MacApper Relaunches!
Surprise – you likely noticed our new look. This new custom WordPress theme and forum marks a new beginning for the MacApper community.
The blog is now outfitted with some interesting new features, advanced caching, seo work, and countless custom code tweaks. I think everyone should easily get the hang of it, but if you need help you can always contact_us. Over the next few weeks I would expect we will be making several adjustments and enhancements to really improve the mechanics of this place. It would be great to get some feedback along the road.
Some of the features we dropped down to you guys today include:
- A fresh new look.
- The MacApper discussion forums. Members needed.
- Check the Happenings link for a quick heads up on what’s happening on OS X from file releases to industry news.
- Ajax’ed article rating. Rate applications and articles with 1 click.
- Cached local avatars via gravatar.com. Sign up and upload an avatar in seconds. Well okay minutes. Many users already have.
- Easily determine commenters on articles by the color of their post: post author, guest, or other MacApper contributors.
- Comment rating. No, let us know how you really feel!
I did some basic testing in Opera/IE/Safari/Fox but there is undoubtedly plenty of rendering differences across platforms. Feel free to report issues here or in the forums. Also my source code is quite messed up and I have some known validation issues, which I will correct this week.
Thanks to the following kind folks for helping the last couple of weeks to get this done:
Myte at allbsd for rm *’ing my WordPress install and then finally coming through with some skills today.
Alec, Alex, Michael, Josh, Jordan and all the other MacApper contributors for countless hours helping me work out the layout.
Kyle Nilson for designing the logo and helping lots and lots with concept and other layout work.
Jamie Diamond for the motivation 
The old one was a lot better. The color scheme was better, it was a ton simpler, and there’s all this useless crap around no one needs.
I don’t like the new design either. Methinks you just lost a subscriber/reader.
I agree with Richard Neal. This website just seems like all the other computer news websites, with ads and noise. Also, a tip on “share” icons: http://www.37signals.com/svn/posts/93-its-the-content-not-the-icons
seriously guys.
This is a mac site and yet it looks like shit. The logo looks like it was done in MS Word. C’mon guys – get your stuff together if you want to be taken seriously. You cannot be taken seriously when reviewing OS X apps when your website looks like this!
It’s not really all that different. The ads are off on the bottom right side, so they shouldn’t bother you all that much. I think the top banner is also nicer, as well as the many improvemtns to the features behind it all.
But, as he said, this is all a work in progress. If you have specific things you don’t like, why not suggest ways to fix them?
Waaaaaaah! Change! AHHHHHH!
Relax folks, you’ll get used to it soon enough.
I also think the older one was better
I don’t question the new one may be more useful but it definitely looks dull.
Maybe work on some color for the sidebar or something… it looks too white to me
Damn, people are very critical. It isn’t too bad. There were things I didn’t like about the old site. This one is fine. Good work.
Hmm sorry you feel that way guys. And for the record, there is less ads than there was before :/
Ugh
gross
I like the new design better. I was never really a fan of the old one.
It looks a bit like a work in progress. But that’s exactly what is too. And I’m sure you’ll fix it all up in time.
Nice work! Don’t pay too much attention to the rather harsh comments
wow, I actually think its a good, clean design and is an improvement over the old design. The fact that someone would stop reading/subscribing is crazy. People come here because of content, not because of design. While it’s good to have a nice design to go with the content, I don’t see how the design of this is bad in a way that it would get anyone to stop reading. I could see if it had a crapload of javascript, animated gifs and loud colors that took away from the content, but I think Miles did a good job in assuring that the content took “center stage” with this design.
Ugh. Really ugh. I’m happy you have an RSS feed that can let me bypass this horrid website. The new logo is about the only thing that’s improved. The big flashy icons (comments, etc) are really ugly, comment rating is for Digg, the sidebar is horrendously ugly, the nav bar even worse, post rating is stupid, the layout + spacing are awkward.
Now, I don’t want you guys to cry, I just want to say the other one was miles ahead of this. I’ll be happily following along with the RSS feed.
The only advantage of this one is that you can see my negative comment be “dugg down”…
I seriously cannot believe these comments!!! Don’t listen to them Miles. HUGE improvements in every way. GJ!
Another cookie-cutter design for a mac-related website. *yawn*
Not a fan of the new look. I actually like the prior one much better…seemed more polished. What’s the point of the star ratings, what’s that supposed to tell us? Also, I remember you taking a poll about setting up forums and the consensus seemed to be not to do it.
Anyway, I’m not going to stop reading because of cosmetics and unnecessary forums. I appreciate you trying to improve it and I do find most of the info very useful.
Where exactly are those bullet items at the top (Forums, Happenings, etc.) supposed to be? I’m viewing in Firefox and in IE, and in both, they’re just floating in odd places (are they supposed to be in the gray square?), and almost invisible, no matter what my font size is set at. They’re blue links on a blue background, and the Ads by Google even cover them up in some cases. If those are important links on the site, I hope they can be given a little more prominence/readability and nailed down somewhere so they can be used.
Otherwise, the only other thing I see that looks awkward is that huge row of share icons. The rest of the site looks good to me.
I just checked all browsers Scott. You are likely getting cached images. I’m in the IRC channel if you need a hand.
I thought it looks better then before, but apparently I’m wrong judging by the comments and its a miracle that I haven’t already clawed my own eyes out.
I mean it could probably use a different background to break up the white monotony, but its not that aweful people. :/
Guys, we totally understand that this design isn’t perfect. Of course, neither was the old one. As has been said many times already, this is a work in progress, and due to some previous engagements we wanted to get it put up before we weren’t able to.
Already we’re tweaking a few things to respond to your opinions, but we really do want to hear more from you guys about what you’d like to see. For those of you that have indicated that you don’t like the new site, what exactly don’t you like? What could we do to make it better? You are the ones keeping us afloat and there would really be no reason for us to continue this if you weren’t reading, so we REALLY DO value your opinion.
Please feel free to give us some detailed feedback and let us know what we could do to make MacApper better!
Thanks Tsukari: I am going to try your suggestion of a darker background color but I have a flight to catch in a few hours here. As soon as I can I will give that a shot. Thanks.
my idea: completely redo the whole site using ONLY mac apps and then post a long explanation of exactly what you used and how (e.g. used pixen to create a favicon, seashore for graphics, nvu for this etc…)
then nobody can piss on you guys for trying!
personally,i really like it. nice workd. looks great in safari.
I’ll be straight up… the old design was way better.
I prefered the old one as well. The Post/Comment Rating thingy seems to be too much and doesn’t fit really well in the design. However, the new header looks nice!
ok guys – you want some help? here u go.
read this –> http://www.alistapart.com/articles/whitespace
it explains a lot. i think it might help you with some key issues instantly found with this site.
Lose the new ‘features’ who the hell cares about stars and voting on comments. The site needs to be trimmed down. Lose the crappy graphics. Lose the overly rounded rectangles and the vile wannabe aqua blue gradient. Start afresh – see what else you can come up with.
I think that the all lower case ‘built for mac’ and apple icon squashed in the bottom right of the footer says it all. Erugh.
The new design looks terrible. I wasn’t a fan of the old one, but this one sucks. It’s way tooooo crowded and too much going on.
We’ll work on it guys…It’s a process. The funny thing is it is not that terribly different from the old one (aside from bg color which I will change asap). Also it is nearly the same as the old design concerning issues like white space, which I have yet to address.
Anyways, just give us some time, as we are all busy with providing content and streamlining our publishing process as well. Not to mention my ‘real life’ commitments. I am making a list of changes from your suggestions so if you have something more intuitive to say besides ‘it sucks’, I’m all ears.
The new design is indeed more sleek and streamlined than the old look, and that’s the problem with it. With the old design, the viewer was left with the feeling that the unsophisticated motif was done on purpose to create character. The new design has none of that charm, though. It screams ‘this is just another wordpress theme’.
That being said, I’m all for progress. If the staff here really feels that the redesign is necessary, then continue developing it. But, if that is the course, then please don’t stop with what we see now. Break away from the typical ’see it everywhere’ Wordpress themes. Try some radically different layouts. In the age of Web 2.0, don’t have a redesign that is, by definition, Web 1.0.
Lastly, I’ve just gone back and taken a look at the ’should there be a forum’ poll. The reader opinions were very heavily weighted towards ‘no forum is necessary’, yet now there is a forum. Now, it is of course the choice of the staff, but, the participation of the readers is what makes a great forum community. If it isn’t going to be feverishly supported by the readers, how can it possibly succeed? Nothing is as useless as a languishing forum.
Good luck with the redesign. We, the readers, certainly hope it gets better.
OK, here are my suggestions:
(for a look at the old design, see http://www.flickr.com/photos/glennwolsey/377244328/ )
1. Layout & colors: the older look felt more integrated and solid due to darker background colors and a header that runs the full length of the page. It focuses the attention to the center of the page where the content is. Now there are wiiiide open spaces with the elements floating around. Not good. All that white space everywhere makes me feel like I’m in a hospital room. Plus, the rounded rectangles for everything are really annoying. Elements that fit together and connect are much better than elements that just float around.
2. The sidebar: the previous sidebar was nice because it was, again, made of a nice color which separated it from the rest of the page, and it was in a good place on the page. Now, there’s this bunch of text that’s stuck to the extreme right of the screen. Not pretty.
3. Nav bar: again, the other nav bar was well integrated into a solid design: it was attached to the top header and there were rectangular buttons for each section. Now there’s this rounded rectangle floating in white hospital space, with just primitive text links, aligned right for no apparent reason, that feel themselves like they’re floating inside this floating nav bar.
4. Unnecessary features: rating a blog comment is stupid. People give their opinions in the comments, if they even have an opinion. Having little stars is distracting. Rating comments is stupid: everyone has their own idea of if a comment is good or not, and no one likes seeing their comment being voted down. Avatars in the comments: they just add visual distraction and complexity, and serve little purpose.
5. Other visual “uglinesses”: that flame on the # of comments? Uh? Same for the big bubbles for the comment numbers: big, cheesy, and cartoonish. That forum badge in the sidebar: little explosion-style ‘NEW!’ tags aren’t hip anymore. Plus, why in the world is the RSS feed attached to the forum badge? It looks cramped and weird. That badge is also not the same width as the rest of the sidebar. The “Share” buttons you added also create visual complexity.
6. What’s up with the cheesy “Built for Mac” tagline? The other one simply described what you guys do, and it was much more relevant.
7. The previous font was much more elegant, and the bigger spacing made it easier to read IMO.
There. We like you content, but you essentially trashed a solid, elegant, and professional-looking design for a cartoonish and amateur one. I kind of liked alej’s comment (Ugh. Gross.), but if you want to know why it’s that, IMO it is because of the reasons above.
Oh yeah, something I forgot: as other have mentioned, you asked us if we needed a forum. A majority of us said no. Now you have one? Another complex (and uglily designed) unnecessary feature. When people come to blogs, they come to read and react on specific posts, not to discuss in a forum. There are *tons* of forums for that. Combining forum+blog is a recipe to make one of them unpopular. If you’re trying to make MacApper this kind of big hub where everybody spends their free time, I personally think you’re going in the wrong direction. The original appeal of MacApper for me was that it was a) simple (almost minimalist), and b) focused (Mac apps). Adding a forum (and all the unnecessary features) goes directly against those two points.
Thanks so much for the details, shadownight. Again, we’re not claiming this new design to be perfect right off the bat, but we’d love to hear more about what you’d all like to see changed. What are some of your favorite blog designs, for example?
im sorry to say i agree with shadownight on most things,
now these are my thoughts/ideas:
1.) i feel the forum is unnecessary unless the macapper staff wants to put up some tutorials on there on just diferent things like how to podcast or do anything.
2.) rating stories, ok…not necessary but ok…..rating user’s comments lik on Digg.com….no no…why have it?
3.) Comicbook wordpress layout…..looks different than before its …ok but layout before was MUCH better and felt more mac-a-licous and this just feels…kiddish, unprofessional..and it IS TOO CLUSTERED…..i feel every turn i take on this website is filled with stuff i don’t need….before it felt professional, clean, and easier to read…it showed the STORIES and not some other information that is unnecessary
otherwise i feel its ok but prefer the layout from before and i feel i actual lead me to the stories the CRUX of the website, the wonderful stories.
With the old design you don’t need a sign saying made for mac you KNEW it was for macs as soon as you went there.
Look i dont want to flame i really LOVE this site i refer my friends to come here and the design ISN’T bad by FAR its DAMN GOOD but the other one was better and easier to read. BUT however the layout turns out to be i will continue to go to this site weekly.
Please keep the suggestions coming. I’m taking notes.
I think the new design is an improvement…Really, when it comes down to it, Content is King, right ? And for Mac users, MacApper has some of the best articles. Besides, I think over the past month or so, this site has been showing progress and growth, and if you’re hating on progress, go back to playing with your IIGS…
I have to say, I liked the old version better. The new one just has too much crap. Guess I’m staying in my feed reader.
Well…… I work for a design company called SquareMint – trust me, they design awesome flash, Ajax, php, html etc pages/wordpress themes.
Some examples of work include http://www.airfrostdesigns.uk.to and http://www.airfrostdesigns.uk.to/merrr .
I’m sure I could get an awesome design for this site at a reasonable price…Miles, just email me on tedwinder1(at)gmail(dot)com.
Thanks!
Sorry, heart-breaking as this may be it was SOO much better before!
I used to really like the old site, the new one feels like it’s trying to accomplish too much – that’s what was nice about the old layout – simplicity.
I take it changing back is out of the question?
Dudes, i don’t wanna be a pain in the ass, but it looks like crap. Sorry.
I love this blog and have not had a need to comment until now. I am in amazement as to why there is so much disapproval over this new design. Not only am I compelled by the new functionality, it is also 100x more easy to read now – which is why I visit the blog to begin with…
For instance, on hitting the main page I saw via the ‘hot comment bubble’ that this was a hot topic I should check out. nice visual queue there. I could also see the star rating for this entry – also useful. I think what I like best is the comments area – simply awesome work here.
I am starting to really wonder what all of these people are complaining about…not only was the old design a generic looking WordPress template but it was butt ugly, circa 2001, and had zero functionality.
Good work on the new look guys, don’t change it!
Okay guys. I think I have a good idea of what you hate with the current site and, hopefully, currently have a mix that you’ll appreciate. I do have a tough question, though.
What do you all think about birch wood (the kind at the Apple store) mixed with grey and white?
Apologies for the double post:
The current beta I’m working on is made almost entirely out of CSS, so no graphical navigation. Everything is square, simple buttons. I thought shadowknight would be happy about that detail.
I agree with most of the comments above, the new design is ugly and very un-Mac like. The old one was significantly better. This one looks like Buy.com.
I disagree! This new design is light years past what was here before. Might be cool if you could allow comments to be deleted if they reached a certain threshhold of neg votes.
Amazing job guys!!!
@Kyle Nilson
idk its kinda hard to say because the combinations of birch wood, white, and gray could be numerous soo it would have to be in front of me so i could comment on ….i got an IDEA how about you post a bunch of almost finished site designs on flickr or just take screenshots and let us VOTE up here so that you can really see what we like more then instead changing this layout and risking that it might be worst (i doubt it) but if it turns out worse then itll be better to have this layout.
Thanks for listening and pardon me missing all my periods i just like to write run on sentences when it comes to comments.
I’ve actually gotten a lot of mixed reactions, so for now, I’ll include wood as an option if not the main option, but there’s definitely a dark grey metal variant. Ajax CSS switching is also more than doable for an instant background change.
what about this new template:
http://www.ndesign-studio.com/resources/wp-themes/itheme/
[...] a look in the releases page for a screenshot. You can read about the changes in their MacApper 2.0 release post. The response seems to be mixed with some liking the new design while others [...]