Abandoned Towers Magazine gets a face lift!

[crystalwizard]

I just spent several days migrating everything over to a brand new configuration. Same address though, abandonedtowers.com

both am I tired.

But I think the site looks nice and maybe it'll be easier for people to find stuff now.

Go take a look, and then post your thoughts in this thread if you would, please.

[darkbow]

Ooooo! Very nice. Love the artwork and the overall cool tones.

I have one suggestion: The central text welcoming readers to the magazine might serve the site best as a sidebar or possibly even a spotlighted link. This would leave open that prime, central location for changing content, which generally draws readers in more than staid text. Just my opinion. And maybe you were planning on doing something like that anyway.

Oh! And I couldn't find my own story, The Impulse to Punish.

[crystalwizard]

I don't have room on the side bar for it. Explain what you mean by a spotlighted link, please.

>Oh! And I couldn't find my own story, The Impulse to Punish.

Ack! Fixed. I wonder what else I missed.

[darkbow]

About the spotlighted link, I was thinking something like a bar across the top between the title plate and the artwork below. This bar could be used to post links to important information but information that rarely if ever changes. I'll use my own blog as an example, Logical Misanthropy.

The bar I'm writing about is the one that has links reading "ebooks," "What I'm reading," "Contact," etc.

Not sure how easy it would be to do on the AT site, or if it's something you'd even want to consider. It might throw off the excellent design somewhat. Thought I'd suggest, though.

[John M. Whalen]

Looks really nice. It was easier to find my story, Sphere of Destiny. And I see you have opened the site up to allow comments on the stories from readers. Feedback is always welcome. I agree with Ty about the front page. I mentioned to you myself once some time ago that the front page ought to have a highlights box indicating what's new or recently added to the online content. There could aslo be info on the contents of the print mag. The declaration of AT's "reason for existence" should be on another page along with submission guidelines, IMHO. You want to catch readers' attention by pointing out what's new and exciting for them to read, and making it easy for them to get to it. I don't use Firefox so the new configuration was a bit difficult to navigate. But otherwise it's a vast improvement over the old site. Congrats. One question. I didn't try, but can the stories be printed out, once they are on the screen?

[crystalwizard]

Ah. Okay. Yeah, I can try to see if I can implement that

[darkbow]

And thanks for putting my story up!

[crystalwizard]

Looks really nice.

Thanks, John. One of the things that kept going through my mind while I was working on it was your question "is there any way for people to see the new things that have been posted" and that was on the top of my list to try to implement well. Hopefully I succeeded.

It was easier to find my story, Sphere of Destiny. And I see you have opened the site up to allow comments on the stories from readers. Feedback is always welcome.

Yes, though I'm moderating every comment posted. There are plenty of spambots running around out there and I don't care to have spam comments on any of the stories or other items.

I agree with Ty about the front page. I mentioned to you myself once some time ago that the front page ought to have a highlights box indicating what's new or recently added to the onlne content.

There's a running list of new posts on the left sidebar. But I"m going to try and make Ty's suggestion work so that the new posts will show up on the front page.

There could aslo be info on the contents of the print mag.

that's a good idea too. I do have a link to where the print mags can be purchased but I can certainly put a page together for each issue with a TOC and other stuff on it as well as buy links.

The declaration of AT's "reason for existence" should be on another page along with submission guidelines, IMHO. You want to catch readers' attention by pointing out what's new and exciting for them to read, and making it easy for them to get to it. I don't use Firefox so the new configuration was a bit difficult to navigate. But otherwise it's a vast improvement over the old site. Congrats. One question. I didn't try, but can the stories be printed out, once they are on the screen?

Thanks and it's really not possible to totally prevent someone from finding a way to get a story if they want it. Just view the page source.

But hopefully what I have in place will prevent 99% of the problems. Go load a story or something and try highlight/copy and see what happens.

[Maverick]

For the record: the new layout looks awesome. All the pain you've gone through was definitely worth it.

My one (very minor) quibble would be that - to me - the ISSNs detract a little from the eye-candy of the title plate at the top of the page. A quote or some evocative words under "ABANDONED TOWERS MAGAZINE" would be a better draw for the crowd otherwise clicking-through than technical publication data.

For example, a certain online comic (also available in print), heads itself up as:

GIRL GENIUS
Adventure, Romance, MAD SCIENCE!

rather than

GIRL GENIUS
ISSN 1234-5678 (print) ISSN 1234-5679 (online)

If you're inescapably attached to the ISSNs, though, maybe crunch them down a font size or two (and get rid of the quote marks) to minimise their impact?

Just a thought.

[Richard H. Fay]

I just spent several days migrating everything over to a brand new configuration. Same address though, abandonedtowers.com

both am I tired.

But I think the site looks nice and maybe it'll be easier for people to find stuff now.

Go take a look, and then post your thoughts in this thread if you would, please.

I was going to comment a while back, but forgot.

The site is definitely a lot easier to navigate now. Much improved!