August 5, 2014 Dear Common Dreamer, You may remember a few months back when we told you that our new website was on its way, and we are excited to announce that it has launched! Common Dreams is better than ever. We have gotten an overdue face-lift while still maintaining all of the editorial integrity that keeps you coming back. While we understand that our new look may seem drastic - and in some ways it is - this new and improved Common Dreams offers many features that the old site simply could not handle. The site that you were used to seeing was functioning on borrowed time. The back-end was a coding nightmare, and the front-end was simply not meeting our needs. And though this new site is not without its share of glitches in these early stages, well be making tweaks and design adjustments as we go forward to ensure the most seamless transition as possible for our readers. We are all really excited about the changes and we know that as you get used to the new Common Dreams, you will love it as much as we do. While you are getting to know the new features, take a look at some of the most frequently asked questions that we have had since launch day. We are confident that many of your concerns and questions will be addressed, but if not, please email us at [email protected] And take some time getting to know the new Common Dreams! Sincerely, The whole Common Dreams news team FAQs on our evolving website Why? If it aint broke, dont fix it. Our old website was very broken and on the verge of collapse. The front end - where all our content was displayed - was dated but operated reasonably well. But the back end had long-standing and rapidly deteriorating structural problems. The back end does all the heavy lifting - it is where the database of hundreds of thousands of articles and images going back 17 years were stored, searched, manipulated and sent on to display in the front end. Both the front end and back end are built within the same software CMS platform (content management system). Our old site was built in 2007 on a 2005 CMS platform that is no longer supported with security or programming updates. This made the back end perform poorly and extremely vulnerable to attacks. Over the last year weve been hit by repeated malicious breaches and massive, coordinated Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks from unknown perpetrators. These attacks cause our servers to repeatedly overload and crash—often taking us many hours to get back on-line. Consultants have been telling us for several years that our server was a house of cards that could come crashing down for good - probably taking us off-line for months. It was broke. It was time to fix it. Why didnt you warn us that change was coming? We did. Via our email list many times over the past year - we wrote that our site was broken and in need of an urgent overhaul. Why are the Views displayed way at the bottom of the Home page? Thats where they display on the mobile device version of the new website. But - on your desktops and laptops - the Views should display in the right hand column as in this screenshot below: The new site is responsive - which is a newer website design that helps the page display lay out change automatically according to the reader’s computer screen resolution. It makes the site work much better on smartphones and computer tablets - where over 20% of our sites visitors come from. When we launched, an incorrect setting caused many readers on desktops and laptops to see the mobile version display. We think that glitch has been resolved and the site should now display as pictured above. Please email us and let us know if it doesnt: [email protected] Is all new content on the home page or do I have to search for it? Yes. As before, all new content is available on the homepage - commondreams.org. We produce a lot of content every day and it can quickly scroll off the home page as newer content is added. The toolbar in the header and the trending bar are a feature added to organize all our most recent content by topic - we think its a much better solution than doing a search by topic. To view all the most recent headlines, you can go here: commondreams.org/news To view all the most recent views, you can go here: commondreams.org/views To view all the most recent news releases, you can go here: commondreams.org/newswire To view all the most recent furthers, you can go here: commondreams.org/further Is there a print-friendly option on articles? Yes. This icon can be found above and below all of our articles. Click the icon and a pop-up page will display the article in a print-friendly format; check the Remove Images box in the upper right to hide images. Is there a Search function? Yes. There is a search box located in the upper left header of every page. We had to turn off the search function on our failing site several years ago because it would use up all of the servers memory and crash the site. Is feature ____ coming back? Yes. As time and funding allow they are all coming back: links to other media/progressive groups; videos; full archives etc. When will your new site design be done? Never. This is the 4th major site overhaul weve been through over the 17 years weve existed. The internet - and how people are using it and accessing it - is rapidly evolving. We must evolve too. Please keep giving us feedback: [email protected] Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Breaking News & Views for the Progressive Community. Independent, non-profit newscenter since 1997. Our Mission: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. commondreams.org You are subscribed to the Common Dreams Daily Newsletter as [email protected]. Click here to unsubscribe from the Daily Newsletter. Click here to manage your profile.
Posted on: Wed, 06 Aug 2014 18:10:46 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015