What Can Brown (and Orange) Do For You?
 

Things are looking a little different around here than they used to, huh? It’s an upgrade, ‘natch.

Taking into account everything from feedback from you kind folks, analysis of how our site is used, and our own push to bring you more Queerty-only content, our new site will hopefully make it easier to find the content you’re after (ahem, Morning Goods) while also showcasing the best of our investigative reporting, exclusive interviews, original video content, and in-depth features.

We hope you like it — but we’re sure you’ll let us know everything that’s wrong with the new platform. Share your thoughts in those comments, or drop us a line with the good and bad news.

xoxo
Queerty

Tagged: Feature, Queerty
 
Comments (38)

No. 1 · bb

love it

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 4:17 am
No. 2 · benjamin McGregor

fabulous redecoration, gents
only suggestion, somewhere down the road.. is there possibly an “expand all” option for those of us who trust the judgement of our queerty editors? or perhaps younger/amish fans logging on from a slower running system.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 8:17 am
No. 3 · rob

I agree with benjamin. i kinda hate the new format. i liked being able to scroll down and see most of the posts without having to click on anything.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 8:31 am
No. 4 · Thomas

I like it. I was shocked at first since I didn’t know a change was coming. The new format is more “office” friendly. I liked the old format but often times there were too many racy pictures and I had to hide it when someone walked into my office.

Time will tell if it is really good. It is after all…Day 1.
Tom

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 8:48 am
No. 5 · Matt

I miss the old format of scrolling down and then being able to click to expand it if it was something I was interested in. Plus I’m on an slower speed and it’s not loving this new format.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 8:50 am
No. 6 · Alexa

I love the new look, very stylish. But I agree with the others, I’d like to see more of each post than just its title. Maybe not as much as before, but a couple of descriptive lines so we get more of an idea what each entry is about would be helpful.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 8:53 am
No. 7 · dvlaries

Hate being a complainer, but I don’t imagine warming to it either. If it wasn’t ‘broke,’ why ‘fix’ it…?

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 10:50 am
No. 8 · jer

much prefer the scroll down instead of the “click to read” deal. i’m thinking reading Queerty will soon fall by the wayside because of this. i could do it quickly before. i would always end up reading most the posts, but i’m not going to be clicking each one and going back and such.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 10:58 am
No. 9 · Alexa

On some of the articles, when I click them there is no article there, it’s just comments (it may be just very short posts that happens with, but it would still be helpful to have the article actually there when I read the comments).

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 11:12 am
No. 10 · Dawster

okay, here’s the rundown:

(1) there needs to be more “preview” text area for each article on the main page so that we can get a good understanding about the content before clicking on it (just a bit more to get us interested). Otherwise, you would need to write a complete “click here now…” synopsis paragraph for each article displayed (and i’m sure you don’t want to do that). Just… something to make us WANT to read the individual articles.

(2) for the “morning goods” and other photo showcases, we still need to click the “back” button in order go (and find) the next picture. this is an extra (and annoying) step.

(3) the display at the top of the webpage is fantastic.

(4) the empty space on either side of the “blog” area is a little annoying to the eye.

(5) the new format is actually fantastic, very sleek, and quite professional looking. it seems like it can work (and grow) quite well.

that’s my five cents worth.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 11:20 am
No. 11 · TBSJR

Liked it the way it was. Still have to hit the back button on the Morning Goods. But I will faithfully come back everyday

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 11:43 am
No. 12 · David Hauslaib, Queerty

You’re right, the ability to view all Morning Goods photos at once, without having to click the back button, should be doable.

We’re working on it :)

In the meantime, might I suggest holding down the “Control” button (the “Apple” button on Macs, I believe) while clicking the thumbnails, so they open in a new tab or window.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 11:48 am
No. 13 · tovin

I say you should have direct links in each story to “next story” and “previous story,” whatever they may be, in addition to your “related” links. That would avoid the need to keep back-and-forth-ing.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 12:45 pm
No. 14 · John

Sorry, I liked it better the old way, but I hate change. I was starting to like you better than towleroad. The scale is tipping back again.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 1:02 pm
No. 15 · Jack Jett

Can you guys install something that you can click and the Morning Goods guy comes to your front door?

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 1:03 pm
No. 16 · will

I kind of like it, but agree with some of the people that it was nice not having to click on everything you want to read….

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 1:05 pm
No. 17 · Brad

i like to think i’m always open to change, and this is definitely new and interesting, but i feel like there is a lot of blank, white space. it’s kind of haunting… terrifyingly so…
a small change i would suggest is perhaps you could bring back the orange background, at least on the sides, so there’s not just two brown lines and then white nothingness. but overall, it’s neat. keep experimenting, it’s the only way to find out what works.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 1:13 pm
No. 18 · Erick

Well I really liked the old format better, but there are good thing obut this one. My thoughts:

First the good:

*Change is good, if its for the better
*The header at the beginning of the page its a very good idea. Placing those post that Queerty thinks are more relevant is going to make easier to get your point of view, so you better have a good one.

Now the bad:
*The Queerty banner seems to big, a lot wasted space under the name, that means more scroling. Every bit that you can do to prevent that is great.
*I guess all the white is for the benefit of machines with slower connections, but the site looks to bleak and not easy on the eyes. Maybe a light colored background that doesnt hog your bandwith?
*I agree with the comment about the white panels on the sides, not visually pleasing and it makes the site harder to see. Maybe reduce them in size?
*As for the posts, they seem cluttered. I would suggest putting the title and the body of the post in a different line of text, to make it easier to read.
*Another thing that clutters are those post that dont have a picture of graphic. Maybe more work but it might be good to use a generic graphic related to Queerty just to keep the simmetry of the site.

As I understand it these changes are made in light of future growth,so I bid you good luck and heres to you guys providing good content.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 1:14 pm
No. 19 · Matt

I’ve changed my mind. It’s growing on me. I still wish there was more description for each article before I open it though. I’ve been having issues with connecting to the site today as well.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 1:19 pm
No. 20 · Eric

Hate it! I did not like the last redesign much either, but I dealt with it. I don’t even want to come to the site anymore, because of how much I dislike it. Way too much white space, hard on the eyes, difficult to read through posts. The header thing is weird because it is not current posts, just seemingly random posts.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 1:24 pm
No. 21 · Erick

One other thing, well, in my opinion the respond link is too close to the body of the post. Since every post is in a block, might I suggest to put that link in the lower right corner of the block.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 1:28 pm
No. 22 · Rich

The new format sucks ! ! ! Definately not for
the optically challenged is it ! ! ! ! Or, is this
web site only for the “Steve Stunnings” of the
gay community ??

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 3:12 pm
No. 23 · Erick

Maybe you guys can put this post on the header for people to comment more easily. Of course if coments is what you want.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 4:03 pm
No. 24 · gay as life

I love the look of the new design, but absolutely agree with those above who don’t like needing to click to read every story. It was much nicer before when the reader could scroll easily through the stories, more like a newspaper.

This new “headline heavy” format is making the site feel like a News-Feed and not a blog.

If that’s what you’re going for, then fine. But it takes away much of the “personality” of Queerty when the site simply looks like a collection of headlines.

(Oh, and Tovin in comment No. 13: The Previous and Next buttons are already there, on the bottom of each post, below the comments.)

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 9:08 pm
No. 25 · gay as life

One more thing - the pages do take a mighty long time to load, which makes the necessity of clicking each story that much more annoying.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 9:15 pm
No. 26 · MrPantless

Hate to pile on, but: Truly a monumental mistake. Having to click every single story like that is retarded.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 11:09 pm
No. 27 · zeami99

Old one was unique and easy and informative
new one is less of everything
old one better. Please go back.

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 11:29 pm
No. 28 · ko

While you’re in the mood for feedback, I have to ask: when are you going to put out a blog for bent girls? Or in the least, how about a few more of those lesbian-oriented Morning Goods?

Posted: Jan 24, 2008 at 11:58 pm
No. 29 · Squash

Don’t like the new format.
I prefer to scroll and read, not click to read, then click back.

Posted: Jan 25, 2008 at 1:13 am
No. 30 · michael

Don’t be in such a hurry to look like everybody else. Improving functionality is one thing, but losing your destinctive look is a significant part of your online personality. I thought you guys looked fun, young and refreshingly different with the old site. Now you kinda look like “gay365.com”

all said, I love your site and pass it around to my friends. Keep up the good work.

P.S. some of us gays are young, married with gaybies and could use some media focus and pandering, is anyone paying attention to our evolving community or are we stuck in west hollywood, 22 forever and single?

Posted: Jan 25, 2008 at 1:50 am
No. 31 · Scot Johns

Well, the old was so ugly, I’ll take this as an improvement. But keep in mind there are a lot of us still using slow, old systems, please.

I’ve removed all media players from my system and that’s helped.

And this new layout can be read in a more “public” setting, thanks.

Posted: Jan 25, 2008 at 10:14 am
No. 32 · Ash

Been away for a couple days, just noticed the new format and this post today. Frankly I hate it. I’ve been a loyal reader of queerty for about a year and a half and this feels icky and wrong. It doesn’t even seem like queerty. There aren’t enough articles on each page, the pictures are tiny; as others have said, it looks like everyone else, and I just feel confused and bored with the site. I check this site almost every day but I think I might stop, the same way I stopped reading Entertainment Weekly when it turned into People magazine. Ugh. I’m disappointed.

Posted: Jan 25, 2008 at 3:11 pm
No. 33 · Rob

I agree with the other commenters - I do not like having to open a new window just to read the full story. It was not a step forward - and it was not cutting edge to do this. Bring back the old format. As someone said … it wasn’t broke, why fix it?

Posted: Jan 25, 2008 at 4:34 pm
No. 34 · Ash

No Happy Endings??? This sucks, Andrew, really hard. I love Happy Endings and you already got rid of the most interesting feature, queerty reBUTTal, months ago. I think I am officially done with queerty, it just seems like a news feed, and even with the incredibly condensed posts, the grammar, punctuation and spelling are still atrocious.

Posted: Jan 25, 2008 at 9:13 pm
No. 35 · Craig

Hate the new look. I liked seeing the whole posts inline, the way most blogs work, without having to open a new page. Bring back the old format, please.

Posted: Jan 26, 2008 at 1:11 am
No. 36 · seitan-on-a-stick

Orange and Brown are closest to Vomit I can think of. That’s sooo New York!

Posted: Jan 26, 2008 at 9:00 am
No. 37 · SeaFlood

… I’m not loving it. I would comment more, but I think other people encapsulate my criticism better.

Posted: Jan 26, 2008 at 12:05 pm
No. 38 · Ash

PLEASE CHANGE IT BACK, I MISS QUEERTY.

Posted: Jan 26, 2008 at 8:52 pm
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