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About the revised site layout... Site News
Dear macosxhints readers:

As you've probably noticed by now, the hints pages look a bit different -- the top box in the right-hand column now holds a "big box" ad. This style of ad is quite popular throughout the web (including on many of Macworld's pages), and the advertisers asked about placing a big box on macosxhints.com.

After much experimentation (including placing the big box within a hint's body or between two hints), I believe the right-hand column position strikes the right balance between usability of the site and placement of the ad. To accomodate the ad, I increased the right-hand column width by either 110 pixels (from 200 to 310 in Classic) or 124 pixels (in the other themes, due to the graphic box edges). What this means is that, while it's still possible to browse macosxhints in an 800 pixel wide window, the hints themselves may be narrower than appears comfortable at that width. So if you've been browsing the site with a very narrow window, you'll want to make it 110 (or 124) pixels wider to return to the same width for the hints column.

Thanks for your continued support of the site and its sponsors, who make the whole thing possible...

-rob.
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About the revised site layout... | 21 comments | Create New Account
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The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.
About the revised site layout...
Authored by: Jwink3101 on Jul 28, '05 08:09:38PM

i think it is a little bit distracting but if it means that macosxhints.com will be a better investment for Macworld, then i can survive.

Please don't make too many more ads that make it hard to work with



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: daybrother on Jul 28, '05 08:27:03PM

I think it looks fine. Not too much really. My only problem is that I tried to fax you a comment about it but my fax machine is broken. I can't figure out what to do now.



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: Fabsmartins on Jul 28, '05 09:12:49PM

Thanks Rob,
people don;t appreciate the economics and would love us to live in utopia of moneyless realities.... sigh.... seems like all people do in the web these days is complain, so lets buck the trend (not for bucking sake but because i genuinely feel the following)

Thank you for the care, exploration, time and decication to make the ad sponsor happy but above all the readers happy. Often you see websites slap on poorly thought out layouts at the expense of the readers. It is wonderful to see your level of respect to your reader. I salute you!

cheers,
fabs



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: RawkBob on Jul 28, '05 09:24:30PM

I wouldn't have noticed if you hadn't pointed it out... my mind filters out ads... :)

---
http://www.rawkstar.net - music news and reviews



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: billbarstad on Jul 28, '05 10:25:50PM

Not much different to me, but I use Camino with CamiBlock and don't see any ads here (or, for the most part, anywhere else.)



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Same for me
Authored by: hamarkus on Jul 29, '05 05:57:58AM

Already the build-in ad-blocker of Camino (0.9a) catches most ads, including the ones on macosxhints.

Although I am not sure whether using ad-blockers is good thing since if everybody were using it, ads would be meaningless and a lot of websites would go under because their revenues would dry up, I have never (and I only recently started to use an ad-blocker) bought anything via an ad, and only in handful of occasions ever I clicked on an ad to learn something about the product. (I basically exclusively buy only the products and services recommend on sites like macosxhints.)



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: hrbrmstr on Jul 28, '05 11:04:18PM

Actually, on my PowerBook with Safari somewhat maxed to the screen (normal browsing mode for me) the site looks and "feels" great! Not sure I really remember correctly, but I actually think the hints boxes are more readable now (smaller width can make a text column easier on the eyes).

As one other poster already stated, my eyes tend to filter out ads as well, and as long as they aren't obnoxious or quirky (like Flash-based ads) I doubt you'll hear many complaints.

---
Mind the gap...



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: ostman on Jul 29, '05 06:59:09AM

Looks good, Rob. Economics and the need of your advertisers is a fact of business life. Your way of incorporating the larger ad size works well.

Andy



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: slytle on Jul 29, '05 07:37:37AM

Rob,
I don't mind ads. I understand that they are an economic necessity. I actually even click on one when it interest me. I do find, however, that the animated ones are really distracting and annoying. Does the site really need to blink and flash so much that you need a photosensitive seizure warning on it....

http://www.microsoft.com/games/home/images/photo_warning.gif

Is there anything you can do to make the page a bit more static?


Thanks,

.sly



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: tigers_eye on Jul 29, '05 09:09:55AM

Rob,

Adding ads is fine, but this shouldn't be done at the expense of the webpage's layout. I find the additional width of the right column distracting and a little obtrusive -- a 50% increase in width is indeed significant, yes? I know I can't be the only one who feels this way. I suggest a compromise: reduce the width of the right column, but it can still be greater than it was before.

That said, there are many positives of the design of this webpage. See if the sponsors are willing to compromise, because a well designed layout that best suites the website's services is in everybody's best interest.

Just my two cents... and keep up the good work.



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: gklinger on Jul 29, '05 09:10:00AM

Am I the only person out there that likes ads? I don't like pop-ups or spam or anything intrusive but having advertisements on web pages doesn't bother me. In fact, I often find them quite useful (when they're targetted) and I like that clicking on them makes it very clear which website I'm supporting. I also think the animation makes the page(s) seem more alive.

At any rate, I don't think the new ad placement is annoying.



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: alblue on Jul 29, '05 09:25:14AM

I think the layout works OK, but I would say that the animated ads are the bane of the web and are causing more people to use tools like AdBlock in Firefox. Crucial is the wors advertiser with their animated ads.

On the one hand, I want to support ad-enabled revenue from sites like this one; but the more animated adverts that show up, the more I want to block them. Not sure if you can do anything about it or not, but if you can, getting rid of animated adverts before your client base gets rid of *all* adverts is probably a sane strategy.



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: shavenyak on Jul 29, '05 02:34:23PM

Crucial is the worst? I've seen Flash banners that randomly wiggle around like a scalded cat with Parkinson's disease. Yahoo used to have a Ford ad where a little Explorer drove right across the web page, obscuring the text. And who can forget the ads that are designed to look exactly like a Windows XP system alert popping up? Crucial's ads are downright tame in comparison.



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: pub3abn on Jul 29, '05 09:41:43AM

I don't mind the new layout per se, but please -- if you have any say-so in the matter -- put a ban on hyper-animated ads. Slow animation (like on the eFax ad) is forgivable. Still, I am more likely to click on an interesting static ad, and more likely to turn on ad blocking if assaulted by glitzy look-at-me-NOW! ads.



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: Laqua on Jul 29, '05 11:02:08AM

I think this is one of the best sites around period. As for the ads, they don't bother me in any way at all. I see what I want to see and ignore what I don't want to see.
lol. I would like to say that it has impressed me to no end that you have always cared so much about what your readers have thought about changes to the site. I really wish that others would learn from your example. Thank you for such a great place to learn and share information. (Ads or no ads, this is the greatest!)

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Thanks
Laqua



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: MJCube on Jul 29, '05 12:38:45PM

I noticed the change instantly. The resulting narrower content column doesn't bother me. Actually, it's a little better for readability with shorter lines.

But overall the layout (at least the Classic one) looks worse right now because of certain margins. With the narrower column, hint titles more often wrap onto a second line, and when they do, the two lines don't align on the left, and there's no space above, which looks bad. A bit of poking around reveals that the left indent of hint titles is currently accomplished with a hard space, which IMO is a bad method. If I were designing it I would specify margins (or padding) on all sides of those title spans in the style sheet, and dispense with the hard spaces.

If this design concern is too picayune for your time, Rob, feel free to e-mail me if you'd like a detailed CSS recommendation.



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: jbouklas on Jul 29, '05 03:36:51PM

Ah, how success changes great projects! I remember when this site didn't have any ads at all, and that was great. Getting a banner ad or two didn't bother me either, because the main point of the site was still hints, and not revenue. But this is getting stupid. When a box ad takes up more than 1/3 of the page, that doesn't sit right with me. Anyway, thanks for this great resource.

-Jim



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: rbrough on Jul 29, '05 05:07:42PM

D'you know... I hadn't even noticed the new ad! It's ok, but - like many others it seems - I would prefer if they were not so... moving.

If you are moving the site around, how about moving the big banner from the top to the side...?

Of course I would prefer the whole site ad-free, but in the real world I know they are necessary evils. Is it possible to keep the total number of ads at the current level? It feels like there is an extra ad spot evertime I look (OK, so I exaggerate).

Thanks for taking so much care over the presentation of the site.

R



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: Anonymous on Jul 31, '05 12:06:21PM

Count me down as one of those who are getting disturbed about the slope Mac OS X Hints is on. I'd much rather you consider alternative revenue streams again (i.e. subscriptions) than laden the site down with animated flashy advertisements. First, there was just a banner ad, and now we have a huge one at the top of the right column and a smaller one. How long until you pull a Boing Boing and people start needing a Greasemonkey script entitled "Mac OS X Hints Butler"?

I am fully cognisant, and appreciative, of all the work you put into making Mac OS X Hints a fantastic site which everyone appreciates. I just am doubtful that this particular path you're walking down with the site is going to lead to much other than more converts to Adblock and PithHelmet.



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: jimboman on Aug 01, '05 09:33:49AM

Count me as another person who dislikes the new layout.

It feels claustrophobic to me... I don't like how everything is pushed over to the left side with such a large box on the right.

Although I love the site and have been visiting for years, I have never thought that the layout or deisgn was particularly strong (sorry...I really do admire the site, though!). Anyway, that said, maybe it's time to open up the site to a little redesign contest. I'm sure there are many professionals out there who have good ideas for creating a nice, readable site, while still including all of the ads that you have been asked to include.



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About the revised site layout...
Authored by: +daily on Aug 02, '05 06:47:48PM

Ha crrrrrram it ful of ad's, why not. Economics? Let's not kid ourselves, it's all about fat profit, not keeping your head above water, or some how managing to keep the site online. You're whipped. I have all ad's blocked, you won't get any clicks from me. Funny how no sooner are you bought out by macworld (which would bring some kind of finacial security to the site.... wouldn't it?) that you "choose" to wack a dirty great ad' and F***k up the site layout. I'm not having a go, just calling it as it is, instead of "oh yeah, I really understand why it is that you need to do this rob." ––

LAME



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