Just about three months ago, I threw the switch on this website and took things in a whole new direction. For those of you who made the jump right away, thanks for the support. For those of you who have met me since, welcome! And for those of you still stumbling over – I hope you like what I’ve done with the place.

But now that I’m past the push to get the site launched on time, and have survived the TIFF gauntlet, it’s time to get to maintenance. And for that, I’d like your input!

Be as brutally honest as you want to be – feel free to cut it down to splinters if you like. I might not take every single note and run with it, but I can’t make any improvements if I don’t face critique. It’s all fair game – What do you want to see? What should I ditch? What am I doing right that I can expand upon? And most of all – be specific!

What changes or improvements would you like to see here at The Matinee?

49 Replies to “I’m On the Firing Line (Feedback Please)”

  1. I’d say the biggest thing is to get those articles in the scrolling header to show up in the list below it as well.

    Everything else seems really solid. I like what you’ve done with the place.

    1. That might be tricky. What about of I made it so that the slideshow doesn’t flip automatically, giving you a chance to browse through which ones you’d like to read?

      1. I think that would only make the problem worse because it isn’t always obvious that you can manually scroll and so the other articles would be hidden even more than they already are.

        The problem with the way it is now is that generally a scrolling header at the top of a site indicates “Featured Content” rather than just showing off the newest content in order. People will look at that, but might often scroll past it without realizing that its links are not duplicated in the main blog list portion below.

        Now, obviously I know that I can manually scroll through that header to get to the recent articles I want to read, but it’s still a pain in the butt to have to do that compared to just scrolling down a list. If I am looking for a specific article, you shouldn’t make me manually scroll through that header to find what I want.

        1. I agree with Corey. I have found out how it works myself by using the Matinee but new readers may actually miss content when its structured like this.

          You should look into the settings of your theme to see if it can be fixed.

  2. I’ll be honest–I have absolutely no talent at setting up a website (hence my use of Blogger) and consider myself more autistic than artistic. I like the way the site looks and the way it works.

    1. Well it’s good to know I’m off to a good start here. But in comparison to the other sites you read, is there something I don’t have that you’d like to see? Something my site has in its layout/navigation that you don’t dig?

      Those are the sorts of things I’m hoping to gauge. Thoughts?

      1. A fair question. The simple answer is “No.” I see a few people have complained about the scroll at the top, but that doesn’t bother me. It’s common enough on other sites that I’m used to seeing it and scrolling through to get to what I want. I like that the last few weeks worth of posts are available front page.

        I guess if you need something critical here, I prefer an archive page that lists the entire archive in one go rather than requiring me to scroll back page after page to hunt for something. But that’s pretty minor.

        1. OK – That gives me something to work with. Now my counter-question would be, what would you like to see in the archive that you can’t find by using the search bar?

          Just curious if we’re talking about a complete archive of all content, or an archive of specific features like reviews and podcasts (which already exist)

  3. I’m really not a fan of the slideshow thing at the top with jumping texts and whenever I spot something I want to read it has already moved to the next one. It might be pretty but it’s annoying.
    Less is more when it comes to blog design imo. I’ve solved this though by subscribing to your blog. Thus I don’t need to go through the annoying procedure of trying to catch the moving objects. So I guess you don’t need to change it just because of me.

    Apart from that: you rock!

    1. I neglected to ask how people follow along with this site, so thank you for pointing out that you keep up with it via subscription.

      I’m also of the “less is more” opinion, which is why I’ve resisted putting lists and widgets in the margins…but for all I know, readers see such decisions as “boring”.

      Thanks for the note!

        1. Yup, me too. I’ve been to the actual site fewer than 10 times. I read almost daily, but don’t come to the actual site much – and if I do, it’s to comment on a precise post so I never see the top page.

  4. I’m a big fan of simplicity, so I would simply suggest that you don’t go too crazy with adding too many features, widgets and other such stuff to the sides. Focus on the content like you have been. The only other thing I can think of is to make sure that your post titles give a bit more context as to the content – when you just see the title and a photo in the list of older posts, it might not be enough to pull you in (ie. “All I Want” with a snap of Hoffman from The Graduate).

    By the way, I typically don’t follow my own advice…B-) Maybe one day I’ll try to update my blog’s basic Blogger look.

    1. This is a good note as it reminds me of something I haven’t been able to completely get working…

      Right under the slideshow, there are two small grey icons – one “three bar” image and one “grid” image. If you click on the grid image once, it activates the shade function of the images. Then, if you see something with a nondistinct title, you can hover your mouse over the image, the image slides away and gives you a post summary.

      Like I say – gotta get that working.

      Subquestion: is it worth creating some sort of a “sitemap” like page that spells out where things are, what does what, etc?

  5. Yeah I think the site is pretty great as is. I’d second what Corey said above though. I actually kind of like the scrolling thing, but it takes time to get through them all and I want to be able to see TODAY’s posts immediately.

    For example, I didn’t know this post existed until I waited a bit to get through the scrolling stuff. Society is impatient these days (myself included). If they don’t see anything interesting or new in the first scroll story or in the block of 9 stories you have below, they’ll leave without waiting to see what else is in store for them that may actually be new.

    Cliff notes – keep the scroller, but make all recent stories visible immediately upon entering the site.

    1. The scroller shows the most recent stuff in descending order, so the newest post is what shows up first, but if you don’t act quick it slides away.

      Pretty sure you have officially sold me on making the slider a manual click.

    2. Finally got someone to help me with this point of yours. Take a look at the site now and tell me if that seems better. I still left it automatic but slowed down the timing of it.

  6. The lack of the “Univarn is God” widget on your blog is clearly a bit disturbing, but I suppose I can let you off with a pass this one time. However if it’s not up by the next time one of these posts roll around I will have the Church of Univarn’s special committee investigate you for heresy.

    Beyond that, I’m pretty much cool with the way your blog is – design wise. Would having your latest posts under the scroller be nice? Yes. Am I really that bothered by it? No. I don’t mind clicking a couple of extra buttons.

    One little nitpicky thing is that I would change the way your twitter/facebook/digg/etc buttons are at the top heading of each post. I know the white text/logo on grey background is in keeping with your format, but they’re completely ignorable and almost impossible to see. I didn’t even realize they were there until last week.

    Lastly, I’d recommend adding another dropdown at the top for some of your more general series (Falling for the first time, what everybody’s talking about, etc.)

    1. Not sure anyone actually even uses those buttons anyway!

      Good point about adding more series to the top menu. Must have forgotten about that in the rush to get the site going.

      Thanks dude!

  7. As Ms. Keener says in UP IN THE AIR, “It’s only a problem if you have a solution” and I have a solution.

    You know that I agree wholeheartedly with Corey’s comment (I’ve told you this already)

    My solution is to change the display of the top scroll header. You can have it either with a flashy bar banner where the five (I think it’s five) most recent posts are displaying their header image and when the mouse hovers over it you get the text and can click through for the link. You can even take it a step further and when the mouse hovers over a specific image/post it makes the others smaller and when your mouse leaves it they return to previous size.

    All of this can be done with some sleek javascripting.

    I leave it there.

    1. You have my attention. As I decide what to do with that ‘Lead Story Slideshow’ (Clearly the detail with the most feedback at the moment), I may come back to you and see how to make that happen.

      Much obliged.

  8. I’ve also got an idea. You should do a regular feature called #Ryaniswrong in which you re-watch a film that everyone said you were wrong about (either in liking or disliking) and then see if your opinion changes or is confirmed. And I would require royalties from any potential future ad profits on these posts, of course.

    2. I’m gonna start a #RyanIsWrong section on my site too (I may need to ask Blogger for more space though…B-) ). And I’ll take a cut of those royalties as well.

      Corey, is that hashtag trending worldwide yet?

    3. It’s not trending yet. I’m working on it. We need to expand it beyond the original Ryan. Next time Ryan Reynolds or Ryan Gosling or some other famous Ryan says something stupid, we can start a Twitter game with the hashtag!

      And I think all sites should have a #RyanIsWrong section, not that I know what such a section would contain.

  9. I agree with Univarn – there should be a section devoted to Sam, clearly.

    In all seriousness, everything is pretty great. Odd you mention a 3 month mark today – tomorrow marks two years for me.

        1. Each anniversary is supposed to be represented by a different sort of gift. The theme for the first year is paper, second year leather, thirty five is silver, etc.

  10. I like the new site very much. As an avid commenter I got tired of external issues with blogger comments all the time. However, I would maybe add a widget with recent comments (10-15) because it helps people out in seeing if someone have commented on older posts that they themsleves have commented on.

    I know I comment a lot more if a site is structured like that. I have recently started using e-mail subscribing to comments but I think a recent comment widget might be a good complement.

    Other than that I would love to read something by Lindsay on a regular basis maybe a column or review of the month. Other than that I can just say keep up the great work you do in here.

  11. As others have said a manual click would be appreciated. My only other comment is more of an aesthetically trivial one. The space to the right of your logo looks a little bare. Especially with the tiny font for contacts/about me stuff.

  12. I don’t have any design critiques, but I would like to see some posts about older films. You could write about Workers Leaving the Factory and then maybe a piece on the underrated The Sprinkler Sprinkled. A Trip to the Moon would also be a film I don’t think has got enough coverage you could check out.

    Okay, so maybe there’s not much to be said for films that old, but I would like to see some stuff from previous decades every now and again.

    1. Ah! A call for content – I like it.

      In reading this note, I don’t just see it as “write content on classics” but more “get BACK to writing content on classics”. For a while I was doing a series called Back to Basics which was spurred by a group going through the 1001 Film Series. That spurred posts on DOUBLE INDEMNITY, THE LAST PICTURE SHOW, and indeed VOYAGE TO THE MOON! Thing is, I strayed from the flock, and thus found my focus drifting more towards modern content.

      But it’s officially been too long, and I will make a concerted effort to write more about the classics.

      As a slide aside, I must say that when writing about the classics, my difficulty was always in comic up with an angle. I’m not going to review them, because I believe such films are above review by now, and when it comes to titles like THE MALTESE FALCON for instance, what can one say that hasn’t already been said? (I know Simon Columb wrestles with similar questions)

      Regardless, this might be the best note to come from this whole round of feedback. Thanks for pointing out the trend

      1. Hey a great angle on Maltese Falcon is how freakin modern it feels. I saw it a couple of months ago for the first time and was deeply impressed with it!

        By the way I noticed when trying to access your blog through opera I get a an error message. Maybe something you could test it might be some local setting but if you have compatibility issues with Opera it might be a problem.

      2. To add to James’ point, a few more reviews for foreign films would be nice as well. I know this may be tough when there is the latest award fare to compete with.

        Also, similar to your horror post a few weeks back, I always enjoy reading about films that do not normally fall into your usual wheelhouse/comfort zone. In regards to the site design, I have no issues.

        1. I’ll do my best to branch out a bit more. Like the classics request, this is very workable since I do love foreign films, I just don’t chase them down quite as much. In both cases, it also has to do with my light reluctance to write too much about what I watch on dvd.

  14. I’m not really one for making suggestions of this sort– in my eyes, though, this is already a big improvement over the old blog (which itself was pretty good). No complaints.

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