Don’t worry: you didn’t fall asleep at your desk and drift into dreamland.
We’ve changed. No, really — we have.
Queerty was long overdue for a major design overhaul — like, long overdue — so we’ve been working overtime to reimagine just what the site should look like in 2017. How’d we do?
It’s a pretty massive overhaul by any standards, with a top-to-bottom redesign, an updated commenting system, intriguing new categories, and a way more enjoyable mobile experience. To leave no stone unturned, we even reworked our logo.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Change is inevitable, so don’t panic!
Instead, let us talk you through each of the five most important developments.
1. Design
Remember 2005? So do we — every time we look at our old homepage. But that’s all behind us now! As of today, we’re giving the site a desperately needed makeover, so you’ll no longer wonder if you slipped through a time tunnel every time you visit us.
Since we update our content roughly every fifteen minutes give or take an hour, we thought we should go ahead and spruce up the design for once. (Even if it takes us another decade for the next refresh.)
And for those who wrote in wishing there was a way to easily keep track of which stories you’ve already read, now posts will get a subtle grey treatment and check-box after you view them.
Like this:
2. Categories
We love that our coverage is all over the road and hope you do too, but many of you have asked for an easier way to dive into the particular types of content that help get you through the day. That’s why we did you a solid and split our posts into four main categories: Life (current events); Entertainment (arts and celeb culture); Politics (like it says); and Goods (hello sailor). Feel free to explore ’til you explode, and rest assured there’s always a new piece of ridiculousness right around the corner.
3. Mobile
You love your phone. You worship your phone. You probably just checked your phone while reading this sentence. Fun fact: More than half of you visit us from you mobile devices, and that’s why we redesigned the site to look equally appetizing on small and large screens alike.
As of today, you’ll no longer have to manually zoom to see the homepage content, or to make the copy large enough to realistically read.
4. New Logo
What can we say about the old Queerty logo? A lot — but right now we’re on the clock. Let it suffice to say, the logo wouldn’t have been out of place pinned to the wall of a nominally talented kindergarten class, and we thought we could do better.
5. Improved Commenting
Scroll on over to our comments section and you’ll find a more user-friendly experience awaits. Over the years, we’ve received countless complaints about the inconsistency and overall herky-jerkiness of our commenting system, so we’ve assembled a crack team of specialists to work overtime to create a far more satisfying experience. (And now, Queerty commenters, you can use this as an opportunity to be nice to each other.)
Take a look and let us know what you think (in the comments, naturally). We’ll brace and hope for the best.
Shannon1981
YAY! OMFG, FINALLY. Thanks, Queerty. Cool design, will take some getting used to, though.
Scott Gatz
Shannon, I tried to email you to explain what happened with your commenting, but we’ve gotten it fixed for now. Take a look at your email and you’ll know how it might happen again.
kaveh_riahi
IM OBSESSED WITH THIS REDESIGN. the mobile version is awesome too. THANK YOU
erichinnw
Nice update.
1EqualityUSA
I’m a font girl, and the old one was charming. Hyphen-action will take some time. I hope the library of articles is still available. I love your distress-signal-upside-down-flag-action, Shannon1981.
AxelDC
Not really a fan. The old design was dated, but this is no improvement.
EbonyOnly
I do like the new design.
I just wish that the Queer Community would stop tearing down, even before they start, the new Presidential administration.
I’m sure that things will be different with this administration, but being totally negative continues the hate that we are supposed to oppose. How about trying to be hopeful, instead of thinking our whole community is going to the dogs. We don’t know what will happen, and if we show them disrespect they aren’t going to take us seriously because we’ve already shown our ” hand ” as being negative.
greybat
I will remain hopeful, but Respect will have to earned.
Shannon1981
Look at Vice President Mike Pence’s record. We must be PRO-active, not RE-active. This is a man who champions conversion therapy. Do not be fooled into complacency.
We have every right to be afraid.
edwoz
OMG. This is a better facelift then Renee Zellweger got! It’s Fantastic!!!!
Masc Pride
The old design was better and easier to navigate.
Sammy Schlipshit
Don’t like the new version even a little bit.
Photos are too large. Looking more like People magazine.
Takes far too much scrolling try to find anything worth reading.
You blew it….and not in a good way.
Why change from the old way? It worked. Easy to read, far fewer clicks necessary. The new version is all too big….and I have rarely ever said that.
Why O why do you young’uns think every thing needs changing all the time? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
I’m guessin the oldest person in your office is still in his/her 30’s.
MarionPaige
I’m using a Linux distribution (Ubuntu) and, so far, everything looks good, very much like most of major web properties (Vice, Mic, etc). Some of these redesigned websites are so unreadable on a Linux machine I have to go to the site’s twitter or facebook page.
It seems the trend with Vice and Mic is to get rid of comments though.
DavidTerry
Whilst the new site is cleaner and brighter, it would help if there was a sidebar listing the articles just by title so that you could quickly scan and then select which item you wanted to read
mvillacorta
Love the homepage navigation and design, clean , easy to find what you want to read. great JOB!
Roan
The tiles that represent the articles are too big. They really need to be smaller tiles. Also, a drop down list style menu of the content would be great.
Bob LaBlah
I liked the good ol’ days when on the right hand side of the screen you could see all the new comments regardless of the article.
SamDixon3972
I like the changes that have been made to this web-site! An Excellent Job! Very easy to use. This is a change for the better.
Chip
I dont care much for the colors. But the layout is alright
Chris
Looks better; let’s see how well it functions. Thanks for the effort.
Dansktex
I agree with David Terry’s comment above. I’ve never been a fan of tiles (much less BIG tiles). I would like to see a typed column of story titles to the side that I scroll through and read without those huge photos glaring at me and causing me to have to go page-to-page-to-page just to see what has been added in the past week. You can keep the rest the same for those who like it, but give those of us who are interested in just finding the good stories an alternative to the glaring tiles and multiple pages!
Skip
My tablet is still 9 inches (ahem) but everything on New Queerty seems more open, much easier to read. My 71-year-old eyes and Medicare-approved specs thank you!
Xzamilloh
Okay… I’ll be nice from this point on. Comment wars are exhausting.
Danny279
Old wine in a new bottle. I would be more interested in an overhaul of Queerty’s content. The site needs to be more than an endless stream of posts pushing gender deviance and promiscuity. There should be more of an emphasis on celebrating healthy, well-adjusted, thriving gay people in committed relationships. And it would be swell if Queerty would spend some money on actual journalism. It wouldn’t kill you all to go out once in a while and actually break a news story or conduct a serious interview, rather than coast on the work of others.
Shannon1981
Thanks 1EqualityUSA. Changed it to the Obamas for inauguration. Trump is #NotMyPresident.
ChrisK
How bout fixing things that need a fixn like switching the commenting to Disqus. Wow. changing the colors and size just made it harder to navigate.
Hussain-TheCanadian
I like the new design!! I hope the update included the “we will review your comment” shindig…..because the comments were just blocked over catch words like soc*alism.
Green4Clover
The redesign should have been more Mid-Century modern
1EqualityUSA
Any way to tally comments so that they’re seen on each article? Shannon1981, what inauguration? Beautiful photo, family above reproach.
zoomlens
The new design is horrible. Giant meaningless images over giant but short meaningless headlines. I’m on a full sized laptop and the home page shows just three stories without scrolling. Please follow the suggestion for a sidebar list of stories, or something. Also, some of the story tiles are blank. The new design will require so much more effort to surf through the site looking for decent stories — and I don’t think the quality of your content is going to justify investing too much more effort. Ugg, back to TowelRoad, I guess. Why can’t there be one decent gay news website?
dwes09
While the use of tiles and layout in general are consistent with modern sites intended to function equally well on all platforms, the comments section seems specifically designed to discourage a whole lot of interaction.
There is no reply button (and still no edit function), so it will be increasingly confusing where people try to have ongoing interactions with one or more about previous comments. People will have to remember to cut and paste names as well as text they wish to respond to. Otherwise it will get increasingly difficult to follow.
Please pay serious attention to ChrisK’s suggestion to use Disqus. It uses a hierarchical system where sub-threads are obvious and discussions are easily followed.
dwes09
Also, if there are going to be words that get you flagged, please revisit that word list. Epithets should be flagged by your algorithm, words like racist or racism should not.
kuma6963
Thank you for categories and the bigger look for mobile.
New logo and header – I like it. Or maybe I was just tired of the old, and the new is big enough for me to read ???
icntblvit
Stationary header is waaaaay toooo big.
carlitos_oseguera
A fresh version is always welcome. Queerty you have done it! Thank you for thinking on use and for keeping that design clean and fresh. It’s not just good looking but also so essy to navigate. All generations can be united by one awesome new queerty!
Kieran
Still no like feature?
Josh447
Nice but don’t use gray lettering, some people can’t see it easily. It might look cool but it’s more important people can read your text rather than make it difficult. Basics first decorum second.
Tracy Pope
Nice change. Still needs a “Like” button for comments. Sometimes someone else already stated what one was thinking – and occasionally better written!
dogification
Overall a great job, y’all. I know how hard it is to incorporate a new design overhaul into a nonstop workflow.
Xzamilloh
Ooooooh!! About time you got rid of that ridiculous flag. Unless you just got rid of the long “moderating” speech and just hid the comment. Anyone see me saying “racist”?
Jack Meoff
Yes X I can see your post with the word racist.
Jack Meoff
LOL just as I posted this reply your original post with just the one word disappeared. Don’t know what happened there.
Xzamilloh
Yup…it’s gone. That’s RACIST, Queerty lol
edfu
There is nothing wrong with the current design. This craze to constantly redesign is stupid. But I guess it keeps some people employed.
Jack Meoff
The tile size per article is to big which means you can view less articles per page. Not happy about that. The stark white background is a little glaring as well so a bit harsh on the eyes when you are on a laptop instead of a phone.
New replies system seems pretty cool and I am hoping there are less banned words that will prevent you from posting. Can you please add a list somewhere that we can review to see which words to avoid.
Jack Meoff
One more point. After reading several articles I have to say that I found the old font easier on the eyes. The stark new font may look good but not as easy to read for long periods.
Jack Meoff
It seems every time you skip to a new page the top left hand tile is blank so that needs fixing. Also, why do some articles have an orange flag indicating how many comments there are and not others. We need to see how comments per article for every article so we know if there are new comments since the last time we looked at it like it was on the old format.
Scott Gatz
Jack, we’re working on that blank tile. And as far as blocked words, we’ll wait and see how commenters behave, hopefully a few bad commenters won’t ruin it for the rest of us.
sfcarlos65
I like the design.
jag4313
It was take some time to get used to but I like it.
JessPH
I’m loving the minimal and flat design. It’s very modern.
I wish though that they used a comment section where we can upvote and downvote comments so the best comments gets to be on top and the worthless ones on the bottom. Disqus or Facebook would have been perfect.
DCguy
I like the reply feature
Karlis
One thing that would be really nice would be for you to remove that Facebook, Twitter, print and E-mail thing on the left side of the screen, because it blocks part of the content. I think most of your readers would be smart enough to find those things at the bottom of the page, where they are on most websites. Thank you.
Raphael
Overall, I like this new design but we need some color. It’s just too white and bright, my eyes hurt.
Shannon1981
I see the reply feature on mobile, but not on desktop. Can you fix that, please? Also, I liked when each comment was numbered. That worked really well for very long threads. Would you consider adding that feature back? Thanks! Great job, guys.
DMRX
The large tile format makes it a pain to scroll, click “more,” and then scroll some more to look for articles I might have missed. I’m usually on a tablet when perusing this site.
Instead of the drastic change, I would have much-preferred Queerty’s writers committing to typing their articles in a program with a good grammar- and spell-check function.
Sammy Schlipshit
Listen up!
If we must be subjected to pop ups on each video at least add a volume control. It’s too damn loud. Much louder than anything else I watch. There’s no way to mute.
Turn it down at least.
Fix it.
Eye of the Beholder
The new design is not better. The old site used to show us how many comments each article had already accrued. That way we could make a more informed decision as to whether or not we wanted to cllick the bait.
Shannon1981
One more thing – whatever made your comment section randomly hide people’s comments for months and/or years on end is not working. I couldn’t post at all last night, and now my comments are in moderation, despite my not saying anything that should even be in the ballpark of ban-worthy. I hope there are actual human beings around..
Since there are still issues, can you bring back that section where we could leave comments that aren’t a comment section, or could someone check inboxes, tweets, or the facebook page?
1EqualityUSA
Queerty was easy to navigate, the comments were tallied so that we could see if words were added to the thread without having to click it open and scroll. The new font is easier for phones though hard on the eyes with a lap top. Thanks for not making a black background! The old Queerty was quaint. Is the library of articles still available? I used Queerty as an example of how sites ought to be laid out on surveys. You guys had it. The ease of the font, and the library of articles, the pleasant color scheme made it very easy to return. The two stick figure men and women are gone too, one of the few signals that the site is inclusive. Is there a possibility to choose either format? Thanks for existing.
Scott Gatz
Yes, all the old articles are still there. You can go to the home page and press More and then click through all the pages to get to articles waaayyy back to 2005. We don’t have a plan to allow you to go back to the old design, but give the new design a few days and let us know about the font, etc then.
1EqualityUSA
Thanks for your kind response, Scott Gatz. The previous library had a box in which any word typed in would bring up all articles related. For example, “Jimmy Carter” would instantly bring up all articles about this kind, gentle soul. I don’t see the “more” button. Thanks for not choosing a black background. I’ll add this to the list of things that the cosmos finds out about and takes away. I have a curse. No matter if is deodorant, a canned drink, an indie band, skis, or what, the cosmos finds out that I like it and it goes away. Sorry, other Queertiers, my curse affected all of you. I never meant to harm you.
1EqualityUSA
I figured out the article library thing. I typed in Jimmy Carter and all the articles came out. Right on, babes. The little 3 line icon thing, like an equality sign, but with an extra layer, got me there. woof.
Shannon1981
Thank you for restoring my commenting ability. Is there a way to contact you to tell you when this happens again? I’ve no way of knowing if it’s a bug or what. I was a years-long commenter here, then randomly couldn’t post for more than 2 years. I got the ability back, then lost it, then comments went into moderation.
There really should be some function to address this. Thank you.