Death of a 29er Website (Pre-Mordem)

[Angus]

I have been lamenting with several of my colleagues about a certain website that is known to the TWENTYNINEINCH fan base. They have recently changed their website from a headline based main page to a cluttered tabloid style page, the site is much harder to navigate, it feels harsh to the eyes. also on a side note has had a lot of "B" wheel content lately.

I am not alone in this feeling those I have talked too feel the same way, we miss the old layout and wish it would return, most of us don't spend as much time on the "new" site as we did on the old, in fact I used to check the site 2-3 times a day for updates but in the past month I might go 2-3 days without going there at all .

Maybe I am being a dope but I really preferred the old format and saying said website is going to Die is certainly presumptuous (Nor am I hoping for its death). I just don't like the new cluttered style.....

[arkadi]

They did a poll on the new layout didn't they? Must have gotten great approval. Sorry.

[Vecsus]

This is one of those cases where someone is just upset over change. If the layout they have now had been the original and they changed it to the old style you'd probably make the same complaint. People showing up on the site for the first time today won't know and won't care that the layout used to be different.

The site won't die. The people writing articles and making comments care about the content of their statements - which are unaffected by the design of the site.

[Sleeveless]

Can't say that I liked either of the iterations, but the newer one is slightly better. Why don't you check the new one anymore? It's actually easier to see the new article as it is bigger and isolated at the top of the page. I checked daily, especially during interbike.

[Guitar Ted]

I'm just going to say that #1. Sorry if the new format offends you. It was done after a test run on another of the networks sites showed that an increase of readership of something in the neighborhood of 20% was realized. It was done after many agonizing hours of "how's this?', and "what do you think of that" were put in by the folks involved. Basically, the site is the same, just rearranged to make access to past posts easier to navigate to.

Thanks for your post. I appreciate it.

[PuddleDuck]

I like the new site.

[Arsbars]

Even if you dislike the design it is a blog driven format so you simply plug in the address to your RSS feeder and you never have to look at it again. G-Ted's content isn't worth missing!!

[tl1]

Is that a word?

[b3ksmith]

I liked the old site. I like the new site.

Developing flexibility in outlook can be beneficial.

Keep up the good work. Don't die.

b3ksmith

[F5000sl]

1 thing about running a site is people hate change, but sometimes it's needed.
Sites grow and need organizing, software changes and forces reformatting, and sometimes sites need a "fresh" look.

[num1badz]

Since I'm the guy that does all the designing and programming for the Crooked Cog sites, including twentynineinches.com, let me weigh in here.

First of all, I'm flattered that someone cares enough about the site to mourn the obvious imminent demise.

Now for the basis of my decision on the new layout...

I've felt for awhile that the basic blog layout is incredibly bad for the average visitor. There's only one article above the fold and if you're not into that then there's a good chance you'll leave. Add to that the frustration of posting several times a day and knowing the articles farther down on the page will be missed by a ton of visitors.

The idea of the new layout was to give site visitors more options and have a chance not to miss articles.

I totally agree with the dissenters that the page is much busier now, but there's give and take in every decision and I decided to error on the side of a user interface that makes it easy for people to see all the latest stuff. And the stats since the change have been better than I could have imagined. Without getting into specifics, more people are hanging around to read more stuff. So yeah, there's gonna be people that hate the new design, but if more people are finding more articles to read then I feel the best decision was made.

Thanks for all the discussion and the support. With all the CrookedCog.com sites we're trying to constantly make them better so any feedback is appreciated.

[happygofun]

well it's a lot nicer anyway. There could be some ongoing styling tweeks to make the page more visually appealing & cohesive but the layout is much better than the previous!

Keep up the good work