There’s lots of fixes going on behind the scenes at Wizbang as I prepare to open user diaries (ala RedState and Kos), and add other new sections under the Wizbang name. As you’re probably aware the Wizbang Podcast section is now open (using a generic layout), and there are several more coming soon.
A lot of the changes I’ve been laboring over are deep structural changes and basically transparent to readers. For example, all of the RSS feeds are now provided via Feedburner, but that change was made transparent for existing subscribers – they were automagically switched to the new feeds.
Some of the other changes are very subtle, such as the Previous|Next link at the top right hand corner of the main page. That provides a paginated view of the front page (20 stories at a time) and a quick way to page back a few days or weeks. The Previous|Next link will also be appearing in the lower right hand corner of the page very soon. Others like the Author archive page (reached by clicking on a story author’s name), and the Filed Under links help provide a dynamic navigation system to nearly 3 years of content.
Other changes are just long overdue. Comment popup screens are gone (comment links go to the story page) and trackback popup screens will be gone soon. These are leftovers from the last redesign 2+ years ago.
All in all the new sections aren’t as organized as they will be in the new layout, but you will be able to navigate to all of the new sections with the current design as we make the transition. See the links to the Podcast and Video New sections on the left sidebar for an example of the integration. As new sections open they’ll be appearing there, with each section sharing a common sidebar and layout with the main Wizbang site.
And for what it’s worth there’s a movement afoot to standardize feed icons on the Mozilla/Microsoft standard look.
I can live with that, so I think that the feed icons will be changing soon too…
So that’s where I’ve been for the last few days…
Great! Always the cutting edge. Where’s Jay Tea?
that sounds great!
Right here, machs. Kevin and I agreed a LONG time ago that I should be kept far, far away from any sort of technical side of the site. I think it was right after the time I blocked anyone from commenting on anything. Or it might have been the fifth time I wrecked the main page… or perhaps the time I had to call him up and un-ban me after I had banned myself…
J.
But I liked the popup comment window!!!