A Few Days In – An iBrattleboro Update

by cgrotke | iBrattleboro | 3366 Views

I thought I’d give a little update on where we stand after a few days with the new site.

Overall, we’re really happy with the way things are going. You seem to be finding your way back, logging in, and using the site like before. Do fill out your user profile, and be sure to list your skills…

We’re very happy to receive your reports of problems, issues, and suggestions. We’ve solved many of them, and are continuing down the list. Next up is work on the image uploading system. 

We’re also watching the recent comments, most read, and most discussed lists. This was something we couldn’t test without lots of stories, comments, and activity. It’s close to what we’re after, but there may be a few tweaks to how the lists are updated.

We’re going to be adjusting the length of the preview snippet of each story on the homepage. (They look a little short to me.) We’re going to be re-opening the old site as archives in addition to the Archive-It copies.

We’re are duly noting everything in the Bugs, Problems, and Other Issues comments, so continue to use that to report errors and issues.

There are a few new things we hope you are noticing:

– your new, expanded profile page, and ability to list skills. If you are looking for something to do, go fill it in.

 – write in option for the poll

– ability to edit your stories, comments, etc. when logged in (if you were logged in when you submitted it). If you forgot to mention something in your first comment, just edit it to add on…

– free and paid classifieds – in addition to things you want to sell or trade, you can put in announcements, classes and workshops, lost and found, rideshare, tag sales, and all sorts of things. Landlords can list available rooms, and employers can lists job listings.

– the ability to start/join a group on any topic

– the ability to share just about anything via your favorite flavor of social media. Look for the Share This link at the end of stories and events, then choose from over 500 social media sites. 

We have a few more surprises coming, too, once we get over this initial launch period. We’re about to enter iBrattleboro’s 10th year.

Thanks again for the feedback, and for your patience as we get the kinks out.

Comments | 8

  • Submitted by Tad Montgomery on February 17, 2013 at 12:32 pm

    Karma Button

    Hey Chris, here’s a suggestion — some sort of built in karmic control such that anyone exhibiting snarkiness will get immediately zapped by having their credit history altered, favorite sports team trashed, or a doggie doo permanently stuck to the bottom of their shoe.

    It’s great to be able to see the original post while composing comments, by the way. Still haven’t figured out what that red hash is — Big Brother’s wandering eye?

    • Submitted by cgrotke on February 17, 2013 at 1:05 pm

      karmic controls

      I believe the red hash indicates a new comment. We’ll have to watch it a bit more carefully.

      As for karmic controls, they are always in effect, online and around town. They were implemented long ago.

      • Submitted by mr.mike on February 17, 2013 at 8:13 pm

        I'm baaaaaack. I bet most

        I’m baaaaaack. I bet most here would’ve just as soon seen me not reconnect. But hey, we all need diversity now don’t we?

        • Submitted by cgrotke on February 17, 2013 at 11:34 pm

          Yes

          Welcome back!

        • Submitted by Lise on February 17, 2013 at 11:36 pm

          Hey hey

          Welcome back, Mike. I was thinking of you just today and how the site wouldn’t be the same without you. I’m glad you made it back.

          You betcha about diversity — we’re all here so we should all be part of the conversation.

          • Submitted by mr.mike on February 18, 2013 at 7:37 pm

            "Re-entry" was a little

            “Re-entry” was a little rough. But once I put down the ego and actually followed directions,it’s a man thing, things went smooth. Thanks for the upgrade. I like it.

  • Submitted by cgrotke on February 20, 2013 at 11:37 am

    Most Recent

    We’ve made a few changes to the recent comments and “today on iBrattleboro” lists. They weren’t updating correctly, so we changed how they were counting things, and when the counting begins. Thanks for using the site heavily and giving us good data to work with on this.

    “Today on iBrattleboro” should now be the most read and commented today (rather than all week). Recent comments should be behaving as before, with the most recent popping to the top of the list rather than just incrementing the counts.

    We’ve got a list of about 30 things you’ve told us to work on, and will keep going until we get it all purring nicely.

    Until then, fill out your profile, start a group, and submit some classified ads… : )

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