So when Jason330 started Delaware Liberal, it was on blogspot. He changed the blogspot site when he moved to WordPress, so we have no record of how Delaware Liberal 1.0 looked, but if you want to see what Jason was writing back in 2004-2006, go here. Delaware Liberal 2.0, a WordPress site, and it looked like this:
I joined the crew in 2008 when we merged Delaware Liberal and Daily Delawhere, which lead to a redesigned Delaware Liberal 3.0. You remember the State Quarter logo, don’t you?
Well, that was DL’s first logo. We changed logos to the blue and yellow DL in Boston Traffic font and upgraded to a specially designed Magazine style blog theme in 2009, and you have been living in Delaware Liberal 4.0 for the last four years.
We were long past due for an upgrade to site. And so we have redesigned the site, reaching back into our past a little bit to add back in some black and white flavor to our logo and appearance, while we embrace a new theme. Now, not much is different. The biggest change is our appearance. The features that you enjoyed in 4.0 are still here in 5.0, with some improvements. Gone are the three columns that defined DL 4.0. We now just have two, allowing for a wider main content column on the left where you read our wonderful articles. On the right column, you will find the Vote Tracker, the Delaware Liberal Poll, the Recent Comments section, and our blogroll. If you want to find our Archives, you have to go to the bottom on the page now. If you want to find our prior interviews of candidates and office holders, that is now in the main navigation bar under the name “Interviews.”
You will notice the ads are bigger and there two ads placed under the header. The reason for that is, after all these years, we are going to see if we can’t make this site at least pay for itself with some small ad revenues.
The biggest technical improvement you will notice is with the comments to a post. You will now be able to reply directly to a comment, and thus the comments are now threaded. No longer will there be just a long page of comments where you cannot tell who is replying to who.
The Featured Post section slider is improved as well, but it is not really that different. And that is basically it. Everything else will remain the same. Open Threads and Daily Delawheres every day. When the Assembly is in session, we will have the Post Game Pre Game columns from El Somnambulo.
I am sure there will be some of you who hate the appearance of DL 5.0. Some hated DL 4.0 at first, but it grew on you, didn’t it? So if you hate it, give it some time. Otherwise, I look forward to hearing your comments and criticisms.