Captain's Quarters -

Cap'n, you have made my day by removing those annoying, bandwidth-hogging pupunders. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

While nice looking, Michelle's old site was much easier to navigate. I tried separating the last post of my blog into a single left column and old entry summarys into a column of its own, like Michelle's new site design. When I did usability testing, it didn't work. The users preferred a single column of blog entries and summarys with another column for navigation.

I would suggest you increase the amount of white space. Here's the CSS I add to your site via Greasemonkey to make it easier for me to read. This was written about a year ago so it may not have changes to your page.

div#content div.blog div.date, div#content div.blog h2.date { color: #000;font: bold 1.25em "Trebuchet MS",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; }
div#content div.blogbody { padding: 0 2em; font: 1em/1.5 georgia, times, serif; }
div#content div.blogbody p { margin: 0.75em 0; }
div#content div.blogbody blockquote { background: #ddd; border: 1px solid #999; border-width: 1px 0; padding: 0.5em 1em; color: #444; font-size: 90%; }
div#content a:hover { text-decoration: underline; }
div#content h3.title, div#content div.title { color: #006; text-decoration: none; text-transform: uppercase; font: 1.5em "Trebuchet MS",arial,helvetica,sans-serif; }
div#content div.comments-body { padding: 1em 2em;font: 1em/1.5 georgia, times, serif; border-width: 0 1px 1px; }
div#content div.comments-post { font-size: 0.9em; }
div#content div.comments-post img { border: 0; }
div#content div.sidecontent2 { margin: 0; padding: 3px 1em 1em 0; }
div#content div.calendar th span.calendar, div#content div.calendar td { font-size: 90%; }
div#content div.calendar td a { display: block; }
div#content div.calendar td a:hover { background: #fff; color: #006; text-decoration: none; }
div#content iframe { display: none; }
div#content div.daybyday iframe { display: block; }
div#content div#side2 { width: 250px; }
div#content div#sideright { width: 245px; }
div#content div#sideright li a:last-child { display: block; }

Please keep the daybyday cartoon.

Actually, I personally am not too thrilled with Michelle's new design. It features one main blog post, and lists only a half dozen others as headlines only. Even when you go into the archives, it's only six posts on a page at a time, with only a three-line blurb for each. To have to click through page after page to get to and read and/or search a particular post is not attractive at all. IMHO - learn from Steve Jobs... the fewer clicks, the better.

While I like the overall look of Michelle's redesigned site, I find it much harder to navigate. I have to click on each link for the blog instead of just scrolling down and scanning for what I'm interested in. It's more like a newspaper than a blog, now. It's much more tedious, and sadly it's greatly reduced the amount of time I spend on her site. Please keep this in mind as you go through your own redesign.

I concur with the other commenters - Malkin's navigation and format is a big obstacle for me.

I read CQ every day for about 5 mins in the morning.

Please keep the traditional "blog" format, with many articles on a single page, so I can scroll down and read fast. I don't have the time to read site's that are presented like Malkin's and require you to click to visit each new article.

I'm in agreement with the others. Don't follow Michelle's design. I love her and used to read her every day, but have stopped visiting since the make-over. It's become tedious to read.

At work your site often sparks an error message and then shuts down. I expect a lot from your free service, Cap'n!

I almost never see the home front page of your blog, I do not come to it via a bookmark, I read it as an RSS feed in a Firefox live bookmark.

Please consider how any changes will affect viewing by that option.

You have ads?

Is this site maintained by Daily Kos supporters?

I keep getting bounced back to whatever sites I was at last.

Trying to READ this blog takes heroic efforts. I've come to loathe the cartoon because that's all I see time after time of trying to log onto this site.

You have violated the KISS principle.

PLEASE do not remove the cartoon!! It is one of the reasons I start with you every morning. I never have logging issues nor commenting issues. I would like the date of each day a little larger, but hey, that sometimes makes me read something I passed up earlier for whatever reasons. So that you can make good judgements, I am female, 64 and non-geeky (to my never ending shame) and I love Captain's Quarters.

Captain

I concur with the bashers---Michelle's site sucks now, I no longer visit since the blog links are gone as well as the Digg(ability). No longer an easy way to rant and rave.

The others are right! MM's site sucks since it changed. Ask her how many hits she lost since the change over.

Capt. please be careful! I really don't like MM site. In fact, I stopped visiting her site since since she changed it.

Has MM site traffic dropped since she implemented the new format?

Please go for a format that allows me the ability to quickly and easily scan through the written material.

I visit your site a couple of times a day and right now it's easy for me quickly review articles I want to read.

I have a decent internet connection but after I point the browser to your website I see your captain graphics and day by day and your first post fairly quickly but then it takes about 20 seconds for the rest of the page to load. It's 20 seconds of pondering your top of the page headline.

The same thing happens after I click on any comments section. It takes about 20 seconds before I can scroll down past the first couple comments. I have a love/hate issue with your blog because of the waiting periods.

( not a huge 'day by day' fan but hey, it ain't my blog ;) )

And sometimes while I'm pondering the first headline and waiting for the rest of it to load I like to imagine my own version of the post. Just chock full of expletives and inappropriate comments. A drunken blogger gone wild kind of thing.

It's a little disappointing when the page finally loads and your version of the post doesn't match mine.

The pop-under ads have been removed.

Pop-under ads? you don't say? really??

Sorry, Captain, never saw 'em.

Folks stop using internet explorer, and try Firefox. Or Opera. Or Safari.

Don't worry folks!

I'm the guy who's designing the new Quarters for our Captain. We are not going to be doing anything radical to any of the items you've mentioned above. The long blog format will remain, as will Day by Day.

We'll be cleaning things up a bit, improving the readability, and decreasing load times. The look and feel of the site may be a bit cleaner, but it will still be Captain's Quarters.

"I've engaged the design firm that retooled Michelle Malkin's site earlier this year -- and already they have impressed me with their professionalism and their insight."

I no longer read MM, something I did religiously for years! Her new design gives me a REAL headache,.(LITERALLY)

Please, please be very , VERY careful in your changes. I would hate to lose you too.

Joseph Procopio

I agree with those who say they do not enjoy reading Michelle Malkin's blog as much since the redesign. And I don't know why they put the Registered Trademark symbol next to her name, but it looks very weird to me. I hope you don't do that! Good luck anyway. Love your stuff, thanks!

I wonder if Michelle realizes how many of us are unhappy with her site remodel? I find it...confusing. And it no longer all fits on my monitor screen, I have to scroll back and forth. I am definitely visiting far less often just because I find it difficult to navigate.

Good luck with your site upgrade, Captain!

Best wishes,
Laura

I quit checking out Michelle's site after the redesign. I still read Hot Air, but Michelle's main site is unusable. I would hate to see that happen to CaptainsQuarters. Simple is best.

Peter,

Thanks for the reassurances...and while you're at it, please don't let the Cap'n here end up with a left margin of this site like Michelle's! What is up with that, anyway???

The other point is this....I'm curious how so many site critics have appeared here today that I've never seen post at CQ! :smirk:

It is the content not the graphics that makes the site. Yours is atthe top of the heap, head and shoulders over any single person blog. Don't mess with success.

It is far easier and faster to turn people off than it is to gain new readers. Look at Michelle's site if you want proof.. Ad a few photos to your writings but please don't make glaring changes to what we are used to.

The best editor I ever knew, Jim Bellows, knew what he wanted the paper to look like. He would make small changes, just a little at a time. Over the course of a week, you sense a change, but you couldn't put a finger on it. Over the course of 2-3 months, if you compared the two papers, you could see what he did.

Just a suggestion.

Boy! As I was reading the Captain's post here about upcoming changes and his references to MM's site, I thought to myself, gee, I really dislike her new design, and I wonder if I might make a post here to that effect. While I even made a small contribution to Michelle when she went to Iraq, somehow I haven't felt like emailing her to say that the site looks terrible now.

So imagine my surprise when I see all these posts from so many others, saying the same thing about her site redesign.

You know, I believe most readers do not actually like things to change at all. I hated it some years ago when the WSJ online website went through a major change, and I even cancelled my subscription (although I have grudgingly subscribed again since). I really dislike MM's new site design.

I like Rand Simberg's design, where you click the Comments link and a new smaller, pre-sized window pops up with the comments. Hog On Ice has the same arrangement.

My vote: Don't change a thing here, but thank you, Captain, for removing the popups!

Ditto! MM used to be a major stop for me. It still refreshes every fifteen minutes as a tab in Firefox, but I barely look at it since the redesign and I never bother to click on those teasers on the right. I haven't got the time to figure out what she's going on about on the left side of the screen, either.

Captain, I visit your site at least twice a day. I realize that change is constant and hope you maintain most of the current format. One thing though, in regards to MM's site, please keep the font big enough for us seniors to read. My eyesight might be failing but not my interest nor activism.
Ron

Captain, I visit your site at least twice a day. I realize that change is constant and hope you maintain most of the current format. One thing though, in regards to MM's site, please keep the font big enough for us seniors to read. My eyesight might be failing but not my interest nor activism.
Ron

Captain: I happen to like the Day by Day cartoon, and it is irritating to have the last panel dialogue balloon masked by unrelated graphics. Please give Mr. Muir's creativity full scope. The last panel is the punchline, after all.

Have to agree with others on MM's site. The old design was better. Try to find a link on her site now to Hot Air, another site she is associated with.

I don't visit Michelle's page hardly at all since her make-over.
It is difficult to navigate,you can read the comments but you can't post unless registered(and there is no link provided so you can register) and to my eyes,it just doesn't look good.
If you are using her site designers I hope you keep a closer eye on them than she did.
I would hate to lose CQ as a source of unbiased news.
My usual pattern used to be CQ,Rush,then Michelle Malkin.
And since Rush redesigned his site,which is as bad as Michelle's,I don't go there very often anymore.
So,that pretty much leaves CQ as my news source.
Please don't let them change too much,too deeply.

"what other features would you like to see"

Fair and balanced writing? :-)

Please return the Digg button to the bottom of each item. That'll save me a few minutes in waiting for the permalink to open up in a new window, then scrolling down to the bottom of that page for the button.
I agree that Michelle's blog has been changed for the worse. Please don't mess up CQ like that.

"what other features would you like to see"

.......a one liner, (once a month) from Carol_Herman........... :)

I also link via FireFox RSS feeds. It gives me the headline (topic) without going to the front page. ...I read CQ every day. Love the site. My first comment in a year!

Please include the DATE in each of your topics at the "Posted by" section. Exactly the same as at the bottom of your "readers comments" section.

Please, whatever you do DO NOT copy Michelle's new website design. I can't read and navigate her site well anymore. I go there less often.

Michelle Malkin's site is not bookmarked by me; but I do love the stuff from HOT AIR that pops up on U-Tube.

I hope you can do something like this; either with audio clips; or even better, the way Michelle malkin "vents."

Oh, and Good Luck! Nice to know the ship undergoes renovation; and it doesn't even have to dock.

I'll just list some features I like from some other sites:

1. At LGF, they have on the sidebar "latest posts/stories/headlines" at some other blogs as well as news services

2. On Redstate, the "Recent Comments" is helpful if you really like to read certain commenters stuff

3. At The Fourth Rail, they have a tab/link at the top for their Blogroll, leaving more space on the sidebar for newsheadlines and other tidbits.

I guess the only thing else that I'd be interested in seeing is a link or a featured area that shows the weekly schedule for Blog Talk Radio - I have a few shows I really enjoy but it would be nice to be able to click and view days and times.

Looking forward to the changes, I'm sure it will be terrific!

One of the things I like about your current format is that each blog entry is presented from newest to oldest. In that way it's sort of a chronicle of the topics that interested you in recent days which is kinda interesting in itself.

A Couple Suggestions
Consider adding a "Recent Posts" list similar to the "Recent Comments" that can be skimmed quickly.

Consider moving "Recent Comments" up the page to a more prominent position. It's probably my 3rd item of interest when visiting your site, after (1) reading or at least skimming your most recent post and (2) checking each of your newest topic sentences since I last visited.

I don't visit Michelle Malkin's site but after browsing a little bit over there I can understand the criticism from folks here. Best part of her site, imo, is the RSS button which leads you to a more captain-ish chronological listing of her blog entries.

Personally, for her site, I wouldn't mind seeing more of a difference between the little thumbnail pictures and the ads. If you're considering including thumbnail pictures in the new design then it might be nice to see a uniform border around each blog thumbnail to help differentiate your blog thumbnails from your advertisers' pictures.

Especially after visiting MM's site I like what the poster said about more negative space -- what designers call 'rest areas for the eye.' Less can be more.

.02

Only_One_Cannoli,

You said: " Consider moving "Recent Comments" up the page to a more prominent position"

Thank You! I didn't even know the Capt had that here!!! It's so far down the right, I've never even seen it....so I'm all for that change!

Love the Day by Day cartoon and the blog style format you have. I'm a long-time reader of MM but really dislike her new format.

I wouldn't change much of what you have already done, but look forward to see what your redesign will look like.

"We will also have new print and e-mail functions for posts"

Hooray!

Other than that, the main change you need is:

A better server! Everything in CQ, especially Comments posts, takes much longer to load than most sites. (I'm on RCN cable, with a MacBook Pro 2.33Ghz, and when RCN isn't bogged down by some evening traffic, it's pretty fast—until I hit CQ).

/Mr Lynn

Don't sweat the pop-ups Captain. With Firefox and Adblock Plus I haven't seen pop-ups or most banner ads for ages. Blog sites load 10 times faster once you block out all the various pictures/ads.

Those who don't like MM's new short page format should learn how to subscribe to a RSS feed -- end of problem...

I side with the majority about the way Michelle's website came out -- I'm not entirely happy with it. I *do* read it, though. I like her take on things.

I'd suggest that you and your webmaster have a long talk with Charles Johnson. LGF has added a lot of new features that I really like.

I also never noticed the recent comments section. It is far to similar to the listing of blogs, sister ships, ect. Perhaps this section need to be highlighted and moved to a more visible area?

I also never noticed any pop-under ads (or any ads at all, heh Thanks be to the adblock plus extension). This just increases my appreciation of Firefox.

Any effort to decrease the loading time would be greatly appreciated, especially the time it takes to update the comments section after posting.

Just don't let the artists and programmers run away with the site as they did at Powerline and Town Hall. I can't use their main pages on my slower machines because they gobble CPU with stuff like Flash and cutesy scripts. GIVE US THE INFORMATION even if it is not pretty and doesn't flow on the screen as if you're writing it live with a quill pen.

Fixing whatever (ad/cartoon/post) is generating the annoying javascript error I always get on your site would be nice too.

I must say, I never noticed the pop unders either.
Firefox!
I read most blog posts as RSS feeds. Please, Please, do not do what MM has and make all the feeds a simple Read This Post. I couldn't read many of the posts in RSS because you load the full page, but at least I could pick and chose if I had the time. I now have a high speed connection (YES!YES!YES!**stops dancing**) so I read your posts in Thunderbird. I'll take the full page in T'Bird, please. It does get your ads in my eye.
So please,Full RSS feeds and none of this silly Read More or Read This Post nonsense.
MM's new design is not appealing to me at all. The RSS feed more so than the web page. You get more info on a link from Instapundit, than MM's RSS feeds. So far, the only posts of her's I am reading are links from Insty or others. so as a regular reader, she has lost me, due soley to the design of the site and the lacking RSS feeds. Several of the feeds after the change were wastes of time, the post was a Insty style link to someone else, but you had to read the feeds, click to her site, click the link there, and it went to a post I had read on that blog's feed...if it had been a full page or a full text feed, I would not have had to go all the way to her site on slow dial up to find out.

Thanks for letting me rant!

Looking forward to the redesign; however, please reconsider the current prominence of Day by Day on the site. Notwithstanding the fact I don't find it all that brilliant, its current place detracts from the main experience - which is (and should be) your insightful commentary.

Charles at LGF has been pretty open about the process he's just gone through to make his site load faster. Read some his own postss about it. I especially like the 'new comments' button at the bottom of the comments listing at LGF. Reloading the page here at CQ to see new comments is very tedious by comparison as I watch all the reloading of all the ads in the activity bar.

Captain Ed -

Malkin's design stinks . . .please avoid the trendy hip loo for what is actually functional.

Redwolverine
http://copiousdissent.blogspot.com

I look forward to the revamp of the site, and I'm glad you're keeping the cartoon (though making it so is doesn't scroll atl times would be nice).
However, I encourage you to take the advice of the other readers and keep the format of having all the full posts on one page, which is great for readbility.
I like the look of Michelle's new site, it's very pretty, but it's functionality is woefully lacking.

Right now your homepage is loading for me within 5 seconds -- as fast as I would hope for -- and that's a 75% improvement over my previous 20 sec. load times. Nice.

Comment pages are taking 10-12 secs. to load which seems to be somewhat of an improvement over my previous comment load times.

Why Change?
Michelle's design in NOT good. I quit Townhall after their re-design required two or three clicks to read a simple story, What you have works. Don't give up functionality for some trendy look which sacrifices utility.