Site improvement: a cleaner home page, Six Talk stays, and faster loading for everyone

Quick one from Six and Bama. We spent today cleaning up the SixStarsWanted home page, and if you have been here before, you will notice it straight away. Nothing is gone. A few things moved, a few things got trimmed, and the whole site got faster.

The news box pill is gone

For a while the top of the home page had a pill-shaped news box sitting above the stories. It showed the same headlines that were already right underneath it. Two copies of the same thing is one copy too many, so we took the box out. The stories are still there, with their screenshots, and now they are the first thing you see after the launch countdown.

Six Talk is staying

The name is not going anywhere. Our news section is now simply called Six Talk News, and that is the orange label you will see above the stories. One name, one place, every story. The Vox opinion pieces, the launch coverage, the wiki updates and everything else all live under it.

Fan videos moved to the footer

The fan film reel used to sit up near the top, taking up room before you got to the news. It now sits at the bottom of the home page, just above the footer. You still get the most watched films right there, with the gold most watched badges, and the full collection is one tap away in the Fan Vault. The news comes first, the films are waiting at the end.

Faster for everyone

With less on the page, there is less to load. The home page opens quicker on phones and PCs, and it should feel snappier as you scroll. If you are on a slow connection or an older phone, this one is for you.

The idea behind all of it

Less clutter. The old layout repeated information in two or three places, and every repeat was something else to scroll past. The new one shows each thing once, in the order most of you actually use it: the countdown, the news, then the films. Simple.

If anything looks off on your phone or PC, refresh the page first. Browsers can hold an older copy for a few minutes. If it still looks wrong after that, let us know and we will take a look.

Thirty-one days to go. Enjoy the tidier house.