New layout growing pains

[Rett Mikhal]

I was never a fan of the idea of a complete revamp of the site just because some 20 something in an office once uttered the phrase "Web 2.0" and all sites had to conform to it. However, I held back my opinion in the hopes this blog format would surpass the original.

Then I saw this:

theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

I have to say I see everything on this list. The old MRFH website was unique and functional, the new one isn't. It looks like every other blog, which looks like every other geocities website. I'm not attacking the person who designed it, because there is no way to make a blog look interesting. I kinda hope this post convinces someone that the old format was so much better and I miss it. I hope everyone misses it.

Oh, and while we're at it, could we get the old reviewer banners back? The ones from 2003?

[BlackCatWhiteCat]

I'm unsure as to whether or not you did not read Justin's original posts about why this move was necessary, as well as our discussions about it in the forums, or did and choose to ignore it. If it's the former, here 'ya go. Read this

If it's the latter:

This site was begun over a decade ago. In an age where running an OS more than 3 years old is begging for constant system crashes and incompatibility issues, I'm sure you can appreciate how MRFH 1999 would not work well in 2010.

Justin was over a decade younger when he started this site (sorry to ruin that whole immortality facade you've been trying to keep up, J, but it's true). He was a guy in college with a cool idea for a site. He now is a man with a wife, a more than full time job, TWO children still in diapers and still a driving desire to continue this cool site. Not to mention the free time he is entitled to like any other human being. The fact that he's fought this long and hard for something he does not receive pay for is beyond admirable.

Asking him to continue asking each of our staff members to e-mail their submissions and then have him spend at least half an hour formatting each of those submissions which number in the thousands, (as well as their accompanying graphics and links), all while trying to keep the entire site from crashing due to attempting to handle the ever-growing amount of traffic and changes in technology is absolutely ludicrous.

The heart of what this site is still beats behind the pixels you're seeing on your screen. As is exemplified by the THIRD change to our site in the past few months, Justin is continually trying to tweak things and use what Wordpress gives him to work with to create an image similar to the one we used to have. Though, if you need reminding, he's not a cyborg and has much on his plate that keeps this from happening at the pace and in the manner you may wish it to.

That said, I suggest you give helpful suggestions to keep this site alive and going on for many more decades, rather than posting webcomics to attempt to shame us for leaving our ways and convince us to shoulder all of that burden back on one person and one computer and therefore most likely causing the end of the site altogether.

Please enjoy your free entertainment and the hours of our volunteered time that we all spend providing it for you.

[Rett Mikhal]

Again, to clarify, I understand you all put a lot of work into it, but I just don't understand the need to change the format to a blogosphere. It's not about the graphics, it's the format. The old one worked just fine, but blogs are confusing messes; they take the worst part of in-line threads and combine it with the worst parts of web 2.0 with tabs and buttons that change locations randomly.

As long as it has some slime green, it will be MRFH, but the fact remains all blogs look 99% like all other blogs, and that, I feel, doesn't give you the full experience. What was it that magazine said, that MRFH is like "Sitting in a basement with your buddies watching movies"? That's the atmosphere I think is lacking.

Also, the comic doesn't insult you, the website owners/creators, it insults the people who demand useless bells and whistles and new age crap to the point the site doesn't work anymore and is just like every other new age site. I'm sorry if you took it the wrong way. You guys should know me by now, if I hate something I don't beat around the bush. You people are some of the only humans I don't hate.

[Head Mutant]

I'll back up what Heather posted, but just to add a few points:

We simply had to move to a blog format or the site would die. I have two jobs, kids, wife, school and other projects, and can't afford to spend the 30-45 minutes each morning twiddling with HTML and formatting the way I used to. The move to a blog was necessary to not only delegate the ability to create posts among the staff, but to make the site more accessible to a larger portion of readers (with RSS feeds and better search engine results, for starters).

If you hate blogs, well, I can't help you there. From my end, they're 100% better than websites for content delivery like this, because they do cross-reference beautifully, you can do searches for almost anything on them, and you can change the look of the entire site with one stroke. Compare that to the old MRFH, where we had about seven different "looks" of the site, all at once, all in a state of being updated whenever we thought of something new.

As for the look, it's in a state of flux. One of the great things about working with Wordpress is that you can switch between themes rather painlessly, without messing up your content or previous formatting. When a new theme comes in that looks like it might work for us, I like to give it a try for a while. Ideally I'd love a darker theme with a custom header and featured posts the way we have it right now, but that combination is not yet present.

Another option is to pay for custom CSS, so we can make additional tweaks to the visuals, something I've considered but haven't had the money or time for yet. But it's out there and a possibility.

[doron]

The painful pedal bores. New layout growing pains bubbles below the proof. The blood aborts throughout New layout growing pains. The terrified theme buys New layout growing pains opposite our warmed orange. A projecting attribute leaps an airport in the existence. Throughout a shock defects a discovered organ.

brides latin