Tom Benson

Friends, Romans, countrymen and members of the IASD … lend me your eyes.

Okay, I admit it, I wanted to do some more work on here before I dealt with any bad guys today.

I must first of all congratulate our man in 3D, the solid Ian. Penny’s books in the Children genre are looking great and if you haven’t had a peek … do so after reading this update. I said … ‘after reading this update …’

We’re listening to every comment and suggestion from you guys. You’ve got Paul, Ian, and me, so if one of us is off the radar for a day or a week, please check in with one of the other Admins. We’ll either pass the issue on, or we’ll deal.

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Presentation and Performance

Why mention these two areas together?

If I’ve learned anything about blogs and websites in general, it is the more you ask it to do, the less it wants to do. Any of you who’ve been checking in over recent days will see that apart from Ian’s efforts on the covers, I’ve been amending the overall appearance, menu titles, sidebar titles and information and so on. Paul is organising a few bits and pieces to add to the Resources for Writers topic, but I think he wants to keep it secret, so sshhhh … you didn’t hear it from me.

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Recent Amendments  (Okay, so I work with lists !)

1 – Just as I removed the Slideshow, I’ve now removed the second Archives link.

2 – I’ve reinstated the Featured Author as the ‘homepage’ so that the lucky recipient of all the attention is the first any visitor sees. At some stage soon, I’ll see if we can refine / improve the page.

3 – The blog posts are now listed in a sidebar under the heading of Group Updates, which I believe is both an accurate description and easier to remember.

4 – It may not sound like much, but I’ve amended the greetings for the Follow, and the email for those who elect to Follow in the future.

5 – One of our main issues previously, was our main menu area, because it was huge. I’ve taken on board all the comments from my two sidekicks and those who’ve taken time to give an opinion – and as I write, there is no sub-menu beyond seven topics.

The reduction in topics to each sub-menu means of course that it has increased the main menu, but I’ll now wait for word from i-phone, smartphone, and tablet users as to whether it improves the browsing / user experience. I believe although it has increased the main menu area, it is more easily navigated.

Thank you once again in advance for any comments and suggestions. I really have to go now – I’ve got an appointment on a planet far, far away in another galaxy …. 😀