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Category: Site Related
Website Updates
Good morning,
We’ve made several changes to the website overnight, nothing drastic, but they will hopefully prove to improve the user experience. The first change as to add OpenID compatibility to the website. If you have an OpenID, you can now log in to the website without having to make a separate account. Before we began paying for spam protection, we dealt with a lot of bots registering accounts with the website, thus we’ll be going through the account list today deleting accounts that look to be fake and/or have made no posts. Should that include your account, simply re-register with the website. That takes only a few seconds. The second major change was to re-arrange the sidebars a bit and added a ‘top commentators’ box. The third change was to remove the sidebar social media buttons. After doing some investigating, I found the sidebar buttons to be to intrusive, even with a restriction that the screen size must be at least 1300 pixels wide, thus I removed that specific plugin and added a different one that will now display below our logo. Since this is a horizontal design, it should have no affect on the width of the screen.
Besides those items and a few other minor changes, I’m going to continue to work on improving the experience for yall. I’ve got the website where I want it in terms of the function-ability on my end (We were on a basic frontpage website just last year around this time.) Now its time to build in a dynamic user experience so yall can enjoy the website as well. It appears the tropics may be heating up by late this weekend, but more about that later today. Have a good Thursday!
A few website updates…
Good afternoon,
I’ve just spent several hours working on the website. As regulars may already have realized, I did change the layout of the website slightly. Instead of going into a long paragraph describing each change I did, I’ll just list them in number format below.
1. Moved photogallery link and ENG video link from ‘past chases’ to main linkbar.
2. Renamed ENG video to Breaking News Video
3. Renamed Past Chases to Past Chase Video.
4. Added a piece of code to the ‘share buttons’ on the right side of the page not to display if the page width is lower then 1300 px.
5. Added a new program to shed some of the webload off the database, thus providing a slightly faster response time.
6. Moved the header ad from below the header to above the header. This move has allowed for a reduction in space from the header graphic to the main content of the page.
7. Uploaded a new header image that is slightly smaller.
8. Fixed transparency issue with left sidebar.
I’ll add any additional changes to the list as the day continues. I’ll have a new discussion regarding next week’s active pattern by this evening.
- David
Site layout changes!
We’ve made a few minor rearrangements to the look of the home page here. What do you think? Nothing is set in stone, so if you have a suggestion let us know in the comments! We want your input anytime you have a recommendation!
February 27, 2011 Chase Log Online!
Good Evening,
I just finished up writing the chase log for our February 27th chase out in Northern Oklahoma/Extreme S. Kansas. This is the first time, besides Yazoo City, where we’ve written out a complete chase log with embedded information such as radar images and video grabs. A lot of other chasers do write chase logs for all their chases and one of my 2011 goals is to get a log produced for each chase. I invite you to take a few minutes to check out the log for February 27 and provide feedback, and if you like it, share it with your friends!
You can access our chase page (with the log and video grabs, plus the video) here.
New Android App!
Good evening from a cold, dark January evening here in North Texas!
Since our last storm chase back on December 31st and our little winter storm last weekend, things have remained very calm in Texas weather. Generally, we’ve experienced temperatures well below average but no storm systems have been able to turn that into wintry mischief. This down time has allowed us to get a few things done we’ve been working on since last season’s conclusion.
The first major improvement we’re happy to announce is our soon to be released Android app! We’re working with a professional to develop a quality app that will allow you to monitor us from your phone! This will include our current chase status, latest blog posts, social media updates, and of course, you’ll be able to watch our live stream directly from your phone via a one click solution in the app! At this point, we’re looking for any suggestions you may have to make our application better. If you have any suggestions (and we do mean any…) please take a moment to let us know via the comment form below. We would really appreciate it, and considering this app is for you, we want to hear what you want!
Our second improvement has to do with the website’s comment system. I’m sure many of you are wondering what I’m talking about, since you may not know we have a feedback system on every post we create. Guess what? WE DO! We’ve just spent a few hours investing in a system that should weed out a majority, if not every spambot’s garbage they try to post. So from now on, our posts should be nice and tidy, waiting for your feedback!
These are only a few of the changes we’re making before the spring severe weather season starts up. Stay tuned for more!
Chase Status
This shows the probability of a storm chase within the next 5 days.
By roczag
By weatherworm