[David Bowie Official – The YouTube]
Some of you noticed. Well, probably all of you noticed. And some of you didn’t like it. Well, maybe none of you liked it. But, yes, we made some changes. But, it might not be a bad thing.
IMAO looks, well, a little different. There’s still the Nuke The Moon banner at the top. There are two black sidebars. There is still the red outline. But, it’s still a little different. So, why the changes in the look of IMAO? Well, we wanted to do a couple of things. One was to add some functionality that we really think could be useful to you. The other was to improve overall responsiveness of the Website.
WordPress added some functionality in the nearly eight years since our last major update. Some is useful to the visitors to the Website — that’s you — and some is very useful to the behind the scenes operation. The customized theme that we were using didn’t allow for any of that. So, we changed to a different, but similar, theme. We still had to customize it a little, but these customizations were in a way that didn’t limit the functionality. Anyway, this new theme allows for these new features, which we think you’ll find useful.
Reply to comments
You know how when someone left a comment and you wanted to reply to that person, if there were other comments in-between, it was sometimes problematic? You know, you’d perhaps get the number of the comment so they’d know who you were talking to…
#7: Have you tried turning it off and on again?
But then some comment that got improperly caught by the spam filter changed the numbering? Or you’d have to write who you were talking to?
@Bridgekeeper: Do you mean an African swallow or a European swallow?
You remember, right? Well, now you can simply reply directly to a comment, if you like. Or, as always, simply comment on the post in general. And, if you do reply to a comment, they are nested, so you can reply to a reply and so on for up to 10 levels. If 10 levels isn’t enough, you need to take it outside.
Sharing buttons
We’ve implemented better sharing functionality into the Website. The code we had previously was rather troublesome on the browser. The new Theme allows inserting of official plugins and better, cleaner integration of social and sharing of content.
Mobile integration
The old mobile theme, the one you got when you opened the Website on your phone, worked, but you had to open each post to see the content. More clicks for us, sure, but not very helpful for you. Well, the new Theme has a built-in Mobile design. Actually, there are two we now have access to. Both allow you to see content when you go to the Website on your phone without having to click on each post. (Edit: More about this in the comments.)
Subscribe to comments
While we’ve had a form of this for some time, the new Theme supports the standard version, and should be easier to use.
Sign in to comment
We now support Facebook, Twitter, Google, and WordPress sign-ins when commenting. It’s not a requirement, but it’s an option. Some people prefer that. If that’s your preference, it’s now available.
Summary
In addition to those items listed above, the Website should be more responsive. We really do want to make things easier to use. We know that change for the sake of change is not a good thing. But, we think the overall changes will make for a better, easier to use Website.
Let us know if we met your expectations.
Thank you for not requiring Facebook (et al) just to comment.
Oh, no. Wouldn’t do that. Yes, it’s an option, but not a requirement.
Works for me. Nothing to gripe about. (Yet.) I think the “nesting” of comments will improve readability.
Thanks. I really hope the little changes we had to introduce in order to allow this kind of thing do make it an overall improvement.
yes, not requiring a social media account to comment is great…especially since some of us don’t have accounts as we don’t participate in the left wing ritual known as social media.
What I DON’T like…and I don’t know if this is by design or if it can be changed is that between the post and the comment section is a bunch of “related” posts suggested by the site…I’m not big on algorithmically generated suggestions because they never get it right and I find it rude for a computer to presume to know what I want.
So…if I’m not in the minority, and it’s technically possible, could you please teach the site some manners and let the grown-ups talk before interjecting it’s own content?
That’s a new thing that was on by default. The old theme didn’t support it, so it never showed. The new theme supports it. I’ve turned it off.
Edit: I thought I had it turned off. *sigh* I’m on it.
Edit: Ah. Two settings control it. Pretty sneaky, WordPress.
Awesome!
now…can WordPress do anything about the presidential candidates? Is there a setting for that?
No real complaints, but on my phone the old nuked moon logo does not show up. The only thing not seamless in the design is long posts require more clicking on the previous button, but that is very minor. Honestly, anything that makes it easier for you and especially the indefatigable Harvey is a good thing. He has been awesome for so long we might start taking this site for granted. (Naaahhhh, never happen)
This may take some explanation. Sorry. I only hit the high level version when I said “there are two we have access to.”
There was the Old Mobile Theme, there is the New Mobile Theme, and there is the Responsive Theme.
The Old Mobile Theme was called “Carrington Mobile” and it showed a list of post names, no actual content. You clicked the post name to see the content. Quick to load, though.
The New Mobile Theme is from WordPress. It actually loads five posts and the first sidebar. It can look a little like the site (colors of the header can be changed) but it’s not a true IMAO look. That’s what’s currently being used.
The Responsive Theme is the built-in functionality of the New Theme. which is called “F2.” It supports CSS changes. F2 doesn’t come in red/black. It comes in Blue, Brown, Green, and Dark (a dark brown and black color scheme). While CSS allows us to change the colors to red/black, it also can be used to reorganize the layout depending on the size of the viewing screen (phone, tablet, etc). That’s called Media Queries, and the New Theme (F2) supports this.
The down side of using the built-in mobile functionality and compatibility is that it loads more onto your phone. More posts. Both sidebars. And, that’s more bandwidth you would be using. We’re not wanting to make you send Verizon or AT&T or whoever any more money by using up all your allotment. We use the WordPress Mobile theme as a compromise between more mobile functionality and less mobile data usage.
If you have an unlimited plan, or aren’t approaching any data caps, you can scroll down to the bottom and click View Full Site on your phone. That will set a cookie that disables the WordPress Mobile Theme and lets you see the full site, which will fit on your phone. Of course, you can change back if you prefer.
I hope this lengthy explanation helps.
Bottom line is, you can see the IMAO look on mobile, but you have to press one extra button to set the cookie. And, no, I don’t know how long the cookie remains set. Anywhere from one hour to 30 years.
With the exception of the locations of beer, bread, and milk in the grocery store, feel free to change anything you want.
Would love to have a “+” and “-” option for the comments. Then those of us (who care) can vote on our own winner for the SLotD (ducks).
Is that too “social media” for you?
Heh. We’ll let it go at that.
The people voting for the SLotD winner? Try democracy and give up the Democrat tried and true method of assigning super delegates and rigging the vote with bribes of cookies? Shocking!
It used to be…once…in the good old days…that as long as I didn’t delete the cookies, the name and email would always be there, now you have to fill it out every time even though, when you look at the cookie…the info is still there. grrr What a pain in the ass.
I don’t do the just just give us the password to all you email accounts, your phone number and your social security number, you can trust us with it…sites, I think they call it socialist media or something. No thanks.
I guess it doesn’t matter, anyone coming here is probably already on a waiting list for the death camps but I don’t feel like making it any easier for them.
I do understand and sympathize. It’s now standard to not retain that information. I would be in favor of turning that on … if it was an option.
I’ve been able to keep the info, after I entered it once. Am I special?
Well, yeah. But in this case, it looks like we may be dealing with a browser setting. I should have thought of that.
Now, just what that browser setting might be? Dunno. What browser do you use?
Chrome. But I was forced to by evil IT people.
I use Chrome on my Mac, Dell Windows, and iPad. I’m not getting it. Need to do some deep digging into this.
All these changes to the site and my taxes weren’t raised, nor my standard of living lowered, and no cost overruns were incurred…so no complaints from me. (Obviously not how the government would have gone about it.)
Check out the message boards of Tech Sideline. They use them pretty extensively and are real popular. Link will take you to “The Lounge” which is the most awesome place on the internet, save IMAO.
You missed it, then. Look again.
I can’t complain. And I’m a cat!
A Cat is, by definition, a complaint.
the mobile version has a different (blue) color theme than the desktop site. was that intentional?
Not really. It’s the default Word Press Mobile theme. We had the default look on the old Carrington Mobile theme. This one can be changed via CSS. I’ve been looking into that.
Right now, you can choose to go with the default responsive (mobile-friendly) look by clicking the View Full Site link at the bottom. More about that in this comment above.
I actually thought I had it configured, but missed a setting somewhere along the way. The goal is to make it a more consistent look across platforms.
Is this a standard theme, or did you customize one? I like the nav menu up at the top, under the logo.
It’s a free WordPress theme called F2. I added CSS to change the colors. The layout, though, is one of the options in F2. The Menu feature that’s now in WordPress wasn’t available previously. That’s how I built the menu: mostly Custom Links using the WordPress Menus feature.
You need a button for Frank as a request to write and post something.
And one for Harvey’s Newsish Fakery.
And when the click counts get high enough, they get a warning email from the Apple Moose.
If it’s possible, you should change the Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down images to Bacon/Tofu. This is IMAO after all.
Done. Well, kinda.
Everything looks & works fine here, except one tiny thing: First time on I noticed that the “<>” were hard to read medium gray on light gray, but changed color once they were visited. Now it seems like they’re more readable red on gray, but don’t change color. Can you double-check to make sure they’re both readable and changeable?
oops, that was supposed to read “older entries” and “newer entries”, not reinterpreted into “”
How about now?
Yes, there is now a difference between visited and unvisited. Personally I could use a bit more contrast, but my old eyes say that about most everything 😉
I don’t like things that are new and different! How dare you change your own site! I demand more animated gifs! And midi files! There should be midi files playing in the background!
Nah, is nice. Seems cleaner, easier to navigate. Those borders are humungo on my widescreen monitor, but that’s no big deal. Nice job!
Oooooh oooh oooh, what if it had neon green text on a starry background with magenta links and blinking headlines! 😀
I really, REALLY appreciate the option to edit a comment after you’ve just posted it — when 99% of errors get noticed. Awesome addition — thanks!