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Mangesh & Jason
Report: mental_floss launches new homepage
by Mangesh & Jason - May 2, 2008 - 10:51 PM

We can verify these reports.

Let’s do this FAQ style…

Q. I don’t deal well with change. Can’t I just read the blog the old way?
A. Of course. mentalfloss.com/blogs will remain the same—just wider. Right now, that extra width is doing a number on some images that were specifically designed for the former format. But we’ll get that fixed.

Q. Why is this better than the old homepage?
A. The previous page was essentially identical to mentalfloss.com/blogs. This version gives us the chance to push forward more content, and makes that content easier for visitors to access. Plus, daily features like Sandy & Kara’s Quiz, Miss C’s Morning Cup o’ Links and the Lunchtime Quiz can now always be found in the same place (the ‘Daily Flossings’ box).

Q. In the ‘Recent Articles by Category’ section, I see ‘Cheat Sheets’ and ‘What’s the Difference?’ What are they?
A. Try them. You’ll like them!

Q. Why isn’t the list of ‘Daily Lunchtime Quizzes’ being updated?
A. Good eye. We’re going to tackle that in phase two.

Q. No further questions.
A. Enjoy the new-look mentalfloss.com!

Comments (16)
  1. Hey! Just wanted to let you know I think the new look is great!

  2. Or… you could just subscribe to the RSS feed, in which case you never see the front page.

  3. I like the new look but where is the Daily Flossings Box? Was there always a Daily Flossings Box and why haven’t I known about it…? Hmmmmm! Now I’m wondering what I’ve been missing and how do access the categories section?

  4. Fantastic! well done!!

  5. It looks just like CNN’s home page. Is that a good thing?

  6. i’m sorry, but i don’t like the new look.

  7. where’s the daily quizzes and not the lunchtime ones!

  8. Sandy & Kara’s morning quizzes can be found in that ‘Daily Flossings’ box under the Recent Articles. Click on ‘5 Questions’ for the most recent quiz.

  9. yea this is definitely cnn.com-esque

    clearly cinco de mayo must be some kind of obscure april fool’s day holiday at mental_floss…

  10. it looks like cnn.com. almost.

  11. My thought -> Bleh.

    Sorry ’bout that. Just don’t care for the new look.

  12. my server is not agreeing with this…now i’m forced to upgrade. Boo.

  13. I’m pretty sure I like it, after thinking about it all day. ;-) I’m slow to adapt to change, but in general I can definitely see where this is going to be a more dynamic (and higher volume) design. I have to go along with some others, though – when I first pulled up m_f this morning (part of my ‘Morning Coffee’ Firefox plug-in, of course), I had to do a double take and verify that it hadn’t opened CNN instead…

  14. Personally, I dont like it. It looks like too many other sites. Kind of like you had a template to work off of, instead of your own design.

    (Eeyore sigh) probably wont change back, and this will be the site that new users see. not as comfortable to me, will likely push the floss farther down on my list of sites to visit.

    My biggest gripe is simply that I have to scroll down to get to the stuff I want. Too many menus up top.

  15. I’m fine with the update. My only issue is the font used for comments. I rarely have trouble reading anything on screen, however I think the font here is too small.

  16. If you’re using Firefox, CTRL-+ (CTRL-Plus) and CTRL– (CTRL-Minus) will change the text size. Use CTRL-0 (CTRL-Zero) to go back to the normal size.

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