New To Signal
Erm, hello. Look what we did. Movable Type is… you know what, I’m sick of saying that. WHAT DO YOU WANT?
Yes, hooray for contrived IT Crowd misquotes - things haven’t changed that much around here. Still, it can’t have escaped your attention that we look a little different today. Do you like our big icons? They might be compensating for something, but we happen to think they look rather striking.
Still, hopefully the changes will make it easier for you to find what you “want” around here. We’ve now more clearly separated blog posts and articles, making it easier for you to find the more meaty pieces - and we’re also pushing the best of our new stuff and the best of our old stuff in that big old box on the front page. It’s like UK Gold… on acid.
So yeah, we look a little spruced up. But there’s more. We now have user registration. Don’t worry, you’ll still be able to post comments without registering, but they’ll have to be approved by a moderator - registering means you’ll be able to post on the site without approval. (Along with having a profile and an avatar. Come on, you want an avatar, don’t you?) You’ll also be pleased to hear that posting a comment is now near instantaneous, rather than the ten and a half years it took previously.
Next, we also have tags. Welcome to 2005. Still, it should make it easier to find that Doctor Who review that made you want to stab yourself in the face repeatedly. Note that we’ve got rid of all the different sections across the top of the page - instead, check out our new all-in-one archives page to navigate our stuff.
There’s also a few more little features here and there. Treat it as one big spot-the-difference puzzle. First to twenty wins… well, looks of pity all-round.
To be honest though, the biggest change isn’t technical. Part of the reason we’ve been a bit quieter recently is that we’ve been gearing up for the relaunch - or, rather sitting around twiddling with our bits for nine months followed by a short burst of sp… activity. Now it’s finally here, we’ve got loads of great stuff planned for the upcoming months. This is NTS how it used to be, if you can get nostalgic about 2006. And as part of that commitment, here’s what we’ve got new for you today:
- The NTS Interview - Paul Cornell - Really, there’s nothing more that needs to be said about that one. Go and read it immediately.
- Discover… The Flaming Lips - Phil Reed starts off a new series of articles, in which we answer the simple question asked by anyone encountering a band for the first time: “Where do I start?” This week: The Sugababes, or something.
- Of Sequels and Sagas - In the first of our two film pieces, Andrew Ellard writes about film sequels without trying to get into that whole Indiana Jones debate again.
- The Magnificent Seven Deadly Sins - And in our second film article, Tanya Jones spends more time fantasising that she still lives in the 70s.
So: click around, see what you think, and let us know below. We hope you enjoy the new site - because that’s what we’re doing it for, really. Have fun, now!
About this entry
- By John Hoare
- Posted on Thursday, July 24 2008 @ 4:30 pm
- Categorised in Meta
- 18 comments
First comment! Ahahaha, I am great.
Despite the fact I’ve been staring at this for weeks, now, I still think this design looks beautiful and fresh. A John Hoare special (and I’m talking about the type he’ll do on your face for a sausage roll) and no mistake.
By Jonathan Capps
July 24, 2008 @ 5:21 pm
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This is all rather fab. Well done!
By monkeyson
July 24, 2008 @ 6:06 pm
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I am just posting because I like to look at my icon.
By Phil Reed
July 24, 2008 @ 6:08 pm
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No Beast with a Billion Backs review yet? Bah!
By Jeffrey Lee
July 24, 2008 @ 8:16 pm
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My impressions:
- When’s it coming back? I wanted to read through Who reviews of episodes I watched already. (That was yesterday)
- Oh no, it’s all different from before! (Panicky-like)
- I’ll do a quick search for Doctor Who and see what comes up. Oh. Search ain’t working. Or not on the first try anyway.
- Will have a look tomorrow, then!
- Sod it, having a look now.
- I know. I’ll register. That way I won’t miss any of the important bits.
- The individual paragraphs are gone from the about page. I liked them.
- I think it would be polite to read John’s intro now.
- Hahaha, “it should make it easier to find that Doctor Who review”. Brilliant.
- Speaking of which. You have tags now, that’s nice. But there’s no instant access to them (in a menu either on the start page or at least the archive page). Wouldn’t really have noticed if I hadn’t been looking for exactly that in the afternoon (see above).
- “We’ve now more clearly separated blog posts and articles,” okay, what’s the blog and what’s the articles? In the archive? Is “monthly” blog and “media” articles? Or are there both blog entries and articles in either archive category?
- I should probably post this at NTS rather than here. *copy & paste*
- “Preview comment” doesn’t give you a preview, what it gives you however is the incorrect information that no-one’s commented yet ;) Resizable window’s nice though!
Looking forward to reading the articles. The new NTS layout needs getting used to. It also still needs a bit of getting figured out by me. But maybe that’s just me being daft. ;x
By Marleen
July 24, 2008 @ 8:54 pm
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Brilliant update to NTS! Full thumbs up!
By J Clark
July 24, 2008 @ 9:04 pm
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Ooh, all sparkly and new!
By Zagrebo
July 24, 2008 @ 9:49 pm
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Thanks for the feedback, Marleen! That sort of thing is very useful!
By Tanya Jones
July 24, 2008 @ 10:07 pm
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Actually, Marleen, what were you trying to do with the Search? It looks ok to me…
By Tanya Jones
July 24, 2008 @ 10:09 pm
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10 search results for penis.
Maybe Marleen wanted more.
By Phil Reed
July 24, 2008 @ 10:10 pm
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Great.
By performingmonkey
July 25, 2008 @ 1:31 am
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Yeah, thanks for that, Marleen. Will get the preview comment bug sorted - I’ve disabled previews for now, but don’t worry, they’ll be back! Also:
Blog posts on the left, articles on the right with the icons. Same with the archives. Might stick a couple of headers explaining that if people are finding it confusing.
Yeah, we need to do something more interesting with them, really. We’ve got quite a few ideas about better ways to browse the archives of the site - watch this space. (But at least it’s better than it was before!)
If there’s any features anybody is missing, or any other bugs people have spotted, then feel free to mention them here. I’m still working on improving bits of the site.
By John Hoare
July 25, 2008 @ 6:22 am
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Search: it’s the search field on the archive page. When I use it, to search for, let’s say, “doctor who”, it gives me a “Validation error, please try again. If this error persists, please contact the site administrator.” When I use the search on THAT page then I get the same error in a different view. :)
By Marleen
July 25, 2008 @ 8:02 am
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Ah-ha! Thanks; I’ll tell John when he gets home from work and he can have a look.
By Tanya Jones
July 25, 2008 @ 8:13 am
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I’ve joined up. And I know that’s just what you were all waiting for.
By Meg
July 25, 2008 @ 8:17 am
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Search fixed! Sorry, Marleen - should have realised what you were on about.
By John Hoare
July 25, 2008 @ 1:29 pm
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I really like what you’ve done except for one thing - perhaps Recent Comments should be under the About this entry table. It acts as a good quick list of articles that are currently being commented on and that can be easily clicked on without having to go back to the main page or having to scroll all the way down to the bottom. OK it’s lazy not being arsed to click the Back button, but I reckon seeing various other article titles to the side of the current article is a good incentive to stick with the site longer.
Whatever, it does all look fantastic and you should be bloody proud!
By wankmeofflikear...
July 26, 2008 @ 1:51 am
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I do see what you’re saying - but part of the problem with that is that with the shorter blog posts, there’s actually no guarantee that there will be space for a latest comments list. And so you’d have the situation that sometimes the list is there, and sometimes it isn’t - which I think is actually worse for usability than the current system, as it’s not predictable…
Thanks for the feedback, though. Glad people seem to be generally positive about the new site!
By John Hoare
July 26, 2008 @ 2:53 am
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