NEWSLETTER
As promised (threatened?) in the Bullets this week, the site changes here at BN are rolling out today.
This is the fourth iteration of BN since we opened shop in 2008, and this was actually the longest we’d gone between site overhauls (over three years, in this case). Given the pace at which the infrastructure on the web and on your devices changes, that basically an eternity.
For that reason, the site had become – in my opinion – very clunky. It still looked OK (on most devices) and functioned passably (on most devices), but getting it there required monthly frankenstein tweaks that pushed things ever closer to a tipping point where the functionality would be so broken that we’d start really pissing readers off. I just want people to enjoy their time here.
So this is the new place. The changes implemented were designed primarily to accomplish two things: (1) a better reading experience on more devices/browsers, and (2) improve site speed.
In service of those two main goals, there are sacrifices. There might be bells or whistles you no longer notice, or something might not quite look the way you prefer it. On those fronts, there are things I might be able to fix – or might be open to changing. Logistically, I will not be able to please everyone – different functions perform differently for some browsers and devices, or interact with other features in certain ways only on certain devices … and so on.
To that end, though: if you notice problems (something doesn’t work, something looks totally wrong, etc.), please let me know in the comments to this post. To the extent you can provide as many details as possible (exactly what’s wrong, your device, your browser what makes the thing happen or not happen, or when it goes away or comes back), that would be a huge help. Rollouts like this aren’t always perfect, but hopefully I can get things ship shape in short order. As near as I can tell on my end, things are functioning properly.
Here’s hoping you find that the reading experience here at BN is improved. And if you find it improved, and you’re someone who has previous blocked ads, may I strongly and humbly suggested you consider turning off your adblocker or at least whitelisting BN. I know ads are often a pain, but we have to display them to pay the bills. If you don’t let them show, we don’t get paid. We work very hard to keep this place going, we try to make a living, and we pay the costs associated with keeping this site up and running. All we ask in return for this otherwise free site: let the ads show.
Thank you very much for letting us do this job. It’s a privilege, we love it, and we just want to make readers happy when they are here. Hopefully these changes will help that a little bit.
