was harsh.

        I still don't like it.

      2. BillG

        Re: Please stop thrusting the "news" at me

        Too much white space. Other than that I'll get used to it.

        1. VikiAi
          Unhappy

          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.

  2. Tigra 07
    Childcatcher

    I don't like change. Please, no. I don't like change.

    1. macjules
      Coat

      I don't like change. Please, no. I don't like change.

      I take it you do not carry coins then?

      1. Tigra 07
        Pint

        RE: Macjules

        "I take it you do not carry coins then?"

        Does't thou take me for a lowly pleb? Or Super Mario perhaps?

        Where's our Mushroom icon El Reg?

      2. The Nazz

        Ha ha, some of us consider 10's and 20's to be loose change. GBP that is.

        1. Jedit Silver badge
          Angel

          "some of us consider 10's and 20's to be loose change. GBP that is."

          For the last sodding time - WE HAVEN'T LEFT THE EU YET!

          1. onefang

            Re: "some of us consider 10's and 20's to be loose change. GBP that is."

            "For the last sodding time - WE HAVEN'T LEFT THE EU YET!"

            I'm afraid it wont be the last sodding time, until you actually leave the EU.

    2. anothercynic Silver badge
      Joke

      I DON'TS LIKES IT!!

      ;-D

      Oh, alright then. Twist my arm. Go on.

    3. Mark 85
      Devil

      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.

      1. m0rt

        " I miss the "hours" for post (posted X-hours or X-days ago). GMT Is not my cup of coffee/tea/adult beverage"

        Are you nuts?? I didn't notice till you pointed that out. This is so much better and was a criticism of mine first time around.

        Time is awesome. And the correct way to do it.

        1. Mark 85

          I also just noticed the "forums" have changed : https://forums.theregister.co.uk/

      2. jake Silver badge

        "But we're in IT. We're supposed to love change."

        I do. I LOVE change. Just not change for change's sake. And especially not change because some marketing twat in a company not even remotely related to mine made a change, so we have to keep up with the Jonses.

        1. Tigra 07
          Happy

          RE: RE: RE: RE:

          "But we're in IT. We're supposed to love change."

          I changed to Linux to avoid Windows 10. Does that count?

      3. 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.

      4. 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!

  3. BigSLitleP
    Pint

    As a functioning (apparently) sociopath...

    I like change and i like the new site.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One reason is to consolidate the desktop and mobile versions of the website into one design

    That concept sure worked well for Microsoft, didn't it.

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      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…

      1. tiggity Silver badge

        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.

        1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

          Different XSL transforms produced mobile and large screen html

          Ugh! XSLT now there is a language I hate with a passion! But each to their own.

          Nicely fits model of content & presentation separation of concerns.

          Not as much as HTML & CSS does.

        2. JohnFen

          "Responsive can often be irritating."

          I have yet to find an implementation of responsive design that isn't irritating on the desktop.

  5. NonSSL-Login
    Thumb Down

    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

    1. MiguelC Silver badge

      Re: Argghhh

      I'm all for "less pics more text" and eagerly awaiting the launch of the compact mode mentioned in the article.

      1. NonSSL-Login
        Meh

        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.

        1. 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.

        2. tony72

          Re: Argghhh

          Stylus is a great alternative to Stylish. I have already used it to remove the ugly boxes; if you're going to have that much white space separating articles, boxes around them as well seems superfluous and aesthetically regressive.

      2. tiggity Silver badge

        Re: Argghhh

        just browse with images blocked - I do!

      3. HieronymusBloggs

        Re: Argghhh

        "less pics more text"

        In Dillo, my usual browser, there are no pictures at all. Even in Firefox (with NoScript) there's only a single headline picture.

        I like it.

      4. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

        Re: Argghhh

        "I'm all for "less pics more text" and eagerly awaiting the launch of the compact mode mentioned in the article."

        Came here to say exactly the same thing. A 1000 upvotes for you sir. Shame they only count as one in the totals, but I did click many times without success :-)

  6. Boris the Cockroach Silver badge
    Thumb Up

    Its ok

    Seems more of a case of "lets fix it" even if it aint broken to me

    But then so long as we can read the content without 6 billion popups everywhere... its ok with me

    1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: Its ok

      I think it's getting there. The homepage still has problems with whitespace and contrast. I think a more material design of the "cards" would make this less jarring: tone down the # comments and article time because they are not distinct click/touch targets.

      1. JohnFen

        Re: Its ok

        "a more material design"

        Oh, please no. There's too much of this material design stuff in the world already. We don't need more.

  7. onefang

    I'm glad El Reg has gone through this process in redesigning the front page, without it I never would have tried the RSS feed. I like it so much, I've not looked at the front page since. So "thumb up" to El Reg for the process, "don't care" for the result.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    m.theregister.co.uk

    Please keep m.theregister.co.uk as it is.

    please, please, please!

    1. MiguelC Silver badge

      Re: m.theregister.co.uk

      Yes! Or, at the very least, let your readership opt into that mode (even when using a desktop browser)

      please, please, please!

    2. Charlie Clark Silver badge

      Re: m.theregister.co.uk

      Always hated "m" based sub-domains: they create more problems than they purport to solve.

      1. JohnFen

        Re: m.theregister.co.uk

        Yeah, that's a suboptimal solution, but I've not seen a better alternative.

    3. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Unhappy

      Re: m.theregister.co.uk

      Seems like I can tap the Register title bar at the top on the m. version and get sent to the www. version, in the same (or similar) way to what happened when the responsive design on the www. version was first rolled out...

  9. iron Silver badge
    Pint

    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?

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge
      Happy

      Shhh... the large empty spaces are where the adverts go.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Adverts? What pray tell be these of which ye speak?

    2. JohnFen

      "Any chance you could work up a dark theme for my tired old dev eyes?"

      That's an interesting thing, right there. I also have tired old dev eyes, and they're why I prefer light themes. Dark themes are hard for me to read and increase my eyestrain!

  10. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Boo rubbish, change it back.

    Ars Tech allow you to change the layout, take note.

    1. 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.

  11. Bronek Kozicki

    Next change in line

    Please, please give me the ability to select "dark design". Black background, white(-ish) letters, with some colour here and there.

    1. Ben Tasker

      Re: Next change in line

      This.

      There's too much white on the frontpage (and on the site in general). Let me choose a dark design and it's less likely to strain my eyes when I'm just barely woken up.

      Not sure I like the borders on the tiles either. But again, might look better with a dark theme.

      1. Rich 11

        Re: Next change in line

        it's less likely to strain my eyes when I'm just barely woken up.

        Your first urge upon waking up is to check El Reg, rather than have a quick wank? Bloody hell. The world is changing too fast for me.

        1. onefang
          Coffee/keyboard

          Re: Next change in line

          "Your first urge upon waking up is to check El Reg, rather than have a quick wank?"

          You sir win the Innerwebs. I'll just leave it up to your imagination what's on my keyboard now.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Next change in line

          @Rich11

          But not fast enough for your wife - badumtish!

        3. JohnFen

          Re: Next change in line

          How do you know he isn't using El Reg for his wank fodder?

        4. Mark 85

          Re: Next change in line

          Your first urge upon waking up is to check El Reg, rather than have a quick wank? Bloody hell.

          Coffee before all else!!!!

          1. jake Silver badge

            Re: Next change in line

            Piss first. Then coffee. Human oil change.

    2. Andy Mac
      Gimp

      Re: Next change in line

      This as well (this++?, this*2?).

      I miss the Reg app with the dark theme so so much.

  12. Cuddles

    Doesn't seem to work

    "One reason is to consolidate the desktop and mobile versions of the website into one design that responds to whatever size screen you're using."

    It only shows four stories in a row no matter the screen size, and pads the sides with huge amounts of empty space. Far from responding to whatever screen size I'm using, it appears to simply be an entirely unresponsive mobile site that is unable to handle desktop browsers correctly.

    1. Marco Fontani

      Re: Doesn't seem to work

      It responds to smaller screen sizes, with a historical upper bound of about 1000px

      1. Baldrickk

        Re: Doesn't seem to work

        only problem is my screen is a fraction over 4x that...

      2. Cuddles

        Re: Doesn't seem to work

        "It responds to smaller screen sizes"

        Not on my phone it doesn't, still 4 headlines to a row on that. If I change to request the mobile site then it gives a single column, but that's still clearly not responding to screen size, and certainly not consolidating anything.

        1. Marco Fontani

          Re: Doesn't seem to work

          Not on my phone it doesn't, still 4 headlines to a row on that. If I change to request the mobile site [...]

          Correction: when you ask your browser to display it "as a desktop site" it shows you the 4 headlines; if you UNTICK the "desktop site" it goes back to being responsive.

          On Chrome one can tick the "Desktop Site" box, which used to "just" remove the string "Mobile" from the user-agent string. This was useful as some websites were hell-bent on doing user-agent sniffing, and on serving "the mobile version" to user-agent strings which advertised themselves as "Mobile".

          Unfortunately, that setting has been in recent times updated to also make it completely ignore the "viewport" meta tag altogether, which is what causes your mobile device to display the "full 1000px width" website in your small phone's viewport, and is what makes the website be unable to "be" responsive.

          See also this commit which is where the "feature" (ach, thwwwp!) was introduced by them.

          I'd recommend using Firefox instead, but it looks like they also decided to implement the same "feature", as can be evinced by this bug.

          IMVHO, the setting should be split in two for "pretend to not be a mobile device" and "force site into desktop mode", but I digress.

          Thus, in the two most popular mobile browsers I have access to, tapping "desktop mode" makes all the responsive work we've done moot, and it seems like it's "by design".

          Personally, if I don't like what happens to a site when I click "desktop mode", I don't click "desktop mode" and get on with it. I personally prefer some sites in one way, and some in another. YMMV.

          There's a chance that we may be able to "fix" the issue by adding some JS which looks at the device properties and alters some other properties to "kinda force in" the responsive mode, but I'd avoid doing that if I can't help it - as I'd rather the users were empowered with the ability to choose what happens to their device.

          Which, in your case might mean you wouldn't want the "desktop mode" to be "on" for the homepage or, I guess, for article pages either, as they're also "responsive".

          1. Cuddles

            Re: Doesn't seem to work

            "Correction: when you ask your browser to display it "as a desktop site" it shows you the 4 headlines; if you UNTICK the "desktop site" it goes back to being responsive."

            Correction - as I already pointed out, that is not what "responsive" means. If I use the desktop site, I get 4 headlines no matter how big I try to make it, regardless of what device is used. If I use the mobile site, I get a single column, again no matter what size I try to make it and regardless of what device is used. You can complain all you like about it being the browsers getting it all wrong, but the fact is that it was claimed the change was made so that only a single, unified site would work on all devices that automatically rescales to the appropriate size and layout, but what we actually have is exactly the same separate desktop and mobile sites each with a different, fixed layout. In other words, as I said to start with, it does not actually work.

  13. The Pi Man

    My eyes are bleeding!!!

    I know you need to earn a living, but seeing the same nonsense advert in 5 places on the front page is a bit shit!

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: My eyes are bleeding!!!

      Also my OCD keeps telling me it looks wrong because adverts don't fit exactly one or two story columns.

  14. chivo243 Silver badge

    What link?

    Opt out link? I don't see it at the bottom of the page? Or at the top of the page where the polite opt-in link used to be....

    Oh, I see it now, got out the magnifying glass, and sure enough it is there!

    Thanks El Reg

    1. thosrtanner
      WTF?

      Re: What link?

      Ah ha.. I couldn't find it either. Till I enabled javascript.

      Why should I need javascript enabled to opt out of something I don't want? Seriously...

      1. DropBear
        FAIL

        Re: What link?

        WHAT THE HELL. I have no "opt out" link of any kind anywhere, full stop. And yes I have disarmed every single blocker / filter / whatever I had going, I even got the cookie prompt. But NO opt-out link.

        1. DropBear

          Re: What link?

          For some reason it's there now. No idea what made it appear (yes, it's where previously definitely wasn't). Pointless though seeing as how I dump cookies after each session (because making it a permanent per-logged-in-user option is for losers amirite). I guess RSS it is, then. I just hope you count that as a "NOPE" vote too.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: What link?

      Just got back from holiday. Had the same trouble finding the link. Reminds me of the HHGTTG planning application to knock down Earth to build a space highway.

      I wonder how long the Opt-Out option will endure. If it goes I suspect some readers may follow it.

  15. Roopee Bronze badge
    Pint

    Glad I found the Weekly View

    I almost always read The Reg on one of my iPads, e.g. the old one in the bathroom... On the new layout I have to do much more scrolling to see the same number of stories so I think it's a retrograde change. It's also at least as jerky because of the adverts. The old layout but with a quarter size top banner pic would have been my suggestion.

    However this whole 'story' introduced me to the Weekly View which is *much* more to my liking, so thank you, have your pint!

  16. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I hope you're tracking...

    ...what percentage of your readers opt out.

  17. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    "If you don't like the new design, for the time being you can click on the opt-out link at the bottom of the homepage – and bam, you're free."

    Done.

    I took a look at it when it was opt-in. The comments in the discussion were overwhelmingly against. IIRC they even said it made the mobile version worse so there goes the main reason for the change. But no, someone ?marketing, decides to go ahead anyway.

    If I'd realised it was a WIP I'd have gone back and complained given feedback again. I guess that was the reaction of all the rest who didn't like it and when the feedback stopped you thought it was because we now approved.

    1. TRT Silver badge

      This. It seems as if the comments in the previous "beta" release were simply ignored. The new layout is an affront to the senses.

      1. Mark 85

        It seems as if the comments in the previous "beta" release were simply ignored

        So the MS method? Ask for comments. Ignore comments because users don't know what they want.

        1. jake Silver badge

          MS is just a subset. It's the Marketing mindset. "Jam it down their throats until they stop complaining about it. The lack of complaints means we were right to begin with."

          It's a variation on "the beatings will continue until moral improves".

    2. Dan 55 Silver badge

      I took a look at it when it was opt-in. The comments in the discussion were overwhelmingly against. IIRC they even said it made the mobile version worse so there goes the main reason for the change. But no, someone ?marketing, decides to go ahead anyway.

      Come the Third Glorious UI Revolution where years of commentards calls for OS and website design which follow early 2000 design guides will finally heard and the sins of the Second Unholy UI Revolution (consolidated desktop and mobile versions) will be declared wicked and banished forever, this website will be weighed in the balance and found wanting unless it can find The One True Register Style in archive.org. But I digress.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Responsive design is so powerful that you can actually have two very distinct looks from the same code. It weighs a bit, mind you.

    3. Lennart Sorensen

      Well it has been quite clear that every time the register changes the layout, they ask for feedback, get lots of it, and ignore 99.9% of it. The opinion of the readers simply doesn't matter here.

      1. TRT Silver badge

        Yeah, but they're kind of in a unique source position. We're not going to go elsewhere and find the sort of breadth and depth of coverage that they provide whilst also dealing out a healthy dose of irreverence and swearing.

  18. Doctor Syntax Silver badge

    The new design gives editors a modular grid to play with, so they can slot in these sorts of interesting elements as required on the day try to double-guess what we want and get it wrong.

    1. jfm

      Just to extend the quote and violently agree:

      they can slot in these sorts of interesting elements as required on the day, and making it clear what's important to readers…

      If you want to know what's important to me, ask me: don't try to tell me.

      FWIW, what's important to me is all the stories, in chronological order.

  19. Sorry that handle is already taken. Silver badge
    Joke

    It's fine

    It seems to change every time I visit!*

    * I use RSS so I don't visit the front page very frequently...

  20. K

    Simply hate it.. there structure and layout is all over the place!

    Obviously, this is personal taste, but as a loyal El-Reg reader for over 15 years, I'd urge you to fix this!

  21. Donk

    I'm not a fan - the layout of stories doesn't appear to be uniform with gaps here there and everywhere.

    Plus crying "waaah you don't like change" is exactly what other webdevs do as they remove usability and functionality from their websites, ala Facebook or Twitter. You're better than that El Reg!

    1. wayne 8

      Amen.

      "Pretty" overruling functionality.

      1. NonSSL-Login

        It's not even pretty though

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Feedback

    Top Stories - don't care.

    Most Read - don't care.

    Make the above collapsible (and remember my settings).

    The rest I can fix with Stylus.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Feedback

      If anyone's interested, this made most of the horribleness disappear:

      .section_name

      {

      display: none;

      }

      .srow article

      {

      border: #000000 0px solid;

      }

      .standfirst

      {

      margin-bottom: 10px !important;

      }

      .story_grid_img

      {

      display: none !important;

      }

      PS: It'd be nice if every line in a comment wasn't given it's own P, or if you'd fix PRE in comments.

  23. magickmark
    Big Brother

    Update!!!!

    I for one welcome my white page space overlord!

  24. Benjamin 4

    Keep the desktop site

    I don't mind the redesign as such but please keep a non dynamic version which let's me fit more information on a mobile screen. I have always used the desktop version on mobile for this reason.

    1. wayne 8

      Re: Keep the desktop site

      I use the mobe version on desktop.

      Use to get every page m version. Now just the front page.

      Nice to have options.

      Latest articles is all I need. Do not care what others are reading.

  25. thosrtanner
    FAIL

    It seems to come as a surprise to certain people that mobile screens are a lot small than computer screens. Why on earth is it necessary to make page layout look the same?

    You will be able to see less data on the mobile version so format it differently.

    Trying to make it looks the same ends up with a metro like interface. Which everyone hated.

    Incidentally I also hate the attempt to make everything look like web pages designed by extreme minimalists. A control panel is not a web page.

  26. Spudley

    Since we're on the subject of making tweaks to the site design on El Rg, there is one change I beg you to make:

    Many pages have a "You may also like" section, listing articles that are related in some way to the one I'm reading.

    That's great, but please *please* **please** can you include the date that the linked article was published, because sometimes it pulls out articles that are really old or out of date, but doesn't give me any context that that's the case.

    Thank you.

    1. wayne 8

      AI with its usual bungling, trying to figure out individual humans.

      Amazon's "other items purchased with this item" feature.

    2. NonSSL-Login

      Probably intentional. If you can't see the date you are more likely to click it to look than if you see an old date where you can decide it's old news and ignore. Not good for the user but good for the-register who wants clicks and views for their income.

  27. Jason Bloomberg Silver badge
    Pint

    Out with the new, and in with the old

    I'm not really too fussed about the new design but my GreaseMonkey scripts do a better job reformatting the old style than the new so I'll be opting for the old to save myself work for now.

    I will raise a glass for allowing the opt-out, and "thanks" for the choice. But it's a little ominous that may only exist "for the time being", could disappear in the future.

    Perhaps the more compact version will suit me even better. I guess we'll see.

    You have not driven me away so that's at least a win. Though perhaps not everyone will feel the same way :-)

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Out with the new, and in with the old

      When the change was first tried I reached the conclusion that I was spending too much time on El Reg pages. There was no way I was going to revamp my clean up code to compact the new style.

      Since then many half-completed projects have been progressed - without missing El Reg that much. When the new style becomes mandatory then I will be ready to be weaned off completely.

    2. Baldrickk

      Re: Out with the new, and in with the old

      well I'm here for the content (and the comments) so no driving me away, but a less nice design makes it a little less nice to browse.

      Really, what is up with the ads?

  28. Crisp
    Mushroom

    They changed it and now it's different!

    Grrr! Argh!

  29. IHateWearingATie
    Devil

    "And I don't think any of you are psychopaths."

    You have read the comment threads that cover Linux and Apple, right?

    1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

      ...and Microsoft.

    2. Pen-y-gors

      And I don't think any of you are psychopaths.

      Let's face it, read just about any of the comments about DIE! DIE! DIE! anything

  30. Spudley

    I just want to point out here that I very rarely go to the homepage of The Register, because I have the RSS feed configured in my firefox bookmarks toolbar, and I keep track of the news here and on a whole bunch of other sites by checking what's new in the feeds rather than by visiting any of the sites directly.

    Maybe I'm in the minority in doing it that way these days, but it works for me and makes it really easy to keep track of new content across a few dozen sources of news and other info relevant to me.

  31. Haku

    Bleagh.

    Yuk.

  32. Charlie Clark Silver badge
    Go

    Stick with your convictions

    I'm not 100% with the new design but from memory it seems better than the last time I looked. Whitespace and contrast remain a problem, especially when scanning the page. But sometimes you just have to press the button, and, as long as you continue to review feedback, and make improvements things will be fine. Moving to a single codebase will certainly help there.

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "You can opt out at any time – but...."

    ...you can never leave!

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    C'mon El-Reg - Make a non-JS 'Opt-Out'

    Plus why not fix the bugs first instead of reworking things?

    --------------

    Examples:

    --------------

    https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/3608639

    https://forums.theregister.co.uk/forum/containing/3568301

    1. Marco Fontani

      Re: C'mon El-Reg - Make a non-JS 'Opt-Out'

      Sorry, didn't see those.

      The "contact us" page on the footer suggests e-mailing webmaster@ "for tech stuff" (and links to a page which explains what kind of information would be helpful to receive) as it's otherwise difficult to find all places where we might be mentioned.

      I don't keep track of all forums, and sometimes forget to check old ones. I'm a commentard just like you.

      There's a "web application firewall" in front of forums, and some content being submitted on forums "triggers it", somewhat heavily. It happens. Thanks for bringing it to my attention, I'll have a look at what we can do as soon as I can.

      About the opt in/out being JS-based: sorry, we ensure that all of the basic functionality of the site can be used without JS, and then use JS to "better" that experience (see also: the up/downvote buttons, which work perfectly fine without JS but offer a nice AJAXy experience with JS enabled). The opt-out link isn't a "basic feature" of the site, at least according to my definition.

      As the whole feature is JS based, its presence is also done using JS - in order to not have a half baked thing which would show a link and nothing would happen when it's clicked.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: C'mon El-Reg - Make a non-JS 'Opt-Out'

        @ Marco Fontani

        Re the Bug-Report... Glad to help!

        Regarding the non-js opt-out option, Is it Friday the 13th???! Stop over-thinking / over-engineering this. Just auto-generate a 'B' content page at a 'B' address. Why is a formal 'opt out' needed? Oh well no worries, it kind-of exists already at this URL:

        https://www.theregister.co.uk/Week/

    2. This post has been deleted by its author

  35. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    stuff wot I want

    Two things I would like to see:

    Allow us to filter out sections that we aren't remotely interested in ( storage... )

    Threading for commentards.

  36. Joe W Silver badge

    Still... boxes

    Boxes that serve no purpose, but distract by unneccessary lines, cluttering the front page.

    Look at the Gestalt principles, please...

    Weird non-aligning stuff, which is worsened by the boxes.

    No. Just... no.

  37. Wupspups

    Why?

    "We have improved our website says the designers."

    "Have you?", says I, "Looks like you were on acid when you did it. And pretty crap acid at that"

    1. ivan5

      Re: Why?

      If by improving it they mean that I now have to scroll left and right by up to 4 times the width of my browser window I don't want it.

      Back to the old which I hope will always be there.

  38. Aristotles slow and dimwitted horse
    Go

    I come for the substance...

    I come for the substance, not the style. Yes it has changed, but not that much so can't see what the fuss is all about. I think we're all rugged and jaded enough readers to not let this sort of thing affect us too much.

    If I was part of some overly emotional and affectatious hipster group that believes that these sort of changes are "important" then I might be crying into my latte.

    But I'm not. So I'm not.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: I come for the substance...

      Have a crushed avocado on toast that man!!

  39. BoldMan

    Opt out not working...

    I've tried clicking the opt out button and nothing changes.

    I've tried manually adding the test_redesign cookie and setting its value to "off_2018" but still getting the new design...

  40. TimR

    https://www.cbc.ca/

    Please have a quick look at the above web site - what do you notice?

    Hint: all the boxes within a section line up....

    Please don't put adverts in one cell on a line of the grid - with an ad blocker enabled it makes the site look awful

  41. Zippy´s Sausage Factory
    Meh

    I prefer the old homepage, for the simple reason that it sorts better - new stuff at the top, old stuff at the bottom. The new one seems confusing, a bit messy and really the sort of thing I'd be thinking about throwing away in favour of what's now the old homepage simply because the old homepage looks simpler, cleaner and more understandable.

    And I think it's the squares, to be honest. The borders around each story make it look more cluttered, less friendly. It feels like you knew you had to make it reactive and then went a bit crazy with the wishlist.

    Just my thoughts (and yes, I did opt in to the new homepage for a while before it became the default, this isn't just a kneejerk reaction...)

    1. JohnFen

      "The new one seems confusing"

      I'm glad that you said this -- I was feeling stupid because the new design was confusing me. If I'm stupid, at least I can take comfort in not being alone.

  42. RichardBarrell

    It looks a bit nicer than before. The behaviour on narrow screens is noticeably improved. I'm not sure what but something has improved in the way the front page layout handles titles with uneven lengths, and this version seems to be much less prone to putting strange big gaps on the page when someone's editor indulges their very-long-headline habit.

    It looks similar enough to the previous design to still feel familiar, which is a big plus in my book. Thumbs up! :)

  43. msknight

    Uneven tiles hurt my eyes

    Sadly, I've now joined other people here, in sparking up an RSS reader, just for The Register.

    I can understand needing to change for multiple platforms, but the tiles don't have to suffer like this, for that reason.

  44. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Commentads

    "And I don't think any of you are psychopaths. That's my unprofessional opinion."

    Mr. Williams doesn't read the comments section much, does he? ;-)

    1. Mark 85
      Joke

      Re: Commentads

      As the 3 Stooges used to say: "I resemble that remark".

  45. BobC

    Some preferences for reading El Reg...

    1. No stock photos, please. Only use photos if El Reg or the story source takes them. Consider providing an "opt-out" for all images on the front page (keeping them only in the full story, or shrinking them to icon-size).

    2. No space wasted on white space: Use only the minimum needed to keep stories apart (one or two "emm"s should do, perhaps with a thin line).

    Your real "value added" isn't just what you originate or gather (many do that), but how you share it, including both spin and snark. I work in an area about as far removed from IT as one can get, yet I continue to read El Reg for the 10% of stories that matter to me directly, and the simple delight of reading the El Reg presentation of the other 90%.

    In particular, I think El Reg should revive and expand its space program.

    1. JohnFen

      Re: Some preferences for reading El Reg...

      I actually like the stock photos (although I don't like that there's a thumbnail photo for every title now... photos are like spice, and shouldn't be overdone), but I totally agree with you about the whitespace.

  46. matchbx

    I don't like it

    I don't mind the advertising on the sides, but mixed in the middle... it breaks up the flow.

    also having 1/2 the articles with images above and the other 1/2 missing images.... just breaks up the flow.

    my eyes can't scan the headlines.

  47. wayne 8

    Idiocracy version

    More images. Less text.

    Then bemoan the lack of reading skills and habits.

    A supplier's site, that I use, changed over to six items per page with large images and minimal text. Takes six pages to get through the over 30 items under a major category with no search box.

    Feckin' useless.

    Then there's the bandwidth required to load the front page.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Idiocracy version

      "takes six pages to get through the over 30 items"

      I immediately exit out of any site that makes you go through multiple pages.

      This is only done to allow multiple vendors cookies and trackers to load.

  48. Steve Hersey

    I like the new design.

    Unlike the tasteless novelties force-fed me by Android and Gmail updates (just as I get used to the UI changes from the *last* update) your new home page looks like an improvement.

  49. This post has been deleted by its author

  50. ysth

    Some indication of author on the homepage please

    Even just <article data-authorid="123456"> would be great.

    1. DropBear

      Re: Some indication of author on the homepage please

      ...and let you filter articles from folks you don't like. Well, I don't fancy your chances on them helping you do that.

  51. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Don't mind one way or the other

    I read The Reg via the RSS feed which lands me on the story's page if I open the link. Visiting the front page is something I do very rarely.

  52. Spaceman9

    You have got a responsive design which is great, but WHY have you got a max width of 1000px on the BODY, responsive means it can support small screens AND big screens. I have a good sized desktop monitor. There is no good reason why your pages shouldn't be in the region of 1400 -> 1600 pix at least. I can mostly see grey space on the sides of your page.

  53. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "text-tastic version of the homepage"

    I've been using the "text-tastic" version of El Reg for some time now.

    (and any other site that supports it)

    uMatrix blocks everything except for two css connections from El Reg and the occassional persistent cookie to post a rant. (which is purged soon after)

    After reading all the Reg's articles about the plethora of nasty browser exploits I have taken precautions.

    I do however appreciate the fact that your site is one of the few that still functions when JavaScript, images, Google's fonts and the rest are blocked.

    I've seen some dodgy websites that refuse to load if javascript and/or cookies are blocked. (Microsoft for one)

  54. Will Godfrey Silver badge
    Meh

    Not too keen

    Too much white space - seems to be a web 'disease' these days :(

    Oh, and still no BOFH or Terry Pratchett icons.

    1. lee harvey osmond

      Re: Not too keen

      White space is useful in designs, both mobile and desktop, web and app.

      Gives you somewhere, anywhere, to click or tap without hitting a link or button by mistake.

      1. JohnFen

        Re: Not too keen

        Yes, some functional whitespace is good. Too much whitespace is bad. In my opinion, the new design is a bit on the "too much" side.

  55. lee harvey osmond

    "you can opt out at any time"

    Possibly you meant, since this is The Register, we can check it out anytime, but never leave

  56. cornetman Silver badge

    My two cents worth.

    Front page seems rather disorganised. Differently formatted sections.

    Can we not just see a chronological list of stories?

    In the morning, I just scroll down the stories looking for something interesting and during the day I do a fresh to see what's new that has turned up.

    The front page seems to be dominated by extremely large pictures still. Most of your readers are not interested in clip art. We can use Google for that.

    I don't really give a shit about what other people think is popular. They're probably not interested in what I'm interested in. It never seems to contain articles that are interesting to me, so it's a waste of space.

    This morning I looked at the website on my phone and although it's OK, each story takes a lot of space, resulting in less content per page. I think the border seems rather superfluous and wastes a lot of space. Again, not really interested in looking at quirky pictures. I come here for the news.

    1. LenG

      I agree

      This was one of my major dislikes with the original home page design. If I were you I would try the weekly summary. A chronological list of stories so you only have to scroll in one direction and not figure out which pieces of the page go where (or even discover that the same article appears more than one because it falls into several categories).

      1. onefang

        Re: I agree

        "or even discover that the same article appears more than one because it falls into several categories"

        I've noticed something odd about the RSS feed, some articles appear in it twice, coz they edited the title. Usually right next to each other, like it was changed quickly. Most of the time it's a rather inconsequential change. For example (both published on 2018-09-13 05:26) -

        Whiskey business - DDoS attack leaves University of Edinburgh server Irn-Scru'd

        Whisky business: Uni of Edinburgh servers Irn-Scru'd by cyber-attack

        1. Marco Fontani

          Re: I agree

          I've noticed something odd about the RSS feed, some articles appear in it twice, coz they edited the title.

          That seems to happen when the _url_ is changed, as the RSS feeds' "id" field is for some reason set to the path part of the story's URL, which changes if the story URL changes (which happens).

          It seems like we should migrate to using an unique "id" instead, but we need to do that from a certain point going forward or we risk all RSS readers seeing all stories as being "new".

          Thanks for the bug report, I'll add it to our pile and see what can be done about it.

    2. onefang
      Coat

      Re: My two cents worth.

      "Again, not really interested in looking at quirky pictures. I come here for the news."

      You mean you only read it for the articles.

  57. Lee D Silver badge

    It's almost like we should have a way to isolate the content of the news articles from the design.

    And then mark upgrades to the formatting / layout as a particular version people can look at.

    And then people can choose how they want the page to look without at all affecting the way the content is produced and handled on the backend.

    And thus letting people choose whether they want the old Reg fixed-width thing, or the shiny-new, or the shiny-new-that-we-broke-but-we'll-fix-it-later.

    And then, maybe, we could come up with a catchy name for those formatting layouts. Like...

    Themes.

    SERIOUSLY. Stop faffing with the website doing things that instantly alienate 50% of people, and instead focus on the content and making the site work and have useful features (like searching through my old posts, etc.).

    Then let your designers run riot on a theme. And then you can change what the DEFAULT theme is to your heart's content. And we can still view The Reg as if it were a site to convey news and not have GIGANTIC side-bars on it, or unnecessarily large "highlighted" stories when we just want to view them all as a list.

  58. Merchman

    All white for some

    Can I get some more white space on the page? I don't think therye's enough on the new layout.

  59. JohnFen

    It's OK, I guess

    It's not as good as the original design, so I'll stick to that while it's available.

    I think my main disappointment (or source of "meh") about the new design is that it has less of the El Reg personality than the old one. The new one just looks generic -- much like lots of other websites that have redesigned in the last few years.

  60. nanchatte

    Almost as bad as the Rotting Dog Blog

    ... almost, but not quite.

    I don't need massive pictures on the front page, I'm not a school kid.

    It's a mess of margins and white space. Put it back.

  61. Purple-Stater

    Tough call

    The changes aren't massive, and I slightly like it better as a picture can help decide if an article is relevant to my interests, though that leads to a bigger problem as Reg hasn't been all that big on relevant pictures. That also kinda makes the entire page look like "sponsored" material.

    1. JohnFen

      Re: Tough call

      "a picture can help decide if an article is relevant to my interests"

      It can? How does that work?

      1. jake Silver badge

        Re: Tough call

        How does that work? It's a vital part of the variation of Short Attention Span Theater known as "marketing". It would seem someone's drunk the koolaid ...

        1. JohnFen

          Re: Tough call

          What I mean is that the images used here rarely give any indication about what the story they go with is about. They usually just indicate a mood or emotion. So they give no clue as to whether or not the topic is of interest.

          1. jake Silver badge
            Pint

            Re: Tough call

            I rest my case.

            Beer?

  62. LenG

    Nope

    I gave up the old homepage in favour of the weekly summary some time ago so I can't comment on this as an improvement or otherwise. All I can say is that I'll stick to the weekly summary - its very much easier to work with.

    1. jake Silver badge

      Re: Nope

      I've been using the weekly summary since it was made available. To date, none of the front page redesigns has made more sense to me, from a user/reader perspective.

      Don't get me wrong, I've TRIED the frontpage, both with and without advertising. I've even tried to like it, in it's various iterations. But I always return to the simple, uncluttered week at a glance. Please don't get rid of this option.

      You could, however, streamline "Week" further: Get rid of the "Most Read" thingie. Try as I might, I can see no real reason for that option on that particular page.

  63. nagyeger

    Ads broken?

    Is it deliberate? I assume not.

    I'm getting blank white where there ought to be some adverts. I wondered if you'd switched add provider and now every script is running, but nope, still no adverts. Come on Reg, protect your revenue, we don't want you to go bust!

  64. Dwarf

    Nope, don't like it

    Its now far too difficult to find any useful content.

    Pictures are meaningless and now there are far more of them. If you need pictures, make them relevant to the story, not just something to break up the words. I can read more than 10 words without getting bored.

    When browsing from a 4K screen and get very little content, its all whitespace, pictures and headings. The whitespace might be because I block all the adverts and other cruft from the old site.

    Whats wrong with providing good content - its a tech site, we expect tech, not pictures unrelated to tech.

  65. Someone Else Silver badge
    Happy

    Well...

    I can live with it. The Kshiny is at a manageable level, and at this point, it doesn't look like an ADHD-addled Millennial designed it, so good on you for that. I do hate change for change sake, and the whole concept of designing for a handheld that will also "work" for a 3-screen desktop installation is anathema to me, at least. But you didn't bugger it up completely, so... we'll give it a longer look-see for now.

  66. jonnutt

    Run away!

    Oh no the Register has been hacked!

  67. ScissorHands
    Thumb Up

    It works in Opera Presto

    So it's fiiiine...

  68. 640kb

    very nice

    I usually hate UX changes but this one is the exception, good work guys!

  69. anoco

    ADD world

    I understand this design, everybody is doing it theses days. They're all going for something that even Trump can understand. But there's still too many wor...

  70. earl grey
    Meh

    Change is ok

    As long as everything stays the same.

    Seriously not as glaring as the last front page eruption, but i rather got used to the last get-up and the older i get, the more i don't like changes.

  71. theghostoftimebernerslee
    Thumb Up

    About bloody time!

    Every time I visited the site on mobile I had to squint a bit and then do a pinchy-zoom and shake my phone vigourously towards the sky cursing the tech gods.

    But now, I can relax. You made things responsive. What took you so long?! (That was a rhetorical question - don't you dare answer it!)

  72. Random Bits of Carrion
    Pint

    text-tastic baby!

    +1 for the text-tastic version.

    This new design is fine. Once the low memory text-tastic version is released those browsing with text based web browsers and older computers should be satisfied...

  73. rbarrie

    /me nods sagely

    But what does Dabbs think?

    Smoking jacket clad, I await his assessment in my study.

  74. Bob C McKenzie

    Yeh, you’re new design doesn’t offend. Which means you’re up there with the best. Keep on trucking.

  75. jake Silver badge

    Is it just me?

    I seem to have noticed a trend here ... Most of those who approve of the change appear to be incapable of using the written English language properly.

    Just saying ... Do with it what you will.

  76. ITS Retired

    I like it.

    The new format works fine on my fondle slab, my phone and my desktop. Better even than before on the hand helds.

    All that white space people are complaining about? I just assume it is space for ads that I don't see and never have seen. I just ignore it, by assuming it probably has some purpose for something by somebody. Otherwise it wouldn't be there. My curiosity doesn't even care.

    I got used to the last change. This one doesn't need getting used to.

  77. Martin-73 Silver badge

    Isn't the whole point of 'responsive' design

    that it adapts (responds) to the device and viewport you're using? So the whitespace tends to say it's not been done thoroughly.

    But to be honest, till it was pointed out in the thread, I didn't notice. However I access the stories via the RSS feed so rarely see the homepage.

    But I ... quite like it, ghod rest my sole... (the left one).

  78. Criminny Rickets
    Joke

    Tardis Reference

    Ah, you've went and changed the front page around. I don't like it.

  79. Criminny Rickets
    Thumb Up

    Nice job

    While I normally use an RSS reader for El Reg (have for years), there are times that I do visit the main site. I have to say that I actually do like the new layout. I find it is cleaner looking, and doesn't look as cluttered. It's also easier on the eyes to scroll through.

  80. Handlebar

    Great, now 66% of my screen is blank space when viewing your site!! Huge (dis)improvement.

  81. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Waaaay to many images

    Too many images for story headlines. Especially when the vast majority are library images that don't relate directly to the story. More than three stories across the page sounded like it would mean more information on the page and less scrolling required. All the extra images have negated that benefit. It's has shades of Intel/AMD making faster CPUs only for MS to bloat Windows up even more to negate the speed increases.

    Can't wait for the compact version of the site.

  82. Anthropornis
    Thumb Down

    Unusable, but unlike the preview I'm now stuck in it.

    I still fucking hate it (reading on a 1024x600 netbook at the moment, but I doubt that filling up the page with a single column and pictures on each item will make me hate it any less), and after going back to the index page but failing to find an option to revert which is claimed to be at the bottom of the page, all I can say is that I'll only be reading the site irregularly.

    Total fail.

    1. Anthropornis

      Re: Unusable, but unlike the preview I'm now stuck in it.

      Strangely, on a desktop (using falkon, window size maybe about 1200x960 on a 1600x1200 screen) it is acceptable - nice columns of items, most with a small picture).

  83. joed

    indifferent

    I can hardly see a difference and really had to go for trouble of testing it, as rss feed in live bookmarks toolbar in firefox is all that I ever see. Plain text on plain background - no change is good change;)

  84. Joe W Silver badge

    Mobile Version

    I understand you want to maintain a single code base. However, the mobile m.theregister page is single column - which is good, yet still retains the boxes - which is unnecessary. The vertical lines serve absolutely no purpose except to take up space. The huge space caused by the twin horizontal lines (one per box) between articles takes up even more space. This is bloody annoying when scrolling down the page.

  85. DocJD

    Weekly listing

    Thank you for the weekly listing. It is exactly what I like and I have bookmarked it instead of your home page.

  86. SolidSquid

    Overall looks pretty good, although there seem to be some weird bits in the layout where only 3 news items appear in a row that's supposed to have 4. Glad you still went with a traditional layout rather than one of thos daft shiny designs that push half the content off the page and mean more scrolling to see anything (actually it looks like this layout allows more tiles per screen than the old one)

  87. Shady42

    less pics, less white space...

    Seems i'm just adding a murmur to the din but I would also like less pointless white space and less unnecessary (and rather repetitive use of) pictures please. Will be very interested in seeing compact mode. Oh and if its the framework of your new design that 'insists' on all that white space please dont blame it - kill it with fire and find something better.

    That said of all the site redesigns i've seen this one is better than most (despite the low bar). Here's hoping they actually listen to our comments

  88. Admiral Grace Hopper

    It's fine

    I kvetched a little about the last reformatting and this makes one of my complaints worse - even more white space shining into the echoing void of my workplace - but really, it doesn't get in the way of reading the content so it's not a problem.

    If you want to delight me, get rid of the float-over ads.

    If you want to really piss people off, go full-on late 90s Gociities with a floral border and an autoplay .wav of something plinky-plonky.

  89. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    More nudity please...

    Otherwise ok.

  90. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I love it!

    I love Trump!

    I love Microsoft!

    I love Oracle!

    I love Capita!

  91. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Autistic Nightmare

    I cannot use new front page AT ALL.

    Can't speak for all thse with Autism, but this design hits SO MANY triggers I have to close as soon as I scroll - it's trying to shove too much at me.

    Now using the /Week/ view.

  92. Sixtysix
    FAIL

    "Consultation"

    Sadly we all know that whatever we say, realistically, nothing will change.

    This change? Hate it with a passion - as been said, too many stock pictures, too much whitespace, and why put the classification and reporter on the "listing" - especially making so much of it.

    WE ARE TECHIES - WE WANT INFORMATION, EFFICIENTLY.

    I think it was wasted cash and cannot WAIT for text only/text rich version to come along.

    1. onefang
      Boffin

      Re: "Consultation"

      'why put the classification and reporter on the "listing"'

      'WE ARE TECHIES - WE WANT INFORMATION, EFFICIENTLY.'

      One of the problems is we are asking for different things. Go back over the comments in all three articles on this current change, and you'll find people asking for the classification and reporter that you are wondering why it's there, and some asking for that info to not be there.

      One way of making all of us techies happy might be to provide a public API, we can write our own queries to present the info in which ever way we like. Now THAT might be innovation in a tech news site, the user editable profile might include -

      First name

      Last name

      Forum user name

      Email

      Front page SQL

      Front page HTML template

      Forums SQL

      Forums HTML template

  93. peewag

    Needs some work on your algorithms!

    It appears that when you are really proud of an article you can end up listing it 4 times... today I see, "Microsoft accidentally let encrypted Windows 10 out into the world" in "Top Stories," "Don't Miss," "Latest News" and, perhaps understandably with all that coverage, also in "Most Read!"

  94. Laughing Gravy

    Ads

    I'll stick with the mobile version and avoid the grief.

    The relevance of the ads I'm getting when browsing on a work PC with no adblocker - Argos (cos I bought a watch a month ago), music store (cos I bought a keyboard last week), occasional tech stuff I have no interest in and at least four sites catering for teenage girls fashion WTF? I've never had the urge to look at teenage dresses (not online anyway).

    1. JohnFen

      Re: Ads

      "I've never had the urge to look at teenage dresses (not online anyway)."

      The major ad-slingers (and Google is the best at this) track you offline as well as online. They know when you buy something with a credit card in a brick and mortar store, for example, and increasingly have data-sharing deals with stores that do in-store tracking.

      Don't think that the ad-slingers don't know about those teenage dresses you buy just because you paid cash in a brick-and-mortar store.

  95. Dave Lawton
    FAIL

    Wasn't Broken, didn't need fixing

    Thank deity, I did find the link back to the original home page

    Such a shame you had to do it with Javascript

  96. This post has been deleted by its author

  97. Zebo-the-Fat

    Not good!

    Don't like it, take it away!!

  98. drgates

    Sorry, I much prefer the old scheme.

  99. Whitter
    Flame

    "We want your input"

    "We want your input!" .... honest.

    ... "Please remove the 'Most Read' section" ... endless times in the comments later:

    Err.. sorry, didn't quite catch that...

    "And here it is: the new format with a great new 'Most read' section!

    We hope you like it"

  100. Warm Braw

    Curious transient scrolling behaviour

    I've just got very annoyed by something, but it immediately stopped happening, so I applaud you for the level of behavioural insight you have built into your pages, though I suspect it wasn't intentional!

    Browsing on a desktop with a landscape screen, the most prominent news items at the top of the home page remained anchored in position when scrolling down the page. This is particularly tedious as the DK-inspired surfeit of white space already reduces the amount of screen estate available for actually seeing content: there's no need to put even more of it out of my control. However, having found this page to report my annoyance, I can't make it happen again. So, hope it was just a one-off!

  101. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Style vs content

    Style is subjective. I am not a fan of change but some things grow on you and others are not important.

    Content however is everything. The new design loses the thumbnail when I mouse over the banner headings. I used to mouse over "software" for example and see the latest articles in brief. No longer. Even if I click on the new "Software" I just get another set of headings. No content.

    I am not enticed to read so El Reg gets fewer clicks and less advertising income.

    It's your choice if you want to make your site less attractive to readers and advertisers alike but I think it is a dumb move.

    I hope you keep the old design running in parallel long enough to realise your mistake.

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