You must have taken the Red Pill, because you’ve ended up at the new Daily Grail (2009 version). Take a few deep breaths, and I’ll explain things a little. In case of any panic, just note that the menu at the top of the site will take you to ‘Home’ if you wish (Dorothy), or even to the old streaming news look of the Grail if you’re really skittish.
First off: due to circumstances, I had to upgrade the site *before* I was completely ready. So things may be a little rough around the edges, which I apologise for. However, it all should be at a workable state, and I’ll be doing rolling upgrades over the coming weeks to bring it up to full functionality. This includes new themes (including one with light text on a dark background), so hang in there if you struggle with the white background – again, I apologise for the inconvenience in the meantime. Lots more besides; I’m very excited about the things I’ve got planned to make the Daily Grail an even better place to visit and interact with others of like mind.
There will no doubt be things that don’t work well in various browsers and operating systems – so please post any breakage information in the comments to this story and I’ll try to get to it ASAP. Also, if you just want to pass on criticism/suggestions, you’re more than welcome to do so as well.
Now, to navigation. The front page of the Daily Grail is now *an overview* of what is happening on the site. At the top of the page, the latest feature articles now get the space they deserve. Beneath them, is this section – which will generally be my *latest* story on the Grail, bringing something to your attention which you’ll probably be interested in, and adding a little comment or opinion as well. You can click on the link at the bottom of the section to move to the full flow of updates. The next section is the always in demand News Briefs – once again, *the latest* post, and you can click through the link at the bottom to get a full archive of the News Brief posts. The next section shows the most recent activity on the site (posts and comments), and down at the bottom you’ll see the most recent member blog posts, as well as the most popular.
In the blog section at the bottom, you’ll also see that users now have avatars (a representational picture). The default is the TDG logo with question mark, but you can upload your own by going to ‘My Account’ in the main menu on the right of the page, and ‘Edit’. User avatars also now show up in comments.
I still have a fair bit to do on adding blocks to the right hand side of the page, which I’ll try and work on this week – at the moment I’ve just got news feed aggregation from Science sites, Fortean sites, and Religion/Spirituality sites. That will improve as I find time to work on it.
It’s very late here now, so I need to sleep after a long day – but I will comment further and reply as necessary in the comments to this story. I’ll also post a further update during the week as things settle down. Hope you find the new layout to your liking, and if not – hang in there.
Update: I’ve just installed a new anti-spam measure. If all works properly, you shouldn’t even notice it – it should only react when spam-like commenting is encountered. However, it’s a new thing so if you strike any problems in posting, send me an email (userhelp-at-dailygrail.com is the email address, subbing in the @ symbol for ‘-at-‘).
