I am very thrilled to be able to announce our new look front page. This will hopefully give us a much more professional appearance and help to get people interested in some of our older lists.
The changes include links to Amazon for some of the popular books listed on the site, as well as links to the lists which featured them. We have also split up the your view topics from the lists, and administrative posts are also separate. Over time I will add more books to the list, and extend the most popular lists to 30 or so.
The changes should make the pages load much faster (though we are currently experiencing a speed glitch, so it won’t be obvious until that is fixed).
The front page also now features hot topics from the forums – which will help to boost the numbers visiting there – and they are definitely worth the visit.
I have tested the page in Firefox 2, Firefox 3, Safari 2, Safari 3 (Windows and Mac), Opera 9, Internet Explorer 6, and Internet Explorer 7. If you use any of these browsers (or any others for that matter) and experience problems, please be sure to let me know so that I can fix them.
The next step for me will be to look at the sidebar and article pages to see if they need updating.
I hope you all find the new look useful.
Looking great J, and working perfectly for me. Nice one!
Whoa! I wasn’t sure I was on the right site at first!
Looks sharp!
Also: Your comment is awaiting moderation.
Is that new??
rhharley: the awaiting moderation has been here forever – it is usually when someone posts something like “first post” or a URL – so we can check it is spam. Where are you seeing it?
out of moderation now.
Yeech, I don’t like the style used to display the new lists. I liked the old style better than this
I like the new front. Looks good!
oops! I mean I like the new front page.
Looks awesome….
great new look this site is awesome
Great new look. Very smart, very impressive. Good work
i think it’s a great start and is looking quite professional. Although, if you were to adjust the placement of a few of the boxes, it would clean the front page up a whole lot more.
All in all, it’s looking great.
Whoa! Let me go back and absorb. This warrents a closer look.
“I’ll be back.”
Ugh!! ‘warrants”
(proofread, girl, proofread)
… unless that’s just how it’s showing up on my browser.
just the administration box needs to be aligned left instead of centre and it should all sit right, then it’s a matter of working out which boxes are better suited in which place.
… i’m a little of a perfectionist when it comes to placement on websites!
great look, more professional look as you said, now all we need is a monument to me and the site is gonna be looking great!
sarahenity: can you please take a screen shot of that section and email it to jamie@frater.com? On all the browsers I tested it on it IS aligned left – this makes me think there is a bug I need to fix if that is not true in yours. Can you also please tell me what browser (and exact version) you are using. This will be in the about box probably.
Very nice
haha i’m on a work computer, but i’m using Internet explorer 6.0.2900.2180 with xp service pack 2 (is that specific enough?) and i’ll send you the email now
Thanks Sarahenity – might I suggest you try to clear your cache and refresh? I suspect you are probably not viewing the correct .css file which caters to IE6 and stops that problem.
Jamie – most likely it is a work computer so there’s bound to be an abundance of problems with the setup
Okay – I just got your screenshot sarahenity – thanks. The problem is indeed that you have an old version of the CSS file for IE6 – a cache clear and refresh should resolve it.
Much Better!…
The old one wasted so much space with the 1st entry of each list.
Awesome.
j…im getting a lot of “WordPress database error”…whatever that is. it says the MySQL server has gone away. Whats going on?
cool, thanks jamie
Jamie, it was above my first comment, #2… but is gone now. I guess I’d just never managed to comment that close to the first before!! LOL!
23RedLeader: Can you make a note of the exact error next time and tell me what it is – as well as the page you were trying to access?
very nice.well thought out and easy to access information……
Kudos
GREEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT…..
sweet changes! thanks jamie!
Any plans to move away form Worpress eventually j?
Juggz: hey – nice to see you around again
I have considered changing away from it (you will recall from some of our discussions a while ago) – but since changing the front page and finding a variety of serious bugs that are now resolved, I think we are probably going to find that the site is going to cope really well in future. Plus I am getting better with my coding and more willing to try out new stuff myself – which means I can add new features without paying someone else to do it 
Great new look!
I love it. Simply wonderful!
damn spammers. fyi the page looks fine on my home computer. very very nice
Okay – a couple of notes – random is broken and the right panel list is broken – I will fix these tomorrow. Fortunately their demise means the site is loading SUPER fast!
Great frontpage Jfrater I really like it. How long have you been working on it?
I love love LOVE it!!
Great job Jamie. I was wondering if maybe you could make the your view section a little smaller and add a few more of the current lists under the thumbnails? I think having the 10 most current lists on the front page desirable. Saves some hunting around.
Nice look. I clicked on “Books that changed the world”, but it took me to “Top 10 books for guys”. I like the new front page. I does make me want to re-read old lists. Good idea!
The number of comments attached to each list on the front page doesn’t match with the actual number of comments. “Fantasy worlds” says “2 comments”. When I went to the list there were about 40 comments. Also the link to this list says “36 comments”. When I came here there are 40.
absolutely dreadful. the old style was so much simpler. too bad you have so many people sucking you off telling you how great everything you do is instead of telling you the truth.
very bad idea, bro.
change it back
I love the layout. Great job Jamie
Amazing. I think you did a good job with the forum thing and the your view and the books and stuff. Also, much easier to get to the lists(instead of scrolling down, especially when there is a tenth entry that is really long). Good job! And thanks, for the new layout and for the site!
Hey… there’s no question that the new front page looks good and works well, so good work there, Jamie. But I don’t know that it’s an *improvement,* per se, over the old List Universe… I kind of liked opening up onto the latest list. I don’t meant to sound ambivalent though–the new front page does look great. Good work.
The only thing I’ve noticed is that when you go the forums, there’s no link anymore (at least not that I can find it) to go back to List Universe itself. I’ve had to use the bookmark in my browser. Am I missing something?
Not sure if it’s an issue connected with the new look but when I click on “View a random list” it just goes to the homepage
Nicowarrior: see my comment 36 which says: “Okay – a couple of notes – random is broken and the right panel list is broken – I will fix these tomorrow. Fortunately their demise means the site is loading SUPER fast!”
Randall: on the forums, directly below the box with the logo you should see this:
“Board index | Return to Main Site”
Clicking Return to Main Site will bring you back to here
badlist: wow – you really can’t say anything nice can you? Going over your old comments they are nothing but vitriol. badlist – you are a dick.
The new site look is retarted.
I particularly like the links at the bottom to show the forum topics. It’s a quicker way for me to navigate thus making it easier for me to ridicule people’s comments in the forum.
And I nominate badlist as the Eeyore of the List Universe.
Keep up the good work Jamie, just waiting for the top ten ***** stars list. (with video links of course – ya know, so’s I can judge for myself)
bucslim: alas I culled the NSFW category so you will have to just cope with top 10 ***** lolcats! And I second your nomination of the great dickhead badlist.
With a name like ‘badlist’… what would you expect?
Is ‘retarted’ going to become an internet meme? If so, can we have it added to the internet memes list?
Tempyra: why not? It can join our Tom “Xenu’s *****” Cruise Meme – we are making history! All in all, I am glad I retarted the front page – it is seriously superior consequently!
Tempyra – I’m old. I don’t understand what you kids are saying these days. I grew up with three channels on the telly. I thought rap was something my old man used to do to keep me in line. So I ask you with all sincerity, what is an internet meme? Buzzword perhaps?
Don’t make fun of me or talk about me when I’m not here.
Ah… this is where I refer you (Bucslim) here:
http://listverse.com/bizarre/top-10-internet-memes-and-phenomena/
Oh and I grew up with no TV… so there! No excuses
If one can say being 23 is ‘grown up’ that is.
I feel so much better now that I’m hip.
And because I just polished of a half dozen glazed doughnuts.
bucslim:
Come now, old man… “meme” is a word that’s been around since… well, I think since at least the 80s, though I could be wrong… but it’s the ethereal equivalent of a gene. So it’s an idea or concept or word or phrase or whatever that is spread around and becomes part of the larger culture. Internet meme is self-explanatory.
What are you, retarted?
And don’t bogart the donuts, gimme one.
The only reason I come to the List Universe is to learn from you Randall. But there’s no need to get all truculent and acerbic on me. I could have kept my mouth shut and curtailed my thirst for knowledge, but I wanted to benefit from the full fruits of vast cornucopia of the scholarship that is our readers. (I’m looking at you, S_R and Bible Dude)
Doughnuts gone = a bittersweet bucslim. Happy to consume, forlorn for more.
Cool its easier to reach everything now.
bucslim:
Truculent and acerbic? Can’t help it. I in fact possess only two emotions: Lust and Disdain. That’s the way god made me.
Donuts gone; bittersweet
Bucslim hadda eat.
Didn’t save one for his friend
just ate like a pig until the end
Now he thinks forlorn he feels
when really upset tummy he’s got
shouldn’t be donut-only meals
for this selfish, nasty fella
day-old donuts, see, got salmonella