Really this is the final update for now After yesterday’s update, and a lot of edits, we found that the new design just couldn’t handle the traffic. It had a lot of fancy customization options that were slowing down the server. We will make adjustments to take all of this out and serve you faster pages in the new design. The changes should be up in about two weeks. Thank you for all your feedback it really helped!
Final Update; TLDR
When we moved over to the new design yesterday we had some surprises that needed to be ironed out. Most of the major things are fixed, but you may notice some minor issues. We are still tweaking things here. Thanks for hanging in there with us and for reading and commenting!
We’re so excited to launch our new design! The new look and feel should be close to what you’re already used to. We didn’t want to change how you read or comment on the site, and we didn’t want to change how we do our jobs here either. The posts should look and work the same way, and we hope everything is just as easy to use.
One thing that has changed is our layout on mobile devices. We’re now using a responsive design, which means that you’ll see essentially the same design optimized for your phone, tablet and desktop. We’ve tested the site quite a bit on different devices, and have tried to make sure that it lays out correctly and works well across all browsers. We’re sure to have missed some things, so please email us at info@celebitchy.com if you have feedback or notice something strange. If you email us, please let us know what device or browser you’re using. If things look odd to you, you may want to clear your browser cache and reload the site to see if that will fix it.
Thanks to our usability testers Ana, Andrea, Angie, Eve, J.Eyre, Lak, and T.Fanty!
Here are some random photos of Benedict Cumberbatch, Tom Hiddleston, Alexander Skarsgard and Chris Hemsworth. Kaiser will be covering Cumberbatch’s Reddit AMA tomorrow! In the mean time you can check it out on Reddit. After reading Cumby’s IAMA, I am at a 4.5 on the Cumberbitch scale. (Ok maybe a 4.75, that man is clever.)
Update: they’re still working on things on the back end so it may be a little while before that is smoothed out. Thanks!
Update: The fonts will not look as intended for a little while. Please hang in there with us, thanks!
Update: I’m in the process of changing the background color to an off white so it’s not as harsh. Please note that I’m still editing the fonts. I had these all fixed before we launched of course, but then the server admins told me that the way the fonts were being loaded was slowing down the site. So we had to move that and now I have to figure out what’s causing all the formatting issues with that change. (gah I know this may be too vague or technical, but basically it’s not a simple fix, thanks!)
Update from Bedhead: Thank you for all of your suggestions! CB is working on tweaking some stuff including changing the background to an off-white color. She’s worked countless days and hours on this new design, so please hang tight while things get ironed out. We love you bitches!
Update by CB: Background changed to off white color Hold down shift and hit reload in your browser at the same time to see it. If you don’t see the difference right away, check out the ad unit right under the stories on the home page (only on desktop computers, it’s different on tablets and mobile devices) That ad has a white background, which you should be able to see in contrast to the new color. I’m still working on the font spacing!
Last Update by CB, I hope The fonts and colors have been fixed finally. I swear I had all this set up well before the move but a bunch of stuff happened where we had to do it differently. We really take your thoughts into consideration and will try our best. Some feature suggestions have been a “previous, next” button for the stories so you don’t have to go back to the homepage and a “like” button for the comments. I just put out some fires here so it will be a little bit before we implement any feature changes, but those are definitely possible. They’re good suggestions and I will keep them in mind!
Photo credit: WENN.com
Shexy!
And loads more quickly on my Kindle Fire.
Looks great!
Easy to use and loads more quickly. I’m not a fan of the all white background however. I miss the colors.
Well, there’s a picture of Martin Freeman, and that’s all you really need to get me on board!
Sign me on to that comment. He’s just all around amazing.
Me too!
I snuck him in there!
Looks great👍😊
Way to hook us with Hot Guys to introduce your new design! 🙂
A spoonful of (HOT Guys) sugar makes the medicine go down!
Fantastic. Next, maybe you guys can add “likes”? I would have “liked” the first two comments and then shut-up. That should be incentive enough for you to limit my big mouth!
Me too, although I have a feeling, I’d still have a big mouth regardless of the layout lol 😉
Agreed! I love the ‘likes’ or thumbs-up system.
I agree on the likes- it’s the wave of the future and everybody seems to be adopting it. However – if there’s a way to get a “like” to register as a website traffic hit, that would be my suggestion… Don’t want to register a reduced number of hits just to do what everybody else is doing. 🙂
I love the idea of likes because there are so many times I agree with someone but don’t want to reply.
“like” 🙂
+1
Martin Freeman :3
They’re still doing work on the backend so things may look screwy for a while.
And be a little slow! but they’re fixing it, fingers crossed.
It looks really pretty and sleek. 🙂
I have just two suggestions:
1. a softer, more muted background, because white is harsh on the eyes; and
2. could you make links show that they’ve been visited? That’s how I know I’ve commented in a thread and to check back.
Great renovation otherwise!
Agree, the white is really harsh on the eyes. But love the rest of it, nice!
Snazzy! 😀
(It already loads faster, too!)
Good job! Clean looking AND load faster, both in my tablet and my android phone.
Looks great! When I saw “new design,” I was terrified of finding Disqus. Thank you for not going down that horrible, no-good road!
I really like the all-white background. Very nice!
Yes, Disqus is the Devil. Slows down everything, doesn’t behave while scrolling, and often prevents editing while writing. The new CB format is scrolling very easily on my iPhone 4/iOS 6 and no problem posting.
Works and looks great on my old ass android. Thumbs up!
Congratulations on the new format. Was it the intention to do away with scroll bars? I find them helpful to have in comments so you can gauge where you are in your reading and return to the general vicinity of a particular thread after reloading. (Running OS X 10.8.4 on a Mac Book Air).
Santolina I really don’t know what you mean. Oh I do! The background is fixed in place, it doesn’t move with the page. That’s a feature of the design and I think I can change it in the CSS, I don’t like that either. I’ll work on that in a bit, thanks!
-Edit- Please see my response to Marty, below, for more information on this. It may be a few days before I can fix it but I will do my best!
I like it, but my first comment got lost 🙁
Nice. Haven’t looked at this on my mobile device, but at home everything loaded up so much quicker.
It’s looking great! And I would still say that if you had only posted pictures of kardashians!
I hope you can get everything working quickly as yesterday was an epic Cumberday and we need to celebrate!!
LOVE. IT.
It’s fabulous darlings;)
It loads faster on Android and I love that the mobile layout for comments matches the online version. I’m sad that there’s still no “like”button, though.
@Bettyrose – I agree, regarding the comments. I’m using an ancient iPod to get online temporarily, & in the previous mobile layout, it was impossible to tell during extended convos (w/o being referred to by name) if someone was replying to *you*, someone else, or just in general.
And there should definitely be a ‘like’ button. Personally, I’d find it gratifying just to know others (actually read) agreed (even if they didn’t respond to my comment). I suspect there are a ton of lurkers around who’d be happy to give their input using that method =)
Except it really should be agree/disagree. All the other options I see elsewhere are kind of junior high…
Looks much better on my iPhone!
It looks really great guys!!
My only feedback is that I like being able to go to the next post without returning to the home screen or main page.
Is there a way to do this?
Looks beautiful. My one wish is to have the ability to click Next, so I don’t have to go back to the home page for every single story (or right click to open a new tab for every new story in order to avoid the Back to Home maneuver).
If there is a Next/Back, 1) forgive me for appalling blindness, 2) maybe make it obvious for your not-so-bright readers.
Ooh that’s good feedback, like E! Online has. I didn’t build that yet. I have to put out some fires now and will be away for a while, but I’ll add that feature soon I really like that suggestion.
Looks great! Is there a way of following a comment thread? Like if I respond to someone & they respond back, can you get an alert without having to to back & check every post & scroll through the comments. Maybe this was an option on the old site & I just missed it.
Also, after yesterday’s epic day for Cumby, I have one word for you: Zygoma 🙂
Thank you! <3
LOVE IT!
Hi Please please please get rid off the advert at the bottom of the screen, at the moment it saying Npower. It show up right in front of the screen at the bottom and it so annoying! I hope you know what i mean but please get rid of it.
Anna we rely on the ad revenue from those. I know they’re annoying I’m so sorry but we tried to pick ones that did not cover a significant portion of the screen, did not fly-over the screen, and do not have automatic sound or video. You can close them out by pressing the little down arrow. I know what you mean though and I do take it into account.
Nothing worse than the fly overs! When you think you’ve hovered over the X, next thing you know, its moved and you end up clicking the ad anyway. 😉 And the auto sound/music. Those tend to make me jump outta my seat :p haha
Just to note for usability – on my Kindle Fire, that ad obscures the comment space so that I can’t see what I’m typing (because of the onscreen keyboard).
love it! looks great on my ipad mini!
I do have to say the photo quality is much better. I normally don’t like change but so far so good Celebitchy!
Thank you I hear you it drives me crazy when gmail changes or facebook changes. It’s very hard to get used to some of the new layouts, designs and functions. We really tried to take that into account. I just figured out that there is still a lot of work to do to get this new design so that it does not add to the server load time. so we’ll be working on it for a bit this weekend, but fingers crossed it will be solved soon. 8)
Congrats! And thank you for not adding audio/video ads. Eternally grateful for that.
Looking fab!
Nice and clean. I like the fonts you chose. I wish some sites would learn that less is sometimes more. Congrats!
It looks so fresh!
I like the new design, but I am not a fan of the harsh white background. I have an eye condition and it’s a bit irritating.
Looks great! I’m glad the changes are subtle and user-friendly… My only suggestion: When I reply to a comment on my cell phone, the comment box is right below the comment I am replying to, so I can see the original comment, which is nice to use as a reference. When I reply on my laptop, the comment box is always at the bottom of the page (not below the comment I am replying to) so sometimes I have to page up to see the original comment — Could we have the reply box under the comment we’re replying to?? Not a big deal at all but just thought I’d ask! Thanks for a wonderful site!!
Emmie there is a little “reply” link under each comment to the left when you are on a laptop or desktop computer. You can use that to reply instead of going to the bottom of the page. Do you see that little link? If not, are you on a pc or mac and what browser are you using? Thanks!
Thanks Celebitchy! I think your new design fixed the problem for me. Before, when I would use the ‘reply’ button under a comment (on my mac), it would always take me to the bottom of the page no matter what… But I just replied to a comment in a different post and now the reply box opens under the comment. And as I’m replying to you, the box is under your comment. Thanks – I love it!
Testing the new reply button – and it works! Love the new format – very crisp and professional. A good web design has only 3 colors. Good job. Yes, I took a class in web design once.
This bug has been fixed for me too!
Ooh!! Me likey. 🙂
thanks celebitchy ,ur website looks kool and easily compatible with mobile
nice!
Did you take away the most recent comments showing and the name of the thread and when you click it takes you to that comment? I loved that feature, but it seems to be missing. You have recent comments, but no title to what thread it’s in. I have to click on the comment to find out what thread it’s in. Many of these threads I have no interest in. Why did you take away recent comments but the thread title also listed that it was in, so people can click on the recent comment they are interested in instead of blindly having to click on every recent comment and end up in a thread they don’t care about?
No answer to my question above? I noticed you have answered questions or remarks after.
CB’s working her booty off right now. Right now we’re looking at usability within the posts themselves and the page as a whole. The feature you’re asking about is a widget & may require a more complicated fix. We’ll look at it soon!
I didn’t answer before because even though it seems like a simple fix it’s not really. I can’t just bring back the old comment feed list, I have to try out different widgets and it is surprisingly difficult to find one that does exactly what you want. I will see what is possible but it’s more of a feature request than a must have.
I agree, Jayna. It’s helpful to know which posts the comments were left on, especially if you’re only following a few threads.
I added this back in a widget form so it’s a little different but I hope it’s close to what you guys were looking for!
I see it! Thanks so much – very helpful 🙂
I love it!!! Simple,loads faster,picture quality is awesome!! Good work!
Looks excellent! *applause*
Looks great! Can tell you guys put a lot of thought into the usability to make it easier for all of us to troll for trashy gossip!
The only question I have is about the heading font. I’m assuming that you want it to look “bitmappy” like old newsprint. (At least that’s how it looks on my laptop.) However, the readability is not very good in the smaller font sizes — like “Leave a Comment”. If you want to keep the font, you might want to loosen up the tracking between the characters, so they aren’t so smushed together.
I am working on the fonts right now! They’re a little different than I intend now, I’m editing it.
I wish I could say I like it but I don’t. I liked the fact that you could see all of the posts (basically) of the day on one page. I like the fact that it didn’t include bits of the article in the headline. It takes too long now to scroll through the whole days post. It also feels too busy to me. I don’t know. I guess I just liked the previous simple format. This one feels like information overload. : ( but this is just my humble opinion and regardless of what you choose this will always be my most visited, favorite site.
+1
As a laptop user I also agree, there is too much space and text between each post, the previous overview was much better. I think less is more. And I’m not a fan of the changing picture at the top to be honest. Otherwise it looks very good!
I´m with you. Special when u said: ” It takes too long now to scroll through the whole days post”. and also when you go try to find something and put a celebrity name in “search” don´t come all post some before. Honesty, i prefer the old format.
The search is broken! It’s searching the site where we were testing out the design, not the current site. That will be fixed in just a minute. Now I know what you mean. That will be fixed.
-edit- The search has been fixed. It was calling our development site where we were testing the design. That should be all set now.
I second you girlInbayou! Sometimes simple is great, as it was in the old format…it also set it apart from this generic type of layout which this new layout feels like:( Not sure why the need was felt to ‘fix’ something that was never broken… still love this site though, and all its sassy readers and commentators!
The main reason we moved to this new design is because it’s responsive and works the same on phones and tablets. I am taking all your feedback seriously and will change what I can to make it more readable and usable. I really didn’t want to change the site actually but if we didn’t change we wouldn’t have been able to accommodate mobile users as well.
I also will try to make the white background not as bright.
Awe well we’re still here! We’ll get used to whatever format you wish to choose, but I have to say I prefer the old format – though am sorry to hear the new one didn’t work out. Am sure once you figure out how to manage the glitches, you’ll give it another go:)
I agree. It’s too white.
I have taken the post lead-ins off the main page so it’s just the titles now. I hope that helps fix this issue, thanks!
+200. fonts creepy…go back to the standard please. Honestly, was thinking only yesterday that you resisted the “update” like dlisted which I don’t open anymore. Sorry, know you worked hard to debug it.
I took out the story excerpts that were on the front page so it should be more compact now and with less information.
Looks nice, clean, and fresh! I like it.
Hate it!
(Kidding, but someone has to whine *g*)
The massive amounts of white space make me nauseous as soon as I load the site. Looking at it for this long is giving me a headache.
I’ll see what I can do to make it a bit less bright.
Whiteness aside (which I see if being fixed) this layout loads faster and scrolls well. No longer is my tablet forced into mobile mode!
I like the new format.
One thing I wish would change is the links on the last post of the day. When clicking on a link I would prefer it open in a new tab instead of directing the Celebitchy tab to the site. It’s quicker for me to open a lot of tabs then close them out after reading than click — reload CB — click — reload CB. KWIM?
Looking good. Lots of white space that is a bit assaulting on the eyes, though.
I did want to point out that not all the comments are showing up with reply buttons under them.
It’s beautiful on my phone! Well done!
AND gorgeous on my ipad, too! I’m a fan of the clean and simple look 🙂
Visually, it’s much easier to read on my iPhone.
Now — is there a FAQ section? For example, I’d love to learn how to add a photo to my name. 🙂
Hi! In the commenting guidelines (which are not formatted right ATM, I have to fix them) there’s a link to how to add a gravatar to you name. Here it is, just follow the instructions here:
https://en.gravatar.com/
Thanks CB. 🙂
I’d bet I’m not the only one that would like a FAQ section so perhaps it could happen in the future?
But thank you for responding. 🙂 🙂 🙂
Can someone help me figure out why all my comments left via iPhone do not show up? It seems to let me go through the entire process just fine, but when I check a thread on my pc, none of my comments show up…!
I like the new layout.
My little nitpick is the bright background. But overall it is sleek, clean, and thank you for not going the Disqus route. 😀
I will definitely try to tone down the white background, many people have noticed it.
Looks great! The white background does make me want to pull out the sunglasses though…
The pages are blinding with the white, and I wish there was a dark box around the articles on the front page.
wait a minute. why is the fashion section not on the main page? is it necessary to put it into another section? it’s still gossip. -___-
I updated the white color to an off white, Please hit shift-reload and let me know if it’s better.
Sorry my reply went to the wrong place. Our Fashion section is not like Lainey’s, it’s not a different whole section. It’s just the fashion “category,” like when you choose Angelina Jolie you see all posts in that category. So those posts will also appear on the main page, they’re just there if you want to check them out specifically. Hope that makes sense!
The white is killing my eyeballs. Dear. God.
I updated the white color to an off white, Please hit shift-reload and let me know if it’s better.
That is an improvement, thank you CB, but I’m wishing it could be a softer gray color or anything, really… but white. Just too bright, you know? Owie kapowie.
I have to find how to edit this Trixie, I’m working on it!
I really like the new layout!
Is there an option of adding gifs for the replies? There are way too many times I feel gifs are necessary for responses 😀
The comment section looks a lot neater. Not bad!
Very nice layout and loads so much better on my mobile devices.
I like this redesign. I’m going to check it out on my phone later on. Before I just wouldn’t comment on my phone because it was difficult to navigate.
Also I like that replying to someone stays at their comment.
Looks great!
Oh damn! loving the new look
Heyo, just happened to check in on a saturday and glad I did. Looks great on the phone and i usually flip over from the mobile format because I appreciate the pictures chosen. Love it, I look forward to the fashion posts!
Thanks Relli! Please see my answer above about the fashion section. That will lead to the posts in the fashion category and won’t have anything that is not also shown on the main page.
It looks REALLY good ladies! Thank you Celebitchy, Bedhead, and Kaiser for all your continued hard work!
Adore the layout *applauds*
It looks really clean and crisp – I love it. The mobile versions are fantastic. I have a whole lot of positive to say about this and am technically challenged enough to not notice any glitches.
And just to reiterate – the new “celebrity” page layout is great.
So you decided not to go with the permanent background photo of Chris Hemsworth then? Because I really thought that was a wonderful suggestion.
^ ADORE that last suggestion! 😉
I am completely on board with the Hemsworth background
Great but I really wish that CB used disqus for commenting. It’s such a pain to dig through hundreds of comments to see if someone replied to you
I will look into implementing both a “like” button and an alert system for replies. Those are very good suggestions. For now we’re just going to move forward with this design and get used to it and think about the feature changes as we go. It’s a lot to get used to at once, thanks!
Yay! Take your time – it’s looking great so far! But a comment alert (eventually) would be fantastic 🙂
kinja?
I don’t like how the replies to the comments show up on my phone – I don’t know how to explain it, but if a comments has many replies, they’re quite annoying to read because they get pushed to the right of the screen. I don’t know if that makes any sense.
I like the new layout, though!
Wait, now it looks fine on my mobile, too. Yay!
I’m liking the look and the navigation. The suggestions of a “like” button and a reply-alert are superb–hope they can be added in. Nice work, thanks!
Lovely new format.
Ohhh I love how the new reply system works! Before that, I always had to scroll down to write the comment. I actually thought I had mistaken the page when the new design popped out
Me too!!!! I always would see a comment that I wanted to reply to and by the time I got down to where you could reply, I forgot some of the comment. I got so I would write it down and that saved me having to scroll back up to the comment. Ok, short term memory loss!!
Looks fab, very nice! And thanks for the photo of Askars- you just made my Sunday morning 🙂
That’s a nice change!
I like it it’s quicker and more responsive
Ok I went into some other stories and my only crisitism is the “” pattern behind the material cited from the original source that is REALLY difficult to read. I never minded the lighter colred font, but paterns behind words like that is really hard on my eyes.
This was an error, I fixed it!
Does anyone have the direct link to the mobile site? That you can share with me…. Since I apparently can’t find it on my own…
It is not a separate site hautie, it should just come up for you on the phone or ipod. Our iPad version is a little different than the main site but not drastically so. The phone version is similar it just has one column down the middle.
Is anyone else on iPhone having trouble scrolling through sentences to fix typos? When ever I try to click a sentence it just goes back to the begining of the paragraph.
Marty this may be an issue with the background, which stays in one place instead of scrolling with you. In order to fix this it needs to be separated out from the theme config, which is why I haven’t fixed it yet. What I mean is that it’s not a simple CSS/Style fix due to how it’s coded into the theme. At least I think this is the problem and will do my best to fix it within a few days. (The server admin who was helping me today is not on again until Tuesday. This is something I will need help with as it’s not just a design change.)
No problem, thanks CB!
Oh I think I misinterpreted your question! I thought this was due to the Mac scrolling issue people are reporting but think you’re saying you can’t edit your comment. For some reason the commenting editing plugin is buggy with this new design. It’s very late by me and I will look into replacing that tomorrow.
Great job, ladies! Love that I can see photos from the main page now!
Thank goodness! I hated the old mobile layout! This is so much better. Thank you!
I love it!! It loads quicker & just a better look all the way around. Excellent work, ladies!!
Looks great on my Samsung phone. Love the mobile-friendly layout.
Ooh. New, shiny prettiness. I want to smudge my dirty little fingerprints all over the nice pretty redesign. I like it very much. GREAT JOB!
Dahling! This look is YOU!
I tried to quote and italics didn’t work now. Is it not quote anymore?
The symbols don’t even show up.
This is an issue with our comment editing plugin not being compatible with the new update, I think. There are a few reasons why this might be happening. I will see if I can fix it today.
Thanks for the response, especially while doing all of the other work. I appreciate it. I thought it was just me there, for a minute.
Congrats, it looks great !!
But it would be great to have a Like button for Comments, no dislike just likes 🙂 Some comments are so good, they need a like 🙂
Like the new look!
It’s much faster.
One suggestion I have (and sorry if it’s already been mentioned, I did try to read through everyone else’s so I wouldn’t repeat one that was already offered) – I would really like it if, when I click a link away from your site, that it would open in a new tab rather than taking me completely off your site to go the linked site. Thanks!
I said the same thing earlier because this drives me crazy. I always right click and open the link in a new tab. I wish it was automatic.
I have an old school web design background and it’s my opinion that this should be a user option. It’s thought to be a bit rude to assume the user wants to stay on your site. Like right now the feed links to Lainey, Dlisted, etc in the footer open in a new window. That’s because this was the default setting for the feed burner service that’s pulling these and I have been meaning to change it.
Oooh. I don’t know CB… I think on a site like this where we come to browse, it’s nice to have the links open in a new tab/page. Especially the links within stories (i.e., go here to look at pics and then come back and discuss).
At least the way I use the site, I prefer to have Celebitchy open and always right click to open the links here to open in a new tab so I don’t lose my place.
I had no idea! OK, then I’ll just right-click, no biggie. Thanks!
Love the new layout! Much cleaner, better image size.
I just read Bedhead’s comment that said CB did this all herself, and has been working all day to resolve bugs. Just wanted to offer a hurrah and thank you to CB for all of her fabulous work.
“Like”!!
Thanks! I just wanted to clarify that I didn’t do the base design, it’s a theme for wordpress, but it required a lot of customization to get to this point.
Well, congratulations, Celebitchy. Changing a website is typically a huuuuuuge job, with lots of unseen work behind the scenes that few people realize, and usually also involves fighting plenty of maddening glitches, so well done. I like the nested replies feature; that’s definitely an improvement.
In terms of reporting possible bugs that you may or may not know about: Clicking the Subscribing to feeds button brings up an error:
XML Parsing Error: XML or text declaration not at start of entity
Location: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Celebitchy
Line Number 3, Column 1:
^
Before the change, I was getting feeds in my browser (Firefox, Live Bookmarks toolbar). I tried to reload, it didn’t work, so I deleted the bookmark, but it still prompted the error when I clicked on the button again to create a new bookmark.
Aw thanks! I think I fixed this error with the feed, it took a lot of trial and error. (Random extra lines in the php files can cause this error for the feeds and there’s almost no way to tell what is causing it.) It’s always possible this will break again for some reason, but I do think it’s fixed now.
testing my comment entry again because first one seemed to get lost…
DANG! Don’t know what happened to my initial comment, but anyway, wanted to say congratulations on such a huuuuge job. Changing a website is a LOT of work and it’s great that you got so much done today (although, as noted with lots of work done before today).
In terms of bug reporting: The Subscribe to feeds button prompts an error (I’m using Firefox on a laptop) and I was able to get live feeds prior today (via the Live Bookmarks Toolbar in my browser window). I copied the error into my comment before, so maybe that’s why it didn’t go through? Anyway, I reloaded the Live Bookmark, that didn’t work. Deleted Live Bookmark to create a new one, wasn’t able to create a new one.
I like the way it looks on my iPhone. However, the all white background is hard on the eyes.
CB you are AMAZEBALLS to be working this whole thing out yourself.
i hope you are going to take a well deserved break after this weekend.
thank you very much for making my favorite site better through your blood sweat and tears.
i really appreciate all your hard work for my celebrity cheap thrills.
it looks great and THANK YOU
Ok so the section in the posts where you quote from other websites.. on my google nexus 10 tablet the background of that section has a bunch of quote symbols. Like the whole section is patterned with quote marks so i cant read it because it goes over the text. Its fine on my phone though. Anyone else notice that on the nexus tablet?
That’s an error in the old stylesheet. If you clear out your cache it should be gone when you reload.
Gotcha, thanks! Site looks great!
It looks great, but just one suggestion if I may? I have hard time keeping track of recent comments on a thread/article, and used to click on this green link up the top called rsfeed or rssfeed, or something like that? It listed the last 10 comments on a thread. Easier than skim–reading through 200+ posts to find the recent 3 or 4 posts since I read the thread. Could we we please have that back?
I added a widget form of this, I hope it helps! It’s not exactly the same but a couple people asked for it back and it does have the thread name on it.
Why did you feel a need for change? It seemed fine before. Not being snotty, just noticed that tech people always want “new”, and I don’t understand that.
I hear you, I personally hate change, especially online. It seems like a lot of updates just jack everything up and make it harder for the user. (See: gmail, facebook.)
We really did not take this change lightly, and we did not do it just to update the design, which we all liked and were very used to. The reason why we updated is because the old site had to use a completely different layout for mobile devices that was ugly and limited in function. It was just a plugin that everyone uses with their wordpress site. People didn’t like to come on the site with their phones or handheld devices. I hope that’s fixed, people are saying it’s better and loads quicker for their mobile devices. Plus the design is now consistent across devices.
What we’re trying to do here is reach a balance between having a site that’s usable and attractive on the desktop and on devices. We hope there are not too many trade offs.
I’m happy to see the old format back (if it ain’t broke…)!
Wanted to thank you CB for all of your hard work in aiming to please us. The site loads so quickly and beautifully now. I hadn’t meant to focus solely on the one negative I had, re the white background, with no props to you! 🙂
Can we bring tags back to help us navigate between our favourite stars?
Having had a good browse around this morning, I still love it!
Slight nitpick: the “subthreads” in the comment section are more difficult to follow with this formatting. Is there any way you could slightly increase the indent for replies to previous comments? Just to make the individual threads within the comment section stand out a bit more? I often scroll down to the “section” of comments that interest me most and I’m having to squint/concentrate more now because they don’t stand out as much.
The reason why these don’t indent more is because of mobile devices. I tried to reach a balance between being able to see it on the desktop and having it be too tiny on phones. I don’t want to deliver different styles in the comments for mobile devices and desktops at this point, there are a bunch of other things to fix first, but it’s something that I’ll keep in mind.
Fair enough. I look mostly on either a laptop or a smallish tablet (Kindle Fire 7″) – I’d prefer a bigger indent on both. But I hear you vis a vis phones and can suck it up! It says a lot that the criticisms here are all very minor – nothing hugely functional. Well done!
ETA: Ooh! Or: is there any way of making the horizontal line between comments darker for first level replies and lighter for second/third level replies to replies? That would differentiate better but not affect small screen devices.
Totally agree with all others asking if it’s possible to include like/thumbs up rating.
Thank you for changing the background colour!
Appreciate the hard work you put into this and I’m sure I’ll like it AOK but I can’t use it due to the glaringly bright white background. I only have my phone so don’t know how it seems to others (other then the comments above). Please, please change it to a very pale green or blue or beige. I mention pale green as that was the page-color used in ‘Easy Eye’ paperback books to reduce eyes train/pain due to white paper. I love this site and don’t want to give up my daily visits. Thank you again.
It’s not working great on my phone, now all of the ads and info on the right of the page make the story squeezed on the left side so I have to enlarge to read, but none of the ads show up it’s just white space (i had to open up the site on my computer just to see what was supposed to be there. Plus for some reason on the response section I can only reply to the original poster and not any of the other comments. But I think the new look is very fresh looking and easy to read on my home computer.
This may a problem with the caching program we’re using to deliver saved pages so it’s quicker for the user. It shouldn’t do this.
What kind of phone do you have I will run an emulator program. It’s possible your phone is defined as a tablet in our system.
I’m on a Samsung Galaxy 3 Android. BTW thanks for responding so quickly I know you must be overwhelmed this weekend, I really enjoy your site.
Yes, that was the problem I was having. Along with the super slow load time. It seemed like all the little fancies was really slowing it down. I am running android and on a note 2, which is a huge phone w huge screen btw.
I love the new look! No complaints here!
I love it! Looks great on my phone too!
All of this hard work is really appreciated. Sometimes change can be wonderful 🙂
Please please can we have the tags back ? It makes it easier looking for particular threads if more than one person. At the moment I’m stuck on one thread.
Congrats, looks nice!
Late to the party, I was offline all day yesterday. What a pleasant surprise! I love the look and the functionality seems to be all there. It must have been a lot of work…nice job!
Yesterday was great but today I’m getting quite a lot of glitchyness/hanging – hopefully it’s just working out the kinks!
Yo dudes (ladies!) I just commented in response to someone (on the Cumby thread) and I LOOOOOVE the way commenting works – that I’m not sent to the bottom of the page and end up going on a totally misplaced rant bc I want to respond to 5 different commenters and end up forgetting which one I decided to take on first. This is probably my favorite change.
Ok this was my favorite thing about the changes as well (the comment box opening under the comment)… but now it’s back to the original format! — Maybe I have to refresh or clear my cache or do something to get the new format back??
Very late to the party because Real Life ® intervened, but I like the eyecandy even more than the new format…
Thanks for all the work @ everyone here on CB!
Hmmmmm…..HOWEVER
I am not seeing the block-quote and link functions which I liked during the trial…
CB, I really liked the new design, especially on the mobile. Hope you can get all the glitches out and bring it back soon. And please add a “like” button.
I plan to add a like button Janet! It’s just that the behind the scenes stuff was too much and the server couldn’t handle it.
OK, that’s good to know. CB, one more thing: On the mobile site the scroll button on the right side was showing up in white instead of black, and against the light gray background it was almost impossible to see. Can you change it back to black? Thanks!
What happened to the edit function? On my iPhone sometimes I don’t catch the auto-correct mistakes but now can’t edit it.
I appreciate you trying to move to a responsive design! Maybe I’m in the minority but I think the old design works better on mobile. The only suggestion I would have is to be able to skip to the bottom of the comments. The skip to response link gets you to the top of the comments but when there’s a lot that means there’s a lot of scrolling. Great work ladies! Can’t wait to see the finished design if you’re still working on it.
@ CB, Kaiser and Bedhead:
I can’t see the pages at the bottom of the front page (you know, the “1,2,3,4,5…3,000something” — so I can’t check the previous posts because there aren’t listed pages at the bottom).
Also, when I try the search feature to find older posts, it doesn’t work either (the only result is “welcome to CB’s new design”).
UPDATE:
I can see them now. Thanks!
It looks like the old design now. Am I losing it?
I’ll tell you what I didn’t like: The list of “our favorite blogs” was gone. I like that list so I hope it appears in the new edition. Also, everything is a bit confusing but that could be because I’m old and don’t like change.
I’m sure things will work out eventually.
love the old design
I was having a bunch of drinks last night and I thought it was the alcohol..
I kept saying “wait, til I tell everyone, someone has copied CB, the nerve!”
feels good to know I did not dream it.
honestly, I can take either formats but I am used to this and love this format.
Oh yay, the old format! I have to say I like it because of how distinct it is from all the other website out there …. the changed site seemed similar to a couple of other gossip/celeb sites out there that I can think of but won’t mention. I understand the need for device compatibility and support, and change can be refreshing, but I hope you can still somehow use the same colours and patterned background or something. Or use new design, but go for a distinct look at the same time. I dunno, I’m sure y’all have enough on your plate! Good luck!
I agree. I always thought the front page was superior with the distinct articles all blocked apart sharply and many on one page and the different shades of blue/gray, making the white part jump out. I’m so happy it’s back. I hope it doesn’t go away again. It makes Celebitchy stand out from the other websites.
One complaint–I just went to the article about Dean and LR and her pic there (while being much better than the way she looks with EC) is still the same. I know–you can’t do anything about how a person is inside. Can’t say I didn’t try!
All my problems are fixed now. Thanks for all the hardwork. I do like the suggestions of a like button.
I liked the new design a lot!
My only dislike was the comments section. It may have been a minor glitch, which is understandable but the comments seemed super spaced out for some reason.
I like how the current comments have their own boxes.
Thank you so much for changing the website back! I know I’m in the minority, but I like the simple and unassuming old format- it gives such a comfortable feeling to the time I spend lurking here. I can even post while drinking if the mood strikes;) The newer design felt sterile, uninviting, and derivative. The graphics seemed harsher, almost jarring, and I suspect this would have made your older readers (boomers and up) uncomfortable, even if only subconsciously. Thanks again for switching back.
same here
HI Janet,
We had to switch back out of necessity, but I do hope to go back to the new design when the kinks are worked out in about two weeks. I will try to make it a little more inviting. It’s a theme for wordpress that we customized, which is why it looks like a lot of other sites. Maybe with some design changes I can get it looking a little more familiar.
The only thing i liked about the new format was that my name was written in black,but still; change is a good thing.
I love the site just as it is, and I access it only from my phone as we have no Internet at home. It loads very quickly for me, better by far than most sites! But if you have to make some changes, please do make the background a very pale beige, green, or blue, for those of us with sensitive eyes. Thank you.
CB–There was a lot I liked about the new format, e.g., I really liked not having to go to the bottom of the page to write my replies – it felt so much easier and more immediate that new way. In general, I thought the new format was just really cool and appealing, both visually and operationally.
One thing I just couldn’t with was the background pattern of little quotation marks behind any quoted material that you guys posted in your intro at the top of each page: Gah, I practically got a migraine trying to separate the words visually from that busy wallpaper background, and could barely read them! If the wallpaper had been much lighter and the words much darker, it would have been cute – as it was, it was just annoying.
I know how hard you worked, CB, so I hope we’ll be able to have the new site-style up and running again soon. Meanwhile, I’m cool with whatever we have because this is still the smartest, cleverest, funniest AND most serious-minded, and the very best-informed site of its kind. Thanks for your labor of love!!! xxx
I have to admit, I do prefer this (the older format) more. It looks neater and tidier.