The Redesign, Ctd

By Andrew Sullivan

Megan chimes in:

I've been doing this nearly since the inception of the political blogosphere: I started the predecessor to this blog, Live from the WTC, in November 2001. And I know that a good many of you have been with me the whole time. The new design violates a lot of those conventions and I've heard a lot of angry pushback. Oh, boy, have I heard it.

There's been internal conversation about this, and like James and Ta-Nehisi, I'm optimistic. The internet is great precisely because it enables rapid experimentation, and failure, and change of the things that don't work. But there's no way of knowing whether something will work until you've tried it. Some of the new features are great--there are some hitches in the comment system, but overall, I think most of us agree that it's a huge improvement. The site as a whole has vastly improved navigation. But as with all new products, there probably need to be some tweaks.

The good news is: all this can be fixed and your suggestions and comments are enormously helpful in restoring what was lost while retaining some of the great new stuff. I'm just relieved that the Dish wasn't turned into a bunch of headlines. The sharpest analysis in my book comes from one of Megan's commenters (as so often). I had no input into any of this whatever - except for a final quick check of what my page would look like on a piece of printed paper. Big mistake on my part.

But I feel pretty confident we'll get the fixes you've all asked for so insistently since last week. I've certainly forwarded them all to the relevant parties. Maybe by the time I get back from vacation, all will be well again.