like i said just what UB ;) maybe not sooo big though ;)

One step which you could be taken to improve the typography for non-Macintosh users would be to modfy your CSS as follows: add font-family:Helvetica, Calibri, Arial, sans-serif; to your body styles, and get rid of the other font-family declarations. Calibri is a better-than-Arial font on Windows Vista, and on certain elements — like blockquotes — we’re stuck with the default sans-serif font; it all looks a tad weird at the mo.

Please don’t be influenced by the nay-sayers, stick with what you’ve got.

With the exception of the titles under the posts which has taken some getting used to (but at worst takes me a couple of seconds to make the right connection, and at best means I read two posts instead of one!) I am a fan of the clean, original look – yellow or not. As another Mac user I guess Im not struggling with the fonts or screen size.

Although it will certainly be interesting to see the feedback and you will be respected for requesting it Ashley I guess I would always be a little wary of the design by consensus approach…as they say

a camel is a horse designed by a committee

;o) keep up the fine work, thanks.

One thing is certain, you’ll know you’re at Upstart Blogger and nowhere else. And you’ll remember. Sounds like success to me.

The titles under the post, however, I don’t like. It futzes with natural hierarchy and results in confusion, even now, even though I’ve been coming here for awhile. It tweaks the mischievous designer in me but it feels like a joke played out on the readers.

Also, it’s ridiculous that every time someone offers criticism, they are accused of taking advantage of the “free stuff” offered here. This blog has criticized other sites, some offering “free stuff”, in a similarly frank tone. Am I to assume the rules do not apply in that case?

Now, about the pale yellow:

Every monitor displays colors a little differently; especially light or dark colors are unreliable across a large audience. In brief, the pale shade of yellow isn’t an aesthetic problem. It’s a question of usability. On some monitors it’s difficult, even near impossible, to differentiate between the yellow underline and the white background. This means you could have a good chunk of your readership who have no idea when you’re embedding links.

I don’t have any particular problem with the color, but I can see how others would. You might try a compromise if you’ve already grown attached to #FFFF66. Maybe try a different font-weight or font-style in addition to the underline to help set links apart.

It’s sexy. There will always be haters.

My biggest issue is the fact that on single post pages, there’s a box underneath the title that has “Looking for ?” then tells you where you came from. And with the way the font displays on my screen, it’s quite annoying to have to scroll past it every time I want to read an article. I think it would be nicer at the bottom, below the the comment text areas.

You mentioned that some people are kind of annoyed by the excerpt of the post being above the title. I kind of agree with that because I get kind of confused. It could just be me though.

I like the font though. I have Helvetica on my machine and I like the size of the font and how it displays.

I think you might try experimenting with the archives listed in the sidebar as a drop down menu instead of extending the length of the front page. There’s an option in the archive widgets area (if you have widgets enabled) that lets you choose drop-down menu and if you want to display the number of posts for that given month. I think that might save on loading time. Given that’s it’s a minimalist design that is fast loading anyway, that might help.

Other than that, I think this realign of the old underscore theme is really good.

I don’t mind the concept of the yellow links, just don’t like the color. And what prompted me to start this discussion was a clickthrough to the critique site which showed the same theme with icky green links. :)

Yes, the huge text I could do without. You don’t have to go small, just smaller.

I actually do like the titles under the posts because it’s different. But do newbies realize that’s the case? Or might they get confused and leave?

I am a big fan of minimalist, so you get credit for that as well.

I like the comments section very much. The alternating gray backgrounds are very nice.

Since I started this ruckus, you are all free to criticize my site’s theme if you like. :)

I was using Upstart Minimum for several months. I just recently changed to Fjords01 with a few modifications.

http://www.sequence-inc.com/fraudfiles

I just think it’s real tacky for people to drop in here, apply for all the free stuff, get the free knowledge and then drop a bomb as they leave. very tacky, people.

Ashley, we trust your judgment brother. One of my clients loves this theme.

It is possible to “stand out from the crowd” without hurting people’s eyes, despite the example of The Sex Pistols. (I, personally, stand by the ideal that punk rock bands are not to be trusted with web design.) I’m all for going against the grain, but that yellow can alienate even the most counter-cultural of your readers.