The Less Wrong redesign is rolling out. The designers are fixing a few issues, and slight tweaks to the design will be implemented over time.

But for now, please clear your browser's cache so that images and layout work properly on lesswrong.com.

 

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17 comments, sorted by Click to highlight new comments since: Today at 10:58 AM

You probably already know this, but if the CSS was generated, you could minify it and have cache-busting. It looks like this is already done for most of the site's JavaScript. All the CSS includes have cache-busting query strings. Ditto for a good portion of images in the HTML. So currently, users get the updated CSS immediately, but their browser will display cached versions of the images included in url references in the CSS. Adding "?blah=12345678" to the url() references in main.css, lesswrong.css, etc would fix this. Then people wouldn't have to worry about styling bugs due to browser caching.

[-]matt13y10

We tried cache busting, but missed many assets. It was several embarrassing oversights.

Note: on firefox 5, hitting F5, shift-F5 or Ctrl-F5 isn't enough, but hitting the "reload" button on the right of the address bar did the trick.

I closed all the tabs open to LW and cleared my cache, but my username is still partially hidden under the "create new article" button (and in all caps, but I don't know if that was done on purpose). It's not a big deal and doesn't interfere with my use of the site, but it's annoying.

I sent Matt a PM about this last night. I'm sure they're working on it, because another style issue that I pointed out has already been fixed.

Thanks for the pointer, lukeprog, but after clearing my cache, the site still isn't appearing right! My username appears in all caps, I get a list of "nearby meetups" one of which is near antipodal, and the private messages icon appears over the reply button. Oh, and the "not voted up" and "voted up" icons still look almost the same.

With the new design, I can no longer see how many comments an article has without opening it. Is this just me? (My browser is Chrome.)

Ooooh, the banner looks much nicer now that I've gotten it to refresh properly. Thank you :)

Is there still a link to the main discussion page from a user summary page? I can't see it...

hello and thanks for the new site. I've added some links to automated testing. You might be purposefully triggering some warnings to support wierd browsers ofcourse

The pagespeed and yslow tests still show a lot of oppurtunity for improvement: http://gtmetrix.com/reports/lesswrong.com/MwBG3tEn

W3C has some conformance to standards advice http://validator.w3.org/unicorn/check?ucn_uri=lesswrong.com&ucn_task=conformance#

W3C says rss tests pass but compatibility could be further improved: http://validator.w3.org/unicorn/check?ucn_uri=lesswrong.com&ucn_lang=nl&ucn_task=feed#

W3C says the site completely fails mobile compatibility (this is big for me since i browse it mostly through mobile devices with small screens) http://validator.w3.org/unicorn/check?ucn_uri=lesswrong.com&ucn_task=mobileok#

I hope the feedback in these tools can help further improve the site, and particularly improve the experience on mobile devices with small screens and limited data plans.

Take the advice of GTmetrix with a big grain of salt. Many of their recommendations are conflicting ("Remove query strings from static resources" vs "Use a CDN") or difficult/expensive to implement (CSS sprites).

It looks like easy wins would be to enable compression and put script tags after CSS includes. Everything else, meh.

Thanks for analysing the results!

he designers are fixing a few issues, and slight tweaks to the design will be implemented over time.

Out of interest, who is to blame for the new "tweaks"? Was that their own initiative or were Tricycle just following orders?

[-]matt13y50

Why do I find my teeth gritted as I answer this?

Why do I find my teeth gritted as I answer this?

Because I am insulting your baby and inviting you to blame someone else for flaws that you prefer I didn't allege. ;)

Don't worry: It doesn't have your nose... blame the milkman!

[-]matt13y90

Be nicer - studies show that we'll both be happier for it.