Hi Everyone,
In order to implement a new feature request we had to upgrade MSP to a new theme. It’s not all that different from the old one; we know how everyone on here hates change! 😉
Anyway, the new feature request is related to the comments. You should now see below the “comments” box the option to “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail.” Several people had asked for this feature, so it is now implemented. Basically this will allow you to follow a specific thread more closely as you’ll be emailed as soon as someone responds on that thread. Please let us know if there are any problems with the feature (e.g., it doesn’t work or you can’t unsubscribe).
In order to add this feature we had to upgrade from the very old theme we were using to a newer theme that interfaces better with the latest version of WordPress. We kept the three column layout with all the features in the same place. The differences are mostly behind the scenes but there are also minor cosmetic differences. Even so, if you see something that is amiss or something is no longer working, please drop me an email: profxm -at- gmail.com.
In addition to the upgrade mentioned in the OP, it looks like “Recent Comments” now consistently display in the second column. A welcome improvement, thanks!
Also, it looks like front-page posts are automatically summarized, so any embedded media is only available after clicking through. Not a worry, just mentioning it in case anyone happened to wonder where all the videos went.
sweeeeet!
everything looks so clean!
One suggestion: with the new theme/layout, I’d suggest increasing the number of posts that display on the front page in the first column — whatever number is required to balance out the first column with the very long third column.
And is it agreed that we need a new graphic for up top?
I agree with increasing the number of posts on the first page, if that is possible to edit.
I dunno about the graphic. My only issue previously was that it had covered up the site title. But now it doesn’t do that.
This new layout is much more pleasant to my eyes. But, for me, visual simplicity is always preferred. Although it would be nice to have that banner picture full size again. I really like that picture. 🙂
I agree that the new layout is much cleaner and neater, though I also concur that I preferred the bigger banner picture. Also, agree about having more posts on the front page to balance out the longer columns on the right.
And I have a request, don’t know how difficult it would be to accommodate or if anyone cares but me, but would it be possible to list the blogroll in order of most recently updated instead of alphabetically? (I confess having personal vested interest for this, since my blog is alphabetically way down on the list. 🙂
Leah, that’s a good point on the blog roll. It’s much more useful and effective when it’s listed by most recent update.
The number of posts on the front page has been increased to 30 from 10. I’m looking into the blog roll order. As for the graphic at the top… If I make it bigger, it starts to bleed into the other stuff at the top. I could duplicate it along the top. I think it would probably sit fine behind the search box. Would that work?
Re banner graphics, since the new banner height looks to be only 100 pixels tall, it might work better to use a black background for the entire width of the top section that includes the Main Street Plaza title, banner graphic, and search field. Almost any graphic will look more stunning if it’s not bookended by dazzling white.
The main problem with the small graphic is that the text on the sign in the graphic is unreadable. That sign is what makes that graphic so awesome.
I think I can crop the graphic so that the sign’s text becomes legible again. I kind of like the shorter banner since it doesn’t eat up so much real estate on my iphone screen.
Sitting behind the search bar would work with me, but I also see TGD’s point that this is one graphic that needs to be read.
Okay, I cropped the height of the banner, but left it at the same resolution so the text is readable. I also placed it behind the search box and moved the search box so BY’s imposing face is visible (like he’s commanding you to SEARCH!). Thoughts?
I like it! Definitely an improvement. But looks like it needs to be resized so the bottom of the graphic does not extend beyond the bottom of the search box.
That looks good! I still kind of lean towards the idea of making the background of the masthead black instead of white, though, if it’s not too difficult.
Regarding the graphic itself, I like doing theme banners periodically, but I like this one as our main, default banner. The three little pictures tell the story of “Main Street Plaza” quite nicely. 😀
I’m still working on ordering the blogroll by update status. I found a plugin that seems to do this, but it’s not all that user-friendly. In the meantime, you can hover over blogroll links and you should see the four most recent posts. If anyone knows of other blogroll plugins for wordpress that order the blogroll by how recently it was updated, please let me know.
That said, it’s a little unfortunate to crop off the part of the photo where it says:
Without that, the point isn’t as clear. Is it possible to increase the banner height of this theme?
cool, I like it that way. But I’ll admit I’m not a graphic designer, so we should wait for some more opinions. 😀
Looks good to me!
Updated. Thoughts on the graphic? I think it’s nice now.
I’m thinking the blogroll organized by update status is working, but there are a bunch that are simply defunct. Should we remove the defunct ones?
Re the graphic: Somebody just did exactly what I was intending to do in Photoshop. Y’all have got skillz and I agree: it’s nice now. Nice work.
The graphic looks good.
The author bylines for individual articles seems to have disappeared. Is that intentional? I like knowing who wrote what.
That said, we’ve now got a vast expanse of undelightsome whiteness in the vertical space between “A Community for Anyone Interested in Mormonism” and “Home” | “Welcome to Main Street Plaza” …
Does this theme allow you to drop a graphic below “A Community for Anyone Interested in Mormonism” ?? If so, maybe a white-backgrounded image along the lines of ” … a project of the Mormon Alumni Association” or some other nonsense?
I see dead space.
Holy crap, Leah’s right. I’m done contributing suggestions until you people bring back my frickin’ byline. I think I’m starting to get a pretty good idea about what this whole “redesign” was all about. Notice how the “ExMormon” and “Ockham’s Razor” graphics suddenly look so much bigger? Har har 😉
On a serious note, I second the suggestion to purge defunct blogs from the roll.
Chino — I was thinking the same thing about the defunct blogs. I’ll get to work on it.
Wow, I think it looks really great! Much more streamlined than the old version.
I’m loving the new layout, but then again – simple and clean is always better in my book. Thanks for making it so that i can get follow-up comments by email. Muchos gracias!
but yeah, now the only problem (which is kinda a big deal) is how there is no attribution.
why would anyone make a theme without bylines? what are we, The Economist?
What is the byline that used to be there?
The name of the poster of a post.
In this new theme, currently, there is no way to tell who has written any of the posts here.
yeah, I noticed that earlier. I thought it was a glitch. Surely there is an easy way to fix that?
I hope the byline is fixed. I feel lost on blogs, especially community blogs, when I don’t know the context from which the point of view is sourced. I need a byline.
Good news is that Google Reader still shows the bylines even if the don’t appear on the blog itself. The bad news is that Google Reader still shows the bylines when they do need to be suppressed. 🙁 Oh well.
I agree, we need the bylines back. Also, the blogroll still doesn’t seem to be in order of most recently updated.
I imagine that would be a tough one to implement. I’ve actually only seen that “updating blogroll” thing on blogspot blogs…
unless it’s something incredibly simple that I’m just not thinking of, like an RSS feed or something.
*sigh* Okay, I guess MSP doesn’t have to revolve around me. I just get a kick out of seeing my blog go to the top of the atheist blogroll when I post something new. 🙂
No, seriously, as a fellow prolific poster, I would benefit from this too, haha.
I just am trying to see it from profxm’s PoV as administrator
Okay, the blogroll status update is working, but it’s now taking MSP 10 seconds or more to load. More information = slower load times.
I have a solution that will speed things up a bit – clean out the blogroll. Any blog that hasn’t been updated in over 1 year is going to get moved to the “defunct” category and won’t show up on MSPs blogroll. How does that sound?
Sounds fair to me! Thanks for humoring me. 🙂
profxm — Yes, I’m working on it this morning. I just finished reading all of the last of this week’s new posts, and now I’ll go through the blogroll and delete the inactive ones.
It’s not problem to just delete them completely from MSP because I still have them on the “Outer Blogness” list and in my RSS reader (so I’ll know if they come back from the dead). We can keep the MSP list exclusively for active blogs.
chanson, I just moved the defunct (over 1 year with no post) blogs to new categories. The post-mormon ones are in a category called “defunct – post” and the TBM ones are in a category called “defunct – tbm”. If they come back from the dead, we can simply move them back into their respective categories. The blogroll lists that show up on MSP are specific to link categories, so the defunct ones are excluded (should be as of now).
OK, cool.
This looks really nice!
Yay! for Main Street Plaza!
I’m not seeing a numbering of the comments, which makes it harder to address people in a long conversation, I think.
Okay, post author is back, and so are comment numbers. Any more requests?
Great work, profxm!
@47: Yeah, add a donation button so it’s easier to buy you a beer for your hard work.
The Notify me of followup comments via e-mail is one of my favorites. It makes me more likely to comment…you may regret this. 🙂