The new LWN.net site

If not, then perhaps just a tech-heavy description of how you do what you do would be welcome. If I can't use your code, maybe a few of the ideas behind it are novel enough (if not [gasp!] patentable) to be useful to your site-building readership. (BTW, not that it matters in this case, but I did give you a donation. :-)

I was able to find and follow some sample python code for using the XML-RPC feeds through Meerkat (http://www.oreillynet.com/meerkat/) which could get me the LWN feed and others. However, I'd like to know how to get the RSS directly.

I know that the LWN staff is fond of Python; and that they use it on their site. Perhaps they could provide a snippet of code as an example.

If not, I can stop coming back to check (or maybe even at all, although I'd hate for that to happen). I've set my preferences, but am not getting to see them without explicitly logging in each time (and yes, some people do quit their browser when they can make better use of the resources it occupies, so this is an issue). I find the default layout and colours to be so distracting that I'm now having a hard time actually reading anything when I visit. This is not good.

I also really think the black outlines should be off by default. Or at the very least there should be some padding around than text block they contain.

PS: I know I'm repeating myself (call me a whiner), but that's because at I care about lwn!

I do have a gripe about font sizes, though. The previous layout was compact and to the point, while the new version of the site blows up font sizes WAY too much, particularly in the item headlines - these were small and unobtrusive before, marked by their background color rather than their size. That worked *much* better. I find I want a bigger screen on which to view the new layout (to see more), despite the fact that I have a 1280x1024 17" LCD screen. The new layout must be very painful for those with lower res screens like laptop users stuck at 10x7 or even 8x6.

Finally, I'm not sure I like the comments idea at all. I fear that the Letters section, which has been of fairly consistently high quality, will suffer as a result, and that the comments areas will succumb to the tragedy of the commons here just as they have everywhere else. One thing I really liked about the Letters section was that it tended to focus discussion on topics and points that were of importance and general interest to the community at large - I'm afraid that won't happen with the new LWN comments mechanism, which is just Slashdot redux. (My own personal feeling is that Slashdot has become nearly useless, with a signal/noise ratio trending to zero. Compare Slashdot discussions of three or four years ago with today's and you'll see what I mean. The average intelligence of posters has fallen dramatically, and none of the moderation techniques tried have worked.)

So, here's a suggestion for a compromise that might work well: Since Letters *will* be written about things of interest and import, it might be best to limit comments to Letters rather than stories or news items themselves. This will serve to provide at least some focus on particular topic areas, although I still fear the eruption of brutal flamewars, from which LWN has been mercifully immune under its traditional structure.

Thanks for trying to improve, but wahtever you do, don't turn into Slashdot - that would be a great loss for all of us!

P.S.: The non-wrapping text entry box is a *really BAD idea* - it's impossible to see what you write in a constructive way. This one's easy to fix. Please do.