The updated site user interface is now live, with a number of quality of life changes. The archives interface is paginated for all comics by default, though you can still sort by month and by series if you want.
When navigating, it should now be very clear which archive a comic belongs to. We have two RSS feeds, one that will notify when all new comics are posted, and one that should notify only when comics go free-to-read.
That will come into play in stage two of this update, when we start rolling out Patron-only access to locked content. We want to make sure the UI updates are working as intended, as well as give you a chance to weigh in on any issues you discover, before we start integrating locked content.
So please feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts or concerns as you navigate around these minor changes, and let us know if you run into any problems.
The feeds are a bit difficult to distinguish which is which, at the moment. currently, the only difference is the URL (one is the main site with no further specificity, the other adds “/feed” at the end, which i assume is the one for free posts, but many people may miss this difference)
Huh? The links say “Free Comics” and “All Comics”. The original RSS is the Free Comics one.
I don’t use RSS, so can you be more specific about how they are hard to tell apart (other than the fact that there are no locked comics yet for the ‘All Comics’ feed to notify about)?
Oh i missed the icons entirely, i was on my mobile and pasted the site URL into my app’s feed finder, which returned two nearly identical site urls, my bad. That said, clicking the button prompts me to save a file, which is not how it’s supposed to work. Usually it would take you to a page of entirely html text which is the feed instructions, and you then paste the url into your rss app or other tool. If you want, i can link another webcomic that has theirs hooked up in that manner for you to see as… Read more »
Right click and select copy link address and paste that into your feeder instead.
Ahh okay. I’m on desktop, and was looking at the added menu items.
However, neither of them ask me to save anything? They just take me to html text pages.
Must just be the browser i’m using then, swapped to a more secure one and the default settings have been known to break some stuff. Disregard my issues.
They both look fine to me, maybe some explanation about the differences could be added to the description tag in them but it’s hard to say since currently they both reference the same content. Not sure how prominently some readers display the description (mine doesn’t show it at all). Only feedback I have is that for the All Comics feed, embedded comic images are nice, but would like to also like to have a link to view the comic on the site as well (the free feed just has short text and a link to the comic page with no… Read more »
I’ll look at that.
It also looks like the “Free Comics” feed includes updates (like this post) that are missing from the “All Comics” feed. There’s an argument that update posts aren’t comics, but I find it useful for them to be included. Otherwise I won’t ever see update posts because I won’t be notified about them!
Thank you for splitting the RSS feeds! I know it doesn’t matter to a lot of people, but it’s the only way I can keep up on webcomics and remember to actually check in on them. I appreciate keeping the same RSS feed for the “free comics” version, so those who aren’t patrons won’t need to change anything. I like the new look, personally, and it definitely makes it easier to distinguish which comic’s archive you’re currently in.
Thanks for splitting the feeds. I’ll have to figure out which is which. Using Quite RSS.
I couldn’t get my RSS feed reader to recognise the new feeds, but did manage to manually paste the free-only one into it.
Like the archive-binging potential of the new update! One comic-navigation request: could you make it so clicking the comic image directs you to the next comic? Would be a bit easier than scrolling back up to the top.
The new hovers on the buttons are very nice / clean design!
It’s more intuitive how to go from the main comic viewer into viewing just a series, if you want to recap just say Campaign episodes.
A small QOL thing though, maybe there should a way to break back out of the series view and back into full chronological view?
I find the UI update net negative. On the plus side, the mention of which series any page belongs to is nice. Most other changes are okay (not bringing me more value, but not bothering me either) but I find the previous/next page buttons change very irritating. I usually read several pages worth of content at a time, so I use those buttons quite a bit and because a page usually does not fit entirely on my screen, I have to scroll down slightly to see the end (as before), but previously I could click on the prev/next button there… Read more »
This is just about the only thing I find annoying as well. Otherwise everything seems to be more or less good.
I think we’re going to try and move the series banner below the comic, and shift the comic up tight against the navigation. That should eliminate the need for as much vertical scrolling to see the whole image in most present-day PC resolutions.
The series banner will lose a touch of effectiveness not being blatantly visible, but it will still be there for reference. And I think ease of reading/navigating the comics themselves should be paramount.
While I indeed find the series banner a little better below the comic, this does not solve my navigation problem.
We’ll add navigation back below the comic then.
I came to say something similar – not that it’s all bad, but needing to scroll back above the comic for “next” is really not great design for browsing the archives. Either putting matching prev/next buttons underneath the comic, or – as I’ve seen some others do – make the comic itself link to the next in the series.
I’m using FIrefox and Floorp browsers. Each time I click on the “Free Comics” link, a file named with 8 random characters downloads. The files contain xml or css text of this page. Not very useful.
I logged in with my patron account for the first time on the site today, and I don’t see the comics from Patron on the site. I only see the same comics as the Free Feed. The RSS feeds are the same as well, and as Morgoth mentioned the only difference is that the Free Feed has the Blogs posts as well. I would like to see the blog updates in the All Comics feed as well. Maybe there is an issue with my account, but I can’t find the Analog and D-pad comic from today on the site after… Read more »
I kind of addressed this in my post…
Sorry you are correct, stage 2. My apologies. I will wait to test again then.
I really really liked the Random button. It kept me involved and interested, and I already miss it, especially in the archives. Is there any way of bringing the random button back, please?
That was such an odd button, I honestly doubted anyone used it.
I do want to keep things from getting cluttered, but let me think about if there’s an appropriate place we could bring that back.
I use the “random comic” buttons on Penny Arcade and Whomp! a lot. It’s really convenient if you want to just jump around in a comic.
I can’t find a “random” button that’ll jump around the archive. That’s what I typically use when I get bored and come here. It’s nice to jump around the archive and see classic comics and modern comics all at once.
Also, having the navigation arrows at the bottom of the comic strip might be nice, too. It’s just slightly tedious to scroll down to read the strip, then scroll back up to click the arrow arrows.
I am logging in with my Patreon account but can only see/access the free comics on the site (still can see them on Patreon).
I like the UI update but unless I missed it having the archive linked like in the old UI would be nice, as it is now it requires more clicks to switch to it
Can you be more specific? What do you mean linked?
I see two wordpress admin links, is that expected in the upper left corner?
Might need you to email me a screenshot to know what you’re referring to. tim (at) cad-comic.com
The removal of the random button was an unfortunate choice. A lot of people use it when waiting on the next comic to drop. I personally won’t view nearly as much if that is permanently removed. I for one vote for it’s return.