New Look Coming Soon

February 7, 2010 | Filed under: Site News | Posted by:

Friends:

I have no doubt that you’ve noticed how slowly the site loads. This is partly due to increases in traffic.

However, the other part of the equation is the existing skin, or “theme”. We love it, but it is code-heavy and inefficient. It loads a tremendous amount of code with each page load, but it is too complex to operate properly with plugins designed to speed things up.

We have realized we need to try something new in order to maintain a good experience for you as the site continues to grow.

We’ll be trying out a new look over the next few days. There will be plenty of code editing required in the change.

If the site happens to be down, or look really out of whack, please give it a few minutes and hit refresh. Whatever’s wrong, we’re working on it.

Don’t worry. The database is safe.

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avatar is webmistress and co-editor of Secular News Daily. Jenny is an outspoken secularist who believes firmly in the separation of church and state. She demands evidence to support arguments, and holds herself to the same standard. She doesn't write about herself in the third person . . . but there's a first time for everything.

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2 Responses to New Look Coming Soon

  1. avatar Slater February 8, 2010 - 2:24 am

    Wow. ySlow says ~700 KB unprimed, 112 KB primed.
    Considering how simple the design is, that’s one REALLY heavy site.

    Can’t blame you for wanting to optimise that.

    Reply
    • avatar Jenny February 8, 2010 - 8:26 am

      If you have any recommendations, I’d be happy to hear them.

      The version you saw when you wrote this comment (we’ll be trying others as well) was the first “new” shot. It loads about 3-4 seconds faster than the original, which averaged 9 seconds/page!

      Reply

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