Revamping Icethetics

It should be fairly obvious to you by now, but obviously I'm making some updates to the layout of the blog. As I've mentioned, I get tired of looking at the same thing day after day so every once in a while I feel like making changes.

One major difference is that I've moved the pollbar to the center of the page. I felt like the main content was getting trapped by the two columns on each side. It's different and it might take some getting used to, but I think it's for the better.

There's also a new banner and site logo at the top of the page. That large empty blue area will eventually be filled in with new content as Icethetics expands. Yes, I've got big plans. I'll go into detail on that at a later time.

Anyway, I'll use this post to take questions and comments about the new design. So what do you think? Rate it below.

UPDATE (10:15 PM): Just finally had a chance to read through some of the comments. I was surprised at all the negativity toward this new look. I thought it was overall cleaner and simpler. I'll take a moment here to reply to some of the general feelings.

First, the clutter. Pretty much all of the content of Icethetics can be accessed from the main page. Personally, I like that. It means you don't have to go clicking around everywhere and waiting for pages to load to find information quickly. Yeah, it can be an eyesore so I've tried to make it as easy to deal with as possible.

To alleviate some of this clutter, something I'm working on is to actually expand Icethetics into a web site rather than just a blog like it is now. But that's the thing about the design of Icethetics. It's a blog — not a web site. However, I realize my content would lend itself well to a web site but then it comes down to how much work there is for me to do.

With the blog, all I have to do is create a new post and write in the content. Done and posted in minutes. Plus Blogger has a built in RSS feed that you can subscribe to so you know when I've made an update. Automation is the only reason I can do something like this. I maybe have an hour or two a day to dedicate to Icethetics. But I have a life outside of it.

If Icethetics were my day job — if I got paid to do it — I'd go all out. You wouldn't be able to find a better hockey web site. Right now, I only use a handful of HTML pages — the logo brackets and the IceHL ratings pages. Everything else goes through Blogger. So I'm limited by that. In the future, I hope to figure out a way to create a web site that will better handle everything Icethetics has to offer — with the blog being a primary element of it.

As far as the new aesthetic of Icethetics, you can't please everyone. All I can hope to do is create a design that I don't mind staring at everyday. For those of you who don't like it, you'll get used to it. Most people didn't like the last design either. What can I do? I'll just keep changing it every few months anyway.

Anyway, thanks for reading!