Whew—the big event is finally behind us. I'm talking, of course, about the Ars Technica version 9 redesign, which we rolled out last month in response to your survey feedback and which we have iterated on extensively in the weeks since. The site is now fully responsive and optimized for mobile browsing, with a sleek new look and great user options.

In response to your comments, our tireless tech and design team of Jason and Aurich have spent the last few weeks adding a font size selector, tweaking the default font and headline layout, and adding the option for orange hyperlinks. Plus, they rolled out an all-new, subscriber-only "wide mode" for Ars superfans who need 100+ character line lengths in their lives. Not enough? Jason and Aurich also tweaked the overall information density (especially on mobile), added next/previous story buttons to articles, and made the nav bar "sticky" on mobile, all in response to your feedback. (Read more about our two post-launch rounds of updates here and here.)

If that's still not enough site goodness, Jason and Aurich are currently locked in their laboratory, cooking up a brand-new "true light" theme and big improvements to commenting and comment voting.

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Readers of those other sites may not care much about font size and column widths. "40-character line lengths? In 18-point Comic Sans? I love it!" they say. But not you, because you are an Ars reader. And Ars readers are discerning. They have feelings about concepts like "information density." And we want those feelings to be soft and cuddly ones.

That's why we're today rolling out version 9.0.2 of the Ars Technica site redesign, based on your continued feedback, with a special emphasis on text control. (You can read about the changes in 9.0.1 here.) That's right—we're talking about options! Font size selection, colored hyperlink text, even a wide column layout for subscribers who plonk down a mere $25/year (possible because we don't need to accommodate ads for subs).

Here's a quick visual look at some of the main changes:

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Like Frodo himself, I wasn't sure we were going to make it all the way to the end of our quest. But this week, my family crossed an important life threshold: every member has now heard J.R.R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings (LotR) read aloud—and sung aloud—in its entirety.

Five years ago, I read the series to my eldest daughter; this time, I read it for my wife and two younger children. It took a full year each time, reading 20–45 minutes before bed whenever we could manage it, to go "there and back again" with our heroes. The first half of The Two Towers, with its slow-talking Ents and a scattered Fellowship, nearly derailed us on both reads, but we rallied, pressing ahead even when iPad games and TV shows appeared more enticing. Reader, it was worth the push.

Gollum's ultimate actions on the edge of the Crack of Doom, the final moments of Sauron and Saruman as impotent mists blown off into the east, Frodo's woundedness and final ride to the Grey Havens—all of it remains powerful and left a suitable impression upon the new listeners.

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