New ‘Snide Remarks,’ and a new face!
Sure, there’s a new “Snide Remarks” column today, called “Boys Nintendon’t Cry” — but more importantly, the site has had a face-lift! Note how my eyes gaze upon my own name with awe and admiration. Feel free to do likewise!
The main improvement is the front page. It had gotten very cluttered, and it was hard to find things. Now it’s a bit cleaner and simpler. This site has three kinds of content — my weekly “Snide Remarks” column, my movie reviews, and my blog — but some visitors were only aware of one or two of them. On the new front page, whenever I post something new — be it “Snide Remarks,” a movie review, or a blog entry — it will appear at the top of the list, labeled appropriately. Hopefully people who make this site a regular destination will go straight to the front page every time and just see what’s been added most recently.
(Of course, if you use the RSS feeds, you’re not missing anything anyway. But you’d be surprised how many people, according to the survey we did several months ago, didn’t know I had a blog, or didn’t know I wrote a weekly column called “Snide Remarks,” or thought they were the same thing.)
My brother/webmaster Jeff has done all the actual work, as usual. He is to be thanked and lauded! He is also to be e-mailed if you notice anything that has gone amiss in the transition, or any other bugs related to the technical side of the site. There might still be some wrinkles we need to iron out.
Coming soon: the ability to do advanced searches in the movie review archives, an HTML version of my weekly “In the Dark” e-mail, and a button on the site that when you push it a candy bar comes out of your CD drive.
This week’s “Snide Remarks,” including the audio version, is here.
The audio version (i.e., the podcast) is also here.
Subscribe to the podcast’s feed with this URL.
October 27th, 2008 at 3:17 am
I look forward to the candy bars, but as you might have guessed from my politcal views- i’m against change!
October 27th, 2008 at 6:52 am
That may be the most disturbing picture I’ve seen in weeks. Thanks.
October 27th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Your new banner photo makes you look kind of like FDR or Harry Truman.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:56 am
New site looks great but I have the same complaint with this as I did with the old one: from the front page you can’t click on the title of the entry to go to the full article. Instead you have to click the “Continue reading…” link. Granted, it’s only an inch away from the title I want to click, but it’s counterintuitive.
Then strangely when you get to the article page, the title is now clickable but I’m already on this page. Why would I want to click it now?
October 27th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Doliver, I suggest you LOOK AGAIN!
MAGIC!
October 27th, 2008 at 10:41 am
I like it!
October 27th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
I think I like it. I spend so much time at the site that I should pay you rent, so I’m going to go make myself at home. What’s in the fridge?
October 27th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Trippy…
October 27th, 2008 at 4:50 pm
“Your new banner photo makes you look kind of like FDR or Harry Truman.” Ha ha. I was thinking Harry Potter.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
NOOOOOO…! With my obsessive-compulsive tendency to hate change in things that I’ve grown to love and am comfortable with, I don’t know how I’ll ever adapt to this new site design. In the last few months, dictionary.com and thesaurus.com got bought out by ask.com and are now polluted with ads, and now THIS. Why, I ask you? WHY?!
October 27th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
…By the way, is there anyway for me to get rid of that pesky “Channels” screen to the right of the page; it’s blocking some of the text on the page.
October 27th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
“Jeff … is also to be e-mailed if you notice anything that has gone amiss in the transition, or any other bugs related to the technical side of the site. There might still be some wrinkles we need to iron out.”
October 27th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Maybe I’m experiencing a glitch, but it looks icky to me.
October 27th, 2008 at 8:30 pm
Could we have it so that when you click on the top banner it brings you back to the home page? That would be most excellent!
October 27th, 2008 at 8:55 pm
I thought someone was taking crazy pills, but that I’d better double check how the site looked in IE before I complained. It looks great in IE, but I guess you don’t support Firefox? It’s pretty bad there. Who uses IE these days?
October 27th, 2008 at 9:33 pm
Yeah, I’m using Firefox and it’s so incomprehensible that I can’t believe I found my way into this one blog entry.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Jeff tested it in Firefox (which we both use) and IE (which we assumed no one uses anymore). Again, if you’re experiencing glitches, you should e-mail Jeff (use the e-mail link at the top of the page) and tell him your operating system and which browser you’re using.
October 27th, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I use Firefox and it looks fine. I liked the old way better because I was used to it, but I’m sure I’ll get used to this one, too.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:03 pm
Looks fine in Firefox to me.
The design is nice but I’m not sure about the new header. It looks kind of creepy–not that you’re creepy Eric. Or maybe you are. Either way, I’m not wild about that header.
October 27th, 2008 at 10:08 pm
This is my anal-retentiveness coming out, but in the pop-up box that shows up when you submit a comment, there’s a typo. It says something like “If it doesn not appear immediately…”
Also, I don’t like how when you type stuff in the comment box on the main site (not the blog part for some reason) it comes up as courier new font instead of a nice sans serif. I think courier new is icky.
By the way, I’m all about Firefox 3 in the hizzouse. Who uses Internet Exploder anymore?
October 27th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
I am guessing that those of you having issues are seeing the new site with the old stylesheet cached. Please clear your cache and see if it looks better.
October 27th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
Okay, it looks great now. Don’t know what happened, but whatever. Nice redesign.
October 28th, 2008 at 8:37 am
You have Walmart advertising on your website, does this mean you’ve hit the big time?
Or are you the poor immigrant movie critic stealing jobs from hard working American critics?
The site looks good, keep up the good work Jeff and Eric.
October 28th, 2008 at 7:46 pm
First Eric grows a beard, and then Jeff starts using phrases like “stylesheet cached.” I don’t understand anything any more.
October 28th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
I am very impressed with your new design….way to go Jeff!!! Now I think I can enjoy reading it more than just to comment on cute boys in movies!!!
October 28th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
I like the overall look, but I would like it much better if the movie reviews were moved back to the left side of the page, so that the posts were in the center. The current layout is visually confusing because the first thing the reader’s eye is drawn to is not the titles of the posts (or even the movie reviews) but the right side of the body text and the words “Continue reading…” Wouldn’t it make more sense to have the title and main portion of the post be in the reader’s direct line of vision?
October 29th, 2008 at 5:29 am
Hey Eric: I hear the kids these days have ditched their Che Guevara shirts in favor of their new ericdsnider.com “gazer” shirts. How does it feel to be the new icon of the revolution? Could this possibly explain the new facial foliage you’ve be spotted sporting in your other communist communiques???
October 29th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Could we possibly get a transcript of the conversation wherein Eric and Jeff decided to have Eric’s eyes gazing over his name on the banner? I’m curious as to how the idea originated. Did Jeff feel that the one thing missing from the website was Eric’s eyes? Or has Eric always longed to gaze over his own writing? Is this the start of Eric’s presidential aspirations, given the austerity of expression?
October 30th, 2008 at 10:46 am
is that picture from Brazil? I love that movie.