Love it! It's a great layout. And thanks for adding the Cafe's top recommended posts to your front page. That's great of you to do, and an honor to us Cafe members. Thanks so much.

I can't argue with increased visibility for Reader Voices.
But Josh, since you're fixing things, why not make those top-line links to Muckraker, TPMDC, etc., WAY more prominent and obvious?
I'd bet many first-time visitors browse the front page and go away without ever realizing those subsections of the site even exist.
Art-department types tend to give far too much weight to cleanness of design over ease of use. Tell them to stuff it.

Yeah, it is great, but I am addicted. How do I resume a productive life.

It looks great and the links to reader posts are a welcome addition. But, anything that gives you greater flexibility on the back-end is what really counts, especially when a subject needs more context and/or further reading for relevancy.

Thanks.

I understand you want to keep the front page uncluttered, and so the items there invite recommendations but not comments.
Sometimes, however, what's posted does cry out for discussion. In those specific cases, why not link to a mirror of the post at the appropriate place inside (muckraker, DC, etc.), where folks can weigh in?
Sometimes you ask, "What do you think?" and, after considerable delay, post a few selected email comments. That's fine, but you know TPMers like to argue among themselves too.
I've seen people post blogs for the sole purpose of debating an issue you've raised on the front page. Why not cut out the middle man?

I'd make one suggestion for the reader blogs on the front page, Josh. You have the user names in all caps - which is not the way they appear at the Cafe.

Since your name and the names of other writers here does not appear in all caps, I'd recommend that the front page show the user names as we're used to seeing them. I like that the user pics appear next to the blog. But I personally much prefer the user names just as people chose them. And it's more consistent with how others names also appear. (People mostly go to a lot of trouble in deciding how to have a user name print. That should be honored.)

Thanks for considering that.

I'm not THERAP. I'm TheraP. :-)

Time will tell whether this will enhance or ruin our little Cafe. If more people read our posts we may get more trolls and lose our focus, but I guess it is for is to determine how to deal with them. On a more positive note, I think the world might benefit from some of the posts. I really appreciate how thoughtful people can be here, towards each other and the situations at hand. BUt, now that I'm addicted, I can't declare I like TPM ... I need it!!! :-{)> hehehe

No, actually, I like it too. ;-{)>

Do these changes only affect the TPM front page, or are changing being made to TPM Cafe itself?

Will the changes bring any new policies to this site?

I like it, and I agree about the spelling of bloggers' names.

C VL LEDEM