If you’re looking at this from your RSS Reader then the first thing you need to do is visit the site because you are seriously missing out; our new look is smokin’ hawtness.
There’s almost too much to actually share and talk about so I thought I’d make a video but then I realized that no one would watch it since they’d be exploring around the site.
At least I tried.
There is some seriously cool functionality that we’ve added in this revision that I’d like to highlight.
Registration
The first thing that you might notice (or might not) is that you can actually Register to the site! There are a couple of reasons for doing this:
- Creating your own profile so that your commenting experience is better.
- Easier transition for users who would like to Guest Post; all we have to do is change your perms in the backend.
- Long term community development ideas will be better communicated with a registration system (emails, newsletters, etc).
- And more.
I love the fact that we were able to make it look like Twitter’s login system!
Meta and Sharing
I absolutely love this new look and should make sharing much better. In addition, you’ll still get the consistent uX that you had from the last look with “Related Posts.” In addition, we’ve saved some massive real estate with putting the Author Information in a tab-like structure.
More Props to Authors
This is really cool. Seriously.
We’ve increased the value of a Guest Poster to seriously new levels. Not only will you get consistent credit via your bio below the post, you’ll also be able to add a link to your Twitter to get more followers.
But, here’s the kicker: Every single post will have your name right below the title with a direct do-follow link to your personal homepage, site, or blog.
We figured that our Guest Authors should get as much return as possible for the work they do here at ChurchCrunch and it would be more valuable for people to get back to their own sites rather than go to an author archive here.
Obviously this is some serious incentive to consider contributing here (and the other blogs as well!).
Better Product Reviews
We review a lot of web services and products here on ChurchCrunch. Sometimes, they are pretty exhaustive and long; often times you may just want the “bottom line” in terms of what we think the product is worth or how valuable it is to consider using.
So, we added a little feature (with a big box) that’ll give you our thoughts on a scale of 1 to 10. Sometimes that’s all you care about anyways, right?
And More…
There are tons of other smaller things that really make this version shine. I’d rather let you guys explore around and check it out for yourself because this post is getting a little long for me.
Enjoy. Let me know your thoughts in the wickedly-awesome new comment section below.
Hi. My name is Chris Ames and I approve of this redesign.
good.
Looks great! Nice work!
thanks! pretty stoke.d
Looks good!
thanks!
10/10. Would read again.
Hmmm, apparently I posted that 5 hours ago.
“5 hours ago
10/10. Would read again.”
Except it was about 15 minutes ago. :/
weird. i’m going to have to look into that…
Sweetness.
word. thanks!
Gorgeous. I’d totally make out with my screen right now if it were socially acceptable to do so. Congrats on the redesign, 8bit launch, and worlds of opportunity ahead of you.
John & Chris rock.
i wouldn’t tell anyone.
just clean up after yourself
grooviness
Very Nice look. I dig it.
Amazing! So sleek. You’ve created the Chevy 789 of church and technology blogs.
yes. it’s even blue.
Lovin the new design John! Very nice! Excited to see all that is to come with 8bit!
thanks bro. very excited.
Love the new site – very sleek and sexy
thanks mike! we think so too.
Nice work LIFT. Best of luck John and team!
Ooooh, shiny!
It looks awesome and the features are great. So far loving the comment system here. Good work and looking forward to seeing more.
thanks kyle. and thanks for being a part of this community.
I love how the church crunch logo lights up when you put your mouse over it.
How did you do that?
http://nakajima.github.com/jquery-glow/
“Whoa!” (with cadence like Keanu Reeves)
Amazing features you’ve described here; looks can be cosmetics ya know, but the features and bells, that’s impressive. Looks like you’re poised for growth of all kinds.
Pssst, I noticed that my twitter ID was _required_ ? That’s a new one for me. Could this be a new trend, Mr. Trendsetter?
it is “required” isn’t it…
perhaps i should take that out… i’m not actually sure i meant it to be required…! you caught me DJ. not trendsetting!
awe… I thought EVERYTHING you do is trend-setting!
i copy a lot.
final test…
Awesome!
I really love this new theme. I can even see as I am typing this comment..like a typewriter. How EPIC!
I am looking forward to seeing what the future holds for this ever-growing community of nerds.
thanks brian for being part of this community.
really love the new design! I’m a long-time reader and liberal religious minister who doesn’t share your theology but is constantly learning from your posts and others. Thanks for all you are doing here!
rosemary, thanks even more! i try to stay theologically-simple, but perhaps it creeps in…! thanks for being here anyway! i’m glad you’re learning something.
The site looks awesome – I especially love the review feature!
thanks dude! review is pretty cool huh
Very cool look fellas. Well done!
thanks sam!
wow! VERY nice man!!!
Mega impressed…!!
hey bro.
smokin’ hawtness – yessssssss
20/10 dude.
would have been 21/10 but with my resolution I there is a minor horizontal scroll needed. 1024 x 768 – yes yes yes my work laptop is a retarded piece of junk and I know that not every resolution can be catered for.
really? i’m going to look into that.
WOW! The comments section is one of the best features!
LOVE the live preview. LOVE the author ribbon.
Great purposeful redesign!
~NickShoe
thanks man. it’s been a busy month so far.
Yeah I gotta agree with Nick. live preview and author ribbon are super-impressive.
hawtness.
dude…new site is hawtness
No Intense Debate?
nope. gone.
And for this, I thank you.
Yeah, i’m curious why you did away with intense debate? You didn’t think it was working too well?
I know a guy has to make a buck, but 440,778 pixels of ad space on this page alone? Seems to be getting a little ludicrous. Really kills the experience for me.
point well taken bro. much of this is still an experiment.
well, if you are going to have an “online mistress” … at least she’s hot
nice work
thanks dude. interesting gravatar there…
Looking good John. Can’t wait till there are more items under the 8Bit drop-down.
YES!
Wow.
<3 the new colors, content placement, focus on the end-user-experience and even the bling such as the live comment view. However, I'm not sure if I'll miss the Intense Debate integration or not.
P.S. Careful how high you set the bar, guys. Each chin-up (redesign) from here on out gets much harder!
P.P.S.
My comment was NOT 5hrs ago. It was now.
i think that needs updating…
ROFL.
2 hours ago, it said I posted this “5 hours ago.” Now it says it was posted “4 hours ago.”
Need some help with that counter logic?
Oh, and I didn’t get an Email notice when you replied to my comment. (I did get an Email when RonTuffin replied to the thread, though.)
Sign me up for BETA!
After a page-refresh (I forgot to login before commenting), it now says it was posted “3 hours ago.” We’ll eventually get there.
yeah, gotta fix it.
oh. yeah. i don’t think i’m interested in a redesign anytime soon…!
Looks awesome John. Love how simple it is and easy to look at. Keep up the good work!
thanks josh!
I don’t know if I’m more excited about the actual UI/UX redesign (which is totally awesome), if I’m more excited about not having a particular commenting system totally eat my comments.
Seriously though, this is good stuff John (and Chris, too
. Congrats.
comments ftw.
Nice redesign. It reminds me so much of http://mac.appstorm.net
DEFINITELY an inspiration. they are the bomb.
It really is smoking. Great job!
Really like the new site! This is an awesome network!
10/10
thanks erod!
Very nice. I likes the comment section.
Uh… extremely cool. In the usual tradition of John Saddington and whatever talented cronies helped out!!
thanks brandon!
Cronies? Not sure if I should feel insulted or honored…
the community here is worthless. don’t mind them.
she’s sexy alright!
hanks lon!
Very impressive. I like what you’re doing for guest post authors. I don’t know if I’ve seen a site go so out of its way to give credit to their special contributors.
yes. trendsetting here.
Looks pretty sweet!
thanks steven! thanks for being a part of this community.
What a great new design, love it!
thanks mike!
Seems some comments are not able to be replied to. Strange. Does it only allow for so many replies before it cuts off?
only responses up to 3 replies… we could increase but it might look weird.
NICE! I was up until 12am redesigning Tyler Stanton’s blog last night, haha funny that you went live with yours at the same time
It looks great, Although I would have thought that you’d develop it yourself?
co-developed perhaps. a number of reasons, but here’s one that i really agree with: http://adiirockstar.com/2009/12/working-with-the-best/
Fantastic.
thanks! sarnaa!
Looks like an excellent redesign, very visually appealing and even futuristic. Question, are you planning to theme the login and registration pages now that it will become a larger part of the interface that many people will interact with?
yes. we didn’t have time and i’m busy.
not essential… but yes!
Ooh – so nice lookin’ and so easy for slackers and laggers like me to understand how to navigate and participate. Good work!
GREAT!
Yes, I love the live comment preview idea… but is it working?
Anyway, looking forward to all the coolness that this will bring.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
it is.
After looking around a bit, I like the simplicity up top with the three categories: Community, Strategy, and Web Tools (I think that’s what they were).
Frankly, I think the RSS + Twitter followers is gimmicky. It looks too inflated to me. Twitter followers are different from RSS readers. Maybe I’ll get used to it though.
Overall, I like the look. Very sleek.
-Marshall Jones Jr.
yes. what i’ve done is now combined them directly. we’re working on a long term strategy. would love your thoughts!
Simple, clean, and elegant. Good job!
thanks rodlie! thanks for being a part of this community!
I just licked my screen.
Gross? Yes.
Necessary? Absolutely.
Looks Great John!
thanks chase!
I like. Now, how is it on a mobile? …
(loading the site…)
not bad, I like it.
we’re developing dedicated mobile versions. stay tuned.
Nice redesign…definitely has a tech feel to it. Good job!
thanks coach!
Really like the redesign, but my favorite part by far is the comments area. Very nice.
thanks kyle! we had a blast doing it.
John and Chris! I love this design! This live comment thing… pretty cool. Does this mean that if someone else is writing a comment at the same time as me, that I’ll see them type all GooWave style? You guys rock!
that would be neat.
Not sure if this was asked or posted but curious… is this built on the Standard theme?
yes. the design is obviously similar and the code base is leveraged, especially the SEO parts.
standardtheme.com baby!
Mobile version?
were are developing that for later q1. dude, you’ve got standards!
mobile version would be tight! awesome that it’s coming John!
John, I think I already said this, but I have to say it again. I absolutely love your new redesign. It’s so clean and smooth looking. How could I get something that looks half as nice? Any recommendations? I’m looking to redo my blog soon and just want something really simple and clean looking.
thank you so much! standardtheme.com honestly is a GREAT place to start. we built these sites based on those design principles and code!
Ok…last question..for real and I’ll stop bugging you. Standard theme vs. Thesis? What do you think? Be honest.
rodlie, they are two really different beasts. STandardtheme is all about the blog. thesis can be a content management system. our goal with teh standard is to be the best darn blogging theme ever. it won’t do CMS or static sites.
I love the new design, so sleek and aw3some.
The thing I love the most, is the glow around the heading, and the fade. I wanna learn how to do that for myself.
that is a cool edition, huh?
I just registered to this site! Nice nice nice and nice site!
thanks mike! glad you’re a part of this community!