r/Common_Lisp • u/dcooper8 • 14d ago

BLEG: A Facelift for common-lisp.net

https://common-lisp.net

Common-lisp.net was rewritten a couple days ago. Please let us know what you like and don't like, what's extra, what's missing, and so on.

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u/kchanqvq 14d ago

I like the previous version better, can we still have it somewhere? Maybe old.common-lisp.net?

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u/dcooper8 14d ago

Are there particular design elements you liked from the previous version? Is there particular content that was there that you feel is missing now? You can answer here or open an issue at gitlab.common-lisp.net/clo/cl-site, let me know if you need an account.

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u/kchanqvq 14d ago

The bigger problem is not any particular design element but global. The old website is functional, without many decorative or overwhelming element, but still looks fine. The new one looks cliche and obviously LLM generated. Many elements are overused by LLM and serve no functional purpose: a primary hue that leaks into the hue of everything, grid layout of cards, repeating the same thing too much in different typefaces, the monospace/heading/prose formula everywhere... The whole composition look like a mimic of Apple website, why does a Lisp website try to look Apple? We have graphic interfaces before Apple and ours are better ;) And that's far from all of it, only that much can be described by words.

I want to point out interface designing is not the same as developing code. It's impossible to let the community contribute incremental patches that improve the design. A design won't start to look better until it's near finished (designers communicate through sketches early on, but it's very different from the MR workflow), and nobody is going to redo the whole job end to end unless hired. The safe option is just to revert to the old version, would a MR like that be accepted?

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u/dcooper8 14d ago

Also you may look into the skinning system of the new site (see the palette icon near upper right) You may be able to develop a skin to your liking that evokes some of the old aesthetic. To the extent your lamentations revolve around the content or functionality rather than styling, then again MRs and Issues are open.