As you can see, I’ve embarked on a step-by-step redesign of the site, still very rough and unfinished, but I hope smoothing out as we get into next week. Reactions welcome, including whether readers would like to go back to the old pink-and-grey color scheme (widely disliked, but distinctive), which features are best included on the front page, etc. I think a three-column format is now fairly standard in sites of our type and should allow us to keep recent comments and posts high up for the benefit of frequent visitors, while also offering prominent navigation aids for newcomers and those using the site for research.

I expect to restore the blogroll and about-the-site soon, as well as a serif typeface.

Filed under: blog mechanics

Our new Movable Type upgrade finally allows us to add a feature we’ve wanted to add for a long time, a list of the most recent reader comments. Check out the right-left-hand sidebar.

Filed under: blog mechanics

With help from the Movable Type people we’ve restored site search, which had been broken for the past couple of days since our software upgrade. In coming weeks watch for some enhancements to the site that will be made possible by the new upgrade.

Filed under: blog mechanics

We’re scheduled for a software upgrade momentarily which might disrupt the availability of the site itself, comments, or other functions. Should we be knocked off for an unusual length of time, check my other site Point of Law for updates (bumped Tues. afternoon). 7:30 p.m. Tuesday: completed, if you had problems posting comments and the like, try again now.

10 p.m. Site search function is busted, we’re working on a fix.

Filed under: blog mechanics

We’re responding to ongoing comment-spam attacks (which knocked us offline for a while this morning) with some site maintenance. Comments will probably be down for a bit while we attempt to upgrade. Update 11:15 a.m. EST: Back up and running again; if you notice anything wrong, please drop us an email.

Filed under: blog mechanics

I’ve been cleaning up and simplifying the organization of the site, specifically the sidebar on the front page. Many readers already follow Overlawyered posts by subscribing to feeds, and I’ve made that easier by enlisting in the popular FeedBurner service. If you’re currently using a different feed method, we encourage you to give FeedBurner a try.

For years I’ve been publishing a short periodic newsletter summarizing highlights of recent posts. It’s a lot of work, however, and at my present level of commitments I’m obliged to conclude that it’s not a wise use of my time, especially with the feed option providing a similar but richer service in real time (rather than days or weeks later). So for the time being I’m going to officially declare the email newsletter dormant; at some point maybe it’ll be worth reviving in some new format.

Filed under: blog mechanics

Following a long period in which we battled trackback spam, the entire trackback function just seemed to stop functioning a while back. Since it has been some months now since any legitimate trackback has registered, I’ve turned the whole function off rather than potentially mislead newcomers about its availability. Technorati remains the most convenient way of seeing whether we’ve been linked lately on other sites.

Filed under: blog mechanics

Like many other blogs, Overlawyered was down for much of Friday because of a DOS (denial-of-service) attack aimed at our hosting service, Hosting Matters. Michelle Malkin has some details, here and here. More: Webloggin has some observations about the nature of the DOS attack, while Dad29 proffers an Overlawyered-centric explanation for the whole affair.

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I’ve had to turn off comments for entries older than seven days, because of the unending flood of comment spam. If you’ve got something important to say about an entry older than that — or if you’re involved in a running conversation that gets cut off when it reaches the deadline — drop Ted or me a line and we’ll consider accommodating you.

Filed under: blog mechanics