AsiaPundit is welcoming comments on the recent redesign. There will be further tweaking of the site and reader suggestions are welcome. For instance, Mrs AsiaPundit doesn’t care for the headline font — so that will have to change.
Links to the earlier site from are no longer active, although all earlier posts are archived under different URLs.
As well, the earlier RSS and Atom feeds for the site are dead. New feeds are available here and .
And the group-blog concept will soon resume.
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May 12th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
I agree with Mrs. Asiapundit, and was planning to tell you the same thing. Also, I find the transparency effect somewhat distracting, but that may be less of an issue as fresh content(TM) starts to fill up the new site. Frankly I think the map could go. But that’s just me. Congrats on the relaunch. Looking forward to much Asiapundit 2.0 bliss.
Also, there are three links to Imagethief in your blogroll. Flattering, but probably unnecessary. Especially the two back-to-back ones in the “more from China” section.
May 13th, 2006 at 12:26 am
Some quick comments about the redesign:
Yes, the headline font needs to be replaced. There are similar fonts that resolve better at small sizes. Perhaps the one you use for the ’search blog’, ‘adopt a blog’, ‘archives’ etc?
Regarding Imagethief’s comment - I agree. The transparency effect is nifty, and therefore I like it. But its only function is to obscure the map at the top when you scroll down. Maybe if you had less sidebar material to the left, it would be more effective. (On a related note, you have so much material on the sides, I ignore all of it.)
My first impression - On loading, about half of the screen is ‘dead space’ occupied by the map, blog title, and architectural image. It would make a good splash page (dreaded among us) with links to bloggers in the cities. But as part of the blog proper, it could use a lot of trimming. One way to fix it is to excise the left sidebar and trim the logo to fit that space, so it will always be present when scrolling. That is the point of layers anyways. This will also lift the first post closer to the top of the screen. Otherwise, use a narrower top bar and nix the layers. This will also nicely drop the right sidebar so it is on level with the one on the left.
May 13th, 2006 at 7:02 am
I am wondering about your new favicon. It is the same to China Herald’s favicon. Does this mean you and Fons are part of the same blogging network, hosting your site with the same service that requires that favicon, or that you simply like Fons’ favicon?
May 13th, 2006 at 12:50 pm
Looks great! I’m impressed. I wish I had started my blog on another platform…
May 14th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
Phin (AP’s designer) is working on resolving the font and some other issues now. I like the map. I’m a map junkie, with four globes in the home office - but could possibly shrink it slightly. The favicon is being restored. I think it may just be a generic wordpress icon at the moment.
Michael, it’s pretty easy to transfer. Basically it involves… err… paying someone to do it. (getting off blogspot would require paying, but a unique domain will bring better traffic and hosting space is really cheap. Plus, getting off blogspot would leave you more easily accessed on the mainland (a plus for me).
May 14th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
The transparency effect thing seems like such a nice *idea* but it really is a little … um … disconcerting for some reason. it makes me blink my eyes a lot more than i want to.
cheers,
melissa