The China Blog's New Look

Would it be possible to ask you web developer to add a couple more buttons at the "Comment" section so that we can get directly to the latest comments without the need to click through all pages?

New look with old stereotype and racialism against China.

Simon, at the moment, if I have to go to the latest comments of, say your previous post on "Hu Jintao Returns Home from G8 Earlier", I have to go through 4 pages of earlier comments before I can get to the last one. It would be good if I can go directly to the end of the comment section. Some blogs allow readers to display comments in 2 different ways: either have the latest comment as the first or as the last comment. This would be helpful too. In any case, show my comment to your technical staff. They'll know what I mean.

The number next to each comment seem to have disappeared as well.

Apart from that, I really like the new look.

I read your blog, or I would like to, on Google Reader.
I say "I would like to", because unlike other feeds, The China Blog posts just show 3 lines when seen on Google Reader.
Do you think this could be changed? Or is it Time's policy that readers must actually go to Time's web site to read the posts? (But if this is the case, the feed is partially useless).
Cheers.

Too red.

Time seems bound and determined to make it more difficult to navigate from one blog to another.

Doesn't look attractive visually ... comparing to the earlier version.
This is certainly not because I dislike what Mr. Elegent has to write (I hesitate to use the word report ... anyway...).
Now a few points on the new look (may I claim credibility as a design professional?)
1. It is disturbingly cluttered with various visuals. I understand you need these ads to make the site and the magazine profitable. But the things on the right hand side of the page is disproportionally big. Reduce the width of the right "column" to about 25% of the width of the page you will still get the same effect without being cluttered;
2. I have to agree with JS of whatever number for the first time that there are way too much of red ...perhaps for different reasons. I suppose JS of whatever number hates red probably because of the politican meaning this color may carry ... certainly to some who are highly politically charged this is not acceptable. For me, red is a tiresome color. For most ordinary people you simply can't look at something red for a very long time. Now, one may argue that red is the color of China. I would argue that red is the color of northen China. Anyway, simbolic things aside, use a another color (say, some sort of blue) as a background may make everybody easy on the color of the red. Plus, the red of the Five-star flag and the tile, is this really the color on the Chinese flag or it has been distorted a bit (like many of the writings by Mr. Elegent) to make it appear to be even more bloody?
3. The design of the banner, the flag + the title thing, could be more professionally done. Try to make the whole thing red (now, JS of whatever number will be mad of me for asking for more red), and use white as the color of the title. You can still have those stars but you can make they fly all over the banner in stead of following the design of the red flag.

nice new cage for the young ham-sters to play in!

wrong spelling ------ scatalogical
scatological

forgive me my English is poor, i find out it from Dictionary

i still perfer the old one ----- no democracy for China.

bcs we don't support Devil's theory

johnsmith9876 doesn't like red

Marlon Jackson =Black skin-->white skin-->Monkey->Die

johnsmith=Red blood--->Black Blood--->Devil--->Die

Most of you will be familiar with BBC's readers' commentary section , which has several elements which may well be worth emulating here on the Time China Blog commentary section. --- All of C.A.Yeung's suggestions, to which I wholeheartedly subscribe (above, dated July 10: 5:26 am) actually are implemented there. With all commentaries on one single page it would be very helpful if you reinstated the numbering feature of your previous format: It would then be so much easier to refer to specific contributions. --- There is, however, one element in BBC's commentary section that I would like to recommend most passionately to be considered for copying: It is the “House Rules” filter, which curtly blocks all contributions which are offensive and hence inacceptable. You may want to check this out at http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/jamesreynolds/2009/07/three_years_in_china.html

Simon, it is very valiant of you accepting “to be called all sorts of names”, but the issue is much wider: I have already seen commentaries on this blog which border on incitement to murder and to genocide. --- I do NOT suggest to blindly copy any or all of “Time China Blog Commentary House Rules” verbatim from BBC. Why not have all interested commentators to this blog contribute their Does and Don'ts for a certain amount of time before putting such a mediation rule book into effect?

I am aware that ANY commentary moderation feature would require wo/manpower, which may simply not be available in your particular blogosphere. But one thing I know for certain: no appeal to decency will ever stop certain sick individuals to refrain from emptying their bowels here on these pages.

I hate the new layout. Is it even possible to read all the blog posts in a rolling layout anymore? I hate having to read each post separately.