New Year’s Reconstruction
You may have noticed a new theme around these parts.
We’re working on upgrading everything about the show, and the site was the first step. I wanted things to be a bit more orderly, because I am a control freak, so I spent a while looking around for new themes. I say a while, I mean a few months.
The thing is, there are so many themes out there that have interesting ideas or good designs attached, but none of them quite do the job for me. I found a couple that were contenders, but there was always something irrefutably wrong with them that couldn’t really be fixed without major work.
The solution, it seemed, was to write our own Wordpress theme. So that’s what I’ve been doing over Christmas. Fun! This is my punishment for being a control freak.
Actually, it was interesting, and although I can’t claim to have done it all by myself, a lot of the CSS is written by my fair hands. So if you find anything irritating, I guess you should point your complaints at my good self.
Seriously though, it’s still a little baby theme, with tweaks happening all the time, but if you see something you think could be done a better way, or any constructive feedback you’d like to make, we’re open to any suggestions.
The quote button that was requested for the comments a couple of posts ago is now up and running, it has issues, but it works. We’re hoping to bring some more buttons to make commenting even easier.
December 28th, 2007 at 12:21 pmAlenyaa said:
The quote button works!
I like the new theme overall, job well done. Have to say that personally I think it would look better if the entries were on the left and Twitter, recent posts, etc on the right.
But that’s just my opinion of course, you’re the boss
Oh, and before I forget: I dunno if this is a problem that only occurs with me or not, but when I click on the comment policy I’m redirected back to the homepage. Just though I’d let you know!
Cheers,
Michael
December 28th, 2007 at 12:51 pmChristine said:
Yes it does!!
Great feedback, very quick! We’ve taken the Recent Posts bit down, feeling it a bit unneccessary. Twitter is now on the right, a little way down.
You were too quick on the comment policy thing, it hadn’t quite been posted, but it’s up there now.
Thanks again!
December 28th, 2007 at 1:28 pma.k.a. the blue orange lion said:
Black and white look is proving to be popular… But why Heidfeld (or is it Kubica)??? I’d expect Montagny to be honest or maybe Jenson, are you guys not supportive of the British teams or drivers? Don’t tell me you’re fond of BMW… This Theissen guy is so holier-than-thou…
December 28th, 2007 at 1:37 pmme said:
i think, we wanted to use a picture Christine had taken herself. she has none of franck driving and the ‘earth’ car looks awful, so that’s jense out of the running.
not sure who’s driving, will have to ask her, but bmw represents a pretty benign team in terms of opinion. a ferrari / mclaren / renault would immediatly raise questions after the 2007 season. whereas i’ve yet to meet anyone with exceptionally strong feelings about bmw.
not sure i approve of all the blatant advertising though, so the piccy may get some more processing before long.
December 28th, 2007 at 1:58 pmClive said:
The driver is Heidfeld, although I agree that it’s enormously difficult to tell from a black and white picture. And I approve, taking it that this is your bet for the championship next year. Quick Nick for champ!
The redesign is great - very clean and well organised. Not that the previous look was bad but this is an improvement, I think.
Oh, and one more BMW comment. Mario Theissen comes across as holier-than-thou simply because he is. I’ve been watching the guy this season and he never puts a foot wrong.
December 28th, 2007 at 2:21 pmOllie said:
Great look “me” and Christine, job well done. I don’t always go for left-aligned sites, but it seems to work okay at your new ~1000px width. Although I do feel the urge to shift my laptop a little.
I will add that I think it is a shame you’ve lost your branding a little with the yellowy/orange graphic going. I can see that it wouldn’t work with the blue/green background, but your ‘logo’ helped distinguish Sidepodcast from the crowd. Just my opinion or course.
Enjoy the new year celebrations if we don’t speak before then.
December 28th, 2007 at 2:53 pmdoctorvee said:
Like Ollie, I’d prefer it if the content sat in the middle rather than bunched across at the left. Apart from that, thumbs up!
December 28th, 2007 at 4:00 pmChristine said:
Thanks guys,
We are working on the centred content
December 28th, 2007 at 4:35 pmOllie said:
body {margin: auto;}?Although I would reiterate it doesn’t come across as being too bad on the left. Maybe my tastes have changed a little since I last spent time on a lefty, but it is okay here. Having said that though, I still think centre is best.
What does this quote button do by the way? I keep getting a message saying the comment box has to be empty before quoting.
December 28th, 2007 at 4:58 pma.k.a. the Blue Orange Lion said:
Not sure about putting a foot wrong: Heidfeld’s pit stop in Barcelona gone wrong, Kubica’s early retirements, picking up podiums only when one of the Ferraris or McLarens was out - come on, you gotta be kidding, it was pretty average year for BMW, they were lucky some teams made a few mistakes, that’s all there is to it.
Besides, Theissen? What’s his claim to fame? That he drives an ugly BMW as a company car or maybe because he wears F1 team uniform or that he is allowed to spend BMW’s money on his own fun or maybe because he runs every day to look fit and OK? Even your humble servant has a claim to fame - I held the steering wheel of Renault R26, can Theissen say the same? No, dude, gotta tell ya - Super Mario sucks and his team is going nowhere.
Joking as usual, I’m a joker you see. I really don’t have favourite teams, I have to confess I dislike Ferrari’s current management, but the old Enzo was an all-right guy, fat Italian with passion for pizza and fast cars, that’s what I would call a cool person.
Have ya seen this movie put out by Ferrari where di Montezemolo acted as some sort of script advisor? No? Well, I have this image in my mind of Enzo the kid rolling around in a bathtub on wheels screaming like madman in thick Fisichella-like Italian accent “Fasterrr! Fasterr!” When all is said and done do you think anyone in Germany will put out a movie like that dedicated to Theissen, I doubt it very much.
If you’re a Brit you should be ashamed of yourself - supporting British drivers is a must, my friend, you’ll see how Jenson kicks everybody’s a*** (british english)/a** (american english) in 2008 and his name will return to the front pages of all the magazines and tabloids, yeah! I fancy an all-British duel of Hamilton vs. Button for the 2008 championship crown, that would be great, yo!
p.s. I’m really sorry that my twin brother went mad again, he wrote it and just started screaming and ran away. I’m the Blue Orange Lion’s twin brother - the Pink Orange Lion (a bit like Montagny’s helmet, aye?), I’m really sorry if he (my brother, not Montagny of course) wrote something offensive, the guy (not the Frenchman, but my brother) belongs in the psychiatric clinic and not Formula 1 blogs and forums where he oftens spreads chaos, panic and destruction, sorry guys, I won’t let him post anything else here, I’ll keep posting myself instead!
December 28th, 2007 at 6:19 pmClive said:
Like all Brits, I have spent time dreaming of a Jenson championship. And, in the same way, I have finally become impatient and drifted off to see how the other half live. I could go Lewis-mad but that is so passé, don’t you think? And obviously the Ferrari and McLaren show has had its best days - they expend their energies in plotting each other’s downfall while others are sneaking past.
It doesn’t leave me a lot to think about, does it? The reason you remember the Barcelona pit stop is because it was so out of character - who imagined that the slick BMW team could actually make a mistake? And Dr Theissen soon had them back in line, like good little Germans.
No, the reason I say Mario never put a foot wrong was his public persona. While Todt was foaming at the mouth at the injustice of it all and Ron Dennis was finally moved to put out a letter rubbishing the Ferrari attitude, Super Mario merely avoids the question with the most diplomatic press releases known to mankind. The guy’s a genius and BMW will be champs.
December 28th, 2007 at 6:42 pmme said:
the quote button works in a similar way to the ones you usually find on forums.
highlight some text from the post (or another comment) and click the button. text is copied into the comments box and wrapped in blockquote tags.
the warning you saw was a quick-fix until we managed to get it to work across various browsers. give it a try now and it should work as expected.
there’s still more to be done, but yell if you’re still seeing errors.
December 28th, 2007 at 7:15 pmOllie said:
Oh, cool.
Yep, works like a charm.
December 28th, 2007 at 8:24 pma.k.a. the Pink Orange Lion said:
Exactly - the guy SO boring, he never says anything funny or interesting. Take a look a Ronster - he has been developing the world-famous Ronspeak and his team uniform is always the craziest in the paddock. Flavio speaks his Italian English with great style and says whatever he wants to say, he owns his frankly exaggerated Billionaire brand, manages a few drivers and just has quite surreal crazy looks, plus he always plots something with Bernard. Lovely, he makes me jump in my chair every time I read his press conference scripts. Good old Williams has a fairly morbid sense of humour which I adore. Stoddart was a lot of fun, Horner jumps naked into the swimming pool looking a bit like ancient Roman in a toga - a classic. Even Peter Sauber was a funnier bloke than Theissen. Berger is no longer a good joker like he used to be at an earlier age. Kolles - a bore but almost funny, Aguri - not a public person. Lauda was good fun at Jaguar, swearing and saying a lot of nutty stuff. Fry - I dunno what to say about this fella, he talks a lot but doesn’t deliver, Richards was a nice bloke, crazy and so on. I don’t think I have anything to say about Toyota - who’s their team principal anyway, a old Japanese guy?
Ya see, mate, what I and probably my twin brother meant was that F1 is short of personalities these days, Eddie Irvine as team principal - that’s my dream, but alas, Edmund is more worried about his cocoon bar http://www.cocoon.ie/ (I hope the link works - anyway http://www.cocoon.ie/).
And one last thing - BMW has the ugliest car range in the world “designed exclusively for people who are mentally dead” (to quote J. Clarkson), that’s why I don’t like BMW in the first place. Maybe only SEAT can beat the sheer monstrosity of the Bavarian peasants’ favourite ride. Disgusting!
December 28th, 2007 at 11:06 pmClive said:
For some reason that I don’t understand, I can’t relate the BMW F1 team to the company’s products. BMWs on the road are so common now that they almost take the place the VW Beetle enjoyed in the sixties and seventies. But the team is different somehow - maybe it’s the connection with Sauber.
Theissen may be boring too but haven’t we had enough of the nonsense spouted by some of the “personalities” of F1 this year? To hear the good doctor speak plain common sense was a breath of fresh air after Flavio’s laughable nonsense, Todt’s furious blatherings and even Ron’s circumlocutions.
I dunno, maybe I’m old fashioned but I like the team, the drivers and the manager. Quick Nick for champ in 2008!
December 29th, 2007 at 12:07 pma.k.a. the Pink Orange Lion said:
Correction - to hear a good spin doctor speak plain common tales IS always a breath of fresh air.
But I can understand your point of view, OK, still I liked old Sauber Petronas team and their surreal livery much more than purely bourgeois current colour scheme. And Super Mario goes on about things in a monologue that’s close to Raikkonen’s mumbling, our team, bla-bla, our technology, bla-bla, today we onced again showed that we are the 3rd fastest team on the grid - how can anyone be satisfied with that, 3rd fastest! Second is the first of the losers, right? I bet on Red Bull to give BMW a hard time in 2008, go DC, go Webbo!
Super Mario=opera, the rest (minus Todt, Aguri and Kolles)= rock’n'roll!
And what’s more important - Quick Nick is yet to win a race after 8 years in F1, reminds me of Barrichello. Heidfeld/Kubica is simply not a winning combination, good drivers, will probably win a race or two in the future, but no more than that. But if BMW is quick next year and can create some good racing, why not?
By the way, I own two Renault cars so it should explain my position, c’est claire pour vous?
My twin brother is still missing - just to let you all know, I think he finally lost it completely. Pity, I sort of liked him, he used to study at the university for me. I’m supposed to be an architect, how am I gonna find a job now??? I know nothing about architecture in the first place! Damn!
December 29th, 2007 at 3:04 pmAlenyaa said:
Well I be darned, that’s the first ever time I’ve actuially been too quick for anything :p
Like the latest lay-out adaption by the way, looks better this way!
Cheers!
December 30th, 2007 at 1:33 amme said:
your wish is our command.
if you clear your caches, the site should now sit nicely in the middle. that is, assuming you’re not using IE6 or IE7, in which case it’ll still sit left of centre.
supposedly this issue will be sorted by IE8 (due out in the summer), but don’t hold your breath.
how the single ecu will make it through the end of the season i cannot imagine. it’ll be ECU 3.1, before we get to australia.
December 30th, 2007 at 6:56 pmdoctorvee said:
Great stuff, thanks!
December 31st, 2007 at 5:07 pmNegative Camber said:
Is that British Racing Green as the background color?
Can’t imagine why you would pick that color. A toast…to the new look of Sidepodcast, the terrific work and snazzy, intricate time-consuming features that seemingly justifies the theory that neither of you sleep or you don’t have day jobs. Alas, so little time, so much “web page” stuff. Nice look, great job folks.
December 31st, 2007 at 6:31 pmme said:
hehe! we try to use our downtime wisely, apparently we don’t need a holiday.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:11 amRich said:
Like the look of the new site - very clean and well balanced with the three columns (I used to have three columns in my blog but changed under user pressure but still prefer it!)and like the dark green background - on my screen its a dark teal). A small detail is possibly to change the favicon.ico image from the original so it matches the new site (you might have done this and is still cached - always an issue with my access) and assume the podcast album image will be changed (the joys of changing a look and feel of a site). I think it is a nice touch to use one of Christine’s photos - why not credit it?
I see there has been quite a discussion on Mario and the BMW Sauber team (because of the photo) - I think the team is very professional and what really impressed me was their sportsmanship, when Vettel did well in STR the team showed it on the pitwall and when they lost Timo Glock’s services to Toyota, Mario wished him a successful F1 future. BMW-Sauber need to get their own Podcast service running to compete with Renault and Williams which are both excellent. I thought Renault F1 was OK but the team has to work on its collective and selective amnesia or invest in a rather better information retrieval system. Seems catching as the other team I have supported was Williams and judging from press statements they were similarly affected (e.g. Nico’s contract details). Possibly Heidfeld and Kubica are not the top driver as suggested in comments - but it is so difficult to judge given different equipment (Quick Nick got the better of both Kimi and Felipe when they were his team mates) so I support Clive with Nick as F1 2008 Champion.
Given what happened in 2007 we need fairness and rationality from all teams, team principles and their PR - not exaggerated media hype, emotional (tear-stained) statements testifying honesty and integrity and collective amnesia. For me Ferrari are too “win at any cost” including “courtroom arbitration” and McLaren simply lost lost all credibility/integrity and should be sanctioned from raising objections for a year. In 2008 it would be good to see more competitive turnouts from Toyota, Honda, STR, RBR, Force India and Super Aguri and hopefully more than one or two teams will be competing for the constructor’s championship.