I’ve Been a Naughty Boy and Stayed up All Night Long
When I get something into my head I just can’t let go of it, and last night was no exception.
In the back of my mind I’ve been wanting to try something different with the look of the blog. I wanted to brighten it up a little and make it less cluttered looking.
So I got rid of the round sidebars and changed the grey background to white, but I left the post body area enclosed to separate the content.
It looks a lot brighter and cleaner now, and it will be more manageable and scalable for future changes down the road.
I think I like it. How about you? Let me know what you think. Was staying up all night worth it?
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That does look a fair bit brighter though might start hurting the eyes if you do all-nighters.
There’s always a trade-off
Well, leave all content background white but try dark grey for the body tag.
That should reduce some glare !
Are you referring to the post font colour?
I like it!
Thanks Doug! I’m still working on the fonts though.
It looks all clean, crisp and organized. Can you come clean up my blog house? Great job Bloke!!
I’m sorry, Blog Bloke but it doesn’t look that much different to me. Not enough for a nights loss of sleep anyway. I’ve had those nights myself!
Your site looks fine as it is. Just keep adding the great content.
kool blog, awesome blog
No Bloke, I was talking about the background.
I ment that you could try dark grey on two sides just like my blog (www.maniar.ca)
or ProBlogger.
(Any dark colour should do !)
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
Ah, I just got up after a few hours nap. I feel so much better now and I can see straight again.
Cool! More comments. Hey Sean … so I’m a slow worker, OK?
The reason I was up all night is because I was tinkering with so many different ideas, colour combinations etc. When the creative juices are flowing I can’t turn it off and time flies. But I finally settled on a simpler design that would be easier to manage and on the eyes.
Those rounded edges on the sidebars were really hooked into the code and it took almost as much time to get rid of them than it took to make them. I also had to do a little photoshopping with the border around the post content area. And like I said, I’m getting a little slower with age perhaps (but fine wine isn’t made overnight either). I guess it goes with the territory.
Don’t worry, I’ll keep banging out the content but I’m reserving the weekends for template tinkering and losing my sleep. I’m also reconsidering what type of content I want to write but I will post about that later.
Cheers, and thanks so much for taking the time to critique the Bloke.
Thanks Tica. Just call Bloke’s Housekeeping @ 911.
Oscar, you are too kind sir and your check is in the mail.
Jaffer, so now you tell me after I changed the fonts
Actually I liked the idea and I’ve made some fonts less stark looking, so thanks.
I’ve tried different colours, rounded corners etc. for separating sidebars from the content but this time I’m going for the so-called cleaner look. And don’t forget the first rule of website design — “white is your friend”
I have a suggestion for you. Ditch the .ca like you mentioned and go for the cheaper (and better) .com. Those canuks are a rip-off. And please turn on your comments. So many times I’ve wanted to leave you comment … but where is it?
Thanks so much everyone for the great comments. I really appreciate you taking the time to write and it helps me with my perspective. Especially after an all-nighter when the eyes aren’t working all that well.
Keep it coming.
It looks great, although I liked your old look as well. Any more plans to move to WordPress soon? I’m using it on my podcast blog, but I still seem to be able to do most of what I want (most, but definitely not all) on Blogger.
Thanks Jason. I’m most definitely Wordpress bound but I’m using the opportunity here to tinker with ideas for the new theme.
The bottom line for me with Blogger is it’s comments suck. Otherwise, I would probably just stay here.
You’re not as naughty as me!
You too? By the way, your blogger profile link isn’t working.
Hey Bloke thanks for your advice(s).
Sorry I was late in commenting the last time.
I am in the process of moving my blog to maniaravings.com. I found a real good deal with A Small Orange.
Yes you will be able to post comments on the new blog !
Congratulations on the .com. Now you can afford to go out for dinner and celebrate. Woohoo!