Climates Climates
Jul
27
2007

Welcome to the New Twitch!

Posted by Todd Brown at 5:38am.

Posted in Random Geek Talk , Site Updates.

Welcome to the new Twitch!

The site has received a full on redesign and while it should appear quite similar on the surface things are very different in the background and we hope you enjoy taking advantage of the new features.  We’ve switched to a completely new content management system which allows for a few new things.  More customization!  Better spam controls!  Better integration with the forum!  Selectable work-safe and full-blooded options!  Here’s the basic run-down:

The first thing you will notice is that we’ve switched to a registered-user system.  Accounts are free - of course - and while they’re not necessary to view the site signing up for one will unlock a number of things.  First, you need to register to post comments and use the forum.  Moving to a user system like this should greatly cut down on the spam the site gets hit with and will ultimately speed things up and make them more efficient.  Second, going with a registration system has allowed us to add a feature people have been asking for from day one:  the site now exists in selectable work-safe and full blooded variants.  If you’re looking at the page now without having logged in you are getting the work safe version:  any posts that include links to sexually explicit or extremely gorey material will not appear on the home page for you.  Should you want those posts to appear on the Twitch homepage when you visit you simply need to sign in and select the NSFW option in your profile. 

There are lots of other new quirks and features in here, so poke around a bit and give the tires a good kicking.  We’re rather proud of it and hope you enjoy.

This post will remain at the top of the page for the rest of the week with new material appearing below.

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Reader Comments

  1. Bishop 07/23/2007 @ 7:37am

    Hi Todd,
    Just wanted to say, I love it.

  2. Jubei 07/23/2007 @ 8:42am

    “New” Twitch looks professional. In general, I like it. But the font size is too small!!

  3. azek 07/23/2007 @ 8:48am

    The new layout is very nice and the user registration system is going to be a hit. The only gripe I have with it is that when glancing at the news stories, it can be hard to tell where one finishes and the other one starts off since the background is always black, and there is no delimitation, but empty space.

  4. Maya 07/23/2007 @ 9:18am

    Looks great, Boss!!  Congratulations!

  5. The Visualist 07/23/2007 @ 9:41am

    Things are looking nice. And posting comments is faster!

  6. Opus 07/23/2007 @ 11:05am

    All of the normal site operations—posting comments, searching—should be much faster now.  You can thank the new CMS for that.

  7. zombeaner 07/23/2007 @ 11:44am

    I cannot see the text in the articles.  It is all black text on black background.

  8. Opus 07/23/2007 @ 12:16pm

    @zombeaner: Have you tried refreshing your browser a couple of times?  It might be pulling in some cached portions of the old site.

  9. Opus 07/23/2007 @ 12:17pm

    @zombeaner: One more thing.  What browser/operating system are you using?

  10. Sam 07/23/2007 @ 12:59pm

    Fantastic redesign. The new look is clean and elegant, and I think it’s really quite impressive. Great job!

  11. Novastar 07/23/2007 @ 1:00pm

    I hope you are not going style over substance..You know Michael Bay by style…

    Just kidding,great job.

  12. Opus 07/23/2007 @ 1:37pm

    @Novastar: I’ve always considered Bay to be a great influence of mine. wink

  13. Gillesc 07/23/2007 @ 1:54pm

    Godd thing ; hope that works out as you wish. smile

  14. Marcio 07/23/2007 @ 2:22pm

    nice work, really cool layout… twitch just keeps getting better and better :D

  15. shoujyo 07/23/2007 @ 3:09pm

    Looking sharp! But dang, Expression Engine? I had my eye on that for a while, but it’s a bit too steep for my wallet =/

  16. Yano 07/23/2007 @ 3:54pm

    great new look! and a more user friendly archive, hehe.

  17. john 07/23/2007 @ 4:41pm

    Love the redesign. It’s all nice and shiny… smile

  18. [Lunatic] 07/23/2007 @ 5:19pm

    just wanted to say that the website looks realy nice. Thums up! smile

  19. guizhang 07/23/2007 @ 5:26pm

    looks cool! nice and simple

  20. n0wak 07/23/2007 @ 5:26pm

    It’s nice, but you need to find a way to contain these nested comments. They sort of just float off into the sidebar in Firefox.

  21. dequinix 07/23/2007 @ 5:54pm

    Very much enjoying the redesign.  Thank you very much for the SFW option, although I must say that the “Next Page” option will prove to be invaluable in catching up with a few days’ news.

  22. Opus 07/23/2007 @ 6:24pm

    @n0wak: I’m working on it.  Most likely due to a nasty little CSS glitch or two.

  23. Raku 07/23/2007 @ 7:07pm

    Great work....but i think it needs something to break up the posts like on the sidebar sections i.e recent comments etc

  24. zombeaner 07/23/2007 @ 7:24pm

    Opus:  I’m using Windows XP and the newest version of Firefox (which I’m not very happy with.  I just realized that it isn’t happening anymore, it seemed to be doing it when I linked from my firefox newsfeed

  25. Opus 07/23/2007 @ 7:26pm

    @shoujyo: Yeah, ExpressionEngine can get a little pricey, depending on what license you decide to go with.  However, I think it’s worth every penny.

  26. Opus 07/23/2007 @ 7:27pm

    @zombeaner: Interesting… My guess is still that the browser was pulling in *some* cached content, which was screwing things up.  When in doubt, always refresh a couple of times.

  27. Opus 07/23/2007 @ 7:55pm

    @n0wak: The “nested” comments glitch should be fixed now.  You might need to refresh your browser a couple of times before you see the fix.

  28. TheDoug 07/23/2007 @ 8:30pm

    Like Jubei said earlier: New” Twitch looks professional. In general, I like it. But the font size is too small!!  Maybe its my aging eyes but I agree the font does seem smaller. Is this some form of illusion (was origiinal site text the same font?) smile Like the layout though and added pages etc.

  29. Kajino P 07/24/2007 @ 10:30am

    So you decided to go for Expression Engine instead of WordPress… great choice! (other great Expression Engine website: http://veerle.duoh.com/) I do think that the black space between the various items is a bit to large and the banner at the left (the one at the second item) is placed a bit strangely (do love the new squared banner at the right). Other than that the new design is really nice. Makes me wanting to do a redesign for my own website as well. Complements!!!

  30. Papigiulio 07/24/2007 @ 11:30am

    Nice job mates, site looks spiffy smile

    faster too!

  31. deacon_spires 07/24/2007 @ 12:26pm

    Awesome new design! I love the rotating images in the header bar! I kept refreshing just to see all the pics you’re using!

  32. su1shi 07/24/2007 @ 12:59pm

    very nice indeed. love the new look.
    and you guys live in the future, that’s cool.

  33. Opus 07/24/2007 @ 1:07pm

    @deacon_spires: You do know there is a gallery of all of the mastheads, right?

    http://twitchfilm.net/site/mastheads/

  34. Opus 07/24/2007 @ 2:29pm

    @Kajino P: We discussed going with WordPress, but ExpressionEngine proved so much more flexible.  Plus, the integrated forums, galleries, and whatnot were a big selling point.  If you’re feeling particularly geeky, I’ve posted some thoughts on the redesign, and why we went with EE, on my site…

    http://opuszine.com/blog/entry/presenting_the_new_twitch/

  35. spiceee 07/24/2007 @ 2:51pm

    I like it, at a first glance. The font size on the posts are too small, really, really hard to read.

  36. HoJu 07/24/2007 @ 4:16pm

    Sweet!  Great job dude.

  37. vikungfu 07/24/2007 @ 6:01pm

    Love the bigger pic, it’s like Twitch in HD!

  38. Jubei 07/24/2007 @ 9:31pm

    OK, so I’m not the only one who thinks the font size is small. I have screen resolution of 1280 x 1024, which might account for the problem.

  39. HoJu 07/24/2007 @ 9:59pm

    When you get older any font size is too small.  If you use FireFox, just get the NoSquint extension.

  40. clumproll 07/25/2007 @ 12:30am

    Love the redesign(nice n’ sleek!) great work.
    congrats to all, and thanks for your commitment to the scene.

    though can i ask for maybe half a point-size bigger on entry texts?

  41. genesis85 07/25/2007 @ 2:10am

    Is it possible to switch the background to white, like with the old Twitch?

  42. Opus 07/25/2007 @ 6:19am

    @ genesis85: Currently, there is no “white background” version of the site.  At some point, once all of the initial launch hubbub has died down, I might work on creating such a version.

    As far as the text being too small, that is on my list of issues to address.

  43. Opus 07/25/2007 @ 6:20am

    Heh… if you’re on a Mac, you can always invert the screen colors.  Then you’ll have your white background! wink

    http://www.eggheaven.com/browse/nonegg/en1615

  44. Kajino P 07/25/2007 @ 8:52am

    @Opus: Well, I can’t blame you, ExpressionEngine is great. If I ever reach the point to redesign my website (can’t say when that will be), I’ll most probably include it as well. BTW, thanks for pointing me out to your website, it’s nice to read why you decided to do certain things.

  45. ubik 07/26/2007 @ 1:26am

    I like it, but I too think the font is too small.

  46. aoki_by_gogo 07/26/2007 @ 8:14am

    Love the new look of the site.

  47. jonneh 07/28/2007 @ 8:36am

    Looks excellent! You guys have done a great job.

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