The first casualty of war is innocence but the first casualty of the site review has been the 'expanding bit' if the latest post shown on the home page was more than 350 characters. With the bottom bar being fixed in place, and the post text scrolling underneath it, having to expand the post felt like an extra, unnecessary step.
I'm definitely keeping the hover effects on the SVG icons as I think that a little bit of fun and personality. The idea is not to strip the site of its character but to remove things that make it clumsy. I have to remember to view the site in an incognito window so that I see it as others do, without being logged in.
A feature I'm not sure about (and, admittedly, almost never use myself) is the date picker. I know it doesn't get in the way or cause any usability issues but do I really need it?
