The new blog site: an unveiling
[BUMPED UP: For a few days, I plan to bump this post up. Scroll down for new posts.]
UPDATE: In accord with a few suggestions and my own perceptions, I made the font of the new site a bit bigger and widened the right margin on the main column of text. This combination has the effect of making the lines a bit shorter, which is what I wanted. The original theme had over 20 words in a line, which seemed excessive and eye-tiring to me. With those tweaks, it has between 12 and 15 words per line, which seems good and is only a word or two more per line than my old site. Of course, since the theme is “responsive” on cellphones and the like, the line length will shorten further on a cellphone.]
I’d like you all to visit the new site and poke around. It’s a dummy site because I haven’t transferred the real content yet. But it’s got some sample posts and I’ve put some comments there as well (mostly on one post entitled “Longer test post”).
I don’t have all the bells and whistles up there yet, but I think I have most of them. For example, in the photo I might add “The New Neo” rather than just “Neo,” which is the way it is now.
I ordinarily have an “under construction” sign on the new site while I’ve been working on it, but I took the sign down for now so I could direct you to it. At the bottom of the right sidebar are some extra Amazon widgets; ignore them for now, they won’t remain there.
I’d like you to tell me what you think. You can even make suggestions and I might even respond, although I make no promises.
In a short while I plan to transfer the content and make this URL redirect to that one, so you can use either URL and don’t have to change your old bookmarks. One of the main reasons I want to change over is that the name “neocon” has led to misunderstandings and also that I’m not such a “new” conservative, although I want to keep “neo” because that’s become my nickname. I was also limited in the URLs that were available, but I thought the one I chose expresses the idea, keeps enough of my old identity, and is simple and easy to remember.
Another reason for the change is a very technical one. My theme is very old and outdated and almost impossible for me to tweak for various reasons. New ones are more versatile, and now that I’ve sort of learned the ropes of setting up the blog myself (rather than having someone else do it for me) I should be able to make more changes myself as other possibilities or problems crop up. With the old theme, it’s hard or impossible for me to do that. The new themes are also what’s called “responsive,” which means they display on a tablet or cellphone in a way that’s more user-friendly and automatically adjusts to fit the instrument being viewed. These days a great many people view blogs on tablets or cells, so that helps.
If you have a moment, I’d like for you to view it on as many screens as possible: desktop, laptop, tablet, cell, whatever you might be inclined to use from time to time. Let me know how well it works on all of them.
Here are some questions for you, but feel free to comment in any way you’d like. You can even comment on the new blog:
(1) Do you like the darkness of the main text?
(2) On the photo, is the minimalist “Neo” good, or would “The New Neo” be better?
(4) The theme has the ability to have nested or non-nested comments. Right now I’ve set it so that they are not nested. Is that your preference?
(5) Right now the comments have double timestamps. This is a glitch I am trying to fix. It occurred because the original theme (and all new WordPress themes, as far as I can see) has the date on posts but no timestamp, and I wanted to add one. I got instructions on how to add timestamps successfully to posts. But it turned out that that operation also affected the comments, which already had had timestamps. The new instructions added one to the comments, too, so now there are two timestamps on each comment. I’m trying to eliminate that problem and keep the timestamps for the posts, but if I can’t, I’ll have to take out the timestamps for the posts in order to eliminate the doublt timestamps on the comments. That’s complicated, but the question is: do you care if there are timestamps on posts or not? The dates will remain, and timestamps on comments will remain.
(6) I put a “like” button on comments. You can see if it works properly.
(7) Do you like fonts and colors and that sort of thing?
(8) When you write a comment there’s a box you can check for email notification of follow up comments or new posts. Is that an option you want, or do you think it should be removed? I can probably figure out a way to remove it.
(9) I can add an option for people to use Facebook or other social media outlets in order to comment. It won’t eliminate the regular way to comment. Is this desirable?
(10) On the first post there, I have put two versions of the same video. In the comments afterwards, you can say which one you prefer.
Thanks, and enjoy!
It would be nice if the font in the section about why the apple was the same as the font used in the rest of your new site.
Using Firefox on a 24 inch 1080p monitor, the first thing I did was zoom to 80%.
Neo wrote, ” One of the main reasons I want to change over is that the name “neocon” has led to misunderstandings and also that I’m not such a “new” conservative, although I want to keep “neo” because that’s become my nickname.”
Response: I can understand that. I remember you having to explain repeatedly.
Q’s and A’s
1) Yes. Text darkness is good there and here.
4) Not nested is my preference but others may disagree.
6) oooohhh yes – a like button.
8) I like that option. I’ve seen it on Sistah Toldjah’s blog and it helps drive RESPONSES 🙂
9) No. I won’t connect my social media because people here in CA are hateful.
Hope this helps. 🙂
IE 11 sandboxed with Sandboxie – both videos seemed the same. I didn’t see a difference.
Opera 51.0 no sandbox – both videos seemed the same. I couldnt’ tell a difference
Brave 0.20.30 no sandbox – both videos seemed the same.
Overall, I like it. It’s easier for my middle aged eyes to read on my cell phone.
I really wouldn’t like to HAVE to cut Facebook. I’m still somewhat closeted on Facebook. (I kind of like some of my idiot progressive friends. Plus, I still get to see what it is they’re thinking.)
I do like your new site, the NEO in that neat font does the job just fine. It is an easy to read site and in appearance it is crisp and clean. Thank you and now I guess you are good for another decade or two.
I like plain “Neo” much better.
Not nested!
Generally looks great.
1. darkness is ok
2. either name is fine
3. there is no three on your list!
4. I prefer non-nested since you only have to locate the last comment you read and then continue on. I have seen a reply to the first comment which essentially hi-jacks the thread. Also, depending on the depth of nesting, the readability gets weird, i.e. one to two words per line.
5. a date is fine, no need to time stamp if you can’t figure it out.
6. the like feature is good, since you can just up vote instead of having to comment “yes, I like what you said.” But, do you need the recent comments on the sidebar?
7. fonts are ok
8. I usually ignore the follow-up option since my inbox on email is crowded enough and I check your blog on a regular basis. I think it also encourages faster and nastier reactions when two people are having a comment fight. See LI for examples.
9. I don’t use social media to comment, but I am also someone who will log off computers for a week or two to relax.
10.either version is ok
I checked the new version on my kindle fire – it fills up the screen but I cannot enlarge the size of the letters. I only need that if I need to hit a particular spot to get a link.
I like the archives being on a drop down menu, can you do that with the categories? If you don’t then the recent comments and recent posts widgets will be way down on the page.
I agree with all of Baklava’s comments, including that I couldn’t see an appreciable difference in the two videos (maybe it’s my monitor?).
I would only add that I find the font on this, the original site, to be more readable, but freely acknowledge that that might just be because I’ve become set in my ways and accustomed to the ‘look’ here (at the original site).
Regarding the dropping of the “neocon” part of your moniker, I can see the wisdom of this change (plus I think you actually come across as more of a mainstream conservative thinker – a ‘classical liberal’ – than a textbook, William Kristol-style Neocon anyway. However, your Change story is VERY compelling and I’ve always thought that it might be quite persuasive to any wavering liberals who drop by out of idle curiosity or as the result of a link. And I, for one, have always thought that your Change story is a great marketing or branding “hook”. Plus it resonates with the unstated (unconscious?) associations with the Matrix storyline (the name “Neo”, the Change, see Reality, the “red pill”)… or is that crazy? Anyway, if you can figure out how to continue to put your Change story in a prominent, eye-catching place, I think it would be continuing good promotion of your ‘brand’.
Just my $0.02….
My vision isn’t what it used to be, so I could stand a slightly larger font and I don’t like the idea of using Facebook for comments. Our local paper went to it for LTE comments. It’s slow and doesn’t always work properly, plus we lost some participants that aren’t members and won’t join.
I like NEO.
nice…
no time to really dig yet
Darkness and font are fine. I prefer non-nested comments. Like the Like button. Prefer Neo to Neocon. Datestamps are unimportant to me. Twitter, Facebook, and I suppose all other social media are dead to me so commenting through those vehicles is too. Both videos look the same to me on iPhone.
Just to clarify: the Facebook comments thing wouldn’t change anything about the old way of commenting. That would stay the same. No one would be forced to use the Facebook method. It would simply add some alternative methods if people happened to want to use them.
It’s not necessary. But it’s an expansion rather than a big change. I would never want to limit people to Facebook comments or anything of that sort.
-I like the “like”.
-I do not want to get emails about new posts or replies to comments.
-I do not favor a link to Facebook or any other of the “socials”. I think they are becoming a source of societal harm, and earn billions for a few young Soros resemblers who are smarter than all the rest of us combined.
-“Neo” in “neo-conservatism” has faded into historical obscurity. Today “neo” is used in “neo-fascism” and “neo-Nazi”. Just a caution!
-consider “Neviah”. Commenters like you have a prophetic streak in them, rightly so.
1. font is good.
2. new Neo
3. -what happened to this one?-
4. nesting is nice to follow one idea, but non-nested is easier to read.
5. as long as there are dates, I’d be OK w/o timestamps
6. tested it. seems to work OK
7. fonts? colors? sounds too radical for me.
8. nice to get notified to help keep track on a conversation. keep it.
9. FB only to share, otherwise F that dumpster-fire
10. done!
Sorry to be a spoilsport.
I like the content; I don’t care if you feed it to me in Tengwar
or Times New Roman or Cyrillic; I don’t care about the weight, slope, or whether vel non the letters have serifs.
I just like and enjoy the content.
If I find the content strains my eyes a bit more than comfortable, I just enlarge it.
Please just do what’s simplest and most cost-effective for you.
I like the new one, but the first video (shows a bit larger).
imo it’s a wash–one is a little sharper while the other is a little more colorful.
🙂
I like the narrow column style in the original better than print across the whole page, because I don’t have to move my eyes or head to read. It just feels more readable and comfortable,
and I can look up within the paragraphs more easily. I also like the lighter text better, but looks like I’m in the minority!
I hate getting e-mails about new comments or someone responding to my comment. A music site I comment at occasionally does this if you don’t say not to and it is really annoying to check my e-mail and have a bunch from that site. So big no on that one. And no on Facebook only commenting that would be a deal breaker as I can’t stand Facebook.
On the whole I like the changes.
At newneo, my comments were blocked. In one case, the screen went blank, except for the following message: message blocked due to suspected bot.
I was using Firefox, along with some common extensions for privacy: Adblocker, Disconnect, HTTPS everywhere, and a VPN (Virtual Private Network). I disconnected all of them, and then cleared cache, cookies, internet temp files, etc. I then again tried to comment. No luck.
I suspect that the cause of this is not obvious, so — for now anyway — it’s probably best to ignore the issue, but I thought you might like to know.
Cornflour:
I’ll look into it. It’s obviously (I think!) an overzealous spam filter. I’ll take a look at the settings. When I end up making the transfer, let me know how it’s going. I don’t want you to be blocked, of course. But not only that; if the filter is blocking you, it will be blocking a host of people.
Griffin et.al.:
No one would ever send you such an email unless you checked the box saying you wanted it. I was just asking whether the checkbox and the line explaining it was intrusive. I can remove the whole thing, I think, if no one would ever use it. But it doesn’t ever get activated unless a person asks to do so.
Neo,
At the site I was mentioning it is default to send the email and you have to turn it off after every comment so a reverse would be ok.
I suggest reducing the font size of your text on the new site by a point (or two).
” I might add “The New Neo” rather than just “Neo,” which is the way it is now.”
NO. NO. NO. AND……. (wait for it) …….NOOOOOOOOOO!
JUST USE a different, weightier, san-serif font.
Maybe “Universe Bold Extended”.
You’ve got a very small name and that means it needs to be punched up in the space you have for it. (good location)
You also need to do that one element in a classic chinese red. Not the maroon of the rest.
David, You can increase the font size of the text to suit yourself.
Just hold down Ctrl key and hit the plus sign in the top line of keys until you get what you need. It should stick for th at site.
Great job!
Name change seems seamless.
I like “like” and don’t want to use Facebook to comment under any circumstance, which doesn’t seem to be an issue.
Although it’s a minority preference to me, nested comments make it easier to follow an sub conversation without getting diverted from the point.
Narrower copy is more comfortable for me to read. So on my iPad I prefer your current iteration. But on the small screen of my iPhone I prefer the scaling of your new format.
Looks good – you might think about updating the blog list. Stephen Green really doesn’t post at his site anymore, instead he is part of of the posters at Insty and has a strong presence at the PJ Media Hot Mic daily posts.
Otherwise I think it is very good.
I like having the option to receive replies to comments. Also, isn’t Neo the Keeanu Reeves character in the Matrix? So that might confuse the newcomer as to where your name came from.
Patrick:
Well, I probably don’t resemble Keanu Reeves a whole lot.
But I think maybe I’ll add some explanation of my name, perhaps at the end of the “About Me” part.
Another op’nin’, another show…
Or, if you like it better:
We are the (folks) of the chorus,
we hope you like our show,
We know you’re rootin’ for us,
but now we have to go.
Well, we’re rootin’ for you, Neo, anyway.
Looks like you can’t please all of the people all of the time, but we’ll get used to whatever you do and wonder how we ever did things otherwise.
I do like the idea of keeping at least a part of your “change” story up front.
Looks good. These 71 year old eyes prefer the larger font. Perhaps an updated photo? One with a cherry instead of an apple.
Like the new site and the name Neo. I THINK I prefer nested comments, but see everyone here does not want them. I often see a comment on your site that I want to respond to, even if there are many newer comments. For example, you answer Patrick in the above thread, right after his comment but have to address him directly by name. What actually happens when I see a comment that is really excellent from my point of view is I want to respond to that comment – either to acknowledge its importance to me or expand on it or both. But if it is an older comment with many intervening comments, I often just give up. Any suggestions (from anyone here) on the best way to deal with this. That is, if I understand this nested vs non-nested issue correctly.
Unfortunately the new site is blocked at my DoD work. Not sure why.
Overall it looks great. I would prefer just “NEO” instead of the new neo.
Use “The New Neo” only if you add “and Improved” between “New” and “Neo.”
Please use all serif fonts.
The “Like” button works. Email notification opt-in is good. Nested comments are good, too.
I don’t use Facebook.
I like the colors. Maroon suits you.
I like it. Clearer for old eyes. The photo is nice.
I couldn’t see a lot of difference in the videos — maybe the first one is a little brighter?
I’m not sure about “Neo”. Seems a little abrupt or something. OTOH, I understand not wanting to use Neocon, and I agree. And Neo Neo sounds affected. I guess you have to go with Neo.
I really like the look of the new site. It has a modern fresh look and is easy to read and follow.
I do prefer nested comments because so many of your comments are in reply to specific ones and sometimes it’s hard to go back and find the correct one.
‘Like’ button is good; Facebook is irrelevant to me but I’m sure good for some.
The font is very readable as are the colors and format. No difference on my computer to the 2 videos. Both have excellent size.
I’m partial to ‘The New Neo’ because it lets people know you’ve been around for a while and have a history and following.
I also agree about giving a prominent place to your ‘A Mind is a Difficult Thing to Change’ series of posts. They are what brought me to you in the first place and are a real classic.
“Also, isn’t Neo the Keeanu Reeves character in the Matrix?”
Our host ought to pose for a photo while wearing a long black trenchcoat and holding a green apple in front of her face.
Yes, the new site is easier to read, thanks to the greater thickness of the font.
“Well, I probably don’t resemble Keanu Reeves a whole lot…”
But you’d look good in a trenchcoat. Go for it! 😉
We don’t need Keanu Reeves, we are already living the life of the Matrix.
Don’t have time for a deep dive, but my impression after 1 minute was: Very nice. It looks great on my 7″ tablet.
On the Nested v. unNested threading:
I follow another site regularly (AccordingToHoyt) which uses nested comments and there are definitely pluses and minuses:
Plus — for the kind of casual chit-chat that abounds there, the nests allow people to opt-out of that particular side-street, or to contribute to the conversation as desired (this especially applies when someone Mentions Their Gun and the conversation about Models and Ammo goes on for several pages).
Minus 1 — if someone adds to a conversation after you have read it, you won’t necessarily know (I think that’s what the “notification” may be aimed at, but I couldn’t get it to work for me there, so maybe I’m just blog-illiterate on that level).
Minus 2 — as someone noted above, if you go way far into nests-within-nests (Ezekial’s syndrome?), the final ones can be loooonnnng lines of one-word-wide text
Minus 3 — a reply to an upper-level nest comes in AFTER all the nested-nests, and can be ambiguous or incomprehensible unless you follow the lines back up to the top (in which case the tips at * are just as helpful in nested as in un-nested threads).
Caveat — each AtH post draws upwards of 100, sometimes 200 comments, which Neo does not (yet), so Nesting is necessary to avoid the many-multiple multi-comment side-threads woven into a formidable braid, where it would become very difficult, if not impossible, to follow any coherent line of thought. (Exponentially worse than replying indirectly* to comments at Neo.)
Conclusion for AtH: pluses for nesting beat not-nesting despite the minuses.
Counter-minus 1: on the current Neo, once you find your own “final” comment, you know where you left off and can view new comments easily (or you can tell from the timestamps where you quit reading before).
(Minuses 2 & 3 are effectively countered by the unnested format itself).
Wish-list: it would be nice in the new blog format to have some kind of “comment added” notification somewhere, somehow (have I just been missing it?) to know when posts are still “active” or not — a few really interesting ones have gone on for a couple of days after Neo puts them up; it doesn’t have to be a sidebar with names and quotes, maybe just a timestamp at the top of the comments with “last comment added dd/dd, tt:tt” — maybe that’s not possible, or maybe no one ever asked.
*tips on replying — it’s helpful to include the full “citation” of the post you are referencing, that being the name and timestamp (one need not copy the full comment text, but a suggestive quote is helpful in identifying the comment and issue being addressed); if it’s WAY back in line, you can open the comment in a new tab (click on the timestamp), then copy the URL into your reply.
However, only a few posts have ever been long enough to need something that drastic (it does, however, help a lot if you are replying to a comment in Post A over in Post B because of some kind of topical relevance).
I like just plain “NEO”.
The first video is a bit sharper.
To fill the screen on my laptop I needed to zoom 125%.
I like the nice clean look.
I prefer nested.
If not, then the ability to note via a “quote” or “reply” is my strong preference.
If threads are hijacked this way, then moderate them. (My preference is not deletion, but a note that a side-track is moved to a separate comment thread for this purpose. That way the trolls and single-issue fanatics don’t get to bleat about “censorship” but the rest of us can focus on the issue at hand.)