Article: Welcome to the New Twins Daily!

[Brock Beauchamp]

We had a few issues with the site update and some unexpected "surprises" during the transition.

 

So, if you see a problem, something doesn't work as expected, etc., post it here and be sure to list what browser you're using. Thanks.

[FrodaddyG]

Is there a reason the posts are now smashed into a significantly narrower area in the middle of the browser window and don't scale when I widen now? It's borderline intolerable to try and read anything with a stat line at this point due to cutoff/wraparound text. Seeing an inch or so of gray border on either side of the exact same size window I've always used is proving irritating.

[righty8383]

It still says Beloit Snappers in the sub-header under "on the farm"

[clutterheart]

I would like to know who the author is before I click the link.

That seems to have disappeared.

[Brock Beauchamp]

I would like to know who the author is before I click the link.

That seems to have disappeared.

 

That was a casualty of the transition bug and we never intended for it to be removed. It has been put back on the site now.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Is there a reason the posts are now smashed into a significantly narrower area in the middle of the browser window and don't scale when I widen now? It's borderline intolerable to try and read anything with a stat line at this point due to cutoff/wraparound text. Seeing an inch or so of gray border on either side of the exact same size window I've always used is proving irritating.

 

The site is actually wider than it was previously... About 80 pixels wider. The forum sidebar was a difficult design choice, particularly for me because I put a really strong emphasis on the forums. Basically, we had to come up with a way to better integrate the other site features into the forum area. The only way to do that is with a sidebar but we couldn't make the sidebar collapsable if we hosted ads over there... So, in the end, we pinched the forums a wee bit. It's not really that big of a difference, though... Maybe 180 pixels smaller than the old size.

 

It was not an easy choice but it's one that had to be made, IMO.

[JB_Iowa]

With IE 10 on the front page, the avatars are not translucent and partially cover up the left side of the title of articles, etc. in the bar on the right side. On this page, the title is over the top of the avatar but it is still difficult to read. I tried playing with both my resolution and my zoom (under view) but neither helped to resolve the problem.

 

In Chrome they are more faded so the title stands out against the avatar and is quite legible.

 

Have to go explore the new look a little more but other than that, what I've seen so far looks great. Congrats.

[Brock Beauchamp]

With IE 10 on the front page, the avatars are not translucent and partially cover up the left side of the title of articles, etc. in the bar on the right side. On this page, the title is over the top of the avatar but it is still difficult to read. I tried playing with both my resolution and my zoom (under view) but neither helped to resolve the problem.

 

In Chrome they are more faded so the title stands out against the avatar and is quite legible.

 

Have to go explore the new look a little more but other than that, what I've seen so far looks great. Congrats.

 

Figures that IE10 would bring new and exciting bug rendering to the Internet Explorer family. It's the one version of IE I don't readily have access to for testing.

 

I'll look into it, though... When I checked the site last week, it was working as expected in IE9 but after all the hassle during the transition, something could have gone wrong.

[jay]

With IE 10 on the front page, the avatars are not translucent and partially cover up the left side of the title of articles, etc. in the bar on the right side. On this page, the title is over the top of the avatar but it is still difficult to read. I tried playing with both my resolution and my zoom (under view) but neither helped to resolve the problem.

 

Still running IE8 here at work and having a similar issue. The avatar stays within the table, but bleeds out to the right under the article/blog title and author info.

[Brock Beauchamp]

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=1443-Welcome-to-the-New-Twins-Daily!

[jay]

The avatar stays within the table, but bleeds out to the right under the article/blog title and author info.

 

The avatar actually covers up part of the title and author info on the front page. It's in the forums like this that it stays under the title and author.

[JB_Iowa]

Thanks. I'll just use FF or Chrome for now - no big deal except for new users.

 

Just want to add that I like the color coding on the thumbnails on the forum page. Nice to be able to tell at a glance what threads I've responded to -- and to separate out articles, off-site articles and regular threads. I also like the alt feature that lets me see the first few lines of a regular post -- kind of a mini-preview of the author's mood.

 

I am a little curious about why the regular article thumbnails go gray when that thread is read and none of the others change. (But it is just curiosity so you don't need to rush to respond).

 

Oh, and the good thing is that I got my paragraphs back with the upgrade.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Still running IE8 here at work and having a similar issue. The avatar stays within the table, but bleeds out to the right under the article/blog title and author info.

 

Yeah, that's because IE8 doesn't support transparency. If you have the ability to stop using that browser in favor of something that isn't mired in 2005 technology, I'd suggest doing so.

[JB_Iowa]

Just to clarify the issue, though, the avatar covers the left side of the title in IE10 when you are on the home page or reading an article. In the forum pages, the title does go on top of the avatar but the avatar is only partially faded (not really translucent).

[FrodaddyG]

The site is actually wider than it was previously... About 80 pixels wider. The forum sidebar was a difficult design choice, particularly for me because I put a really strong emphasis on the forums. Basically, we had to come up with a way to better integrate the other site features into the forum area. The only way to do that is with a sidebar but we couldn't make the sidebar collapsable if we hosted ads over there... So, in the end, we pinched the forums a wee bit. It's not really that big of a difference, though... Maybe 180 pixels smaller than the old size.

 

It was not an easy choice but it's one that had to be made, IMO.

I suppose the difference would make more of a stink with me if I could foresee myself checking in here more than once a week before too long. Oh well.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Just to clarify the issue, though, the avatar covers the left side of the title in IE10 when you are on the home page or reading an article. In the forum pages, the title does go on top of the avatar but the avatar is only partially faded (not really translucent).

 

Is it fixed now? I just changed some code but I don't have the ability to check it in IE10 right now.

[JB_Iowa]

No, it isn't fixed. And when I tried to click on the link to this thread from the homepage, I got a message about long-running script. When I clicked stop script, the page opened.

[Mike Sixel]

Did you change the font? It looks different at work today.....if so, not a fan of the choice. It seems blocky to me.

 

Me, i go straight to the forums most of the time. The new front page seems pretty cluttered on the iPad, frankly. The scrunched up forums section on the right just isn't that nice, imo. The old was much easier to read/see/find.

 

Don't get me wrong, I love that you guys have this site up and running, and maybe I'll get used to the changes.....

[Brock Beauchamp]

No, it isn't fixed. And when I tried to click on the link to this thread from the homepage, I got a message about long-running script. When I clicked stop script, the page opened.

 

Strange. I'll have to troubleshoot it more in-depth when I can get a copy of IE10 in front of me. I did an online screentest using IE10 and it rendered correctly.

 

Bah, I hate IE so much. It keeps getting better but it was so far behind every other browser on the market that despite its improvements, it's still behind what everybody else is doing.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Did you change the font? It looks different at work today.....if so, not a fan of the choice. It seems blocky to me.

 

Me, i go straight to the forums most of the time. The new front page seems pretty cluttered on the iPad, frankly. The scrunched up forums section on the right just isn't that nice, imo. The old was much easier to read/see/find.

 

The only difference in body font should be that it is now a few points larger in size. I did change some title fonts, though.j

 

Not to be defensive about it but oh man, I disagree about iPad viewing. I tested this new skin extensively on the iPad with the purpose of making it much more tablet friendly, as tablets are about 10% of our viewing audience now. Bigger fonts, eliminating the side scrolling advert, larger sections, etc. IMO, it's a thousand times cleaner and easier to use on a tablet.

 

But to each their own, I suppose.

[Mike Sixel]

Admittedly, I was sick all weekend, so my experience was likely influenced by that.....I promise to look again and comment.

[JB_Iowa]

I didn't look at it with an ipad or phone but when I look at it in the Metro browser, it lays out nicely (although the IE10 problem is still there). Overall, it does look cleaner than the old site.

 

Mike, I think you need to play with the zoom a little until you get used to something that feels good to you. I'm used to having my zoom at about 150% (old eyes) but the new site looks better at about 100% - 125%. The font doesn't seem different to me but it does seem a bit bigger -- playing with zoom alleviated that feeling of "too big".

 

But when Mike says that the forums section looks "scrunched up", I think that has to do with the relationship of the avatars and text. The avatars are nice for immediately recognizing who posted the thread (if the person used an avatar) but they do add to a more cluttered feeling -- even in FF or Chrome. Since they are only on the left side of the title, it gives a bit of a feeling of conflict or clutter or something being wrong.

 

And it emphasizes the person who made the original post whereas I think most people are more likely to check for the person who made the last post.

 

While I think people will get used to it, I'm just not sure it adds much to have the avatar for the original poster and I can see Mikes point about clutter in the forum section.

[Brock Beauchamp]

We had some discussions about the avatar. Personally, I base a lot of whether I click into a thread on its creator. I'll almost always read a Nick Nelson, Seth Stohs, or John Bonnes thread but some other posters, I... stay away. I may be in the minority there, though.

 

As for bigger text, it's a design trend. Earlier, it seemed like sites were trying to pack more and more onto each page, sacrificing readability in the meantime. Now, the trend is to reverse that with bigger fonts that are easier to read. That's the reason for the larger fonts you see throughout the site now. That problem is only compounded when you realize that now, people are actually browsing the web on smaller devices than ever before. Just two years ago, the 10" iPad was the smallest (non-phone) device used by people to browse the internet. Now, we're seeing a rash of 7-8" tablets, which render pages at such a small size that text on many sites is unreadable. I didn't want that to be the case with TD.

[JB_Iowa]

Brock,

 

I suppose there's just not room to have the text to the side of the avatar instead of over it?

[Brock Beauchamp]

Brock,

 

I suppose there's just not room to have the text to the side of the avatar instead of over it?

 

I could make that work, I just liked the overflow of the design. I'm going to spend more time looking into it once I get some of this other stuff sorted out.

[raindog]

IE10 follows HTML standards as good as any browser. It's actually pretty excellent.

 

That said, the site has looks great of FF. I haven't been able to use IE much yet.

[Brock Beauchamp]

IE10 follows HTML standards as good as any browser.

 

No, it really doesn't. It still scores low on the HTML5 test compared to Chrome and every other major browser on the market.

 

But the key difference is that Chrome/Firefox/Safari/etc. update every few weeks. IE updates every blue moon. If IE10 is behind in standards compliance now, where they'll be by the time IE11 rolls out is very, very bad.

 

The HTML5 test - How well does your browser support HTML5?

[Brock Beauchamp]

I see what was happening on the front page sidebar... The widget avatars weren't z-indexing properly. I fixed it so you should no longer see part of the title clipped under the avatar, as it should sit above the avatar now.

[jay]

Yeah, that's because IE8 doesn't support transparency. If you have the ability to stop using that browser in favor of something that isn't mired in 2005 technology, I'd suggest doing so.

 

Welcome to working for your federal government in 2013.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Welcome to working for your federal government in 2013.

 

Sorry about that.

 

But it's not only the Federal Government. Just last year, I was working with McDonnell Douglas and they mandated IE7 for use with all their in-house applications.

 

My head nearly exploded.