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Fresher · Free Liberal

Free Liberal

Coordinating towards higher values

Tuesday, 18 May 2010 | identity

Fresher

by John Stephens , Design Opus

Fresh clear water from 'Falls of Leny' in Scotland. Library of Congress photo: http://flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/3449514303/

We’ve been talking about it here and there, but now the new Free Liberal is live. Not just a logo, not a goal, not a naked layout grid, and not just a new coat of paint. The new website brings focus to a new vision and voice for the publication.

For more on that vision, check out the feature presentation by Kevin Rollins, and keep an eye on this site over the coming days and weeks.

About John Stephens

John Stephens is a Quaker, designer, and web architect in Virginia. You can find him at Design Opus. You should follow @johnstephens on twitter here.

Comments

Pretty good redesign. I just so happened to check this site today for the first time in months too, purely out of coincidence.

While I’m eager to see what else you guys have in store, I’m also wondering if you have any plans of using social media or perhaps using a comments system from intensedebate or disqus to make commenting even simpler.

All in all, great job, and glad the new site is live. Glad to see this corner of libertarianism revived on the web.

Thanks for the feedback, Adrian! Better social media integration is definitely on the docket, but first we want to deliver on the promise of consistent, high-quality writing and other content.

I’ve used Disqus on other sites, and I like it, but it hasn’t completely won me over. What features make it appealing to you? Can you point to any sites in the wild with extraordinary, especially useful, social media integration?

It would probably be worth another post to survey what social web applications Free Liberal readers actually use. Free Liberal is already on Twitter: @freeliberal; and there is a Facebook group for the weekly Free Liberal meetup in the DC area.

You’ve got the gist of it pretty much. Thanks for the twitterfeed. I was at a loss as I couldn’t find it on the site yet.

As for disqus, any universal comment database that uses openid or facebook or a twitter id in addition to guest/anonymous posting is definitely a big plus for me. It doesn’t have to be disqus.

And I agree, quality articles are the cornerstone of any blog. After all, content is king.

In the meantime, might I suggest that the font size for the comment input box be decreased? Right now, I’m guesstimating it’s at nearly 18-20 point. While this definitely helps with legibility, it’s very difficult to see all that I’ve written without dragging out my input box (which you can do via Chrome but not other browsers without an extension).

Fairly minor stuff, but it would definitely be a nice finishing touch. I’ll let you know if I have any further suggestions for you and again, well done.

> … might I suggest that the font size for the comment input box be decreased?

That’s easily fixed, but you may have to clear your browser cache to refresh the site styles. Thanks for the usability feedback.

The ability to sign in with OpenID, Twitter, and Facebook to leave comments with Disqus appeals to me too. What I like about the system we have is that the comments are stored in our own database, and we aren’t dependent on a third-party site to stash our discussions or to keep commenting online. I don’t know how Disqus makes profit, but I’m curious what happens to all the content they serve when their site is down for maintenance, or in the event that they go offline.

We will weigh the pros and cons among the Free Liberal team, as way opens. Thanks again for your thoughtful feedback!