As you probably noticed by now, The Movie Blog has finally revealed our new look, new logo, and with it, a couple of new features.
A regular feature you will notice is on the right, there is a panel where Movie Boxoffice Results will be updated every Monday, and a Boxoffice Report Post will be up to kick off your week to let you know what films saw the most cash on the weekend that just expired.
Tuesdays will feature a release report around what BluRay and DVD films are coming out so you can rush off to the nearest supplier of your cinematic crack to pick up the latest – or rush to the video store to hit up that film you meant to watch that you were waiting for on disc.
Fridays will bring the return of the popular Forgotten Friday Review and as always you can email me your suggestions and I will try to track them down and review them. If I use your suggestion, I will credit you for the reminder in the review.
Also, at the bottom of each expanded post is now an AddThis toolbar, that will help you share articles you find amusing or just want to let someone know about. Everyone reads a bit of news that makes them think of someone and this will give you an easy to use tool to quickly share with your friends with a couple clicks using your favourite social networking programs.
And you will notice that there are a number of orange underlined words in the posts, particularly around celebrity names and titles, and you can hover on those to get a little more information and media about them including other articles on this site that pertain to that highlighted word.
Is there anything else you would like to see on the site? I am always open to suggestions and while I may not use them all, I will certainly take them under consideration!
And there is other developments in the works too. But thems be all secret and stuff for now!
You should bring back the recent comments. If I visit the site 10 times a day. It becomes a bit annoying to click on all the links again to see if someone made a comment.
Only 10 comments didn’t even seem like enough but it was better than nothing.
Not sure if this has been mentioned (as I can’t read the comments) – but everything other than the main article post seems to be in an outline font that I just can’t read – that goes for the top navigation and the posts down the left side… maybe its just my set-up
The site looks more or less the same with a cool new logo and highlighted Rodney comments.
Rodney have you considered coloring in the logo. Its cool looking but white,,,
Just saw your new feature, “Rodney posts highlighted in dark crimson” I think that was a fantastic idea. Even though we disagree a lot on things, I enjoy reading your responses and now I don’t have to search as hard for them.
Kudos on the design idea.
love the new look and logo…awesome job Rodney !!!
Hmmm.
Not so much a fan. Although I do see potential in the new colors.
I like the new logo, but the rest of the site looks unfinished. You can do so much with wordpress now, that it seems a waste not to take advantage of it’s capabilities. For instance, all your widgets could have thumbnails.
From a web designer standpoint here is what needs fixin:
Alignment – Your text widgets go from center justified to left justified.
Icons – Your RSS feed and Twitter icons are throwing your about and contact links off. You need to throw icons up for all of those, or none at all.
Red Frame around content – Just doesn’t look good.
Unused Ad Space – Right of your logo has a lot of free space. If you throw your ad up on there you will more inline to your readers eye. Plus… your ad is closer to nav links which you could get some ad hits from by accidentl mouse sliding ;).
Comments – Comment width is smaller than post content width – there should also be a visual distinction in terms of background color to seperate comments from post. Why not use a 3rd party software like disqus and intense debate. Users can still post as a guest, but registered users with such 3rd party commentening software can login easily and use the enhanced commenting features.
Line Spacing – Widgets are way to close to one another. At a glance I can’t actually read them from one another.
Archives – You only need about a years worth of archive. Sure have a full listing, but not on the widgets area. Make a dedicated page for all those links.
Overall design – looks like a modified theme. I know the movie blog gets hits because of it’s great domain name and established content / staff, but the current theme doesn’t do anything to make me as a user feel like I am viewing a premium dedicated movie news (i know i know…its not a news site…but it really is) site.
Lets pro this bish up. There is tons of potential here, and if it was executed, this site would flourish even more!
Sorry for being negative. My comments are meant with the up most respect. I wouldn’t give a shit or take the time to comment if I didn’t care about this site.
Hey, very good improvement over the older design. Liking it quite a lot. As many would agree with me, simplicity is complexity haha! The logo rocks!
Hi Rodney,
Just wanted to say thanks for including our overlay info widgets in the new design. If it weren’t for people like you, who’re willing to give young startups a chance & try something new occasionally, the web would never have come as far as it has.
>>> Everybody else <<<
I've been reading the feedback some of you have been writing about our widgets. I saw some people don't like us much, while others think we're pretty neat.
If you have an opinion, feedback or, best of all, a suggestion for improvement please contact me at miked[at]semantinet[dot]com
We're a new product and we're interested in getting better as fast as we can – every bit of constructive feedback helps…
Cheers,
Mike
Guys,
chill out.
Give it 3 days and youll feel right at home, TRUST ME.
ive been visiting this site 100 times a day since 2003.
Having said that- ive witnessed this shit happen 45 times. Just give it like 4 days. youll get used to it.
I think you might be exaggerating the 100times a day. But not by much! lol
I made a lot of effort to tweak the look of the site more to my preference, but I wanted to keep the general layout and feel of the site familiar enough.
This site has seen FAR more drastic changes than this before and its always been fine. I am not worried about it. I am just looking forward to moving ahead and getting more writing done. This (and other things) have just eaten up my time!
More posts! More reviews! More International Friends!!
Im pretty sure i go on this site more then FB and 2chicksonecup combined.
No dude, once like in 2005 it changed from white/blue-ish to red and yellow. I was like ‘WTF!”
I know people are saying right now that it looks bad… but its because they see colors and shiny pictures.
Ill tell you what i see, i see the box office numbers and a cooler background added to the almost same theme, thus improving it overall.
So its an improvement. People just dont like change, and thats COMPLETELY normal.
If people think this looks “bad” they should go to AICN and witness the ugliest famous site theme EVER.
And i love that site! But the look of it is SO WEIRD ill never get used to it.
Its ok though, because everybody loves Harry. lol.
Either I got use to the new design, or there have been a few tweeks since it went up.
it’s a step backward in many ways but i’ve said that before when you posted the preview. since you didn’t take any of our feedback there’s no point to critique further. functionality-wise i just miss that button to expand all the posts.
You confuse “feedback” with opinion. I wasn’t asking your permission to redesign the site. I asked what you thought of it. I also didn’t ask what would “fix” it. And this is not the version that I previewed a while ago. There have been tweaks and changes. I don’t visit your site and try to tell you how to design it and I am sure any “feedback” I give you won’t change that either.
And the ability to expand the posts has NEVER left the site. Clicking on the appropriate category in the nav bar at the top of the page reveals the full posts for that category in a list.
I don’t see how it is a step backward in any way, since it retains much of the same layout, all the same features, and mostly the same colour scheme.
“And the ability to expand the posts has NEVER left the site. Clicking on the appropriate category in the nav bar at the top of the page reveals the full posts for that category in a list.”
Better yet, click any month in the Archives, even March 2010.
Not really liking this new look. Colour scheme isn’t the greatest, bit too dark. Pop ups are one of the most irritating things on the web! Flash-ads and other annoyances I’m able to block out but these not so easily.
The site isn’t quite compatible with opera so there is probably something a little non-standard in the code, please look into it. If it’s made by a professional this shouldn’t happen. Post pages bug a little the “New Blackberry phones on…” text after the footer appears up right of the page, making the whole thing a little too wide. At least the last 2 versions of TMB have worked perfect with opera along with all other well made wordpress themes.
Logo does look quite nice!
Didn’t mean to be too harsh there. Long time follower just would rather see the little snags recognized and dealt with quickly.
Ah didn’t see the comment rules until I highlighted, besically just change most of the font to white and there you go.
We are trying to fix that. Right now, it only does that on Internet Exploiter, but works perfect on Firefox.
If it ain’t broke don’t fix it.
It was broke, so I am glad you agree.
Not feelin this… at all.
I can’t even click a button that will allow me to see every post in full on one page. I HATE having to click on each post separately in order to read the whole thing. Not very efficient at all. What makes a good site is OPTIONS. There aren’t many here. It’s either this way or no way. And where there are options, it’s not very easy to spot them or figure them out. Just my two cents. Still love the movie blog for what it is, but this style is just… annoying.
And that is different from the last three years how?
Its been like this forever man. It was fine then, and now its a bad thing?
If you click on the category name (News Chat) it lists everything in full posts in a list, always has.
I like the new look…I don’t mind change as long as I can read the page without straining my eyes. I think it’s funny how some people get so freaked out by change.
how do I post a little pic on my square by my name?
Its a service called Gravatar.
And the font in the comments is supposed to be white. We are working on fixing that. It works in Firefox, just not on Internet Exploiter.
thanks dude!
ch-ch-ch-changes!
I’m Blind! I’m Blind! oh ….nevermind just glare on my screen.
Nice look (darker fonts)
I really like this redesign. The darker background makes the text easier to read and it has a cleaner, more streamlined appearance. :)
Also, for input as to what could be added goes, throughout the years this site has existed, had you or John Campea ever once considered throwing a forum page into the mix? If you want the readers to become more involved with The Movie Blog, this would be a great way to go. Regular viewers of this site could be able to actually discuss all topics movie-related or otherwise. It’s certainly something that you should look into at some point.
That was “The Movie Blog Community” which was short lived. Didn’t really work out.
It is one of the things we are considering revisiting.
Been coming here for a while and I’m trying to be a dick but this theme looks bad…
It looks like it belongs back in 1997 or something…
Just my 2cents… something cleaner and more professional would be way better.
I appreciate your input, but this design IS cleaner than the previous looks and not cluttered at all.
I don’t know how to fix “belongs back in 1997” because nothing looked like this in 97.
I dig the new layout actually. Much better than the previous one
Pretty cool, i love this new design.
I like the new design and the pop-ups that show up when you hover over actor’s/director’s names is cool. One thing I don’t really like is the background. The 1 thing that’s messing up the background for me is the repeated red line bar (hopefully you know what I’m talking about). It would’ve been fine if the red bar only showed up once on top (on top of the logo) and didn’t repeat it self. But other than that – cool design.
Well I can live with the pop-ups but find them annoying at times. Sometimes you can’t help but scroll over something and you get an informative pop-up. I guess could be useful at times, I think its just st a matter of getting used too.
I would like to see post count of each thread returned if possible. I liked that feature.
Thats all I got at the moment.
Hey Rodney,
I like all the changes that you made with one exception, I’m not too crazy about the comment colors. But it’s nice to see some progress being made.
Great addition with the box office numbers and Tuesday release reports. Now I can get that info here instead of checking other sites. Keep up the good work.
The Comment colours are the same as the previous scheme, just that the avatars are moved to the left instead of right. Might change that.
Thanks for checking in!
Looks good to me. As I wasn’t a regular on the old site, I’m no t hung up on the difference. Personally, I think the background is subtle and effective, and the logo looks pretty sharp. Is that an Eyeforge design?
It is indeed!
Where to start…
Okay. Let’s go here: actually like the “comment rules” outside of the text box. Reason for this is that in the past some folks comment without ‘erasing’ those reminders, in whole or in part. This new, updated action eliminates such errors. Not like everyone paid much attention to them anyway, but it is the thought that counts.
The New Look: I’m not too crazy about the new logo, although I understand what it is attempting to accomplish. (film reel for the i and the l) and I think that yes, it is bland. But having said that, I can’t say that about the rest of the main page. There really isn’t not that much difference except for a box office top five. Also, The Movie Blog has changed looks once or twice every year thus far. So, there you go.
Somethings will simply take getting used to. Hey, it could be worse. This could have been a cluttered mess.
AWOL: I noticed Brock hasn’t been around lately. I hope Rodney won’t be a one man show.
Brock was interim help and has returned to his own projects. In time we will expand the staff again, but for now its all me.
Warts and all.
Oh, thats where the rules are. They are hard to see unless high-lighted.
Sorry I get to used to using the scrolling feature on my computer. I should slow down.
Are you still thinking about bringing back TheTVShowBlog? If you do this site update and apply it to TheTVShowBlog that could be a cool site also.
Cool adding the weekend box office report.
Will you be adding new movie releases on DVD and BluRay that come out on Tuesdays?
Just curious how many movie news articles will you be doing a day?
Yes, just as indicated in the above article, there will be a DVD/Blu release post on Tuesdays.
There will also be more content daily now that I am not trying to tweak this 6 hours a day!
Nice job Rodney, I like. As others have already said, you do need to change the font colors in the reply section to make them visable. I think it’s funny that some people are complaining about the new design and claiming to like the old one better. I seem to remember people saying the exact same thing the last time you guys made a change. People just don’t like change….
Thanks. Its a lot like facebook that way. The same people starting the “Change Facebook Back to the last design” groups are the same ones who said the new design was bad.
Its mostly the same, just changed colours and logos for the most part.
Cool new look.
The new logo looks like ass on my Android browser, so I’m assuming iPhone too (both webkit)
the site seems a little dark.
Hi all,
The background of the site isn’t important as long as the info stays the same.
As for the issue with entering the details, name, email and url it does work in Firefox. You just can’t see what your typing. If you select the text it is visible.
Kind Regards
Woeps didn’t read Andy’s entire post, was a little bit to quick. But the same here. :)
Comment input colour fixed!
Well firstly it’s nice to see the site moving forwards although as others have mentioned I also preferred the previous background, it made the site classier in my opinion.
Something which would appeal to me, being in the UK, is to see UK box office results as well as the US Box office results.
Plus when I tried to comment in Firefox it wouldn’t allow me to enter my details such as name, url, email so had to fire up IE to respond. Even then the information I typed into name, mail and website didn’t show unless I highlighted it with a mouse. Hopefully just a small glitch to sort out.
As someone stated in the comments before me, I can’t see the comment information when writing. I really do not like the new background at all, it looks very bland and crappy. I really preferred the old background.
ive always wanted the possibility of… when you click a condensed post on the main page to open up the content, that instead of going to a page with only the post you clicked, it opens up within the list of condensed posts on the main page. that way i dont always have to press the back button to look at the rest of the new posts. maybe there can be a separate “leave comment” button that opens up a new page with the post and ability to write a comment.
At the bottom of each expanded article there are nav tabs on the bottom right and left that will take you to the most recent new posts.
It’s ok, but can’t see comment information when writing.
Also the contextual links on the main page are annoying, keep popping up and blocking the content.
Only if you roll over the text links. You can close them by clicking the x if you accidentally do so.
Love the new look. Although, it is rather difficult to read the comments.