The New iBrattleboro Has Features

Our goal was to keep things similar, but make improvements everywhere. Here are just a few of the many new features you’ll find as you explore the new iBrattleboro.

Enhanced stories – there is a WYSIWYG editor, so you can make story text bold, italic, and so on. Please use it wisely (that is, only if necessary.)

New organization – we’ve cleaned up and condensed site navigation and have some changes to the sections.

Edit Your Stories, Comments, Events – logged in users can now fix that embarrassing typo as soon as you see it (if you were logged in when you submitted your original info). 

Calendar – subscribe via RSS, added comments, categories, mapping. You can edit your listings if you are a registered user and logged in. You can set recurring events and have finer control over dates and times. You can view the calendar by day, week, etc. Logged in users can comment on events now, too.

Polls – allows for regular and ranked polls, comments, write-in options. You can comment on polls and those comments will now show up in lists of recent comments.

Puzzle Page  – Mazes have their own gallery now, and are featured in our newly-organized Puzzle Page. Note the tabs at the top allow you to hop around without scrolling down as much as before.

Classifieds – a place for southern Vermont to buy and sell stuff. Jobs, Barter, and Rides from the old site have moved here. Mostly free, but some paid options, too, for enhganced listings and added promotion.

Local Links – all cleaned up and organized, with maps to locations where applicable. Are you listed? If you are a registered user, we can give you control over your listing, too, so you can update and edit it as necessary.

Groups – You can start or join a group, participate in group discussions, see unread group messages, and report on what your group is doing.

Maps – are now integrated into the Links Directory, Classifieds, and Event Calendar.

Expanded User Profiles – allow for site users to share additional information about themselves and their skills. You also get a place to bookmark things you find interesting for easy, future viewing.

Your “Stuff” – track your “stuff” – your stories, comments, ads, and so on to see how many people are reading/viewing.

Skills tag cloud – skills listed by site users will accumulate in the tag cloud, next to your profile page, showing us what skills we have the most of in the community, and who has them.

This Day in History – is a new feature featuring historical headlines from the Brain Trust, iBrattleboro, and the Brattleboro Historical Society.

Bookmarks – you can bookmark iBrattleboro pages and calendar events, for easy refinding.

Social Network Sharing – you can share iBrattleboro creations with others via twitter, facebook and others via the Share This icon under most items.

New Weather  – Brattleboro weather lovers can enjoy a new and improved weather section with maps, local forecasts, weather warnings, links, space weather, and more.

Story Sections and Headers – new section headers and a few new sections for iBrattleboro. Note the new “Region” section, so surrounding neighbors can actively report on and for their communities.

Images are able to be added to stories, comments, events, and so on. New image Galleries to easily find your favorite photos. Easier photo submission (no more flickr hassles!)

Local Pets – pets available for adoption today in town are now featured in the Pets section!

Search Archives – Use the Archive-It search box to find old iBrattleboro stories, comments, etc. Use the regular search box to search this new site.

Building this in a new content management system allows us to keep making tweaks and improvements on a regular basis, too. We should be able to add and adjust things much more easily now.

That’s the quick overview, but it is hard to list everything. Please click on things, explore the site, and have fun with your new iBrattleboro.