All righty then…AustenBlog 2.1
Comments, please….
- Now Available!
Buy from Jane Austen Books
Buy from an independent bookseller
Amazon US | UK | CA | FR | DE
Powell's | Barnes & Noble
Or at your favorite bookstore!- Learn more about the book and get a signed bookplate!
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License
February 20th, 2006 at 8:00 pm
The only thing I don’t like is that font! Sorry, I know, but it bugs me.
Love the colors, though!!!
February 20th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
You mean the arial, not the JA handwriting font, right?
February 20th, 2006 at 8:07 pm
Mags,
Love the colours and the font doesn’t bother me at all. Great job and thanks for your hard work. I really like the teacup graphic but the previous one with the old woman also grew on me.
February 20th, 2006 at 8:13 pm
I really like it — even more than the pink, flowery design that we originally had. I also think the font and colors are great.
February 20th, 2006 at 8:16 pm
I like it too. I like the cup better than the lady.
February 20th, 2006 at 8:21 pm
This is a nice color scheme, very easy on the eyes. I’m not a big fan of Arial since I like serifs better, but anyway…
By the way, has MAAW been junked for good?
February 20th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
Ahhhhh. Now that’s a decided improvement! Not that I wouldn’t love the site anyway, even if it had a Lydia theme. Great job!
February 20th, 2006 at 8:24 pm
I like this one better…the colors are nice…the font is ok too
February 20th, 2006 at 8:49 pm
I definitely prefer the teacup to the old biddy!
February 20th, 2006 at 8:52 pm
Now it can be reavealed…Dorothy is MAAW. (Or is that MAAW is Dorothy?)
February 20th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Like it, Mags! Tea cup is cute! Is Dorothy brewing a cuppa Jane tea?
Like the blue colors, but would rather have the old font than Arial. Missing the old design, too. Possible to have two skins? Nevermind, I’m very unappreciative of all Editrix’s hardwork. I’m just afraid of change, like familiar things too much, LOL.
February 20th, 2006 at 9:11 pm
Love the colour scheme. Love love love. I’m gonna miss the MAAW, but I think I prefer the cuppa as a logo. Really nice job. Thank you for providing this forum!
February 20th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
I love it.
February 20th, 2006 at 9:37 pm
When I get a chance I’ll look into a skin-switcher so everyone can choose their own favorite.
February 20th, 2006 at 9:43 pm
The cup of tea is adorable. I love this! And yet, I’m nostaglic for the original at the same time.
February 20th, 2006 at 10:16 pm
Mags this scheme is lovely! I adore the blue and the cup of tea is perfect! I love this Arial font, it’s the one I always change to when using Word as it’s more ledgeable and easy on the eyes! I think it’s perfect and am so glad that Dorothy has come to stay, even if she doesn’t dust who cares, as long as she can make a good cup of chai and doesn’t try to scare us with too many ghost stories! Besides, that’s Henry’s job!
February 20th, 2006 at 10:17 pm
Love the new(est) look, Mags! Liked the old lady, too, but the teacup with Jane is classic, wonderful! Thank you so much for all your hard work in providing this forum!
February 20th, 2006 at 10:33 pm
Mags my dear you have outdone yourself! I love the new design, color scheme, etc. And as blue is my favorite color I’m quite content with you never changing it again! Keep up the good work and remain your good ol’ snarky self!
February 21st, 2006 at 1:07 am
much prefer the brighter layout previously. this grey and red seem dull compared to the previous lay out…
February 21st, 2006 at 1:21 am
The teacup is tops! The only thing I miss at all from the old version is the wallpapery look, that was cute.
February 21st, 2006 at 2:40 am
I like this look much more than the one with the old lady. The colours are much better as well.
Putting Jane’s picture on the sugar is brilliant!
Thank you very much, Mags for all your work with this blog - I love it!
February 21st, 2006 at 2:47 am
^ oops… I just realized that it’s NOT sugar, but the end of a teabag. The horrid idea that anyone uses them to make proper tea (in what seems to be a porcellain cup!) hardly ever enters my brain
Anyway, it’s great though.
February 21st, 2006 at 8:08 am
Very very nice.
I really like the teacup graphic on the header, and the layout is very clean and organized. Melikes, definitely.
February 21st, 2006 at 8:19 am
Mags, the layout is amazing. I am also not a huge fan of the font, but the color scheme is perfect. I love the teacup, and the banner. Overall, this is the best recreation of AustenBlog yet.
February 21st, 2006 at 9:01 am
Much easier on the eyes than the last one! And the Austen handwriting font is pure joy! Fabulous work.
February 21st, 2006 at 9:26 am
I still miss the old layout. That greyish-blue color is kind of depressing. I liked the pinkish tones better.
Love the Tea cup and JA font though :o)
February 21st, 2006 at 11:23 am
I love the teacup, and don’t miss that Dorothy at all.
But I do miss the previous (2.0) layout and coulours, they felt more - uh - cheerful. I hope you get to have that skin-switcher then adn we will all be happy with the one we choose :p
February 21st, 2006 at 11:55 am
Very clever tinkering to get JA’s picture in your new design. I do prefer this format to the MAAW, even though it was a wonderful Dorothy likeness. (She is a madcap, that woman!) By the way, is it one lump or two of snark or one lump or two given out by the cluebat?
February 21st, 2006 at 12:34 pm
hahaha. “One clue-bat clobber, or two?”
February 21st, 2006 at 12:48 pm
It is much easier on the eyes.
Thank You!!!
February 21st, 2006 at 2:55 pm
Mags, I love the new layout. Personally, I think the blues are very soothing. And the teacup graphic is gorgeous. This one’s got my vote.
February 21st, 2006 at 3:33 pm
It matches perfectly with my Mozilla Firefox browser!
February 21st, 2006 at 4:02 pm
I love it. I really like the new graphic header. Especially with Jane on the tag. I think there might be a better font out there than Arial. It’s so generically boring.
February 21st, 2006 at 4:40 pm
Might as well chime in… blue is my favorite color, so I could never object to this! And I do think the colors are gentler on the eyes than the red, even though I do like red and teal in combination. Also, I know Arial is boring, but as Mags probably knows, sans serif fonts are supposed to be easier to read onscreen than serifs. It’s a standard of web design. And you can’t choose that many fonts that everyone has. There are about three choices.
The teacup is clearer as a logo, much as I loved MAAW. Lovely work, Mags.
February 21st, 2006 at 4:49 pm
Yep, Arial is easier to read on a computer screen. Boring but true.
But I like it here; I think it has a clean look. I might change it back, you never know, but right now I’m liking it.
And when I get the chance, and I can figure out how to make it work, I’ll install the skin switcher, and you can choose between this skin, the original, or the green and white one with MAAW.
February 21st, 2006 at 4:50 pm
I’m a frequent AustenBlog visitor, but I’ve never posted. Just thought I’d throw my two cents in now about the design…
I love the teacup, but I have to say that I really prefer the serif font you had before for text. (Is it the one used for the links on the right? Is that Georgia?)
February 21st, 2006 at 4:55 pm
I think the font and colours are fine, although I think I’d put up with sans serif italics font 8 as long as the content remains the same! The only thing I miss is the ‘…she’s everywhere’ tagline to the Austenblog heading. It’s a small thing, but it does describe in a nutshell what this is all about. One lump of snark or two is delightful as a kind of ‘aside’ after the main heading, but it almost make it sounds like the purpose of the whole thing is snarking. Am I making sense? Am very tired at the moment.
February 21st, 2006 at 4:56 pm
If you look up at the very top of your browser, the “she’s everywhere” is still in the title of the site.
(I like it, too.)
February 21st, 2006 at 5:05 pm
You did a incredible job with the new site! I love the cup with all the details, I am not crazy about the font but you cannot make everyone happy can you?!! Thanks again for all your wonderful work….
February 21st, 2006 at 5:07 pm
P.S. Thanks to our Janeite Spy (who posted above) for scanning the teacup for me. I originally wanted a teacup motif for this layout but couldn’t find one I liked–thus the introduction of MAAW. This one is just about perfect.
If anyone is wondering, the image of Jane on the tab of the teabag (and sorry if teabags offend anyone’s sensibilities! You have to admit it works well here!) is from the JA font. It’s the symbol from typing Alt +0180 (on the keypad, not the top row of the keyboard). I am really pleased because all those who asked for Jane got her as well and I was still able to use my original teacup idea.
February 21st, 2006 at 5:40 pm
I like it, very much!
February 21st, 2006 at 5:46 pm
The serif font was Georgia…and for some reason I can see it in the menu in IE and I couldn’t in Firefox, so I’ve since fixed it! Ha!
You might be able to manipulate your browser to show you the site in Georgia rather than Arial, if you want. Check Internet Options. Might do the whole Web and not just this site, but there you go.
I once changed my default browser font to some really obnoxious handwriting script just for fun. It was hilarious to go to like CNN.com and read it in script.
February 21st, 2006 at 8:03 pm
I’m a frequent visitor too. Just want to say that I love the new layout- think it’s the best of all three I’ve seen!
February 21st, 2006 at 9:17 pm
It is my unhappy fate to remember nothing of the day before, so i can’t even picture the pages. I love the teacup logo, and the colors are fine. The font is a little plainish (like the “smallish wilderness” Lady Catherine discovered to give her tirade in). However it would be churlish of me to mind anything when I consider how much work you put into the blog. So hats off, gentlemen, and bonnets tied, ladies, as we bow and curtsey to our Lady of the Blog, Mags.
February 22nd, 2006 at 9:43 am
I like the blue background and the tea cup. It has a clean, inviting feel to it. Th old
woman did not appeal to me. Jane was never old, she died at 41.
February 22nd, 2006 at 1:12 pm
Hands down, love it. I actually sighed with happiness when I visited today and saw the new look. The color scheme reminds me of Earl Grey tea, my absolute favorite. Three cheers!
February 22nd, 2006 at 9:05 pm
by the way, what is MAWWW?
February 22nd, 2006 at 10:35 pm
MAAW - Middle-Aged Austen Whore
:p
February 22nd, 2006 at 10:35 pm
It’s MAAW, which stands for Middle Aged Austen Whore and is the name that Cub Reporter Julie B. bestowed upon the image that was in the AustenBlog 2.0 layout (and has been preserved as the public image of Dorothy on the “Meet the AustenBlog Staff” page.
The sobriquet Middle Aged Austen Whore comes from an unhappy victim of the Cluebat of Janeite Righteousness. She meant it as an insult, but many of us, in a fit of Lizzy Bennet-like contrariness, have embraced it.
February 22nd, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Very nice.
February 23rd, 2006 at 12:32 am
Mags - you mentioned something about figuring out how to give the options to change skins. I know MuggleNet.com has that feature, if you want to check that out. I don’t know how much MAAW’s embrace Harry Potter, but I do know that J.K. Rowling rather enjoys Jane.
February 23rd, 2006 at 1:27 am
Well, I for one adore Harry Potter. There is a plugin for WordPress (the software I use here) that allows the user to change skins. I installed it on my test blog and realized that I would have to put some time into it to make the blog work properly. The comments went south after I installed it. I know what the problem is, but again, it will take some time to straighten it out. It will happen eventually, nad possibly within the next couple of weeks.
February 25th, 2006 at 4:18 pm
Very smart - love the teacup!