Hackaday Printing Press Upgrade

There comes a time when your movable type becomes so over-used that you no longer get a legible print off of the printing press. For months now we’ve been at work on a new site design that maintains the essence of Hackaday while ejecting the 10-year-old dregs of the site. With each small success we’ve actually ruined ourselves on viewing the old design. It is with great relief that we unveil a site design built specifically for Hackaday’s needs.

The most notable change is in the content of our landing page. For ten years, loading Hackaday.com resulted in the most recent blog posts. The blog concept is proven, but provides little opportunity to highlight quality original content and information about upcoming events. We have tried the use of “sticky” posts but honestly I find them somewhat annoying. The solution to this is not immediately apparent, but I feel we have found the most efficient solution to our complex set of needs..

We have a lot of community members who participate in Hackaday in numerous ways. Changes found in this design are driven by that fact. The landing page will, from this point forward, be a somewhat more persistent collection of notable content from the blog, our community site (hackaday.io), as well as news regarding live events, store features, contest highlights, and more. Those hard-core fans — a label I also assign to myself — will find the same reading experience as always on the new blog URL: hackaday.com/blog.

Aesthetically, we hope that all will agree the new design far supersedes the old. There was a lot to fix, and the work of the Hackaday crew who designed and implemented this new interface is truly amazing. I hope you will take the time to leave a positive comment about their work. As with any major transition, there will be some bumps in the road. Right now most of our sidebar widgets have not been migrated but that and any other problems will be fixed soon.

In this design we strived to highlight the title and image of each post to immediately convey the core concepts of the projects shown here. The author by-line and comment count remain core to the presentation of the articles, and our link style continues to be immediately apparent in the body of each article. I think we have far surpassed the readability of the comments section, in addition to the content itself. We knew we could rebuilt it… we have the technology… long live articles worth reading.

UPDATE: We are working very hard to fix all the parts that don’t look quite right. Thanks for your patience!

UPDATE 2: Infinite scrolling isn’t a feature, it’s a regression. On our test server all the blog listings were paginated just like always. When our host, WordPress VIP, pushed live the infinite scrolling manifested itself. We’ve filed a ticket with them and are hoping for a solution shortly.

UPDATE 3: Infinite scrolling has now been fixed and the blog layout now paginates. The mouse-over zoom effect has been removed. Slideshow speed has been adjusted and if you hover you mouse over a feature it will pause the scrolling.

655 thoughts on “Hackaday Printing Press Upgrade

    1. Since this is going to be the ‘official’ hackaday off-the-cuff comment, THERE ARE A TON OF YOU THAT WILL COMPLAIN ABOUT THE NEW LAYOUT. JUST LIKE WHEN WE LAST UPDATED THE LAYOUT.

      Everyone complains for a day or two, and a month from now when people look up the old design on archive.org, everyone comments how dated the old layout looks. Trust us on this one. It’s better. Stop being afraid of something different.

      1. At least take that super duper hyper cyber annoying hover zoom effect away from blog. It just blow mind under 60seconds and I think I am not only oldscool guy who read hackaday and get self-destructive feeling of that effect. Also looks that this new page is designed to 4k display or something like that because with 1080p text and images are just so big that it is like looking page via small hole. Its make blog to really hard read and follow. With 90-75% zoom you start get decent view of page body. Maybe that 75% puts text to too small and 90% is some kind compromise.
        After all bad I also like to say that it is nice idea to extend hackaday to be also more than blog (as far it is still more blog than portal because only marketing guys want build portals but even them does not want use them)

          1. Thirded!

            The image zoom thing is stupid and not needed, the fonts are all too big now, and all the text in the comments has too much space inbetween the lines making me scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll. I’m not on an ageing VGA screen, this is on a 17″ 1600×900 where all other websites render fine, except HaD which decided everyone has poor eyesight so increased the size of everything, except the images on the front page which aren’t in-line with the text but pushed to the side so squashes all the text to the center (what the hell is up with that?!)

            Did I mention I’m fed up with all the scrolling?

            Well, I’m fed up with al lthe scrolling needed.

          2. I agree that the scrolling is not what we wanted. Currently this in an artifact of our hosting service WordPress VIP which we cannot change directly.

            Our plan was to have the paginated functionality we have always had but this popped up when we went live earlier today. There is a fix. As soon as we can work out the issue with VIP we’ll push it live and be back to normal. Thanks!

          3. Totally agree,
            so much so that I have gone and edited the CSS to revert it back to as close to the previous site as I could and spun up glimmer blocker specifically for the site. 2 hours of my life I won’t get back but thats how impossible the site was to read on a mac retina.

          4. 4th’d — the fonts and images are too large on my display 1600×900. I need to zoom out to get anything that’s reasonable to browse. I thought fonts were supposed to scale instead of using the fixed super-large pixel-driven sizes ?

        1. I too would vote for a small visual change. Zoom effect is terrible, page size is large on my system as well. I am willing to give the site a try. One other observation/note is that when clicking on the community tab and the store I sort of expected the header to be there to jump around the new site. It seams incongruent without it. If they are part of the site integrate the visual feel across the different elements, otherwise separate the links so that one doesn’t expect them to be contiguous. Just my 2 cents

        2. Agreed, much better when I zoom out…
          At 100% the lines are too long, so it is not very comfortable to read.

          I think 90% zoom is still a bit too big, 75% is too small…
          I would say the good size would be somewhere around 85% of the current size.
          The fonts, however, look good with 90% zoom.

      2. Yes, but WHY ARE THEY SHOUTING AT US???

        I had to a couple times to get things reasonable.

        Also, any way to hide the scrolling stories at the top? They’re not necessary and take up space. The latest story is (was) the one at the top of the page, simple.

      3. Sure, change sucks, I agree. To the point though, I’d be more willing to accept the change if the font wasn’t so danged big. At that size the light vs dark contrast gets really extreme, and beyond the discomfort of trying to quickly scan through a large font (I’m an unintentional speed reader), there’s an odd sense of nausea (I think from the elevated white/light/bright part of the contrast ratio). I can’t speak for anyone else, but I loaded the homepage and within seconds my eyes were experiencing discomfort and my stomach/gut started to get queasy.

        I don’t mind change (much), and in the case of HAD, yay for the overall improvements(!), but when there’s a negative physiological component to the reaction, then I think there really might be something worth addressing.

        Probably just me. Might not be though. Worth considering (maybe).

          1. I would particularly prefer the return of ‘console green’ rather than ‘amber LED’. Also the “I can’t believe it’s not black” background increases eyestrain somewhat. It would be nice if we could choose these things in settings somehow.

        1. I agree this font looks terrible. I’m not sure which font would make this better, but I too will have to wait until it is changed. Until then I will be missing some good content I am sure. :(

        2. completely agree. the text is wayyyy too big to be white on near black. The contrast is much too extreme. also i cant pinpoint whats different about the summaries..probably just really spaced out font, but its much more difficult to read. No Gusta.

          I would like to commend hackaday for FINALLY making store/blog/forum all have a similar look though.

      4. It’s gorgeous on desktop but keeping the wider right side columns on mobile makes it really hard to read articles without having to zoom a bunch.

        Also, the “you may use these HTML tags” message overlaps the bottom of the comment text box on my droid when I extend the keyboard.

      5. A couple tiny things:

        1) Make there be an “Older Posts” link at the bottom of the blog on the main page. Right now, you scroll down to the bottom of the seven, then if you want to see more, you have to scroll up, click “See all blog entries” then scroll back down.

        2) Give more contrast on the 5 dots in the gallery section.

        3) Remove the banner ad from the top. I feel like it really is useless up there, and detracts from the feel of the website.

        1. I go to Hackaday for what is currently being called the Blog. The Blog is crippled without an Older Posts button for when I miss a day, or for when there is more than seven posts in a day. please put the Older Posts button at the bottom of the blog page. better yet have it link to the second page of the blog.

          also, the new color scheem is terrible. the black makes me feel like I am looking through a fog, and the font is too much like a pop site. Plaintext might fit the theme, but it is slightly difficult to read. The Amber I don’t have a problem with except that it doesn’t fit the computer hacker theme.

      6. Actually, it is pretty ugly on mobile. The content on the default view only occupies the middle 1/4 of the screen, as it does not wrap under the image, and the right hand side bar uses half the screen. So no, it’s not just hating on it because it’s new and different.

          1. Agreed the main page looks really bad on mobile
            It’s easy enough tout make the images sit on top of the articles with a media query..
            not a big fan of the amber led color.. Use blue led! =)

          1. Please don’t forget about devices with smaller screens, tablets, netbooks etc.
            I understand you want the guy 3 tables away to read the site as well but wtf, I spend more time scrolling than readin on a netbook screen.
            Articles text is ok to me, the amber is a nice touch too, but headlines and page title are effing actrouciously big. They seriously hurt my eyes and defeat the purpose of having a softer grey background.
            Thanks for listening to us anyway.

          2. Top stuff. The mobile layout is really the only problem (although I wouldn’t mind an “older posts” or “all blog entries” link at the bottom of the home page), and it’s great you guys are working on it.

        1. How about no. That sort of things destroys conversation because everybody is too involved in the self-serving circle-jerk.

          Popular opinion goes to the top…Ie all we’d see at the top of the comments on this post would be tonnes of people virtually sucking off the admin “oMg!1111 this r best webseit theme evaaaaar!111”

          1. Granted that self gloating jerks do that, but I was hoping to be able to sort through relevant stuff, at least have a way to sort it, by date or by popularity. I ‘m sure I am not alone when I say that I learn just as much from the comments/links submitted as the article itself.

          2. Why should the first people who comment get priority over consensus of the readers? I think “first come first serve” is much worse for discussion. The opinions of hackaday readers are probably a lot better that you give them credit for, unlike the popular opinions of people in general. Be sure not to get the two confused, especially since we have no view of the consensus of hackaday readers, which again is a problem that would be solved with voting.

      7. So, instead of having a system where we can easily access the most recent ‘articles’ (and seriously; I’m using that word lightly here) We have to sift through pages of ‘popular’ stuff? What is this reddit?

        There was already a place for all that social validation bullshit. It was that little side column called “recent activity”.

        You know what though? Thanks. You have finally given me a reason to write a browser plugin. Too bad you won’t be getting my page views for your ad revenue anymore though.

          1. the blog page looks like crap too though, that’s the problem. huge white blocky fonts, large oddly-scaled photos, etc… sure it has the “read older” function, but it isn’t any better than the rest of the new look, visually. I’ve said it a few times in this growing collection of comments, but I’ll say it again here: “Reading isn’t supposed to hurt.”

          1. But but but ….. chaaaannnnngeeee…. Its sad, but people are too lazy to get used to something new. Its the same issue with any site that changes a layout. It may be better, but because people are lazy, they see it easier to complain rather than actually learn to fix it

        1. I looked for a plugin, but went with stylebot and just fixed the layout enough so that I could read the /blog page. Removed the ads, made the images show fully, make the title texts smaller. Simple enough.

      8. Get rid of the carousel, man.
        I warned you about this last time you guys were talking about a redesign.
        I had to keep clicking the damn “first pane” button to read the first slide.
        FAIL.

        Style updates are one thing, but there truly is no good reason to have the carousel on this site.
        Trust me, I’m a pro.

      9. This is less about a layout change, and more of a focus change. Hackaday is no longer a blog, it’s a “portal” (which worked so well for Yahoo) that includes a blog. When Makezine.com made this transition a year(?) ago, I didn’t like it, and I still don’t. The blog, which is the main reason come to these sites, is marginalized.

        This needs to be made clearer…everyone is thinking of this as “the new look for Hackaday” when that’s just not it at all. Hackaday isn’t a blog anymore, it’s something else that now has a blog attached to it. If people come to hackaday.com in order to read the blog, they will be frustrated with this layout. Therefore I am changing my bookmark to hackaday.com/blog and hope the layout there stays the way it is now, which is fine.

      10. I’m not going to pull my punches. It looks like crap. It’s anonymous and boring and at the same time heady and overpowering.

        Put the old layout back, PLEASE. I’m on my knees here.

        Source: I’m an artist.

      11. Last time you updated the layout you removed the search and replaced it with a google ad-based search that didn’t flow properly with the site and made it difficult to find anything.

        You told us to trust us and that the last one was better too. I have respect for you, I’m sorry if this sounds shallow but it doesn’t look good and I agree with the op. Not to mention the focus is nolonger about the content, it’s about showing off parts of the site like the ‘store’.

        It looks like just another attempt to pull in more income while letting the content fall to the side.

      12. We’re not afraid of something that’s different. It’s objectively worse: Not only is it a pain to look at, the animations are distracting, and it doesn’t present information in a useful manner.

        1. I’m getting closer and closer to doing just this, the more days go by with no improvements to the visual look. I’ve been here almost 10 years, and I’m effectively being forced to leave. I’m not particularly thrilled with that option, really. It’s not the one I’d pick.

      13. It’s not about being afraid of something different, it’s messing with peoples habits and routines. Sure we will get over it eventually, but saying we’re “afraid of something different” is outright insulting.

        The old HaD had a unique look that we all were familiar with. Now it looks like all the other sites out there. Congratulations, you mainstreamed it.

        Also, “if it works don’t fix it” applies.

      14. Complaints about style should and can be ignored. But there are also valid complains in this thread.

        The contrast and wide text lines make hackaday less readable.
        Ofcouse people could create a browser shortcut with something like:

        javascript:document.getElementsByClassName(‘content-area’)[0].style.width=’600px’;document.body.style.background=’#333333′;void(0);

        (or just enter this in as the url..)
        or use a ‘readable’ plugin.

        Also the site now takes more than 10 seconds to completely load. And I think that’s the worst change. Why should everything be bloated these days? People will watch your site on less capable devices, so just make your site speedy and responsive.

        Did you know that slow loading sites get a lower Google ranking? Check your Analytics and Webmaster tools…

          1. @T
            There are a couple that show a tiny improvement, but only for print media. It works differently on screens, and I don’t think anyone knows why.

            I’ve seen a couple people mention studies showing serifs are easier to read on a screen by a similarly tiny margin, but I’ve never actually seen the studies themselves.

      15. People complain because you’re becoming too damned engrossed in the act of making a big, fat, flashy website. Your readers are looking for the straight scoop on interesting hacks, they aren’t here to be impressed by how well you guys tinkered with the html/css/js crap.

        Hackaday has now swallowed so much air that’s it’s become too full of itself. It was a wonderful place, but it is just one place on the internet. I’ll find another.

        So long, Brian, and thanks for all the fish. Hackaday is dead for me.

      16. Nah, I’m a hacker. I just adjust my stylish script for how I want the page to look. For instance, I shrunk the font size and changed the font color back to green (It’s not HAD without it).

        The one thing I do miss is the calender in the right column that let you look up hacks by date.

      17. No really, it’s awful! Everything’s huge and clunky. It looks like Zergnet or something, done by a 5 year old. Why do you think most websites use black text on a pale background? Why’s everything so big? Honestly it’s bad enough to put me off reading the site (I know, I’ll be missed terribly) as often.

        Next time you do a redesign go for “subtle” and “stylish”. This really is Zergy / Kotakuish, where you click on an article link, and 3 new tabs later you actually get the article. With huge pictures and giant ads all over the place. It looks like lowest-common-denominator Facebook fodder.

        Honestly, it’s very bad. What was the reason for the update? If you need more money or something, there’s better ways.

        Look at how other hacking sites do theirs. I’m sure a few of them were inspired by your old style. You know the blindness a creator gets to the flaws in his creation? I’d suggest going away for a week then looking back at this, but that’s not really practical.

        When people come here, I think they want the information first, and fast. Straight in front of your face, new hacks and a little bit about them. Easy to read or skim through. This isn’t.

      18. No fan of the slider, seems pointless but meh, onto something constructive:

        Need to have “previous posts” on the front page as not all of us can read this more than once a day and quite frequently there are more than one page worth of posts posted per day – I did find it by going to the blog page and going back through there, but a direct link at the bottom of the posts on the first page would be most useful

      19. Not sure if it’s my browser or not, but I get terrible aliasing and artifacts around the white text. The comment box looks fine, however.

        Firefox whatever-the-version-is-today on OSX Mavericks.

      20. “THERE ARE A TON OF YOU THAT WILL COMPLAIN ABOUT THE NEW LAYOUT. JUST LIKE WHEN WE LAST UPDATED THE LAYOUT.”

        That fell on deaf ears of people that spent way too much money and time on web designers that used to be hair stylists but took a few night school classes that had to then justify the spent money but sat in meetings that everyone was thinking “wow we really made a mess” but were not big enough to say that out loud.

        Stupid once shame on you, stupid twice shame on you.

        We are using smaller devices with less screen real-estate and you chose to waste most of that.

        Once again, on a web site it’s CONTENT, CONTENT, CONTENT. Nobody, but nobody cares about all the fancy formatting.

        OTOH, thanks for giving me the blog option, that helps the pain.

        And to confess, I have a job, so I don’t come here every hour. That means that infinite scrolling blows, since I really can’t manage 293 miles of scrolling. Well I can, but the browser blows up. So lets keep the “back a page part”, Ok?

      21. I like the layout. However, I think a “theme” system should be added. This may seem odd, but I feel that the old Hackaday “Matrix green” scheme was easier to read. Being able to switch between color schemes, or better yet, pick your own colors, would provide the best of both(all) worlds.

      22. Um… It was cool because it was “hack” “a” “day”, several new things projects, usually DIY, summarized every day..not “checkout our store and user forums”.

        I visit for the blog, that you now hide among the noise, but tell me I’m wrong and you are doing me a favor by making me wade through piles of click bait?

        I’ll bet you a doughnut that loyal reader numbers shrink, not grow. I’m certainly not a fan, and not interested in reading a site that insults it’s readers.

    2. Mobile is horrible bordering on unusable on a MotoX. Your old site was one of the easiest to read on my phone. Please take some time to work on the mobile version after you get the main one’s quirks ironed out.
      Thanks!

    3. Lame!
      I read this mostly on a iPhone and it now looks like a pile of dog poo.
      The main page is unusable and the blog page the photos are all zoomed in and the text is too small. Bah!
      All so you can cram the store down our throats? Meh I was just starting to come around to buying something from it as I felt it was by my choice but now I choose boycot!
      Vote with your wallet folks! :)

      1. But if you click on “blog” first, then you get the lengthy version of each post instead of the preview version. Why can’t there be an “older posts” link at the bottom of the default new format?

        On a unrelated subject… the slideshow is way too fast. Give us a chance to look at the picture and read the text.

  1. Argh. Another simple concept lost to the march of moving pictures and “community,” whatever the heck that is.

    Hasn’t the backlash over past attempts at HAD updates not shown you that WD like our site the way it is?

          1. I’d like to see the green come back. Green and white text on a black background looks like Hackaday to me. This orange-yellow on grey looks like Newgrounds.

        1. THIRDED!!!
          WHY THE ENORMOUS FONT?
          I don’t like being shouted at.
          And the green looked a lot better than the amber.
          As soon as I saw the site change my heart sank….. change for change’s sake is what it seems to be.

      1. My only issue so far is the box at the top of the page that auto scrolls. I get partway through reading and then it changes. I go back to the article, have to start over, and it happens again. Personally I don’t think autoscrolling works for articles or other large chunks of text that take time to read.

          1. “How about working like decent devs and get it tested before release. Hacking shouldn’t extend to the site itself…”

            Couple reasons.

            1 – As they’ve explained, things looked and worked fine on the test platform, then their contractors shit the bed on the actual launch.

            2 – They seem to have wanted a website launch before the announcement of the Hack A Day space prize winner which is a marketing effort to get a ton of attention to the website. They launched a couple days early to fix bugs.

            Clearly it wasn’t ready for the big time, and was rushed regardless, but, deadline is a deadline.

      2. It kinda does. Familiarity is a virtue, and you’ve just ditched a decade of dense green/white on black for hugegantic white/yellow on black. The simple and clean frontpage has been relegated to /blog and festooned with flashy Tumblr JS widgets.

        This isn’t like when you stopped filtering images and started using capital letters. The site is unrecognizable.

      3. I’m getting pretty irritated at that canned response. Its not bad because its different. its bad because its bad.

        Its bad because its difficult to read, difficult to navigate, and weakens the brand recognition.

        Reading the fucking comments makes that pretty clear.

    1. OK, it’s slightly better now, although man there’s not much difference between bold/non-bold on that font. Also, watching a live page be updated in real-time made for some hilarious viewing at points.

  2. I’ve been a reader of the site since the black and white days. I don’t mind the new look. In fact it really freshens up hackaday.

    Unfortunately many will moan and complain, just like a facebook change, but really if your biggest gripe is that hackaday changed, I’m sure your life will carry on and you’ll be ok.

    “Its a long walk back to Eden babe, don’t sweat the small stuff”

    1. How about the fact that I hate slideshows on the main page? How about the reflow making everything tiny on cell screens? Or the fact that ‘top’ will no longer mean ‘new?’

      New is not my complaint.

      1. Why are you going to the main page? Just go to the blog page. It’d be handier if blog.hackaday.com redirected to hackaday.com/blog (Make’s does this – I barely even remember that Make has a main page), just because autocomplete on a mobile device will handle it better.

        1. Because, that’s the default page.
          Duh.

          They should flip them around, keep the actually new & juicy things up front and the fancy pancy empty calories fluff at the back.

          Or give Hackaday Retro a “no BS” Classic sibling.

          1. Unless I missed something and Hackaday is now the default page for all web browsers, you need to enter in the address of the page you want. So change that address.

            If you’re complaining about having to enter a few more characters, well… I got nothin’ for you there.

          2. The issue is for those of us who still prefer to type in the URL: box instead of setting a favorite, or a quick link, or whatever the heck else they’re calling such things these days. Being required to re-learn /blog/ is both tedious and silly.

            I don’t mind necessary change (lane adjustments on a highway, updated locks on the doors to my home, prescriptions, etc…), but where the change is to a service (the HAD site) which is both ancillary and largely entertainment (read, a website that I don’t *require* in order to function in modern society) then it seems just plain tedious. I think that’s the difference. A lot of folks expect change to be necessary in some places, but don’t wish to be interrupted by unnecessary change in non-vital systems where the change requires more expenditure than the benefit which it might bring (CBA on entertainment is lousy from the consumer side). Perhaps this expresses it better.

            To anyone else: Yes, I’m mildly cranky, male, work in engineering/IT/technical trades, and I’m still reasonably young. And yes, I’m a luddite insofar as I long ago cancelled my social media accounts and ditched the so-called smart phone for a more conventional flip-phone. And no, my life hasn’t gotten worse since cutting out the fluff/excess, in fact it’s improved by several orders of magnitude. So, yes, I do feel qualified to offer an opinion here. Change for the sake of change (the admins might not see it that way, but readers can, and some certainly do) has a crummy return, and nowhere is this more true than with blogs.

            Also, the headlines are STILL SCREAMING AT ME. please make them stop.

      2. How about some constructive criticism instead of incessant complaining?

        Dear hackaday, I’ve looked at the new page and have some comments on how you could improve it. I’d really like you to reconsider the slideshow on the main screen. It is difficult to get any useful information from it, and serves to grab attention away from the articles I am interested in. I prefer that new stories are on the top of the page and I hope you make the site easier to use on mobile devices. currently the reflow makes everything too tiny on cell screens.

    1. I’d like to just change my bookmark to hackaday.com/blog, but in my plain HTML web browser (Dillo 0.8.5) the images don’t show anymore untill you click on the articles.

      It seems you’ve finally broken the generally good compatibility that your site used to have.

      The hackaday.com page has the pics with the blog articles, but you have to scroll through a lot of rubbish to get to them, and the pictures are way too big for my 800×600 screen res.

      OK, OK, I’m viewing HackaDay on a 100MHz Pentium 1 with 80MB RAM. I know I’m wierd, and I accept that I was lucky to have the images fit on my screen this long, but it would be nice if at least the blog page was roughly HTML 4 compatible.

      Oh well, now to look at this on a modern browser and prepare for a script explosion.

      All I really want is headings, images, text and comments (which in Dillo is about all I’ve ever got). Now you’ve taken my images and I’m complaining. Blame Me?

      P.S. It’s nice to see I can still post here though.

      1. Now viewing it on a modern browser/PC. It’s not too bad, though very slow to load (as was the old site when viewed in a normal browser). I never viewed the old site as it was meant to be seen either.

        I see why the images don’t work now too. Lost in a world of CSS and scripting. If you don’t want to do a legacy version (which I 100% vote for, for what it’s worth), at least put a HTML alternative code in for the images in the Blog page (preferably with images the same size as before).

      2. I also looked at the blog on legacy hardware. I feel bad that I’m using an iPad Air classic that I got in April 2014. Sorry Hackaday that I’m not keeping up with the latest hardware and software.

        At least Slashdot has the crappy Beta software you can click the link and go back to “classic”.

        I feel bad for your web coders that you went live with this before it was ready.

  3. I think it looks fine. I like the article font choice, very legible.
    There are a few bugs to work out; the top scrolling header of the latest blogs is a huge affair (the 5th entry text balloons the size of the rest of the entries). I would suggest limiting that to a fixed size, and cut off the text with a ‘read more…’ link.
    I’m also curious how this will affect the RSS feeds, will we have to update? Or is that handled?

  4. I’m not sure I see the point in the home page. It’s just a slightly reformatted blog listing plus a carousel thing that doesn’t really add any value. May as well just go straight to http://hackaday.com/blog/ and have it work more or less like before.

    Overall, it feels like change for change’s sake.

      1. thats what the top navbar is for. and sidelinks.
        Home and blog?
        Remove blog. remove hackaday.com/blog, make home hackaday.com
        and in blogs place put .io and whatever shennanigins you had in mind.
        Do a dropdown or expanding navbar if you have to.
        Or a sidebar treenav.

        The hackaday main page IS the brand, it IS the site, and it should not be sacrificed to the lords of design in order to bundle everything most of us dont go to in the first place around.

        Most of us are not likely to visit the other links because theyre more visible, we’ll just work harder to ignore them. so if you’re going to make them more prominant, try not not make them also obnoxious and in the way please.

  5. For me It is much easier to read using the :

    “http://hackaday.com/blog/”

    than it is to read in the direct post link itself (the lack of the black background textbox in the direct link seems to create some weirdness on my peripheral vision…grey background sucks for text)

  6. Looks like the beginning of the inevitable slide towards looking like makezine.com.

    I only starting coming to hackaday because makezine kept stacking and stacking changes like this. Before you know it 99% of the content is coverage of maker events, interviews and advertisments for new products, with actual innovative DIY projects actually nigh on impossible to find.

    hackedgadgets still has a basic frontpage, maybe it’s next.

    1. Indeed, this is pretty much my fear as well. Once the staff start talking about how site metrics and visitor counts show their changes are fine it is time to leave a site. Popular might be profitable, but it also means exiting the niche that made you interesting. After all, the daily mail is one of the most popular sites on the internet…

        1. It’s clear that SupplyFrame is pushing hackaday to become a regular, monetized website. First you add the “social” part of it with hackaday.io and your confusing contest, then there’s the redesign with the “web 3.0” look. This allows for things like sponsored posts to spend more time at the top, “curated” bullshit, and the like.

          Come one, at least be honest with us. Hackaday had the same blog format for 10 years. There was no reason to change it. The layout, the comments, sure. But not the basic blog format.

          1. And monetised inevitably means “stupid”. I suppose because stupid people outnumber smart ones, and their money’s as good as anyone else’s. Ah, capitalism. You want “monetised”, start publishing pics of the chick off Hunger Games’s butthole.

    2. I’m a bit concerned about this happening here on HAD, too. Makezine lost me at hello with their website, and when they started monkeying with their print format and using hyperlinks to substitute for actually printing project steps, details, pictures, etc… they really screwed the pooch. I still subscribe, but 2015 may be my last year with them. They went commercial in a way that really poked their core audience in the eye (maybe not their future younger core, but certainly their present core that had “grown-up” with them).

  7. I like that it’s easier to read, font/text wise, but not a fan of the yellow, seems like the right side takes up too much room. Not better, not worse, just a little different. Focus on the project site, don’t try fix what’s not broken imo, build new stuff.

  8. I like the new design, but I would suggest a horizontal line between comments on the top-level. Now they are not separated, making the comments really difficult to read.

    It also breaks the style when the lower-level comments have a box.

  9. Ahh.. It’s change.. I’m reluctant to embrace change, though this isn’t that bad, the only thing I dislike is the smaller article image and the fact that its off to the side.

    Put the pictures back inline with the text and make them bigger again? That’s all I ask, otherwise its not bad.

  10. I like it. My only complaint is that the ad images are larger than the article images. The site should highlight the content, not the advertisements. But, I guess you have to pay the bills…

  11. Righto, go to hackaday.com/blog instead. My gripe is that headlines and photos are really, really big. I like how clicking on “older posts” adds them to the page rather than loading a new one.

    As for the home page, you finally have a place to glance at more than the blog. Hackaday has expanded quite a bit recently and it was definitely time for some sort of change.

  12. Complaints (for the blog page)

    The text is too big, zooming out to 75% gets it down to manageable size.

    The breakpoint for articles is WAY too far down, all you need on the blog page is a picture, the title and maybe 3 lines of text for people to see if it’s worth clicking on, now one preview takes up over a screen even when zoomed out.

    The autozooming pictures, why? No really, why?

      1. I also remember him reverting that site very, VERY, quickly when the backlash came from the community. Here it seems that the line in the sand has been drawn, and you are willing to loose your core audience over a site refresh.

        Honestly, I don’t care what you’ve got planned for the store/hackaday.io/”stuff” <-Really!?. I used to get up, hit ctrl-f2 and it would give me hackaday and a few others neatly arranged on my montors. I pulled hackaday this morning after confirming that this design "improvement" was not a DNS hijacking. If a long time reader's first thought is that your domain has been hijacked, you need to seriously reconsider what you're doing.

        As a parting shot to Mr. Brian Benchoff, You have lost whatever shreds of respect I had left for you by your obstinant shouting, hope it was worth it.

          1. +1 “My dear, my dear,
            It is not so dreadful here.”
            It is after all just a bit of CSS and some javascript, no need to shoot Mr Benchoff… but I must admit … I did need to turn my hearing aid down a bit on first encounter with this new layout.

          2. > is probably better off without you.

            So far, I have only seen people leaving. Is there also newcomers *thanks to the new design*?
            Maybe facebookers?
            Do we need to cut back on the content too to be more chewable for the genera audience?

        1. I concure on the hijacked thought. I loaded up the page, which took way longer then normal, and saw the new look. I closed my browser and reloaded and verified that it did ineed look like GLADOS had taken over the HAD domain and site. While I do like the new layout, the theme change is just jarring. Imagine if your favorite sports team suddenly changed all its colors and style overnight without warning. That is exactly what happened here. While the new colors are not bad, its just the green text on black was the distinct style of HAD for so long. Its bound to irate people.

          1. its funny. Its funny that the person said they missed me, in reference to the site changing… I changed the site a lot… with lots of negative comments. I find humor in that, though I’m not quite sure if it would classify as irony. I think maybe it might.

          1. WTF dude,
            Caleb was only a writer and editor, he didn’t own the site, didn’t get paid off and didn’t run off with millions, he just went to work on other stuff.

            What’s wrong with that?

          2. @dan
            Mob mentality has taken over at this point, there’s no use reasoning with the angry swarm at this point. Godwin incantations have been spoken; there’s no turning back. They want blood or a human sacrifice to appease the patron gods of contrarianism and anti-hipsterism.

            Man this has been a fun train wreck the last couple of days, delivered to my mailbox hourly. I feel bad not having paid a ticket.

  13. I hate the slideshow on the top, it makes me dizzy.
    Also I am not a big fan of white text on grey background, it’s less readable for me. I think I’d prefer black on white over this.
    Otherwise it’s not so bad, but also I don’t see it as an improvement.

  14. The old site design was much better. The new design a disorganized jumble with no real flow or sense. My eyes keep jumping to random stuff in feeds on the side which makes it hard to read any articles.

    Also, white test really needs a black background to maintain enough contrast to prevent eye strain. This dark grey background nonsense makes it hard to read for more than 10-15 seconds at a time. We also need green links back — the orange just looks wrong after 10+ years of green. And that’s not even counting white links on white text at the top (in the dynamic slides thing).

    Speaking of the changing content/slideshow at the top… It’s a gimmick. It’s good for a login screen at a bank, but terrible for delivering any actual content on a content-driven site. By the time you read 1/4 of it it’s already moving.

    Finally, if you MUST fix something that isn’t broken please do it incrementally. Making such a huge change overnight leaves me feeling that I’m not on hackaday any more. It’s just too big of a jump all at once to be psychologically accepted as being the same site.

    … Can I have a button to let me see the version that worked please?

      1. Oh, but I don’t have dyslexia.
        Or didn’t, until now.
        Look, I’d prefer our green back but at least switch to something that doesn’t invoke nausea.
        I’ve learned much here over the years and for that I’m grateful.
        I hate the new layout.
        VERY ANGRY WITH THE LOUD STROBELIKE(I GUESS I’VE GOT EPILEPSY NOW AS WELL) ADVERTISING EFFECTS WHEN I JUST WANT TO FOCUS ON ABSORBING INFORMATION.
        YOUR STORE ITEMS AREN’T CRAP. BUT NOW I FEEL LIKE SAYING, “I DON’T NEED U SHOVING UR CRAP DOWN MY THROAT.”
        But I guess it’s all about sales and advertising $s.
        Too bad. I used to really love it here.
        I’ll still come for the information and innovation. But can I get some recommendations for any similar “community” sites (not instructables or make).
        I need another hackaday.
        Please and thank you

  15. I feel like I’m begin yelled at. I’m not trolling, so why are you yelling at me? :'( I didn’t do it I swear. It was Kristina’s fault. She made me troll the articles.

    On a serious note, the font sizes and attributes are uneven. It’s hard to switch from the large fonts to the small fonts in a comfortable manner which disrupts the ability to stay focused enough to read everything. The slideshow was an interesting thought though. It’s going to take me some time to try and get used to it so I can’t say for certain if i like it or not. As a loyal reader, I’ll give it some time.

  16. The Blog page is definitely what I am interested in and I am glad it is there for me (-; However, if I were you, I’d consider changing font-size for H1 (on the blog page at least) to 48px (not necessarily changing line-hight though).

  17. Change does not bother me as long as the changes are for the better.
    Here are my first impressions of the new changes:
    The title text is too big relative to the article font a few points is good for emphasis but 4 times the size is silly you don’t need to be readable from across a street like a newspaper.
    The auto zooming pictures just take up space without adding any content KILL them.
    I don’t like that the “Older posts” button just adds a few to the bottom of the page, give me a whole page full I have already looked at the ones on this page.

    1. I see that the redundant pictures in the article have now been removed.
      The picture above the article is fine but please remove the mouse-over I don’t want to have to be careful where I move my mouse instead of just where I click.
      Also consider the features your readers actually want like editing comments.

  18. Some general comments about the new design:

    1) Using Firefox on Linux, at default zoom, the page occupies the middle 1/3 of my browser window. I can see where this might be a useful layout for a cell phone held vertically but it seems wasteful on a desktop or tablet with ample horizontal real estate.

    2) The headlines are in large font while the article/excerpt text is comparatively tiny. If I zoom in so that article/excerpt text is readable, then the headline font is ginormous. Mayhaps the font sizes could be tweaked so that there’s not quite such a size difference?

    3) Can you tweak the color scheme a bit? The dark gray/black background with white text is rather contrasty. It’d be a lot easier on the eyes if the text were grayed a bit (perhaps #B5B5B5?).

          1. No. You find me in public/off the internet when I’ve been drinking, and I will tell you alllll about those weird subdomains. They were a terrible idea (content was good, though) that would have driven this site into the ground. No. Absolutely no.

            If you like the handmade stuff, we might do it as a regular column….

  19. Ok… I’ll enter a useful comment – I do like what you folks do here.. and will check the site, albeit after I take an ibuprofen for the headache that I will get… ;) Seriously – resize the fonts mayn! Think of the children! All those future hackers with blown out eyes…

        1. “You can please some of the people all of the time, you can please all of the people some of the time, but you can’t please all of the people all of the time” – John Lydgate

          Personally, I’m ok with the new layout and agree side with those who are pro-smaller font, I will probably be going directly to the blog in the future as it has less distractions and presents the articles clearer which is why we all come to hackaday.

        2. Yes but they have taken the font “Proxima Nova Extrabold” made it large, put it in a tag and capitalized all of the text.

          There is no white space left between the characters and that’s a pain to read with a capitalized font that has such square edges.

          It would be ok if they brought back some white space. They could do one of the following –
          1) revert one font weight back to Proxima Nova Bold.
          2) Use only a tag OR a BOLD font size BUT not BOTH.
          3) Drop the capitalization.
          4) Select an alternate font that inherently has more white space. Hint – rounded edges.

          Doing all the things they have (in combination) has drastically reduces any white space between characters.

        3. (insert lemming argument here)… what’s your point, asfwer? Just because something is “in” doesn’t make it useful or worth keeping around… unless you’re completely saturated by the consumer mindset.

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