Wow! While we slept Tuesday night, the Web Fairy came and gave us a new Web site. When we awoke Wednesday morning, we found that TheDailyPage.com had been transformed from the somewhat staid site that had been developing in stages over the last 11 years into a flashy new apparition in red with new buttons and tabs to play with.
Of course, everyone knows there is no such thing as the Web Fairy; new goodies on the Web come from the Internet Bunny. And I. Bunny had a lot of help delivering this new baby. What started out as pruning and refurbishing became a full-scale reconstruction that consumed many months and many dollars.
First came the work of Planet Propaganda, the local ad agency and Web design firm that Isthmus had worked with in the past. Their process was extensive and involved interrogation of the staff as to objectives for the new site as well injecting DNA from outside sources. When they were done, after numerous consultations and revisions, we had a blueprint, but the site still had to be built.
That task fell primarily to Jason Joyce, Web producer, and Thom Jones, systems manager. There was a lot of code to re-write, tables to shift and programs to re-engineer. They had help, including former staffer Eric Rank, who wrote the code for our new Guide backend, something site visitors will not see but will gain from. In reality, much of the staff of Isthmus was involved in site preparations. All will be affected by it.
There are too many changes to enumerate, but there are some highlights to be aware of. Starting now, almost all of the contents of the weekly paper will be available on the site, rolled out over time, including the cover story and news stories. There are no more Daily Highlights in narrative form, but there is a new 'picks' feature. There's a new organization exemplified by the new toolbar. There will be new posts by the staff in the 'Daily' section of the site.
Now it's your turn to get in on the action, though I'm told the redoubtable Forons are already at it. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, is to check out the new site, click around, try out the searches and then report back here. Here being webmaster [at] isthmus [dot] com, the repository for any glitches you spot, recommendations you have, and reactions you have to get off your chest. For the job of development is never done. The Internet Bunny will still be working at it come next Easter.
