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So what do you people think?
When we left the Geeklog behind and moved to Movable Type, we quickly settled on the style you see now, with a black dark gray or whatever background, for the site. Of the options available we liked it best, and it had the advantage of not being used by any of the MT blogs we knew at the time.
We once tried tweaking the colors, which led to this comment:
AAAGGGGGHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! My eyes!
ok, so that attempt did not turn out to be entirely successful.
As time has passed however, we’ve come to experience a bit of ennui over the layout and color scheme. For one thing, the clever use of a non-white background has been copied by many lesser blogs. Besides, it might just be time to change anyway.
Given our commitment to customer satisfaction however, we thought we’d ask you for your opinion. Should Sadly, No! overhaul its appearance? Go back to a white background like all the normal people? Design a fancy pants blog like Katieweb? Or should we just stop writing altogether?
Jeff Lawson said,
August 19, 2004 at 11:34
Black?? I thought it was gray….hmmm. I knew I needed a new monitor. I know! go all XP transaparent, with alpha video channels, that way it’ll take people with slow connections most of the night for your site to materialize, and then you’ll have awsome numbers!
Sadly, No! said,
August 19, 2004 at 11:38
Jeff, this is not helpful! We hates you.
Pete M. said,
August 19, 2004 at 12:51
Holy Cheney! I couldn’t figure out where I was for a minute with all the white. I thought I’d stumbled into some kind of Republican meeting.
Galen said,
August 19, 2004 at 12:52
I’m OK with leaving it all alone.
Your blog is easily readible.
I took a look at the alternate blog you posted, Katieweb, and I’d say yours is much easier for me to read.
Of course, I’ve got an older monitor too - 4 years and still running.
If you really want to mess with it, you might try a pastel font color, say a lilac or cream. The dark grey background just works well for me.
Galen said,
August 19, 2004 at 12:55
Now, with this white background, grey letters, you look normal.
Is that really what you want?
It won’t be enough to keep me away, but the previous is much better.
Pete M. said,
August 19, 2004 at 12:59
Say, Seb…Have you considered a nice pink background?
Sadly, No! said,
August 19, 2004 at 13:00
It won’t be enough to keep me away, but the previous is much better.
So what would we have to do? Back to Black (or Dark Gray) it is (for now.)
raj said,
August 19, 2004 at 14:10
The background is kinda black on my monitor, but it might be a very dark grey.
Keep it the way it is. Certainly don’t go the Katieweb route–it’s difficult to find anything over there.
glenstonecottage said,
August 19, 2004 at 14:16
Why don’t you go for that nice clean modern look like “The Dark Window” has?
In fact, to avoid a lot of bothersome reformatting, you could just take over the entire “Dark Window” blog, rename it “Sadly No” and kick Pete M’s bony ass out into the street.
Just an idea.
Sadly, No! said,
August 19, 2004 at 14:24
glenstonecottage: We liked your idea until we got to the part that requires us to interact with Pete M’s “bony ass.” (How come you know about that anyway?!?)
Clif Burns said,
August 19, 2004 at 14:26
I’ve always been partial to blue myself. :)
Lately, however, I’ve been admiring the graphic design of Drudge Report and Citizen Smash. Didn’t anyone ever tell these people that the courier font is ugly?
Of course, Dan Beste’s USS Clueless is a striking post-modernist homage to the lava lamp, so I might want to emulate him.
But the blog design I most want to emulate is Benjamin Stein’s blog with its anemic pepto-bismol background, that rakish photo of the young Benjamin, and the really big type so his grammy can read every word that dear precocious little Benny dreams up. Isn’t he darling?
s.z. said,
August 19, 2004 at 14:34
I agree with Clif — I think you should go the Virgin Ben route, and feature a dreamy artist’s rendering of your photo for the main screen, with a creamy background overlaid by pure white (representing your purity) and a really large black font and no actual content, for the blog portion.
Oh, and you should include Richard Poe on your blog roll, like Ben.
Jason said,
August 19, 2004 at 14:35
Darker backgrounds with light type produce much less eyestrain for me.
Terrible said,
August 19, 2004 at 14:44
Would you just quit worrying about stupid shit and get back to your excellent thought provoking informative commentary???
marceaumarceau said,
August 19, 2004 at 14:49
Try making your site look just like mine.
http://www.marceau.blogspot.com
Cheers-
:0
Possum Stu said,
August 19, 2004 at 14:55
Use the “BLINK” tag more liberally.
It’s so out, it’s in.
dmm said,
August 19, 2004 at 15:17
You should make it dark grey on black, and include more pictures of Norwegian death metal bands.
Fr33d0m said,
August 19, 2004 at 15:18
I don’t think your brand is harmed by those “lesser” blogs. I agree with most of the nonsnarky comments that the color scheme is easy on the eyes.
If you want to set yourself apart of the others consider layout changes and your logo, small careful changes there can make big differences.
Most people read you for content though so all this is a bit like Terrible says.
Mick said,
August 19, 2004 at 15:30
In response to your questions: Yes.
gene said,
August 19, 2004 at 15:38
Keep the current color (?) scheme…I read your blog in the dark, and too much white might cause me to be more awake than I choose to be.
jefe said,
August 19, 2004 at 16:23
Your blog has a pretty mouth.
gmanedit said,
August 19, 2004 at 16:41
Black type on white background, please.
automophant said,
August 19, 2004 at 16:44
Looks great as-is, but when I first saw S,N! (using a different browser) all the sidebar text was oversized and squashed together so that it overlapped. THAT was a neat look.
It might only have been the browser, but I haven’t noticed a change in any other pages since switching.
But yeah, looks fine. Could use a logo or some kind of identifying graphical detail.
Ann (not Coulter) said,
August 19, 2004 at 16:56
You could try swapping out all of the yellow for a color that’s… not yellow. Changing out accent colors against a neutral background is a great way to update a stale look… must… put down… Cosmo… gouge… out… eyes…
Frederick said,
August 19, 2004 at 17:02
That Katieweb thing is almost unreadable — certainly don’t inflict that on your readers. A classic black letters on white background format is nice and easy to read. And of course lots of blue, and a little pinkish-purple thrown in is good — hey, I’m describing my blog!
bellatrys said,
August 19, 2004 at 17:24
You mean it isn’t chocolate brown? I’ve been thinking “Mars Bar” all along for no reason?
Yosef said,
August 19, 2004 at 17:34
Seb, what are you doing?! In a time of war it’s just not appropriate to go about changing things! That’d be like appeasing the terrorists if you change it!
Redjalapeno said,
August 19, 2004 at 17:37
The content rocks, and it works well with the background (very charcoal grey) and font type.
I like the suggestions of changing font color to lilac or cream, leaning towards cream. Maybe you could have Creamy Thursday or something like that..
A little graphic with Oskar in it?
Katie (katieweb) said,
August 19, 2004 at 17:53
raj and Frederick,
What specifically makes katieweb unreadable? Is there too much content? (i.e. too much text in the columns that competes with the posts?) Should I move to a black font, etc?
Thanks for letting me know. You can post here or e-mail me: katie at katieweb.com. I can take it. Thanks!
Sadly, No! said,
August 19, 2004 at 17:56
Well, we’ve got some kind of cream thing going.
darms said,
August 19, 2004 at 18:26
Have you seen the blog http://www.thepoorman.net/? Just below the upper right header are two selections for style, either dark-on-light or light-on-dark, let the reader decide! But whatever you do, please keep writng! & thanx
HoneyBearKelly said,
August 19, 2004 at 18:44
Don’t go changing.
UncleHornHead said,
August 19, 2004 at 19:11
If you really want to mess with it, you might try a pastel font color, say a lilac or cream.
And then it would match your shirt, Crockett.
Grimmtooth said,
August 19, 2004 at 19:11
Ponder this: books are distrubted with BLACK text on WHITE backgrounds. There’s proabably a good reason for this.
Readability is everything. Color schemes are distractions. Prioritize as you will.
Sadly, No! said,
August 19, 2004 at 19:14
Ponder this: books are distrubted with BLACK text on WHITE backgrounds. There’s proabably a good reason for this.
To save money on ink? :-?
Yosef said,
August 19, 2004 at 19:35
I don’t much care for this creamy text, but I know a lot of people don’t much care for me, so do whatever you want.
Katie said,
August 19, 2004 at 19:48
I personally like this color scheme. The creamy text is nice. Your blog is highly readable, too. It doesn’t have to be black text on a white background like everyone elses. A little graphic element like a logo would be nice.
People here could be right - I may have overdesigned and overstuffed content into my blog in an attempt to make it look different. I’m tweaking it a bit now, but am not attempting a major overhaul. It’s only been up a couple of months anyway.
felix said,
August 19, 2004 at 20:12
I think the ad maven David Ogilvy once said that reversing white text on a colored background reduces readability by 40%.
Of course, that was ad copy he was talking about, but I still prefer the straightforward designs like Pandagon.
Nice and clean.
Content is still king, and you’ve got that.
Redjalapeno said,
August 19, 2004 at 20:26
Mmmmmm….Creeeaaamy Thurrrrsday….
It appears to make the background not so dark on my monitors.
Perhaps a color change on font every now and again, to counter the boredom of shooting the fish that won’t die.
Eric said,
August 19, 2004 at 21:11
I would suggest you make the blog look like a Document in Microsoft Word so when my boss peaks in my office, it looks like I am working.
Pam said,
August 19, 2004 at 21:19
I’ve no clue on a reformat, but I *did* manage to waste much time on a web color link:
http://www.webwhirlers.com/colors/combining.asp
I love the little rolling contents block to the left.
Yosef said,
August 19, 2004 at 21:38
I like Eric’s idea about the word document.
Katieweb: a user-centered viewpoint said,
August 19, 2004 at 21:49
Slight Redesign
Sebastien at Sadly, No! graciously linked to me this morning as an example of a well-designed blog. Unfortunately some of his users commented that this blog was more difficult to read. This is my first blog and has only been…
carla said,
August 19, 2004 at 21:58
PLEASE change to dark on light; I love your content (and even your fonts, for that matter), but the light on dark is hard to read.
Mojo said,
August 19, 2004 at 22:44
Please switch to lime green text on a Day-Glo orange background. Also, use the blink tag more and switch to some type of Gothic font. (Just trying to help out a friend… and you’re taking all the traffic away from him with your outstanding content.)
Terrible said,
August 20, 2004 at 1:02
I thnk I’m goning to join Sadly, No in the state of drunkeness.
Sadly, No! said,
August 20, 2004 at 1:23
Terrible: We hope you’re wearing pink. :)
Rob Fairchild said,
August 20, 2004 at 2:52
I much prefer the “Classic” Sadly, No! dark background. On my li’l iBook screen, it is very easy to read. In fact, I found the white background rather jarring.
mdhatter said,
August 20, 2004 at 3:12
bright red on dark blue please
Ivan said,
August 20, 2004 at 3:48
I like the white background — makes it much easier if I want to print out a blurb from the blog.
CJ said,
August 20, 2004 at 9:17
The white background is way too bright, I would be worried that it might wash out the brilliance of your posts. I’d watch that “lesser blogs” comment though, whaddya gonna do next time you need Pete to blogsit? Or more to the point what might he do the next time he is asked to blog sit?
Ann (not Coulter) said,
August 20, 2004 at 16:47
We were told in my advertising classes that in print ads, legibility is best with dark type on a light background, but for TV ads, it’s actually the opposite. I don’t know how that translates to the Internet, which is kind of a little bit of both.
bc said,
August 20, 2004 at 21:58
Enjoy your content, don’t enjoy your white on black text. Hurts my eyes. One man’s opinion.
mmm said,
August 22, 2004 at 18:12
creamy text…