Update 4: First of all, thanks to everyone for your kind words and your patience.
I’ve finished rebuilding SFN from scratch, and as you can see, the site looks dramatically different as a result. As I pointed out in the comments, it is mainly because the styling code that SFN has used for quite some time has reached end-of-life and I had to scramble and find something that worked and was available to replace it. Yep, it’s different all right and will take a lot of getting used to. There are some benefits, though:
- You might notice that there’s little if any blue left on the site. No offense to our UNC or Duke readers, but those colors don’t belong on this site. I’ve been meaning to fix that forever and finally got around to it.
- The pages now size to your monitor and fill the browser edge-to-edge. That’s nice, because I swtich back and forth from a 1920*1200 screen to a laptop that’s far smaller, and with the old design, the browser in full screen looked 1990’s.
- The site is far faster. I never realized how out-of-date the old style’s PHP and underlying Javascripts were. I can see a dramatic reduction on the server load, which will hopefully translate to faster load times for you. Of course, I went through the database, the OS and the web server itself with a fine-tooth comb today and optimized it while I was looking for the source of the errors that started this process in the first place.
- I think that the look in the comments make them easier to read. Sometimes long threads would make my eyes bleed, but I am getting older. Hell, I remember the first game Lou Holtz coached. I also remember selling mixers Coca-Colas when I was 12. And I get to see Thompson play…in person. You get the picture.
That’s my take. The important thing is that we can share our takes and opinions just like always.
Last thing: I do need to update the photo-bar and will be working on that after I get some dinner.
Update 3: Never mind these ugly pictures. They will be changed. I had to use a new style-sheet, as I don’t have time to carve out a new one and also make sure it is compatible. The default photos are going to be exchanged, but right now, I have other fish to fry. You guys can comment on articles, however, and that’s a MAJOR improvement from 4pm today.
Update 2: You can now leave comments.
I am working to rebuild our site’s look and feel, and right now, it looks like this upgrade and the theme layout were not compatible. The replacement theme that works is ugly (as you can see) and I am working on that.
Update 1: I’ve wasted enough time with half-assed support and more false starts than a typical Amato offense. I am rebuilding the site from scratch and it’s going to be ugly around here for a while. Bear with me, I don’t like the Carolina blue theme either and it is temporary. If things are looking strange or the site doesn’t react for a few minutes, it is because the monkeys are at their keyboards typing furiously.
Hi folks –after a so-called minor upgrade of WordPress (the underlying blog software) late last night a major problem has erupted: users cannot leave comments.
We are aware of this and are working with the vendor to try to figure things out. That is going to take some time on their end as well as ours — we have jobs that we would like to keep and time is at a premium. So, until we hear from the WP folks and until we get some time to roll up our sleeves and get gritty in the code, this issue will continue. Hopefully that won’t be a long term issue.
Anyhow, please bear with us. We’re working on it. –Alpha
