One of the readers pointed out the Wpdesigner.com’s current blog layout is almost exactly the same as TechCrunch’s layout, which was the layout I wrote against several months.
Yes, that would make me a hypocrite.
However, consider the details before you jump the gun. First of all, there’s not much difference between the previous and current Wpdesigner layout. I was already using a two column layout. All that’s different now is the header. The header is not so big anymore. But by removing the big, useless header, Wpdesigner ended up looking like TechCrunch.
Why didn’t I just add another column to Wpdesigner? I would love to use a three column theme that comes with left and right sidebars, but I can’t. There’s no more room to fit in another sidebar because I use a very wide main column for the content.
Why do I use a wide main column? It’s because I use wide images in the blog posts. Images that are 500 pixels wide. Why do I use wide images? They look better. I can edit all of those 500-pixel images just to fit in another left sidebar column into this current design, but I’m lazy.
Lastly, that reader fails to notice how wider TechCrunch’s layout is and that TechCrunch’s font size is smaller than Wpdesigner’s font size, which are both factors of readability.
Wpdesigner’s average number of words per line is about 13. TechCrunch’s average number of words per line is about 16. That’s a big difference when you have to read a lot of content.
Nowadays, I’m pretty sure whether you’re a hypocrite is more important than the reason why you’re a hypocrite because web readers’ patience is so short these days, but I just wanted to get this off my chest.