About The New Site Design

It has been a little less than a week since we released the new CelticsBlog design as part of the larger SBNation United launch. That's really not enough time to get used to the new site, but enough time for some of the changes to sink in. And it is certainly enough time for me to listen to and hear all the initial feedback.

First of all, let me make one thing clear. We are listening and considering the feedback. Your voices are being heard, good, bad, or indifferent. I know that some of you are having trouble getting used to the new site and some of you have expressed that you just flat out don't like it. I get it. Understand too that a lot of people really love it and a whole lot of people don't care how it looks as long as we bring the same high quality content every day. It really boils down to a matter of preference.

What I would like to ask you is to have some patience. On the one hand, the site is not going back to the old design, nor would I want it to. On the other hand, the tech team is listening, processing, and considering ways to keep refining the product so that people are happy and it still accomplishes the goals the team set for it. They've already made several details changes and the promise to make sure the site is performing (download times, functionality, etc.) better and better as we get things settled in. I really do believe that this tech team really, really knows their stuff and they especially know blogging. This is what they do and they do it very well.

To that end, if you find any bugs or performance issues or have specific design feedback, you are welcome and encouraged to contact support@sbnation.com -- I encourage you to use that email and be thoughtful in the way that you present your opinions so that hey have a better opportunity to be constructive.

Moving forward, the site is going to have many of the features and elements that you see here now - even if they are tweaked a bit by the design team. So I thought it would be a good idea to introduce some of them to explain how they'll work. Also, and this is important, I ask that you understand that the authors and I are still getting used to this format as well. So we are tinkering and learning ourselves. So I invite you to help me understand which ways to use the tools the best.

We'll start with defining things to help us communicate better. Then perhaps in another post I can do a better job of explaining every element better and soliciting advice on how to use them better.

The Cover - This is the magazine style set of pictures at the top that show the top stories that we want to highlight to everyone - Bullets Forever did a great job of displaying the various formats the cover can be used in. I'll be tinkering with the various formats and I'd really love to hear your preferences.

The River - This is where you'll find the stories and widgets that are below the cover in reverse chronological order. I can actually stick items in whatever order I want - and maybe I got carried away with that early on. For the most part, though, this will be reverse chronological order, just like most blogs.

Storystreams - This is a kind of post that has several updates within that post. It is a smarter way of handling big stories that have many updates (like trade deadline day and media day) rather than editing a single post or breaking it into several smaller posts.

Hubs - These are like mini-blogs on specific subjects. Example: the NBA Previews Hub.

Hopefully that helps you understand just a little bit better and might assist in communicating to the staff what you like and don't like.

Remember, I'm just a humble blogger doing the best that I can for you. This site is part of SBNation and I have a lot of faith in them. They've been very good to me and the site and they very much want to make your experience on the blog enjoyable. Personally I think they are doing a great job and I find the new site to be a huge step forward for the blog. But I understand that not everyone shares this opinion and that at the very least this is going to take some getting used to. I'm very sorry for any discomfort or annoyance that this redesign may have caused and again, I ask for your patience and grace. I really do think that a lot of you that feel that way will get used to the changes and learn to appreciate them and maybe even come to love them.

I take it as a huge compliment that so many of you consider this site so important that it means so much to you. I think it goes without saying that it is a huge part of my life as well. So let's move forward together to make this the best place we can for Celtics fans to come and talk about the Celtics. Thanks very much.