Website Changes: Forums, Colors, and Fonts

You may have noticed some changes around here. I’ve upgraded to the next level of web design tools, which are still in beta, mostly because I had to. The standard Weebly tools that I had been using no longer work right, and Weebly told me that to keep control over design elements like color schemes I have to use beta tools. So, as a result, I have many more tools now. Here are a few of the key changes:

The Forum
You’ll now find a new tab called Forum. The Forum contains traditional asynchronous discussion-board style threads where you can post on topics unrelated to my blog or carry on conversations by topic and theme rather than as comments on old blog posts. Blog comments will remain open and are not changing. The Forum is in beta and is experimental, and I’m not sure whether there will be enough interest to make it worthwhile. The Forum is currently in free trial mode, which limits the number of forums, active threads, and displayed responses. If the Forum proves popular enough, I might spring for the $40 annual fee for unlimited discussion. If that’s something you think would be valuable, you can contribute to the Forum fund using the donate button on the right of the screen.

Colors
One of the most frequent complaints I’ve received is about the shade of green I use. A lot of people really hate it, and many tell me that it’s hard to read. I like it and think it has an appropriately eerie sci-fi look to it. However, while it looks good on my screen, apparently it doesn’t display as well on other devices. I think I’ve found an appropriate compromise. The headlines will stay the original green, but I have made links and block text 50% darker while staying in the same color family so it will still harmonize. When you hover over a title or a link, it will become another 50% darker. I hope this will make it easier to read blog posts.

Fonts
I’m not entirely certain about the changes to the fonts. Early reaction is split, with about half of the people I’ve heard from telling me they like the new font and half saying it’s harder to read. I will definitely keep it for the navigation tabs and the blog headlines, but I’m not sure how I feel about the body text. I can’t find a single typeface that displays well on both computer screens and mobile devices. If you like or hate the font, let me know.

If you like the changes or hate them, let me know. I’m not married to any of them and will continue to tweak the design as needed.