Comments on: Welcome to The Brothers Brick 2.0! [News]

By: Louise Dade

Louise Dade — Fri, 08 May 2009 14:30:51 +0000

Fashionably late the party due to technical difficulties. I like the new design I don’t mind the two columns on the home page – but the empty LHS column on the blog entry pages seems a little odd (unless it will eventually have content).

The Flickr photos thing is an excellent – it’s a pity other photo sharing sites don’t have the same feature (or do they?).

Louise

By: Benjamin P

Benjamin P — Tue, 05 May 2009 20:00:35 +0000

That new Flickr pic sidebar is great! Maybe the left bar isn’t so bad after all…

By: Nolnet

Nolnet — Tue, 05 May 2009 12:54:24 +0000

The new flickr sidebar is a very nice addition. The Recent Comments part is even nicer. That’s something I actually missed before!

As a regular visitor I don’t need the Cateories sidebar and the huge blogroll all the time. Is there a way to fold them in/out like the Archives? Just a suggestion – it didn’t bother me before, so it wont bother me now.

Great work all around. And thanks again for all the effort you put into this, just to keep us addicts entertained :-)

By: TooMuchCaffeine

TooMuchCaffeine — Tue, 05 May 2009 08:33:13 +0000

One thing I noticed is that some of the posts had all their body text in bold, same as the sub-headings. This made it quite difficult to read and feel very “text heavy” onscreen. However, I noticed the more recent posts didn’t have this, so I assume that was a formating error that’s been sorted. Just wanted to flag it just in case.

Overall, I think the new design is good. And I think regular readers like to see where the new comments are appearing.

When it comes down to it, TBB could look like total crap and it would still be the best resource on tiniterweb for finding cool Lego stuff…

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 05 May 2009 05:08:23 +0000

Okay, I’ve made a bunch of the easy changes you guys have suggested — particularly reducing the number of items in the sidebars except on the main page.

I’ve also added some stuff to the left side bar (my intent all along), hopefully making it somewhat less pointless. ;-)

So, one day in, with the brain-spinning recursive image off the top of the page, how are people feeling about the new design?

By: David4

David4 — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:41:26 +0000

I’m glad I’m not the only one Dean. I don’t even see the point of the left side bar, there is hardly anything in it and that stuff can just get added to the right bar.

Still the number 1 LEGO website through. :)

By: gurusql

gurusql — Tue, 05 May 2009 03:41:23 +0000

Thank you for all the hard work that you all do.

Although I am sure that I will get used to it I too am losing the main content in between the two side bars. I would recommend moving the left sidebar into the top of right sidebar and add some collapsing on the main sections for the right side.

By: Dean H

Dean H — Tue, 05 May 2009 02:24:21 +0000

I’d make the right sidebar end after the content; as it is now everything past the first 1000 pixels or so only serves to make the user feel claustrophobic.

By: Benjamin P

Benjamin P — Tue, 05 May 2009 01:52:42 +0000

I don’t quite see a need for the left column. The Buy Lego and Sponsored Links could go back to the right, IMO, and I do not think I’ll ever use the Recent Comments, though I don’t know about everyone else. This would then give more blogging room to make shorter pages.

But it’s not terrible. I’ll live and keep reading.

By: David4

David4 — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:35:42 +0000

It’s fine Andrew, within a week I’ll forget the old one. It’s not as ugly as some updated websites (Every Yahoo update) are. :)

By: the enigma that is badger

the enigma that is badger — Mon, 04 May 2009 21:05:49 +0000

Looks fantastic to me! It puts a ton of great material and resources right on the first page, and I don’t personally mind having the two bars on either side.

Nice work!

By: Fred

Fred — Mon, 04 May 2009 19:54:27 +0000

It should read “now 8 studs wider”

By: Curtis

Curtis — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:10:15 +0000

Might be unrelated to the new changes but I had to reset my password, the old one wasn’t working anymore. Just an FYI for anyone else experiencing the same problem, a new password will get you up and running again.

I don’t mind the changes, to be completely honest I didn’t notice it until after I read the article about it. It’s very subtle, it’s fine.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Mon, 04 May 2009 17:03:03 +0000

Thanks for all the great feedback so far, everyone! A couple quick points…

The main post area is actually 15-20 pixels wider than in the old design. I strongly suspect that the sense of crowding and clutter is at least in part an optical illusion caused by my silly recursive announcement graphic. :-P As a test, I’ll keep this design for a week, and then post a poll to see what you think then.

I hate the non-LEGO ads too, to be honest, which is why I removed them from the top of the main page. They do help pay the bills, but they’ve been dropping off enough recently to consider removing them entirely. We’ll see.

Keep the feedback coming, please — it’s important to know what you think. Thanks!

By: Thanel

Thanel — Mon, 04 May 2009 14:13:10 +0000

Mostly sensible stuff, but several people have brought up the sense of 2.0 being too crowded. I noticed the same thing initially, but for me that went away once I realized it was because the post itself is a picture of itself (and on and on), thus filling the entire top of the page with the same material causing a tad bit of overload. I give it time to see if the feeling lasts to later posts.