I’m off to the airport now for a trip back east, where I’ll (thankfully) be out of La-La-Land’s grip for a solid two weeks. Guy will keep things going here on the ground while I’m in the air (I just noticed “WALL-E” and “The Wrestler” landed Best Picture nominations with the London film critics while Heath Ledger was nominated as a lead — more on that to come). But in the meantime, a question: Is the “featured content” gallery more trouble than it’s worth? I’m quite aware of the slow load, the pictures cascading down the page for a bit before snapping into place. Some have said it’s not a big deal, others have an issue with it. I’m working on something that will keep that from happening, maybe something simpler, but as is, is it a hindrance to the site? I’d love your feedback on that.
Comments
30 responses to “Jet plane”
i think its more trouble than its worth.
It doesn’t bother me. It only takes about five or ten seconds on my end.
It takes time to load properly and that’s a hinderance. You don’t want people dissuaded from the site because of something like that. Look into fixing it.
It’s not a big issue, but I’ve never really used it. Though I admit the pics look nice.
I agree with Chris, nice pictures.
But really, you’d benefit from getting rid of it all together. It’s too much of a load and slows down my reading of the site.
Yes, nice looking indeed… but a problem. It takes a while to load.
Yeah looks fine, but I would prefer it to be fixed or gone.
It takes too long and annoys me.
I’m inclined to agree. It takes too long, it’s annoying, but the biggest reason I have for getting rid of it is that I don’t click on it for the content. It does look good and I’d say keep it if you can get it to load faster but yeah, it may be more trouble that it’s worth. Glad you addressed this.
This is one of my favourite sites, and I’ve definitely been checking it less frequently (ONLY 25 times a day) due to the loading time. Appreciate the attempt to jazz up the place, but something else would probably be more beneficial to everyone.
Thanks!
i’ve had problems with it. i have a very slow computer and at times it can take up to a minute for the pictures to snap back into place.
Nah. I’m used to it. But I don’t perticularly think it needs to be there.
I like the idea of the featured content gallery if you can find away to stop the cascading pictures. If not, then my vote is to do away with it.
I thought I was the only one bothered by it!
I’ve noticed those things have become very trendy on a lot of websites. In my experience, it sure looks pretty, but I never actually use it. So if it’s presenting technical problems, which it is, go with content over style and get rid of it.
If you still like the functionality, though, you could easily code in a small banner at the top that could either be just one picture, or just a link: “Today’s Featured Article: Etc.” Again, not as pretty, but just as functional.
Get rid of it. I can’t even properly load the page on my laptop.
I’d say I agree for the most part with what people about that it looks nice, it takes a little time to load, and I never click on it. I’d say my biggest gripe is that, while I can stand the wait when I’m on my laptop, it takes an impossibly long time on my iPhone.
i really think you should get rid of it. i’ve never once used it to navigate the blog and it takes a minute to load.
I agree with Michael. Have just one big picture at the top that represents a top news item. You can embed a link to the article for convenience. You can change the picture and link daily, or whenever there is a new major news item.
I think that would be much more efficient than having to wait for all the photos to snap into place every time.
Nice pics, but too much of a hassle.
it usually takes no more than 10 seconds to upload, and it does look pretty indeed.. so, not troulbesome at all… but as others have said, never used it. it surely isn’t stoppingme from visiting your website more than once every day..
It doesn’t stop me from visiting (what would?), but what’s the point, really? It takes a little while and I barely ever use it.
Nice pictures, though :)
Guess my vote probably doesn’t matter now, but I kind of like it.
You’re all just rushing to the grave.
All the FYC ads are more bothersome to me, but I understand a brother’s got to get paid.
Agreed, looks nice but not worth it. Takes way too long, and can be an annoyance.
I say get rid of it. I know I sound like a spoiled minion of the 21st century, but 10 sec is frankly too much. I was wondering if I was the only one getting affected by it.
Good looking? Yes.
Useful? No.
Pain in the ass when entering the site? Yes.
Would I like to get rid of it? Hell yes.
Great job covering the Oscars and all related ‘stuff’. Thanks.
It takes about 5 seconds to load so it’s no biggie…as long as I can see what I came here to see I’m ok. But I wouldn’t be opposed to you removing it.
I hear you guys. Consider it eliminated until I can find a fix.
I think it should be removed. Not sure what it adds, I don’t feel this site is a place where we need to know what is featured, I am pretty sure we read every article that is posted either by RSS (or similar) feed or just refreshing the site every few hours.