A Few Questions
As you have probably noticed, I have changed the site logo from the “atheist atom” to the scarlet “A”. I did this for a few reasons:
- When I originally came across the atom symbol, I simply thought it was a cool logo for atheism, with the “A” standing for atheism. However I quickly learned that it was the symbol of American Atheists and the “A” stood for America. Since I am not American and not in any way affiliated with American Atheists, I don’t think there is much reason having it there.
- I think the site needs less black and white and a bit more colour.
- The scarlet A is more accepted as a universal symbol for atheism, and it is pretty!
I also changed the favicon symbol to the A as well, but you may have to flush your browser cache before that appears.
I wanted to find out what people think of the site look overall, and reader feedback is very important to me. I want to know what people think of the layout of the site, for example is the two column structure good or would three column be better? How about the colour scheme? The fonts? Do you think the site should have a proper banner instead of just a logo and a text title? If so, would someone be willing to design one for me? (I suck at that sort of thing).
Finally, I have temporarily closed the forum as it was running an old version of the software which is prone to attacks, and it wasn’t being used that often anyway. When I started the forum up, I used to spend time there discussing issues with the members, but in recent months a previous forum I started about 2 years ago got popular very quickly, and I had to divert attention to that. In fact, that forum is now running a book club similar to the one that used to run here, only a lot more people are taking part. So I guess my final question is, do you really need a forum on the blog when we have such a great comments system that can be used for debate, and when a bigger and better forum is already available?
As I mentioned, feedback is very important to me, as I want this blog to be easily accessible by readers. Anything you think may help should be brought up! The only thing I would really object to is the actual site theme, which I like because it is plain and fast.
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Feedback:
Personally I like the simple layout, for me a blog is about what the person wrote and the associated readers comments.
You had a forum? Similar to above, if I want to read a blog I'll go to a blog, if I want to discuss on a forum I'll go to a forum. So IMHO ditch the forum here and maintain and promote the other forum.
Consider this comment a vote for a three column layout. You have things buried in your sidebar (ie, that poll) that people will probably miss.
….Wait I'm confused. You have two forums?
I suggest you add some little details to match the red of the A. Like, red bullets or red sidebar links…or red border lines, etc. Make it match and spice up the plain white a little.
Did you check if the scarlet A allows usage outside of the OutCampaign? I don't think CRD would object but it's best to be on the safe side.
I am fine with the colour scheme. I also did not know about the background of your previous logo but I guess most of them might have a "political" one. I used to have an atheist logo as my favicon for a while as well but later changed to a custom wordpress logo.
Btw, where is this second column you speak of?
PS: Now that I think of it, perhaps I shouldn't be writing this as you ignored my request last time >:)
An idea for your logo: You could modify your blog's title so that the Scarlet A is at the location of the 'A' in 'The Atheist Blogger'. This would probably mean you have to replace the Title with a custom image, but it would be kewler
The first column is the article column (i.e. the one this comment is in). The second column is to the right of that vertical line ->
Sorry I ignored your request, I just checked it and I was in America without much internet at the time. I didn't check many blogs as I had lost my feed reader in an unfortunate GPU melting accident :P
I agree, that would be cool. I think I'll have to fire up GIMP again :D
Great question! As far as I am aware, the symbol is copyright free, and they actively encourage you to add it to your website.
Pah! Excuses.
I just added the Scarlet A to my site, and it seems that all you have to do is email them and let them know you are using it, and that might just be a "we'd kinda like to know" rather than a requirement.