Website Updates
As mentioned in this post, we’ve decided to make a few changes to the site this weekend. I’m pleased to announce that most of our planned changes have been made. The primary objective, as usual, was to continue improving community. Here are a few things you’ll notice that hopefully improved that aspect of this site:
- Recent Comments. Look to the right to see the five most recent comments posted on the site. You may not realize this but some comments are placed on older posts. We see them because we receive email notification of every single comment made. And we appreciate comments on older posts to keep conversations going. However, until now, you may have missed these comments…and we don’t want you to miss anything!
- Reduced Categories. We eliminated a few categories to focus on those that really define this site: adoption, community, family, friends, Tay Sachs, etc.
- Introduced Tags. Right below the Categories section on the right, you’ll see a new section entitled “Tags.” While these aren’t really what this site is all about, these represent key words used in multiple posts. Examples include: recipes, miracles, etc. You can use these in a similar manner as categories by simply clicking on a tag to see all posts with that particular tag.
- Threaded Comments. Perhaps the biggest feature added, you can now respond directly to other comments. So rather than just responding back and forth with us, or posting something like, “NY Grandma, I know you really like the picture on the homepage but it had to go in order to make these improvements. If you want to see the picture, you’ll have to come visit us and look at the one hanging over the fireplace,” now, you can simply click the Reply button to respond directly to an individual (kind of like this). Hopefully, this will make the site even more conversational.
We have one more update coming soon and perhaps a few tweaks here and there. I know that some of you are having trouble signing up for post notifications via email and that’s something I’m working on.
Any other issues? Recommendations?
PS. Here’s a picture for Diane. I don’t think we ever posted this one, which was also taken in Ocean City last month.
Will we still get notification of the blog like we did before? And are you still going to add pictures every once in a while? I love the pictures. They are so precious and I feel so connected to you all.
Yes, you should still receive the notifications. Did you receive one for this post?
We’ll definitely still add lots and lots of pictures. As you can see, the “Photo” tag is the largest font, indicating that it is the most commonly used tag. That will continue to be the case. Glad you like the pictures!
July 18, 2009
Dave,
Looks very nice and logical to me! Since what I see here is neutral gray tones, the color photos which appear often will enliven beautifulcanvas.org even more. Please keep the site going “forever.”
God’s Peace,
Larry
Since we are 2 hours later than you we saw some of the changes last night. It took a moment to find the “blog” again, but that was because I had clicked blog on the last version of the site and it was gone on the new version. I re-clicked and the welcome had been moved. So we must have been looking at the site as you were making the changes.
It looks good. And having the comments up front is nice. I can’t remember how I figured out that people commented on old posts, but somehow I did and sometimes I go through the site to find any new ones. This is much nicer.
I do miss your front page though – it was beautiful – but reality is most of us just look at the blog section not the front page.
Love you all,
Miss you terribly,
Trish
Can you tell me how to sign up for journal notifications?? I used to have them and then they stopped working and I could never get signed up for them again. And now I can’t even find a link on the site? Can you lead me to it? =)