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Site Suggestions
Submitted by minuteman on 06/30/2009 20:42 -0400
I decided to start a site suggestions thread.
My suggestion is this:
Please get rid of the top area that contains the 3 prominent (HUGE) stories. It takes up entirely too much space! If you don't have it completely removed, please at least make it smaller.
On computers with lower resolutions (1024x768), it pushes the main content completely below the first page fold! Advertisers and users hate this!
I notice that this site is built with Drupal (I've done quite a lot of drupal development in the past), so this could be easily changed.
Other than this, the site shows a lot of promise over the old blogspot site. Keep up the great blogging!
P.S. I was sorry to see Dennis Kneale making a fool of himself on tonight's show. But I was more sorry that Tyler didn't show!
-minuteman
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How about an RSS feed for the 'featured' section.
Dear ZH,
For some reason, I cannot see my signature at the bottom of posts. Grand scheme of things, doesn't really matter. But, it's a really cool (to me), obscure quote.
And, as I expected would happen almost instantaneously once I posted on Site Suggestions, there it is. Thank you.
Suggestion: shrink the center articles section. Reading on a widescreen monitor is painful. Possibly throw a color background on the side sections. This will make everything sooo much better.
We are experimenting with a lighter CAPTCHA aggression. If spam gets out of hand again, we are going to have to go back. Sorry people.
I kinda liked the difficult questions. How often does one have to think before posting whilst on the 'net?
Anyways, great site. I think you've found the perfect layout. The 'junk' addition for comments is great too. Eventually, I reckon you might be best suited to do away with anon commenting full stop.
Thanks for the hard work. I have three finance (or closely related) classes this summer semester in my grad program and Zero Hedge is the talk of the town. You're having an impact.
Marla, love you guys and girls, love the new updated look (sans black) but I HATE the big ass banner/header ad. Please, I'll click on stuff for you, as much as you like, if you'll take it down. Your site is more distinguished than "banner/header ad."
This.
admin -> input formats -> configure -> configure
Allowed HTML tags:
TIA
Just a quick notes to say thanks for getting the full RSS feeds sorted
Dear Marla,
It would be fab if one could save (or more likely tag) specific articles/blog entries to place them in a personal 'Favourites' folder of some sort. On a number of occasion I wanted to re-visit entries posted a few weeks ago, but you guys are so prolific it can be rather tedious...
You guys have created something special. Keep it up.
Hey Marla,
I'm glad to see the ads being played with! Just thought of something else for you regarding requests for full articles on the main page... can we possibly have just the most recent post shown in all of its full glory? http://www.gereports.com/ is a "blog" that does this exactly.
Thanks again!
I'd suggest to move the logo from the right to the left side. It is visually not that dominant and most readers will scan a page from left to right. Stumbling over an add is confusing and visually distracting.
Also, whilst I'm a friend of anonymity, whistle blower programs (and the feedback meetings thereafter with you supervisor) and the like, the amount of anons at zh is a bit too much for my taste. The content they provide somehow does not equal their numbers. ZH seems to attract a broader populace and the challenge is not to get insightful contributions and exchange overwhelmed by whomever who has an urge to add noise to the signal. The comment section in Grayson vs Bernanke (aka poking in the wrong places vs professors can't explain anything) reflects this rather well. Maybe the capthcas can be related to the articles. In this case: What is a swap?
Your " Home Contributors News Forums.. " line at the top [beneath the site logo] can be moved to the upper left corner to accommodate more headlines especially when combined w/the above suggested changes..
Also would suggest moving "Log In" and the "Search this Site" to the top beneath the .." Home Contributors News Forums.. " line..
Apparently that space is for the new Trading Workshop ad, as seen on CNBC. To be brutally (and hopefully constructively) honest, from the look of the site now I'm surprised I'm not seeing popups with flashing colors and embedded viruses. If I weren't already familiar with the site it would take one glance for me to close the page before reading.
Sucessful sites with similar layouts, such as slashdot.org, all seem to have one ad. Slashdot alternates between a top bar and top right cube, showing only one at a time. Yahoo finance shows the top right cube. Even cnbc.com only has the one ad on the right like blogspot.
If finances are an issue I would suggest trying an online fund-raising drive. ZeroHedge has loyal readers who are probably relatively affluent, and I'm sure I'm not the only one put off by the now 3 ads clogging the screen. Are three ads really necessary?
At the moment, with rare exceptions, those are all Google's AdSense filling up extra space. That won't last forever. (And the trading banner is quite funny, really).
Ok. I'll admit the "GothScene: The #1 Alternative Dating Website" ad is pretty hilarious. FYI though the hototc.com ad did just take over my page and load itself while I was reading an article. Not cool.
You need an anti-spam anti-virus program..
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/psssst-hey-you-yeah-you-wanna-buy-invisible-ice-cream-cone
:)
Hey Marla,
Great work with the RSS etc! We definitely appreciate the improvements. I have one small suggestion... Now that the black on white is gone, could you look at reducing the width of the absolute left and right margins? I think that would reduce the impact of the side bars and add some space to the center content (especially for those of us stuck at 1280 wide resolution).
Thanks!
Apologies if somebody mentioned this already - last time I checked this thread was about 85 posts ago - but is posting images completely disabled?
Yes, for any user below the contributor level. We are considering letting users post images, but we are going to have to do some vetting first, given the spam problems. This might fall into the "trusted user" idea we're working on.
Marla (and team), many thanks for your commitment and your responsiveness. Here are my 2ct - a lot has been achieved, but...
- I don't understand why the left bar is not integrated with the right bar. More room for the text and any decent discussion thread will easily go past and content in this one bar. You are losing so much space right now and the second ad can be shown further down. I was such a pleasure to read the old site. Like reading a good newspaper.
- The font - can we get the old font back? And the wider line spacing? It is a pain to read longer comments in packed Arial. So much good content in there, even from anon posters.
- Recent comments was so helpful at the old site to track comments accross different threads but now... I just don't use it anymore, no info about the thread and the poster.
- I hope there will be a switch to toggle comments, so that the newest are displayed first
- please remove the captcha for logged in users. I took so many tries to get logged in successfully the first time and now I have to fight with it again. And please use only numbers below 10 - I'm MD and I don't want to take my socks off in the office.
Implemented. Tell me if that is what you wanted.
YES :-))
Excellent!
Wow, you're quick! You must be a "reformed legal professional" You know the old attorney joke about getting the work done right away then letting it sit for several days to justify the bill!!
Wow. That was fast.
Implemented. Enjoy!
holy shit. i mena wow! what other blog do you get this kind of service? marry me marla!
Hi there!
Turn off your ad blocker. :) PRESTO! Left bar utility returns!
Everyone wants a different font. Literally. Everyone. We are going to make Ariel the default with a user option for Times. It's too hard to develop for everyone. Something has to give. Hopefully this will get as close to pleasing everyone as possible.
Excellent point! I'm putting this on my list.
Hmmm, not sure. I will look into that.
Actually, we have rather significant problems with spam from people using (e.g.) Yahoo! mail to register. Our options are:
1. Ban all one-off email registrations (gmail/yahoo/mailinator/etc.).
2. Require CAPTCHA for registered users too. We've picked #2.
I'm looking into a sort of "preferred" user class. Like "Clear Lanes" at the airport. Except, they went under with a rather spectacular "bang" so maybe that's a bad example. Anyhow. You get the idea.
"Ruin" is too strong of a word. My bad. But I liked that ZeroHedge was a group of characters. I also like being able to track the reliability and general sanity of commentators to gauge their comments.
Just preference. Also. The defenders of the tribe will try to disrupt the comments and anon gives them cover. And that is to some extent happening.
Not the end of the world if not. But Market-Ticker forums have been kept quite informative and civil by strict commenting rules.
Please do away with anon posting. Too much anon ruins the feel of the comments.
Can you be more specific? What is it exactly about the anonymous posters that is ruining the feel?
We are considering ways to deal with naughty commenters. "Anonymous" - Behave.
It would be nice it we could at least distinguish Anonymouns" commenters from each other, such as "Anonymous 1" or Anonymous 24". etc.
Otherwise, every Anon looks like the same (very talkative) person. :)
P.P.S.
There were page breaks in that wall of text. I swear. And double spaces between periods. Where'd the whitespace go?
I'm still having problems with the math too. Need 4 digits for "four times (-21) equals."
P.P.P.S.
My comment submission appears to be going through but isn't showing up. What gives?
Oh my god, did I just say 4*-21 needs 4 digits? Read that as five... Kill me now. I'm going to grab some more coffee.
Can I suggest an intermediate page saying that comment submission has been successful so idiots like me don't double post? That or just immediate posting of the comment.
Thanks! :)
Woah... I definitely like the new colors. I'll admit that I would have stopped reading if the old colors stayed. The blogspot page is still much more readable though, so I'll keep using that (as I have been) until I'm forced to make the switch. The layout on this site is much more cluttered than the blogspot page.
I do think the user defined custom layouts will help, but personally I won't use them. I've never bothered using them on other sites either. They also probably aren't your answer to layout concerns. I think you'll find that anyone who does use the custom layouts will already have been a regular reader. I doubt it will win you any additional readers.
I love that you are responding to feedback and making changes, and I hope that you can continue to address concerns about page clutter. The content is still great, and it deserves a professional looking presentation. The color change is definitely a move in the right direction.
Oh... and apparently the default "Anonymous" name is unavailable for use. Leaving the name field blank rather than giving the appearance that using "Anonymous" is an option might help.
P.P.S.
There were page breaks in that wall of text. I swear. And double spaces between periods. Where'd the whitespace go?
I'm still having problems with the math too. Need 4 digits for "four times (-21) equals."
P.P.S.
There were page breaks in that wall of text. I swear. And double spaces between periods. Where'd the whitespace go?
I'm still having problems with the math too. Need 4 digits for "four times (-21) equals."
Very much enjoying the revised look, much easier on the eyes and the spirit (let's look happy while Rome burns).
Have to put in my two cents on the columns: really could do without the left column entirely, would prefer a banner at the top if needed. Actually using firefox, so haven't seen an ad in months, gotta say i love it. Otherwise, definitely showing improvements in readability. Glad to hear you're working on the full text version aka the blog site.
Lastly, have to express my great appreciation for all your work! Without a doubt the most comprehensive, thorough financial discourse I've found on the web (let alone anywhere else). Keep on shearing the wool!
Thank you! Wilderman
my captcha req's three digits and a minus sign; impressive
Well there's your problem. Turn off your ad filter. You support us, and the left side doesn't look like dead space. Problem solved.
Hope your markup on the swag will cover it. I almost cried laughing at the digital dickweed coffee cups
Hopefully, you bought 15-20 of them.
i hate the "read more" personally, i like the whole post on the page. i have no problem clicking "next" at the bottom of the page for more posts
Full views will be available. We're working on it.
I like the new header MUCH better!
I'm liking the color pallette quite a bit better as well... the look is certainly cleaner.
So far, so good.
The top stories at the top still takes up too much space-- and for frequent readers-- it's downright state. I'd suggest just putting in the titles with the hyperlinks (and perhaps the number of comments)-- and that's it-- NO SUMMARY. We all trust that if YOU think its a top article, it's worth the click.
The biggest problem with the right column is that it's just too damn wide... you could easily downsize the font a bit as well... on just about everything.
It's very imporant to remember that your readers view CONTENT as the most thing in your blog. Your content should be emphasized, made bigger, highlighted. To me, it still looks like the content column is oerwhelmed on the left, and the right, and at the top.
Despite the critiques, this was a damn good step in the right direction. Keep up the GREAT work!
Glad to hear it!
We are glad of this too. In future you will probably be able to pick color and font style.
Standard ad width. I think you're stuck with it.
Since everyone wants something different here (and everyone has a different monitor) this is best handled in the users browser. All the fonts should be mapped as relative sizes now so you should have quite a lot of control here.
Perhaps what I should have emphasized is not the width of the right column per se, but the middle content column not being wide enough in comparison to the end columns.
If you need standard ad widths for the last column, that's understnadable. But I would advise fixing the Column 2 width to one set size so that it will be emphasized properly. If text runs over at Column 3, so be it. I might be in the minority on this, but I just dont think that this right column is terribly essential to users.
Nifty, yes. Essential, no.
I'm going to check this on a wide 24" monitor later tonight, where column widths aren't really a problem. I'm sure it looks a whole lot better.
Of course, the other option is to place a banner ad just under the header and get rid of the top stories. Then go the 2-column route (which is a much easier frame for reading blog posts).
Now having said all that... if I zoomed my view to "80%" of your "default" on my 15" screen, the columns have MUCH better proportion (middle column much wider that the ends).
If we could control the zoom level via blog preferences instead of through IE, that would be pretty cool. Again, this is more than resizing fonts.