As you can see, we've made some changes to the layout at KnoxViews.
I was reworking some of the plumbing (rewriting the psychedelic template and CSS by hand using notepad, well actually TextPad, into something I can read and maintain while replacing HTML tables with CSS where possible) and went ahead and did some minor cosmetic surgery in the process.
The new layout is intended to make the front page more focused on content v. navigation and to relieve some of the congestion to allow for a little more white space that hopefully enhances readability. It should also load slightly faster without having to render all those complicated tables.
The login and navigation menus have been moved over to the right, and they have been tidied up a bit.
The main change to the menus, other than location, is that "create content" has been replaced with direct links to the kinds of content you can create, like "New blog entry," etc.
We'll be tweaking things over the next few days, I'm sure. Please let me know in comments if you find something missing or odd or not working, or just let us know what you think.
Thanks!
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Topics:
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Discussing:
- Are Chat bots a waste of time? (1 reply)
- Smith & Wesson noise problem (1 reply)
- Musicians dropping out of President's Freedom Concert Series (1 reply)
- It's time for new blood in Congress, Barnett in - Burchett out (1 reply)
- Burning Down The House... (2 replies)
- Behind Lege Lies (1 reply)
- Peace (1 reply)
- Speak your truth, fight and believe. (1 reply)
- Large banks have too much AI data center debt? (1 reply)
- GOP misleading on federal health care funding (1 reply)
- Feds indict civil rights group (3 replies)
- Georgia issues burn ban, first time in state history (2 replies)
TN Progressive
- Smith & Wesson not a good fit for Blount County (BlountViews)
- Pellissippi Parkway extension delayed again (BlountViews)
- Blount County early voting record turnout (BlountViews)
- Louisville, TN, town center coming soon? (BlountViews)
- WATCH THIS SPACE. (Left Wing Cracker)
- America As It Is Right Now (RoaneViews)
- A friend sent this: From Captain McElwee's Tall Tales of Roane County (RoaneViews)
- The Meidas Touch (RoaneViews)
- Massive Security Breach Analysis (RoaneViews)
- (Whitescreek Journal)
- My choices in the August election (Left Wing Cracker)
- July 4, 2024 - aka The Twilight Zone (Joe Powell)
TN Politics
- Providers scramble as Tennessee tells sick, disabled immigrant kids they will be reported (TN Lookout)
- Bloody UFC cage match on White House lawn marks Trump’s 80th birthday (TN Lookout)
- Local Tennessee officials are putting data center plans on ice to consider regulations (TN Lookout)
- Judge blocks Trump’s ‘anti-weaponization’ fund until government agrees it’s been dissolved (TN Lookout)
- Five laws passed by Tennessee lawmakers in 2026 face legal challenges, so far (TN Lookout)
- Tennessee’s “Nuclear Family Month” is a slap in the face of dads fighting for their children (TN Lookout)
Knox TN Today
- War time drive at Knoxville High School (Knox TN Today)
- TDOT outperforms on Alcoa Highway; Snowden new director (Knox TN Today)
- Abby Ham reflects on 23-year journalism career and new entrepreneurial journey (Knox TN Today)
- Wallace Real Estate expands with Bristol-based historic property specialist (Knox TN Today)
- Smoke alarms: What every household should know (Knox TN Today)
- Above & Beyond: Libraries let readers “Check Out” a person instead of a book (Knox TN Today)
- 6/16 HEADLINES: News and events from Knox, World, USA, Tennessee & Historic Notes (Knox TN Today)
- MC Computer Programming Team earns success in competition (Knox TN Today)
- How an automatic savings plan can help you reach financial goals (Knox TN Today)
- The necktie started with French nobility (Knox TN Today)
- Famous DGG is out there, DeSean Bishop is here (Knox TN Today)
- Thomas Cole: New KFD Asst. Chief, 134th Wing’s Chief Master Sergeant (Knox TN Today)
Local TV News
- Construction begins on new animal shelter in Anderson County (WATE)
- 17-year-old accused of killing Lenoir City teen indicted (WATE)
- Where does the Summer Wells case stand, five years later? (WATE)
- 'It's gotten complicated' Farragut residents divided over potential permanent closure of Boring Road (WATE)
- 'A lot of questions' Cleanup continues in Morgan County after train derailment (WATE)
- Federal rules complicate push for I-75 noise wall for Knoxville neighborhood (WATE)
News Sentinel
State News
- Lawyer Meredith Mochel launches campaign for Red Bank city judge - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
- Teen charged in connection with disappearance of Collegedale man - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
- Vols’ new strength coach may play key role in Baylor star DGG’s decision - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
- Chattanooga’s July 4 drone show needed federal approval due to Spanish national team - Chattanooga Times Free Press (Times Free Press)
Wire Reports
- Air Force B-52 bomber crashes in California, killing all 8 on board - The Washington Post (US News)
- Banks Slash Oil Price Forecasts After U.S.-Iran Breakthrough - Crude Oil Prices Today | OilPrice.com (Business)
- On a ‘beautiful day for jumping,’ a plane of skydivers plummets to the ground - The Washington Post (US News)
- China retail sales sink for first time since Covid - Financial Times (Business)
- Japan Raises Rates to 31-Year High to Ward Off War Inflation - The New York Times (Business)
- Gov. Gavin Newsom Says Trump Is Investigating Him and His Wife - The New York Times (US News)
- Inside the fight over Claude Mythos 5 - The Verge (Business)
- Asia markets temper Iran deal optimism, BOJ hikes rates - Reuters (Business)
- Exclusive | GM in Talks to Supply Weapons Parts to Lockheed Martin - WSJ (Business)
- Teen accused of killing stepsister on Carnival Cruise taken into custody following adult charges - AP News (US News)
- Republican divides and strange alliances emerge ahead of Georgia runoff - AP News (US News)
- Second Dan Sullivan ineligible for ballot in Alaska Senate race, official rules - CBS News (US News)
- Oil plunges, stocks jump on US-Iran peace deal - Yahoo Finance (Business)
- Trump Says the Deal With Iran Is Complete. Not So Fast. - Slate Magazine (US News)
- Why Fox Stock Is Tumbling After $22 Billion Roku Deal - Barron's (Business)
Local Media
Lost Medicaid Funding
Search and Archives
TN Progressive
Nearby:
- Blount Dems
- Herston TN Family Law
- Inside of Knoxville
- Instapundit
- Jack Lail
- Jim Stovall
- Knox Dems
- MoxCarm Blue Streak
- Outdoor Knoxville
- Pittman Properties
- Reality Me
- Stop Alcoa Parkway
Beyond:
- Nashville Scene
- Nashville Post
- Smart City Memphis
- TN Dems
- TN Journal
- TN Lookout
- Bob Stepno
- Facing South

Note to those who view
Note to those who view source and still see psychedelic HTML. Drupal generates most of that. The entire page template for this site is now 84 lines of HTML, and the style sheet was reduced to about 2100 bytes from about 13K before. The rest of that stuff is on Drupal.
Ignore user?
Can we block replies by those posting that we find tedious or offensive with this feature? I can only think of one that would qualify for this.
Interesting. I'm not sure
Interesting. I'm not sure about it yet but I like new stuff so have at it.
Beats the new look at the
Beats the new look at the KNS.
I like it!
I like it!
Visit us at:
The Home
First impressions
I like the new layout. I love the wide discussion summary and upcoming events. I like the order of the boxes in the double column section. I also like the tone-on-tone color scheme.
There's something I don't like about the font in the actual content section, but I'm not sure what. Maybe it needs to go down a point? Or maybe tighten up the line spacing? Also, the line that identifies the source blog and the the comment count just fades out. If you don't want to keep the bold, maybe go with the same color you use to flag new comments in the discussion summary?
The comment page seriously needs a separator between the comments or a greenbar layout or something. Note the similarity between the titles and the link in redmondkr's sig. Also, the "new" tag shouldn't be in front of the photo; it makes it wander left and right on the page when someone doesn't provide a photo.
I like it. Though I agree
I like it. Though I agree w/ mjw's last paragraph about the comments needing delineation.
Thanks for the feedback and
Thanks for the feedback and suggestions. Some tweaks made...
The change works well for
The change works well for me.
One suggestion:
On the Blog-O-Rama and Media Blogs side bars, it seems to run together. Maybe double space after each bullet?
The dogmas of the quiet past, are inadequate to the stormy present.
President Abraham Lincoln 1862
Thanks, Gary. Adjusted the
Thanks, Gary. Adjusted the spacing a little.
looks good
Drupal is a great platform.
Lots of people using it, including the White House.
Here's a look at it's penetration:
(link...)
I also love Textpad as an editor.
Not too much, not too little.
Oh, yes, the page loads much faster. Tables are so web 1.0! :-)
"If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy?"
very nice!
I like the look.
I like it, but
I'm liking the change, but I wish y'all would go back to full feeds for RSS. It's a hassle having to come here to view it when I should be able to read it in Google Reader.
But I'm digging the sharpness of it, and it is definitely faster.
I like the layout of the
I like the layout of the stuff on the right.
It seems the left-hand content column could use something more to delineate individual entries. It looks just a little bit too plain.
Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.
Second Impressions
Really liking the tweaks so far. The boxes around the comments will be particularly helpful when nine and metulj go on so long in dialog that the comments end up about a word wide. ;-)
I was on the fence about the button bar below a post, but taking the buttons down a size makes all the difference. And I like the Shortcuts box. (I had just noticed those orphaned buttons last night, and now you've already fixed it.)
Good job.
Thanks, mjw, and everyone
Thanks, mjw, and everyone else for the comments and feedback.
Other tweaks this afternoon include rounded box borders for Firefox and Safari browsers, and a completely revamped events/calendar app.
I was looking at the Drupal code for the old events module to tweak a couple of things, and decided it was too ancient and bloated (like me) to figure out so I ditched it and recreated it using Drupal content types, CCK, date and calendar modules, and views.
I was also playing around with the Yahoo UI WYSIWYG editor module for Drupal that looks promising, but it's missing a couple of key Drupal things that I couldn't figure out how to customize without hacking a bunch of code that I don't want to maintain.
Anyway, I think I'm done for a few days. It's turkey time! (Wild and otherwise).
It looks better! Brian A.I'd
It looks better!
Brian A.
I'd rather be cycling.
Navigation box
I think it is ok. I need to use it more to develop more of an opinion. Something that hits me from my usage so far, I use the navigation section pretty regularly and now I have to scroll to it a lot. Given my personal usage pattern that is an inconvenience.
Navigation box being Home, Contact, My Account, etc.
Thanks, jbr. What functions
Thanks, jbr. What functions do you frequently use from the navigation section?
Home, My Account, My inbox,
Home, My Account, My inbox, create content and I would group "search" in that category although I have always scrolled down to find the query text box before. I had not previously noticed search in the long list.
I like the different color used for the new comments in the topics list. That is helpful.
I use the mobile version 60%
I use the mobile version 60% of the time and I have noticed something in mobile that would make it work much more conveniently. In the recent discussions section, if I click on the new comment link it doesn't take me directly to the new comment like it does directly below the post. Therefore in a lengthy discussion it can take forever to scroll to the bottom. My bberry scroll ball would appreciate that tweak!
Excellent work! Way to go! :)
R. Neal,
East Tennessee is lucky you are here! :)
-- OneTahiti
@gdrinnen2, mobi should be
@gdrinnen2, mobi should be fixed for new comments, let me know...
@jbr, buttons added (clicking the KnoxViews banner at the top takes you to the home page, or if you are at the bottom of the page there is a 'breadcrumb' with a link to 'home').
Thanks!
awesomeness!
They work like a charm! Now if everyone provided this kind of customer service. . .