Jul 122009
Say good bye to the old UrbanGrounds.com
You might notice some differences around here.
I had been using the same WordPress theme for nearly 5 years. In addition to it just being time for a change, the old theme did not support many of the newer plugins, widgets, and functionality of later builds of the WordPress software.
I’ll probably be tweaking things for the next several days (like adding a comment formatting toolbar). If you notice something odd, broken, or otherwise out of whack, please let me know.
Some of the things you’ll notice about the new site design:
- Latest Posts — the main page now shows the full text of the latest three posts.
- Recent Posts — the recent posts displayed in the middle column are 10 most recent posts (after the three latest posts).
- Quick Hits — these will be quick links and random thoughts, for when a full post isn’t needed.
- Threaded Comments — the comments are now threaded so that you can reply directly to a specific comment and it will appear offset beneath the original comment. This’ll make it a lot easier to follow conversations within the comments.
- Email This Post — on each individual post there is now a link to let you quickly email this post to someone who might be interested. I’ll be adding a link that’ll allow you to send a link to each post via Twitter, too.
- Print this Post — each individual post now has a link that will create a printer-friendly version of each post. For those times when you need to quickly print out some reading material while you’re dropping the kids off at the pool.
- Reader Submitted Blog posts — coming soon, you’ll have the ability to write and post blogs posts (displaying the title and an excerpt). I’ll let you know when this is implemented.
So. Whatdyathink? Don’t hold back. Hate it? Love it? Just “feh” about it?
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Upgrading is something that has to be done occasionally.
I do miss the rich formatting for hyperlinks, bold, italics, etc.
Also, as an observation, I think the recent posts in the center of the page detracts from, and hogs space from, the current posts.
N2L, I’ll add the rich formatting toolbar for comments this evening. It’s my next task.
The “Recent Post” column is where and how I want to display other reader’s blog posts.
Wow, trying to freak me out Robbie. I like it but it will take some getting use to.
I mean!! Not expecting that. Just checked in from 4 days at the river ( bout 30 folks half teenagers/kids, warm water , cold beer, great food. Gardo’s always rocks). SO far, pretty cool. Good job.
I haven’t had a chance to get used to it yet, as I just now stopped by and saw the change. It will be extremely interesting to see how the reader-submitted blog posts will work out. I will have to look into how this is done later when I have some more time.
On an aesthetic level, however, I did find the old layout more attractive and I miss the wonderful photo you had of Austin, as well as the color scheme. (Shallow, I know).
It’s all a journey. I’ve been with you for years and I’ll keep on keepin on whatever the format as long as the content is as good as it has been.
Thank you, Dianne.
Robbie,
Like the redesign, but I am going to miss the photo of the 360 bridge with Lake Austin and Austin Country Club in the background.
I’m not done designing yet. The banner images are just place holders right now. I’m going to replace them with Austin-centric images (to include the Pennybacker Bridge).
I can help you get that banner austinized tonight baby.
Dude!
Great work. Congrats on the new looks. I’m liking it.
Thank you sir.
Takes a little getting used to it, but it looks great…. Great job to both of you, I know your beautiful wife helped.
Oh….. I like the little green triangle guy with the glasses…. can you make him purple?….. LOL..
Great new design but “Sometimes the truth hurts”? What do you mean? Are you in constant pain nowadays. I, as an European, am quite happy with the current USA truth.