ThinkChristian gets a new look!

As you've no doubt noticed, ThinkChristian has a new look! We've got a new theme that incorporates feedback and suggestions we've received from readers (and authors). Here's a quick tour of what's new:

  • Commenting and interacting with other readers is improved. This is probably the biggest change, and something we'd really like to get your feedback about. Chris will be along shortly to explain how the new Disqus commenting system works. We hope that the new system will give you more freedom and flexibility in commenting on posts and responding to other readers. Give it a try, and let us know if it's an improvement over the old commenting system!
  • We now have a blogroll. That's right, we finally got with the program and assembled a list of links to some of our favorite blogs. There are of course hundreds of good blogs out there that are worth reading; rather than list them all, we'll try to keep our blogroll fairly short and pointing just to the blogs that the TC team is currently reading most regularly.
  • A bunch of minor tweaks and additions. We've added Digg and other buttons to let you bookmark posts you like; you can now choose your favorite color for TC (in the top right of the screen); and we'll shortly be unveiling a weekly poll. Oh, and we got rid of those pictures of peoples' faces up at the top, which many people found a bit creepy.

    There are a few other minor things we'll note in future posts. But for now, please let us know (in the comments below, or via email) what you think of the new design! Let us know what you like, what you don't, and how we can make it better.

    update: as luck would have it, the new comment system is behaving badly, so we've temporarily reverted to the old system. Sorry about that; we'll have the new system back up as soon as the kinks get worked out!

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    Comments (10)

    Hey, the Disqus Comment system is back online. Enjoy!
    Hmm...I actually liked the pictures of people. The community is (a very large part of) what makes the church.
    It was a hard decision, actually. Some of our authors think the new look is more cookie-cutter. On the other hand, we got a lot of flack for using people. I finally chalked it up to "you can't please all the people all the time" and moved on.

    That said, I liked the people myself. :-)
    I think the new setup looks a little cleaner, but to me the right hand bar is too wide and the colours a little too garish. The red is least worst, though it may grow on me. Did you get your colour palette from www.nortel.com? And yes I did spend at least an hour getting the colours right in Visual Studio before I could use it (an heavily modified version of Vibrant Jedi from here: http://www.notimplementedexcep..., and no I'm still not completely happy. My workmates also think I'm mad for using a black background.

    I like the narrower format, but in Opera it has the odd problem with text overlapping images (like in the Civil war post).

    I hope I'm not seeming to be too negative, but can we have the TC logo back in the little icon that goes in the address bar (and in the tabs in Opera)?

    On Chris's point about the pictures of the people on the masthead, I kind of liked them because I was used to them, but they were far too big. I think a little bespoke artwork for the new masthead would be good. Unfortunately I don't have the skills to supply any.
    John, thanks for your comments. We'll chat about it and try to address some/all of them as soon as possible. We appreciate the feedback!

    p.s. another Opera user, yay! :)
    I liked the old look, and this one "just jumped" and intimidated me this morning. I understand that there is always a "get used to" feel associated with every change, so lets just hope it's that. However, the right "red" look is too wide. I prefer more relevant content in articles and less "stuff" on right.

    Whatever you decide, I still do come here for the content, not the look. Just make sure you listen to all of your readers and I will bow to the majority.
    I really miss the old look. Before it had class and personality. Now it looks like any other site cookie cutter site. Before it was cool and calming...now its kind of in your face and rather obnoxious (no offense to the designer).

    I was really disappointed to see this replace the old style...this seems like a step back to me. I like the new commenting system but really this style just kind of blahs me to death.
    Thanks for your feedback. We'll give this design a little while to see if it grows on people; if people still dislike it in a couple weeks, we'll see what we can change or improve in response to your comments.
    i used the side bar to read the titles of the the post s of the week and then read the entries that i selected; now that feature is gone! so how do i find previous posts?
    Mel, I'll add the list of previous posts back to the sidebar today. Thanks for your suggestion!

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