Welcome to CelticsBlog 3.0

by Jeff Clark on Dec 30, 2006 12:00 AM EST in CelticsBlog

Welcome to the new look of CelticsBlog.com!

We hope you enjoy the new look and feel of the site. We think you will find it professional looking yet still familiar. We had maxed out the capabilities of the old setup, so an upgrade was necessary. The new content management platform running the site is going to let us do all sorts of fun things that the former software just couldn't handle.Â (fun example: image galleries)

The first thing you might notice is that you can register your user name and that will let you post comments on both the front page and the forums. Yes, this means that youâ€™ll have to re-register your log-in name, but for everyone that signed up as something like â€œStartOrienâ€ or something like that, this is a chance to start fresh. For reference, you can still see the old forums in read-only format. We've provided links to the old blog, Cheap Seats and forums in the left column for you.

This new site also has several new menu items across the top and down the left column. These include a whole section of bookmarks, a calendar of upcoming games and events, and more. Those flags across the top left are translator buttons.Â Now you can read the blog in 9 different languages.Â In the top right you have controls to customize the font and width of the site to your preference.Â

As time passes, look for even more add-ons and functionality.

One last note, there are also some behind the scenes issues that are improved dramatically with this new site. This includes fighting spam, increased speed and capacity, and even better security. Those interested in the platform should check out Joomla.com. Also, a big, huge, ginormous thank you to the amazingly talented Bob Day, who worked tirelessly on this project.

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Great job, Bob, Jeff and everyone else involved. The new template is looking sharp. I especially like the font used in the banner up top, as well as the slideshow.

Thanks tommy point. I actually designed a much nicer logo for this site but the rest of the staff was too squeamish about it. When it was all said and done, Jeff’s wife had to intercede and choose a version which represented a compromise of sorts that those guys weren’t too skerwd of! I’ll be forever grateful to her for that.

by webmaster on Dec 30, 2006 6:38 PM EST reply actions

overwhelming

by Bill Walton on Jan 1, 2007 12:27 PM EST reply actions

Like the new features. Joomla is good stuff.

But not a fan of the new design. Waaaaayyyy too much gray.

and I’m sorry but I hated the last header Graphic and I hate this one even more. The font makes it look like a cheeseball goth site. The gray makes everything look muddy and the flash animation is amateur at best.

However you get an A for content as always.

by betatone on Jan 2, 2007 10:43 AM EST reply actions

betatone said:
Like the new features. Joomla is good stuff.

But not a fan of the new design. Waaaaayyyy too much gray.

and I’m sorry but I hated the last header Graphic and I hate this one even more. The font makes it look like a cheeseball goth site. The gray makes everything look muddy and the flash animation is amateur at best.

However you get an A for content as always.

Opinions are always welcome but you might consider reading some of the site discussions around here and asking a few questions before you come to such final conclusions. If you do so, you will discover the reasons behind why we have the current logo in place and much more about this site as well.

If you are really offended by the new site logo and header images, then we invite you to come up with better things. Specs for the rotating images are published here and I’m perfectly willing to publish our established specifications for new logo graphics as well. That helps you because it gives you the opportunity to back up your comments with do. After all, say without do doesn’t amount to much does it?

BTW, the image rotation you referred to is not a flash animation or applet. It is a program written in W3C compliant Web 2.0 AJAX that leverages better than a half dozen different web languages to produce a simple rotating, cross-fading image sequence that is unobtrusive here, is perfectly integrated into the other million or so lines of code this site is built upon, is as cross-browser compliant as a modern program can be and is easily manageable by CB admins via an extensive backend graphical interface to this website.

If you think that is “amateur”, then you should try your hand at writing such a program. :)

by webmaster on Jan 2, 2007 2:28 PM EST reply actions