Captain's Quarters -

Clicking on links is crashing Safari 1.3.2 (v312.6) Ouch! I had to use Firefox to make this comment. Ugh!
Best Regards

I like the cut of 'er jib captain. Lookin' good. I am concerned about this though:

I wanted a site that looked less like a hobby and more like a profession

I'm not sure I can elevate my comments to the high level of professionalism on the rest of the site.

Looks very nice. A couple comments:

The embedded YouTube link down below messes up the whole page in Firefox.

It would be *very* nice if the archive template (for viewing an individual article) had "previous" and "next" links.

The bulleted inset graphic is...interesting. I think bullets would serve the purpose better and more easily.

Any plans on skinning it again? I always enjoyed the feeling of empowerment: my CQ :p

Captain Ed:
First, I wanted the site to load much more quickly than it did previously. It sometimes took forever to get the site to load, causing me and readers a lot of frustrations.

Eric:
Not the case on my end -- it's noticably slower. I've had to try several times to post on one thread -- gave up (a thread from yesterday if that matters.)

You're worth the wait though.

And it looks nice.

I'm thinking a minor glitch in the new software?

This new layout is fancy and brown.

Ed, the new look is great. I have one small quibble, though. I don't think that the quote bars offset the linked text as clearly as they could. Have you thought of putting the linked text in italics, or perhaps using a different font or font size? Or, maybe, returning to the style you were using before? Just a thought.

On the other hand, the Crow's Nest is an excellent addition to the site. Kudos to whoever came up with the idea.

Ed, the new look is great. I have one small quibble, though. I don't think that the quote bars offset the linked text as clearly as they could. Have you thought of putting the linked text in italics, or perhaps using a different font or font size? Or, maybe, returning to the style you were using before? Just a thought.

On the other hand, the Crow's Nest is an excellent addition to the site. Kudos to whoever came up with the idea.

Would suffer any design for your commentary. Very much like your upgrade. Thank you!
Semper Fi!

I'll read CQ no matter what color or style you choose. That said, I prefer several things from your old layout: the font size seems smaller now and the lack of contrast makes it noticeably harder to read. I liked your deep blue better, too, certainly better than the olive brown. I like the format and colors of gatewaypundit.blogspot for an idea what is pleasing and easy to read. BTW, I always considered your old format quite professional; some technical improvements like faster loading are nice, but the rest was fine.

It's a nice look, Capt. I assume the obvious things are known and being worked on (lack of a comment Preview button, for example). I do have a suggestion and I realize it may very well be one of those subjective things that only bothers me.

Could the "Posted by So And So | August 22, 2007 6:49 PM" be a different color than the commenter's text? Maybe light grey with the actual person's name in bold type? The old site showed the name line in a lighter version of the comment color which helped separate the two.

It's just buggin' me.

Bold type for the actual names might make it even easier to scan the page for favorite commenters.

Looks nice. Three requests (sorry if duplicating other commenters):

1. "Previous" and "next" to allow easier navigation between posts

2. "Recent comments" block to see what threads are "hot"

3. HTML buttons for more rapid formatting

Hi Ed - the new site looks great. I really like the addition of the Crow's Nest. Congrats.

We'll update your Sphere plug-in header to match the new site.

Tony Conrad
CEO/ Founder, Sphere

Don't care for the larger font. It looks like all bold face and thus silly and not professional at all. Much preferred the basic font you were using
before.

Yes, the new look is easier to read. Seems there's more "white space" between the lines, as well.

HOWEVER, there's a problem when I hit the "POST" button. Takes as long as in the past. But then the hour-glass disappears. It I didn't know better, (which involves using the refresh button to see if the post actually went up); AND, IT DOES ...

I can only think that it's gonna lead to double-postings; if the "erasure" feature stays missing.

Well, I actually don't know the name of the feature. But after I hit post. And, the hour-glass stays there; it will at some point "clear." And, I'll see the post up there, without "refreshing."

Nice refit of your site, captain.
The 'yards' did good work.

The nautical painting is stunning, I want the real thing for my living room! However, I too am having Safari issues with entire columns showing as active links. But nothing happens when clicked, it's just looking that way.

I'd read this site if it was in solid red and black, the differences are purely cosmetic for me.

I nice design that seems easy on the eye. I'm in the minority here, but I don't like not being able to see the top post on the start screen; it is taken up by your logo (which is nice) and Day By Day. I would prefer not having to scroll down to see if there is a new post (you can tell I have an old monitor). Other than that quibble, a great look.

ditto on the crow's nest feature. I'll probably be checking that frequently.

The contrast is much better and having the two columns of extraneous stuff on the right is a good idea. I would suggest the following tweaks:

1 - Larger font for post titles in both your posts and especially those in the crow's nest.

2 - Is there a way to "freeze pane" like in MS Excel? If so, this could keep a permanent banner as well as have navigation buttons to scroll through posts. As a reader, sometimes I like to skim the post titles which requires a lot of mouse wheeling considering the "essay" length posts.

3 - Put the most recent comments at the top; this encourages good exchanges.

Much nicer Ed - Well done!

I want my deep blue sea back! I could get used to the green, but it makes this site look like it's in a forest, not aboard a ship.

I like docjim's suggestions 1 and 2 -- they are really needed for rapid navigation of your site.

k2aggie's skinning thing would get me my jarring colors back.

danthepainter needs a PC. Then he can crash Safari in ways that are really meaningful.

Finally, the CSS is not optimized to use every inch of the space a user gives you. As I grab the edge of the screen and resize the browser, your borders grow or shrink as I drag, but your "leftcol" area doesn't resize to take advantage of added real estate or desize in response to decreased real estate. And, if I shrink the page enough, I can get rid of the content of "rightcol" completely or even bite into the "leftcol" area. This is all artistry (subjective opinion) -- as a positive, I can smoosh the right and left borders until the browser is just as wide as the Captain's Quarters logo, and the browser is then aptly sized to read just day-by-day, your posts, and our comments.

Cap'n Ed,

Very nice design!

However, I do miss the "Every Blogger in his kind..." tagline. I enjoyed the image of you as a modern Swift that it engendered.

Like most humans, I don't like change. The old style was easier and more pleasant to read. Perhaps there could be a choice for "Classic Captain"?

Regards

I like it! Much faster. Thanks.

Cap'n Ed:

FANTASTIC LOOK! Love it!

Congrats on the upgrade - I think you nailed it on color scheme, like the font enlargement and the reduction in the blogroll.

I'm sure you are very pleased with the results.

Cap'n,

Well, I like it. My old eyes enjoy the larger, cleaner font, especially in the comments section.

Being old school, I use IE, so I haven't had any issues with crashing, etc.

As much as I like the old Navy Blue, this site does have certain charm with the new color scheme, and at least it works well, as opposed to some sites where colors seem to be used in manners that would cause Andy Wharhol's eyes to bleed.

No matter what you do, though, I'll still keep showing up for the great content and comments. Thanks for doing this.

Respects,

Ed - It loads so much quicker and it looks terrific...
Well done.

What happened to the search function of your past posts? I found it useful in helping me remember specific of topics when challenged on some facts.

I love the new design. It's elegant and professional, and the gold/olive theme works well. I also think the sidebar is a good improvement--it feels much better organized.

A couple of nitpicks:

1. I'm using 120 DPI (large size) fonts with XP, and in IE7 and Opera the text is a bit larger than it probably should be--everything looks like it has a bold font weight. It looks fine in Firefox, though. Probably just my fault for using higher DPI fonts in the first place, but it's worth a mention (I see someone else commented on it).

2. The borders separating the comments reduce the page "flow", to my eyes. The wider border at the bottom of the comment seems to take the emphasis off the comment itself and give a false impression of where a new comment begins.

3. The adspace in the upper right is only centered in IE (really minor nitpick, hehe).

4. Was there a reason for the analytics script being loaded in the head tag? I caught myself accidentally doing that recently... I know the general recommendation is to place it at the end of the body so it does its work after the page is already visible. Maybe there would be further performance gains if it were moved?

5. I work at a higher screen resolution (1400x1050), so I do catch part of the first post when I load the page. However, I agree that it would be beneficial to see at least the post's header at a more standard resolution like 1024x768, if it could be reworked without detracting from the design.

All in all, very impressive and just minor quibbles on my part. Kudos to the designers!

I love your new format. It loads faster and is easier on the eyes.

Still, the reason I visit this site several times a day is because of the thoughtful, informative and inspiring contentary. I'd come here no matter what it looks like!

Which is not to say I agree with everything you say, but I learn most when my gut reaction is to disagree with you . . . ;-)

Brian

I love your new format. It loads faster and is easier on the eyes.

Still, the reason I visit this site several times a day is because of the thoughtful, informative and inspiring commentary. I'd come here no matter what it looks like!

Which is not to say I agree with everything you say, but I learn most when my initial gut reaction is to disagree with you . . . ;-)

Brian

In Firefox/OS X there seems to be a lot of random font size changes, especially within the sections marked by the quote bars; also observed in Safari. Affects whole paragraphs - they read as if there are quoted sections within the sections quoted here.

When I hear "Quarters" I'm always looking for a stateroom, not a bunch of ships cruising and shooting.

Show the captain's "quarters".

At least this one downloads quicker than the previous one.

What sea battle is the painting portraying?
Is the ship, center foreground, flying a Swedish ensign?

Nice look, very clean and professional, and it does load faster for me. However, I miss the blue - I actually found that easier on the eyes than the olive, and I like olive green quite a bit.

Cap:
Great improvement on the site. it loads faster than before and reading it is a real joy - note a touch of sarcasm there!

Love it! I like the green.

However, the font on mine is smaller now so I have to adjust the view text settings...

I like it, especially the command gold. So, who gets to be the red shirt guy?

Great design but maybe you can you fix the typo?

"... which allows me to buy a book now and them for myself"

Very nice. I like the new look, and I'm glad you kept a naval battle up top.

Captain,

I liked the navy style better. My eyes appreciate the larger type size (I wear no line trifocals). Please bring back the forward and backward navigation links. These links make reading multiple posts much easier, particularly when comment list is long :).

Congratulations on having gone from a visually interesting,l distinctive site, with the blue and the nautical motif, to plain, bland vanilla. I read you daily and never had any problems with loading speed, and while the bigger type is nice, the font size on the old site was legible (and if it wasn't, a stroke or two of Command + would cure that). The look of the old site was always as interesting as the content, buit now, while the content's still interersting, the look's a real yawner.

Very well done.

Love your blog. Right now I’m having trouble getting used to the new format. The text difference between your material and quoted stuff is not a clear enough differentiation to me. The bar does not help enough. And all the text in general may be a little too largenow - not enough readable stuff on each screen – more scrolling and down arrow work for me (I know, cry me a river).

Could be its just new and I’ll get used to it …… but I don’t know……..

The design is attractive and the faster loading is a definite advantage. I can't tell that it looks any more or less "professional" (didn't think it looked hobby-ist before), but honestly the pea-green borders and sea make me sea-sick. Yuck! Back to blue is my vote.

Love your blog. Right now I’m having trouble getting used to the new format. The text difference between your material and quoted stuff is not a clear enough differentiation to me. The bar does not help enough. And all the text in general may be a little too largenow - not enough readable stuff on each screen – more scrolling and down arrow work for me (I know, cry me a river).

Could be its just new and I’ll get used to it …… but I don’t know……..

Nice! Good look, good improvements! The banner sea battle looks more realistic. Didn't I see this painting in the Shipfsart Museum in Amsterdam? Or is it Trafalgar?

Just thought I'd let you knoethat you have a typo in paragraph six. Should read now and then.

The design is attractive and the faster loading is a definite advantage. I can't tell that it looks any more or less "professional" (didn't think it looked hobby-ist before), but honestly the pea-green borders and sea make me sea-sick. Yuck! Back to blue is my vote.

It´s great. The better typography will create more incentives to read!

Love the new look and LOVE the larger print. For those folks who think the font is too large, all I can say is WAIT.....eventually your eyes will appreciate the larger font size ;-) If the font size really bugs you, just go to View-Text Size- Decrease.

My vision problems aren't all attributed to age (diabetes); I splurged on a large monitor.....most sites I must increase the text size.

CQ definitely loads quicker, hats off to you all.

Looks good and stick with the green color.

Just got back over here from reading Michelle's site that you mentioned in the first graph.

:)

Love the new look and LOVE the larger print. For those folks who think the font is too large, all I can say is WAIT.....eventually your eyes will appreciate the larger font size ;-) If the font size really bugs you, just go to View-Text Size- Decrease.

My vision problems aren't all attributed to age (diabetes); I splurged on a large monitor.....most sites I must increase the text size.

CQ definitely loads quicker, hats off to you all.

Looks good and stick with the green color.

I think Glenn Reynolds has crashed your site or at least slowed it way, way, down. Loading seems to be an issue at the moment.

:)

Love the new digs!!

It's a little wide for how I keep my browser, but I like it, regardless. Good color scheme too.

I echo the first response. It crashed Safari 1.xx and I had to view it with Firefox. Not a huge deal, but I typically browse with Safari. Perhaps v2 or v3 (beta) won't have the same issue.

Site looks great otherwise.

I echo the first response. It crashed Safari 1.xx and I had to view it with Firefox. Not a huge deal, but I typically browse with Safari. Perhaps v2 or v3 (beta) won't have the same issue.

Site looks great otherwise.

I love it, your blog looks great and the changes have all made a difference. It does load so much faster and I have to thank you so much for that. So many times I wanted to commnet to thank you for a great post and for the information and well this is now much more possible to do.

The color is excellent too.

Congratulations!

The new design solves the old problems with the "Day by Day" comic strip. Now it displays in full with no scrolling required. So as far as I'm concerned, the new design is a winner right off the bat.

I'm not a big fan of double left or right columns, but that's just a personal preference. Overall it's a cleaner, much more readable layout, and that's what's important. I'd say you got your money's worth.

yours/
peter.

Lovely, Cap'n! Just one quibble ~ I miss your quote about sneaking up from behind.

The new design is wonderful. My "older" eyes thank you for the increased font size on the posts, although using Firefox it was easy to up the font... I always find it much nicer when I don't have to mess with it.

I scrolled down after noticing the comment about the you tube distorting the layout - perhaps it's moved too far down the page - I didn't notice any distortion.

All in all an excellent job!

Way too cluttered!

I start off my "Blog" Firefox on my laptop with 10 tabs and your site is the only one that doesn't show a post at the top. Even the "lefties" get to the point within the first screen.

Colors and font are OK.

Overall it looks nice. But two big exceptions to my praise:

1. You've hardwired the font. That's generally a bad idea, and the first thing I did after visiting was to create a Proxomitron filter rule to un-hardwire the font, because I really despise serifs.

2. A lot of your formatting files, such as your CSS files, are being sourced from a different server (mt.theblogstudio.com). If your server (captainsquartersblog.com) is up and working smoothly and that other server is down or bogged, your page cannot load. Those files should be on your server along with your content.

I like it.

I like the colors, I like the new pic, and thanks for keeping the dark-on-light text rather than the (ugh!) retina-strafing light-on-dark of some sites.

Want to improve your site just a little bit more? Put the post title in the title bar so it automatically shows up in the link name when you bookmark a post. We link pack-rats like a little description of our bookmarks. (Also, we prefer blog links generally over direct MSM links because even if the blog is linking to an MSM article, there's usually a nice synopsis of the piece and less chance of link-rot.)

My debug tool shows an error:

writeTypeKeyGreeting is not defined at line 845

I like the design very much. I may not be understanding the "printer-friendly" version but you might want to try a print style sheet instead of a special "printer-friendly" version.

I'm in agreement with most about the blockquote, it needs to be indented more. Also, the problem with the different fonts with the blockquote is that the first paragraph is not a paragraph but text. The size for that is 100% or 1em. The size for paragraphs is 1.1em which is larger.

Spiffy has a point, the post title should be in the title element. Something like "Captain's Quarters - Welcome To The New CQ!"

The 5px border between comments is IMHO to thick.

A preview of comments would be a nice addition. I noticed that there were several double comments. You might want to disable the Post submit button after the user posts the comment to prevent double posting.

I like the new design Ed. I do have one design suggestion, make the comments more like they are over at LGF.

Put the text of the comment in a box, and have every other comment have a gray background to make it easier to differentiate between them.

Congratulations.

Now the ugliness of your site matches the ugliness of thought one finds inside it.

CONGRATULATIONS on the new site; it's a vast, wonderful, and mush more professional presentation. I work with Wensite design and can see and realize the work that has gone in to produce the result we all can see. Keep up the great work and the great Blogging; I read you daily.

Ed--Had enjoyed your stuff for a very long time but finally dropped you as a bookmark because it took forever to load. New site appears to load fast. You are on Probation! good luck

I like it except it doesn't scale very well for me as I don't have my browser at full screen most of the time I can not see the full page unless I use the scroll bar at the bottom which is a bit of a pain or have the browser at full screen which is also a bit of a pain.
I am using Firefox.

One item. I emailed one of your posts,by the way I like that "one post" feature very much, and when I clicked on the 'return to site' link in the message sent screen it sent me back to the top of your page instead of to the post I emailed causing me to have to scroll all the way back down to the post of interest.
I am not sure why some see a larger font than others but your site now has a smaller font, for me, than before even when I go to view/texg size. The same thing happens to me on MM's site. My problem is that as a senior I enjoy a larger font because of the extended time I spend reading yours and other sites. MM doesn't seem interested in increasing the size of font on her site, hope you will.

Just checked my email and when I sent the post of interest to myself and clicked on the link received it took me to the top of your site rather than to the post I was interested in. Is it your intention to direct that function to the top of your web site rather than the 'post of interest'?

Looks good, one 'problem' -

I use the scroll wheel on the mouse to scroll down through the page. Most times it is a smooth scroll, but now all of a sudden, it is jerky as if the page is reloading something everytime I scroll down. Is there a floating background graphic or something? That's usually what I've found to be the problem - one of those background graphics that stays put while the rest of the page and text scrolls.

Using Opera on Windows XP

Overall, nice job, especially on the text. I dislike the olive green and look forward to being able to skin in something blue.

HOWEVER, it looks like I'm the only one who has a problem with Day By Day (tm). In IE it shows up where it always has, under the picture. In my Firefox 2.0.0.6 it shows up to the RIGHT of the painting, and is therefore clipped at about the midpoint of the strip. I have to click on the cartoon and go to the site to read it.

In IE the Blogroll stops at the NARN entry, while in Firefox it goes on (and on...).

No "Preview" button for comments?

Overall a great new structure and look for some of the best commentary on the web.

I'd eventually like to see skins that allow a choice of color schemes and font size. In Firefox 2.0.0.6 for Mac, I find the new font seems smaller, and the color scheme provides a little less contrast, so posts are a bit less readable. That said, the overall look is elegant and does achieve a more "professional" appearance.

I like your new Look. Good job.

Olive drab? Is this the Army or the Navy?

I vote for the deep blue; it was way classier. I miss the slogan, too.

I do appreciate the greater leading (the space between lines of text); MUCH easier to read. However, I agree with others that quoted text should be more distinctive (maybe more indented, slightly less leading).

Yes, please add a Print option. I like to print out posts for my wife to read.

Not a design issue, but could you please make the SOURCE of quoted material clearer? "Ill Conceived writes in the NY Times. . ." etc. Don't make us click the link to find out where the quote is from.

Loading faster in Safari—excellent! Let's see how posting comments goes. . .

/Mr Lynn

Love the new logo...
Love the fact that the "Day by Day" cartoon now shows completely without scrollbars...
Love the readable width of the post text (hate it when it goes across my whole wide-screen monitor)

Posting still VERY slow. . .

Could you also add 'Bold' and 'Italic' buttons above the Comment box, so we could just select text and click them?

/Mr Lynn

Oh— And what happened to the previous and next post titles? Now you have to go Back out of Comments to get to the next post!

Just an oversight, I assume.

/Mr Lynn

Ahoy unclesmrgol;

Thanks, but I did the PC thing and got so fed up with swatting away viruses and spyware, or whatever internet crap decided to mess with my peace of mind.
I'm not an Apple fan boy, Windows is alright, but just too open to the garbage out there.
I will try to see if I can download a newer version of Safari, as I don't care for Firefox. Gotta wait for a new Mac; the money just taint there for a major purchase right now. Plus I want to wait for Tiger.

Design is much easier on the eyes - congratulations!

Hope to make it into the Crow's Nest from time to time.

Ahoy unclesmrgol;

Thanks, but I did the PC thing and got so fed up with swatting away viruses and spyware, or whatever internet crap decided to mess with my peace of mind.
I'm not an Apple fan boy, Windows is alright, but just too open to the garbage out there.
I will try to see if I can download a newer version of Safari, as I don't care for Firefox. Gotta wait for a new Mac; the money just taint there for a major purchase right now. Plus I want to wait for Tiger.

Design is much easier on the eyes - congratulations!

Hope to make it into the Crow's Nest from time to time.

You might want to consider putting this code in your header:
______________________________________


______________________________________

Since your website is wide and does not flex smaller, you need code that will "break out of frames."

The site loads quickly, but it is still taking as much as 2 minutes to reload after hitting post in comments and then it loads blank. I have to hit the back button and reload, where the comment shows as posted. Then I have to delete the draft of the comment or risk reposting it.

And I've never understood the thinking behind wasting so much space on a blog page. Why have everything so squeezed together and not make use of the entire page? The content section should be relative and expandable, not fixed width. I do like that comments are now posted in a readable typesize, thanks for that.

Looks like my earlier post may have been gobbled up during the glitch. So I'll just say briefly: Great job, Cap! Comments are more readable, love The Crow's Nest, and now, with my slow dialup rate, I don't have to use Firefox's ABP to block all graphics and ads. :)

Thanks for your consistent high quality articles and opinion pieces: all well written and researched!

Looking at the page source, blockquotes are acting funny. The first paragraph after the open-blockquote tag gets rendered in Georgia-13pt, but after a following paragraph tag, the font is rendered in Georgia-14.5 (which is apparently the default size for non-blockquote paragraphs).