A New Beginning

February 26, 2008 by
Filed under: Web Announcements 

Greetings, Neighbor!

Today is a big day in the evolution of the site! Riverbend – The New Meeting Place for Our Community- is changing once again. The new WordPress-based environment is designed for a greater level of interactivity and community participation, while preserving all of the old content.

Why WordPress?

The old custom PHP-based site has served us well – the site gets hits every single day (thanks!) - but the Web has come a long, long way. Everyone has come to expect a level of interactivity that just wasn’t present. I’ve been experimenting with alternatives, time permitting, for a while now. I wanted a standards-based, database-driven environment, something with legs, for maintenance and safety. I wanted to retain the content-centric slant. I wanted to allow for Residents to contribute what they want, when they want, with their contributions going live immediately.

WordPress emerged as a clear winner. I hope you agree!

What next?

You might find this to be useful as you re-orient yourself. The site supports a few different Roles with varying capabilities. Riverbend residents will want to obtain login credentials so that they can contribute. (The letters mentioned in Roles are scheduled to mail out in early March.) There are a few things to keep in mind when writing, but I don’t think you’ll find them to be restrictive at all. These articles, by the way, are conveniently linked at the top of the window.

Huh? What?

This site has existed continuously since June 2000, operated independently as a public service to the Riverbend Community. I’m not part of the Board of Trustees. I’m not employed by EPM. I’m simply a homeowner. And it’s my pleasure to be able to do this for you.

I haven’t mailed any postcards for quite a while. But look for a letter in your mailbox in early March when I’ll be writing to announce the renovated site.

If you’re a relatively new resident just learning about the us, Welcome! If you’ve been around for a while but haven’t checked in lately, have a look at the new digs. Again, I think you’ll like what you see.

Comments

2 Comments on A New Beginning

  1. Administrator on Sat, 8th Mar 2008 5:13 pm

    2. The letters went out and a number of new registrations have been already been created. Remember, though, while simply registering will allow you to log in and comment, bumping your account to Resident status allows you to write new articles. See the roles page for details. You didn’t throw your letter away, did you?

  2. Administrator on Thu, 13th Mar 2008 11:38 pm

    3. I spent a little time with the final task of cutting over to the new site: the all-important step of coding redirects so that old URLs go to the correct place rather than producing the dreaded NOT FOUND error. The reasons for that are three-fold. First, search engines will take a while to catch up to the changes. Second, folks may have bookmarks. Third, it’s the right thing to do.

    Anyone that wants to have a final look at the old pre-conversion site can do so here:
    http://riverbend.timeoff.org/sp.php?n=home

    NOTE: As of 15 March 2008, when the redirection magic was coded in, the above line no longer shows the legacy site.

    Of course, once the redirect code is in place the link won’t work anymore – or rather, it will just come here. Followed soon by the purge of the old content, which will end up burned to an archive CD somewhere.

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