Yesterday’s reactions to the HE re-design (which I had worked on for three or four days) were almost entirely negative and often dismissive. People were nice but straight about it, and many comments were constructive and helpful. So the hell with it. The integrity of the HE World Trade Center skyscraper will stay the same and it’s back to square one.

But I’m keeping the flash box (i.e., little moving bullet-links to hot stories & items) and I’m keeping the Discriminator box — I like it and it’s staying put with a permanent second-story position. And I’m expanding the Twitter box to 460 pixels and putting it on top of the Oscar Balloon, or just after the tenth story. All within the classic skyscraper structure. And I’m adding Twitter and Facebook links to the end of every story. And I’m trimming the after-the-Oscar Balloon posts from 20 to 10, which will load faster. So the front page will henceforth have 10 posts above and 10 posts below the Twitter/oscar Balloon space — 20 instead of 30 posts altogether.

A professional redesign guy or two will take a look at the site in a week or two and maybe suggest some changes. I’ll see what happens. One step at a time. Everything in its own time. And I might chicken out on the Twitter box if there are enough complaints, but right now I just don’t see the harm.