Welcome To TMO's New Look!

by , 7:00 AM EDT, April 28th, 2004

[Attention: Though we mention it below in bolded text, some folks are missing the fact that we do still have a headline mode for the home page. You can choose headline or teaser mode in the blue control box at the top of the home page. This feature requires that cookies be turned on.

Also, please note that you can control the font size at TMO by using the font sizer in the navbar. This too requires cookies. - Bryan]

It's here! After 3 or 4 years of people complaining about our design at TMO, we have finally rolled out new design! It has what we think are great colors, it's easier to read, it has a nifty font control in the navbar, and it does away with the hated teal that 98% if our readership seemed to loathe.

Better yet, it seriously has about 98% fewer tables, as the entire design is driven and controlled by CSS. That means that TMO will render on your browser far faster than before, and it comes courtesy of Raena Armitage, the designer who put it all together. Jack Shedd also assisted us with working out some of the bugs, and we very much want to thank both of them.

The most prominent new feature is the ability to get your news listed on the TMO home page with teasers, or as headlines. You can choose which view you wish in the blue control panel at the top of the home page. As mentioned above, we have also included an awesome font sizer that allows you to control the way you see TMO.

Other changes include a simplified menu bar, a shorter heading, all new colors, a way to see important stories on the home page for a longer period of time, revamped Reader Specials that will allow us to bring you many more Specials, and a cleaner design that we think is easier to read, and easier to look at.

Other changes that are in the works include a completely revamped comments system. That will be rolled as soon after the new design goes live as is possible. The new comment system will include ordering the comments from oldest to newest, seeing the entire comment on the article page, tying in the comments to our forum membership (thus requiring registration to post), and the implementation of system-wide comment moderation. These changes have all been asked for by our readers for some time, and will also help address some of the problems of excessive trolling that have manifested in recent months.

We have some other enhancements we are bringing to TMO that will also be announced in the near-term future, but this new design is the starting point. We hope you like it! Please note, however, that there are some pages, such as columns, and most of our static pages, that will continue to sport the old look and feel. We will migrate those pages ASAP.

Also, please note that a compatibility issue with Internet Explorer in both Mac and Windows cropped up at the last second. We are working to correct this.

To everyone who helped in the long laborious process of changing over, a big thank you!

Bryan Chaffin
Editor
TMO