In the letters to the editor section, I don't understand why the comments about each letter can't directly follow that letter. As it is, all the letters are published and then all the comments. It's very confusing trying to figure out which comments go to which letters. Seems like a simple thing to correct.

I totally know WHY it's this way, but there's so much going on visually on almost every page that it's hard to find what I'm looking for. It's easy to get distracted. On the home page now for example, the weather and yellow pages seem like 'fluff' and probably could go away without anybody crying a river.

On the left, under Breaking News and to the left of Latest Stories - there's a photo and teaser for an article. I can't tell if this is part of the Latest News or Breaking News at first glance, or something else completely.

I see a bunch of small text things that say "Inside: " followed by an icon or two and a count of some sort. I don't know what these stand for, and they only distract me from the 'meat' of the page.

As you work your way down the page, the columns shift and change width in places that do an injustice to the overall flow of the page.

Also, the banner ad at the top of the home page -- sometimes I see an ad, but sometimes that space is filled by what looks like the main header for SJR, as if it's repeating again in that ad space.

Overall, I can't decide yet if I like this better than the old site or not. I appreciate the updated graphics and well-designed icons, but it's quite bloated. The signal to noise ratio on the old site was better, which is a big factor in how usable a site feels to me. Looking forward to seeing how it develops over time.

Oh and the videos, which now are embedded from YouTube, are quite small. Seems like the embedded size could be the same as the actual size on YouTube. The ratio of screen space on that video page that is actually used for the video I'm looking at is extremely small, like it's being crushed by everything on the page.

Dave and all I greatly appreciate your comments, and I promise to bring these to the table. This is truly a work in progress so I hope we can get some of these issues addressed.

The YouTube thing is a big issue right now, there are a lot of problems with how its integrating into the site. I hope to get this changed in the very near future.

What is everyones thoughts on the content being hosted with YouTube?

I agree with Dave. I'm really up in the air about whether I might like the old site better. I do like the navigation bar and the updated look, but it's so busy that I'm overwhelmed looking at it. I really like the white background and the lines, but I feel it could be cleaned up a bit. Once I played around with it, I figured out where the content I wanted was, but I feel like it could be very difficult for people to find what they're looking for.

I think it could be really good though with only a few minor changes. Good job, Justin.

Justin,

Overall I like the layout. I think you have done a good job in launching this site. With anything there will be some tweaks,

In the comments sections, I dont see the 150 word limit or a word counter. If someone spends 15 minutes typing in a response that goes past the 150 words it might be rejected and their time would have been wasted.

But nice start and good luck with it.

I honestly feel like having the videos hosted on YouTube cheapens the whole experience a good bit. The quality is much worse, and it lacks the professionalism of having your own player. The old player was great, the videos looked sharp and I didn't have a problem with it.

I like the old look much better than the new, but then I'm partial to navy blue. :o)

Justin,

I was wanting to put together a blog about this last night, but I made it to bed before I hit the keyboard. Dave hit on a lot of the same things I was thinking about above with the unnecessary fluff, the large ad banner at the top, and the distractive flow of the main page. Overall, I think it's an improvement (I didn't see any code for tables in the HTML) from the previous design which was used for the past five years(?).

Since Dave covered most the topics, I've only got one. The Logo. Finally I can click it and it takes me back to the main page! Sweet internet tubes, the sj-r has arrived.

This logo is fuzzy and the small print is hard to read, and the capitol icon and the 'sj-r.com' text look like clip art. I never understood why the same logo from the actual paper was never used. It's an impressive logo and most people these days surf the net'z with at least a 800x600 screen. It should fit.

There is probably some reason why the other logo wasn't used, but at least change the compression or format of the new logo to something that doesn't look as fuzzy.

Looking good and can't wait to see future improvements. The sj-r is one of my daily net destinations.

Justin,
How much of the design is customizable and how much is locked down by the Zope template? I imagine Gatehouse wants to keep their papers on the same template, so a lot of the things people want to see tweaked my just be untweakable because of the CMS.

Overall, it's a good change I suppose. It will just take some getting used to the new layout. It is a little jarring how much screen real estate is taken up by either dead space or banner ads, leaving very little room for actual content - especially on the secondary pages.

Again, I agree with Dave about YouTube videos. If you're going to look at a 3rd party provider, I'd look at Vimeo. They support HD content and I prefer their video player.

Or wait and go with Humzoo video. Just saying.

LOL Dave, we will definitely keep that in mind...errr did you just say Humzoo video, is this a Humzoo scoop?? :)

I just want to thank everyone again for the feedback, I greatly appreciate it and we are listening. This truly is a work in progress and we want to work with the viewers to improve their experience (As best we can) A lot of the issues, as Russ pointed out, are out of our control and from the Zope template. We're doing what we can to work them to get things changed, its not impossible it just takes time.

I'm not a fan of the YouTube distro and I'm making the case for the use of a different 3rd party such as Vimeo or Viddler. Not sure if we can make this change or not, but I'm not a fan of our content being dumbed down to YouTube standards (Not that am I very good with video anyway, but I digress)

@RickMonday the word limit has been removed for now, if it works out it will stay that way, if the kids pee in the pool it'll be reinstated :)

@shoo The website has a different logo for branding and differentiating from the print side. I'm not a fan of the new logo either for the very same reasons you stated. Hopefully it can grow and get a refresh along with everything else.

@justin - That's what I figured, but why would you want to differentiate when you're essentially publishing the same thing in two different media formats? Nike is a shoe company that also makes clothing, hats, golf balls - they've all got the same swoosh logo. Why would that be any different? Not unless the design editors think of the .com as the red headed step child.

Anyway, that's my personal rant.

Thanks for fielding our comments. It's great that you guys are taking feedback.

Justin - It's awesome that you and Jason Piscia are so open to feedback on the new site. The Post-Dispatch just went through a refresh (also using Zope, I think) and I doubt they were so open with their readers. So thanks!

Dear Justin,

The new ads drive me crazy! So Big....My child like attention span hates how they move. On the other hand I realize this content is for free...and I just ditched my newspaper subscription because you provide everything online. When they called to renew me I had to tell them I was poor and cheap....but love them.

You guys for the most part have done an amazing job changing with the times to keep the paper alive! Heck yeah journalism!

@Russ Whatever we can do to help the viewers find content they want the better off we will be, I truely believe in open communication from us to the end user.

@Biker Ben The ads are driving me nuts too, but its part of it. The loading time from them seems to be the biggest frustration. We have to pay the bills somehow and with subscription rates down (AHEM!!) we gotta do something. :)

Believe me when I tell you we have a laundry list of issues to address from the readers and will do everything in our power to make it happen. It just takes time. Thank you guys for the feedback, I really do apprecaite it.

I tried to clip the coupons online for my monthly shopping and now my laptop screen is busted. :(

@Joe And that is exactly why everyone should keep their analog subscription to the SJR :)

JDI you get the "FAIL" for today.

I want to be able to see past issues like the old site...where is that option?
I know I can search the archive, but it's just not the same. Other than that I do think the new site has a real fresh look to it and tons of content choices.