Not a bad redesign, but from one liberal to another, I think you should have a go at redesigning some of the ideas going around here. The porn block bit was an embarrassing throwback to pre-enlightenment.

It’s certainly loading faster but why say that an article has (say) 32 comments, when maybe 28 of them are on a social networking site.
I’m not going there

The porn block bit was an embarrassing throwback to pre-enlightenment.

No it wasn’t. And we published two articles before that against the proposals. I think some people need to get used to the idea of reading stuff that also challenges their views.

Sunny:

It’s entirely possible that Kris only happened across the one article, to be fair. But yes, you published two opposing articles on the subject, both of them from what might be called a liberal perspective, and I think that’s an excellent approach for this site to take.

Sunny: on issues that tend to split we liberals down the middle, have you considered a form where one article includes two short pieces by opposing thinkers, rather like the opening statements of a debate? I suspect it might lead to a less pugilistic reaction, where one side leaps to decry the article and the other to defend it (and yes, I know I frequently do both). Might lend itself to more of a “I agree with A, but B raises an important point” kind of affair. Worth trying out, at least?

@ chaise, I think your suggestion could be useful…

spot on Chaise!

@Sunny

Good stuff on the presentation side. It is much cleaner and the text size seems more appropriate. You haven’t changed a lot to make it more readable.

Can you bump up the text size in the Reply box so that it matches that of the thread, please?

I appreciate that this is a tricky point, but it is still difficult to navigate to threads that are not on the front page. “Archives” doesn’t mean a lot to most people. “Previous Discussions” or “Previous Stories” would be better if the characters fitted the space. Also it is in a chain of links — About, Contact, Contribute, FAQs — which are unrelated to current or previous content.

“Archives” is in the wrong place and is wrongly defined, and I am unqualified to comment further. For now, at least.

The new website looks very good, well done.

I second what @Barrie J said, would be better to show the number of actual comments on an article. Most of the extra ones are people Tweeting the link and not making any comment on it anyway.

Our concern troll at 4 still telling Sunny what to write. Priceless.

You can change the look of the site but you still have trolls telling you what to think.

@9. Sally: “You can change the look of the site but you still have trolls telling you what to think.”

But what do you think, Sally? You have posted a few comments in the past that addressed the argument. That was evidence that you do have ideas.

But the rant above serves no purpose. It does not help Sunny to create a a space for debate. You don’t present a coherent argument. On past performance, Sally, you can talk reasonably and with respect. And now you don’t.

@ 9 Sally

“You can change the look of the site but you still have trolls telling you what to think.”

I love this. I offer Sunny some friendly, if unqualified and probably ignorant, advice. And then something that lives under a bridge and eats billygoats calls me a troll for… existing? Wandering into its radar? Failing to eat billygoats? Who knows the mind of trolls. If only they all turned to stone come sunrise.

Sunny: on issues that tend to split we liberals down the middle, have you considered a form where one article includes two short pieces by opposing thinkers, rather like the opening statements of a debate?

I have tried this on occasion, however it’s rarely worked out because people have never responded with articles on time.

Also, you don’t realise the extent to which a lot of the articles are driven by people emailing me with ideas and pitches. I commission maybe 1 in 10 articles posted here. My hands are full with editing, rejecting or working on pieces that people have sent to me.

So… nice idea in theory but harder in reality as an editor with enough much time on his hands.

Charlieman: Can you bump up the text size in the Reply box so that it matches that of the thread, please?

You mean in the boxes that you reply to people? Does that come up very small? Odd.

“Archives” is in the wrong place and is wrongly defined, and I am unqualified to comment further. For now, at least.

Difficult to find ways to navigate the site better – but I’m always open to suggestions and ideas. What would you say is a good example?

The search box on top is always useful!

Lets be clear. Calling yourself a liberal, then expressing whatever view is in your head, does not then make that view a ‘liberal view’.

So as far as I can tell from the ‘liberals’ posting comments here:

‘You’re a troll’ if you think differently to the original author of the article.’

‘You can’t read, if you disagree with the original author of an article’

And of course, this cracker,

‘Censorship rather than education is a liberal approach to sexuality’

And this,

‘Conservatism is merely another part of the liberal spectrum’

There is a conspiracy here, and I think it’s to ruin the good name of liberalism. No-one expects liberals to have consensus, but that’s no excuse for feeding readers poorly thought out conservatism.

Change the site name to ‘another incoherent political views website with mindless readers who think critics are all trolls’.

@ 12 Sunny

Fair enough! If it’s not viable, then so much for that idea.

@ 14 Kris

“Change the site name to ‘another incoherent political views website with mindless readers who think critics are all trolls’.”

That’s mainly just Sally, and as far as I can tell she is genuinely mad. I wouldn’t judge the site by her example.

Change the site name to ‘another incoherent political views website with mindless readers who think critics are all trolls’.

It staggers me the extent to which people think I’m running the site to keep them happy.

You can always spot the concern tory trolls because they endlessly demand balance on liberal sites while denying it on right wing sites. Plenty of sites available for knuckle dragging tory views so don’t let the door hit you on the way out.

The design looks good, and the archives are easier to get at. Gold stars.

Sunny,

I might not always agree with you but this site keeps me interested. It is not as much fun as Pickled Politics, but still. I have an almost incredible degree of agreement with what you say and do, which is quite odd. For you and I come from completely different backgrounds. What with you being a mover and shaker in London and me not caring a toss about that.

When and where are you standing for Parliament? It ought to be on your agenda. And I would go out and knock on doors for you.

Just don’t stand for Parliament in a Scottish Consituency, for I wouldn’t know what to do……

Well I would:

Your dumped

Saor Alba.

The “about, contact” etc. pop-ups don’t close. Apologies if you’re already aware of this.

@13. Sunny Hundal: “You mean in the boxes that you reply to people? Does that come up very small? Odd.”

It’s definitely bigger today in Safari on Mac OS X. I’ve not tried in any other browsers yet.

On the Archives/Previous Stories point, I don’t feel qualified to give positive advice. You need to talk to a designer about how you want people to use the site, which may not be the same as we currently do.

My peeve is that Archives is the wrong term (I usually want to find a story that has been knocked off the front page but still alive with debate, rather than something that is a bit dusty). When I’ve failed to find the story on the front page, I’m at the bottom. That’s where I’d like to find the link to the slighter older opinion pieces. The News Articles Archive that you’ve added works for me; adding a similar (better titled) link for opinion pieces would work too. But as I said, I’m a lousy judge on this because the design has to be about making the site more accessible and about what you want it to achieve.

Move the comments to a Liberal Conspiracy forum ask family members or trusted friends to moderate the forum and alert you to things that should be brought to your attention.

Most comments here turn into a to and fro between the regulars and have little or nothing to do with the original post.

@ 23 littleox

If you get rid of the comments, they’ll have even less to do with the OP. That’s just how conversations work, to be honest. I prefer this to most newspaper BTL threads, where everyone posts on-topic, but half of the comments are essentially identical (e.g. 500 people saying “This is desgustin, its PC GONE MAD!!!!”).

From a pragmatic standpoint, if people are able to discuss issues on LC, they’ll be more likely to spend time here, which means they’ll be more likely to reference it elsewhere. Drives traffic.

I hope this redesign allows .coop domain users to make postings