If you were an avid reader of our kids' blog (Ohdeedoh), our tech blog (Unplggd), or our green blog (Re-Nest), you're probably flummoxed at the sites' apparent disappearance. What? Why? Where did they go? But in the words of the inimitable Davie Bowie: "Cha, Cha, Cha, Cha, Changes!" It's time to turn and face the strange.
What was once five separate blogs is now two: Apartment Therapy (which now includes Ohdeedoh, Unplggd, and Re-Nest) and The Kitchn, and we're bigger and better than ever. Ohdeedoh, Unplggd, and Re-Nest are still producing the same great content; they just have a new name and location:
- Find Ohdeedoh's content by following the new Family channel on Apartment Therapy
- Find Unplggd's content by following the new Tech channel on Apartment Therapy
- Find Re-Nest's content by following the new Green Living category on Apartment Therapy
These are big changes, yes, but what hasn't changed is our commitment to you, our terrific readers. We think you'll find the new design cleaner, brighter, and way more user-friendly. Apartment Therapy has always been about the home, but now you'll find all aspects of the home together on one site, organized to ensure you're still able to hone in on the topics that interest you most.
Ellen's Thirties Style Small Space
Juan's Garage Turned Modern Guest House
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Commercial Flour Sa...
How to Cook Rice on the Stove
Recipe: Thai Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry
Oh, okay...
Couldn't you merge them and keep the names? Not loving the new "channel" names... but oh well....
It's kind of annoying that I can't get to, for instance, room tours or small spaces ideas that are also filtered by the "family" channel. If I want to see only small spaces AND family, I have to sift through WAY more than I have time for. It's a bit depressing, actually, as the one abiding truth of having a new family is that you don't have TIME to sift through a gigantic, unwieldy site. I'm sure it was a PITA to run five sites, but this looks like it is going to be a PITA for the end user, and to me that seems penny-wise and pound-foolish.
I'm so dismayed with this new arrangement! It used to be a snap to go to Unplggd when I wanted to. I don't know why as a tech design lover I have to sift through everything else... I used to visit the site multiple times throughout the week. Now? I don't think so.
Tsk tsk. Whose idea was this?
hm, this is a little confusing and seems messier than the old setup. But I don't do well with change. I'm sure this will make sense in time. :)
Will the old RSS still pull in the "family" posts, or do I need to set it up again?
Changes happen, but I'm disappointed in the redo. The format before was user-friendly & something I praised the AT-Kitchn-Renest-UnPlugged sites for. I'm not sure if I'll be reading the content as much with the new look!
I remember when AT split up into Re-Nest, Unpluggd, and OhDeeDoh. There were the same general reactions to the division of the single site, and now the sites are be re-merged. I think I can handle the new format but am sorry for the loss of the original names/branding. Of all things that could have been changed, the poor method of showing House Tour photos should be on the top of the list for things to be redesigned.
*being re-merged.
After a run-through of the sites, I'm seeing a ton of duplicate posts - posts that fit under more than one category. That wasn't the case with the divided sites. Or, at least, when you saw a duplicate post, it explicitly said that you could read the full post on the sister site. Gah.
Why? WHY? Ack.
Give it a chance people, before condemning it out of hand lets see how it pans out.
I don't understand why tech and family is up top, but green living on the side? so many categories i don't know how to find what i am looking for! and duplicate content in the categories. the more i play with this the less i like it.
Green should be on top. I agree. Re-nest is (was) my favorite go-to green guide and now it's just a tab... Please don't cut down the amount of sustainable coverage!
Will readers be able to locate older posts, ie have these posts been moved to AP?
Not liking it - the old format worked really well to partition the different audiences and themes.
If we can't keep the separate blogs (sniff sniff) can't we at least keep the original names: they are warm, quirky, and - well - original! The same traits that define for me what AT represents.
Bring back:
Re-nest!
Ohdeedoh!
Unpluggd!
The new names are way too bland and ubiquitous.
I like the new look of AT/Kitchn, but the merging of the three other sites into this one is just moronic. I never thought it was that easy to sift through all the contents on those sites, and now you're making it 4 times worse. And the new names for the sites now that they are merged? Seem a little ridiculous, too, when all of your loyal readers came to know and love them by that name.
I will still continue to read and check in, but I think this was a Netflix-like step backward for you guys.
You should make a "Green" tab on the top of the main page! I feel like Re-Nest is getting pushed to the side (cause it is, over there, on the side) and not showcased! I loveeeeeeed re-nest, le sigh.
I'm fine with the new looks, that's not as important as navigation. It's a bit confusing for me, at this point, to know where to go to find my old favorites. There's now channels *and* categories. Why is re-nest only turned into category "green living"? How am I supposed to know when to go up for the same old stuff I've always liked and when to go sideways for it?
Also, I'm having to click more, not less, on this new unified all-in-one site. First I have to get on the right channel, then go over to the left to choose the right category. Unification should make navigation easier and more intuitive, it shouldn't add clicks or confusion about how to get somewhere.
If there's going to be a new way of thinking about navigation, then I'd really like to be let in on it by someone at AT providing an explanation of the organizational structure so that I can get my own thinking process in line.
the original names were so much better! i was a huge fan of ohdeedoh! changes are okay but the new names are...well...boring. what makes apartment therapy so great is that it is stylish, unique and creative. the new names and format do not reflect that as much. i agree with another reader "Bring back:
Re-nest!
Ohdeedoh!
Unpluggd!"
so much better! AND cooler.
First of, there's an undertone of condescension when quoting Bowie. Just saying. It's like there's no choice in the matter. Oh wait, I do I have a choice, I can choose not to come here anymore.
Then there's what I mentioned in my other comment about the names: Re-nest!
Ohdeedoh! Unplggd! Original and unique. Not nerdy or blah. Being an avid Unplggd reader, I sought refuge here after TUAW went and made their site look and function terribly.
If all these changes are to be more popular like Facebook, I have news for you, people use Facebook and the like, for the community-ness of it... having to put up with the look and feel of it is akin to having to suffer sitting on Aunt Marge's PLASTIC COVERED FURNITURE when you go for a family reunion.
Yes, big changes. It's not user friendly (I read most if not ALL the comments on the Welcome page).
Brighter? More like blinding!
And cleaner? Well, if you'd had kept the channels named what they were before, that would have saved some heartache?
This is the worst example of a site re-do / rebranding I've seen in a long, long time. I'd kill to see the analytics data on all this. Sorry. It doesn't work for me conceptually or visually, and I have gone from 3-4 visits a day on each site to maybe 1 visit a week to apartmenttherapy.com
Oh well.
I just wanted to let you know that posts with a bunch of pictures, each of which should be able to be enlarged with a click have stopped working in Firefox 4 ever since Apartment Therapy switched to its new format. When I click on any but the first tiny thumbnail picture above, either nothing happens, or else the large-format picture goes away entirely and doesn't come back. This happens with almost all of these types of posts. Please fix!
Also, the Google RSS feeder no longer pull in images for all posts, just for some, selected almost seemingly at random. That is super-annoying. Finally, the "Daily Scavenger" posts no longer show up in the RSS reader at all. Please fix all of this.
what did you do? bring the old back!!!
I can't find anything...
Just logged in for the first time to say... won't be coming back. Your rework of the site is, to say the least, disappointing. Really unfortunate decision for you, but there are other sites on the net that cater to the same subjects. Too bad...
I am surprised by the new design - I will give it time, but something about the new look suggests to me that you are going to be publishing a magazine soon. Is that the goal? The look is just much more "produced" than it used to be. So far, I am ambivalent.
Updating, merging, times new roman, whatever. Those are little issues to have. In my opinion, my biggest problem is the redundancy. I used to read the posts on this site everyday, and I'd know I was all caught up by getting to the last article I had read the day before. Now, I'm seeing the same thing 4-5 times across all the subheadings. At least before if say Unplugged was reposting from Re-Nest, it'd have a blurb, then a link onto the original post from Re-Nest saying as such. This new format definitely has me wondering if I saw this yesterday or 2 minutes ago, making me miss out on other new posts below it.
If you want to have a "Main" aggregate section that's great, put EVERYTHING in there and I'll read it all in order, even the sections I used to not read, but stop putting all the same articles in every subheading across the page, with other apparently less important articles surrounding the ones lucky enough to be all over the site. It's like certain articles have paid for more airtime than others.
I've lived with the change now for a few weeks and am disappointed. The past "re-nest" content was very specific in it's sustainability bent and lately the posts have been too general and wishy-washy.
I'll come back if the situation improves, but for now I'm leaving.
I don't like the merge, but I'd live with it if AT stopped doing awful list posts. Much like how the writing in Dwell has fallen off a cliff, I feel like one more "12 great ___{nouns}___" will push me away from AT for good.
Ah. Good to know the details. Have barely used the site since the change and even less enticed to start using again. Impossible to find things and not aesthetically pleasing.
So if they were phased out, why am I still seeing their logos on my account page after all these months? Just curious...