Written by: Staff
Posted: Wednesday, 16 January 2008
Page 2 of 2
Sections and Stories Pages
When we make a change, we change things all the way. Not only did we change the home page, but we changed all the pages on the site. You told us you wanted an easier way to find and read stories, we've listened... You told us you wanted to discuss the stories, heard you loud and clear. Here's some of the upgrades we've done to the sections and stories pages of the sites.
Sections: The sections are the main menu items at the top of the page: Features, Training, Gear, Nutrition and Resources. Everything that we publish falls under one of those categories. On the sections pages, we've made it a little easier for you to find articles you're looking for. At the top of the page are our 3 featured articles. Things we think are the most interesting. Below that is our 'More Stories' area, where we'll publish all the stories that fit into that category. At the end of the list is pagination links. You told us that stories weren't around long enough on our old site. With the multi-page sections, we can publish more stories, for a longer period of time. Can't find a story you're looking for, just use the search box at the top of every page. If it's in our archive, the search will find it!
Stories: Besides the Home Page, our stories have taken on the biggest change. We've completely overhauled the way we published stories to make it easier for you to get right to the meat of things.
Starting out, we have a great group of writers here that don't get enough credit for what they do. We publish their names in the magazine, but on the websites, it was lacking, so first things first, let's give them the credit they deserve and publish their names.
Next we've adding a rating system to the articles on the site. Rate each story 1-5, and it'll update in real time, without refreshing the page. We'll also show you how many other people have rated the stories so far. This affects what stories appear on the home page, so be fair.... With great power, comes great responsibility.
You also asked for easier ways to share stories. We've got you covered. Now you can print the story in a printer friendly format, pdf the story to save to your personal library, or email the story to a friend. Don't worry, we don't store any information you send out, so email to your heart's content.
Finally the stories. We've moved away from an introduction and a jump to the main story. It looked nice when we first came up with the idea, but didn't work out so well in practice. Now we have the stories for you from start to finish. The photos in the story hold the last little bit of a surprise. We display thumbnails for you, so you can read the stories easier, but if you want to get an up-close-and personal view of the images, simply click on them, and they'll expand right before your very eyes. No new windows, no taking you away from the story your reading. Click again, and they'll go back to munchkin size.
Last but certainly not least, COMMENTING. Yes, we know other sites have been doing it for ages. Yes we know you love it... It's finally here. We've added a great commenting system to the end of each article. Post comments, rate existing comments, respond to comments already posted, search through what's been posted, get emailed when someone responds to you, OR subscribe to an RSS feed for that article, and you'll know when ANY new comment is posted to the article. We've added lots of features to our commenting, and we think it's a great system, so give it a try.
In a Nutshell
That's about it in a nutshell. We hope all the changes we've made are for the better. We're still working fast and furious in our labs here, and will be rolling out some major new features in the next few months. Stay tuned... you don't want to miss what we have coming out!
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The road race season in Michigan kicked off in April with Spring Training Series Races in Ann Arbor and Waterford and the Ciociaro Can Am Challenge Series in Windsor. Now that roadies are all warmed up, it's time to stretch their legs in some good old-fashioned road and criterium racing. In the coming weeks road cyclists can look forward to the Grattan Race Series kick-off, the Cone Azalia Classic road race, the Tour of Kensington Valley, the Priority Health Tour De Leelanau, the Tour De Gaslight Criterium and in June, a race that is quickly becoming a favorite among all racers, citizen and professional alike - The Superior Bike Fest in Marquette.
I just received a grim e-mail to end an otherwise unremarkable day. The subject line read "Ryan Shay Autopsy Released." 
