On the left: Our first Internet Archive screengrab from October 2005.Things look a lot different around here huh? To you and me both.
On Monday afternoon we did the first complete update to this site since we launched in July 2005. I’m not sure if I should be embarrassed or proud that we kept the same theme and basic style for 17 years. Regardless, we have finally moved beyond the standard, single-column , “blog” format into something much more exciting.
This goes well beyond just wanting a new look. As publisher and editor of a site that has grown dramatically over the years, I’ve been very frustrated with inherent limitations of our old style. We’ve gone from “that guy’s bike blog,” to a mature news outlet that regularly features different writers and a wide range of issues (beyond bikes!) and content types. Simply put, I wanted to share more of our work in more compelling ways.
This new design allows us to do that. It features more stories above-the-fold and gives you a cleaner reading experience (if you’re looking for the stuff that used to be in our sidebars on the right, they’re now in our footer below).
I expect a lot of fiddling in the days and weeks to come.
And that’s just the start. From my perspective, what you can see here is actually the boring part of the change. Because we had such an old and clunky theme, we were not able to update to the latest editing tools of our content software (WordPress). Last night we finally made that update, and that means we have an exciting trove of new tools at our disposal to create more interesting posts and other types of content.
Along with our new look and the creative potential it unlocks, people who view BikePortland on a phone or tablet now have a much better experience.
Now the hard part: Please be patient as all of us here at BikePortland get up to speed with everything . The site is definitely not 100% done and there are many tweaks to make and bugs to fix. Back in the early days I’d spend many hours a week making tiny design adjustments and it took years for me to quit fiddling with things. I expect a lot of fiddling in the days and weeks to come.
As always, I’m extremely grateful for your support and our mission is to serve your needs. So if you have feedback, let us know!
Onto our next chapter…
Jonathan Maus is BikePortland’s editor, publisher and founder. Contact him at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it., or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.
