All things must change….
– Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882)
Progress has made it’s way to the Fall’s blog arena with the introduction of Version 2.0 of the Legends of the Falls. I won’t bore you with the reasons for the change here (some of them are detailed in the Welcome page), but I’ll take you through some of the features of the new blog that I hope will make your reading and posting experience more enjoyable.
New domain name –
We are now the proud owners of our own domain name – WeAreTheFalls.com. You no longer have to remember the awkward www.guffaw.com/fallblog but can now go directly to the more elegant www.WeAreTheFalls.com.
New look –
Not that there was anything wrong with the old look (afterall I did pick that one too) but the new look is slightly more modernish with a soft green pastel to it (isn’t it amazing how something can get “old fashioned” in just a couple of years?).
What will happen to the old? –
Before you get concerned, don’t worry. We’ve preserved everything and already moved most of it over to the new blog. All of the posts have been moved. Unfortunately, at least for the time being, the comments have not (I’ve moved a handful of comments so you can see how they will appear on the new blog but 99% of them have not been – it’s a manual effort that I might embark on on some future date). However, I have preserved an archived version of the old blog which you can still get to. In fact, if you try to go to the old blog via your Blogger Dashboard, you will actually be taken to the archived board now residing at http://legendstransfer.blogspot.com/. Also, Gary will be archiving the board to CD’s and distributing a version to everyone. One other thing worth mentioning, at the moment, most of the pictures in the blog still reside on Gary’s host and are only linked to from the new blog. At some point, in the future those links will probably go bad and the old pictures will disappear from the blog even though the posts will still remain (they will be on the CD version of the blog though).
Random Photo Display –
Speaking of photos, one of the first things you might notice about the new blog is the pair of pictures that are displayed immediately below our old family portrait. Those are randomly displayed from a batch of photos that I have culled from the blog (currently, I’m only displaying landscape style photos – mixing and matching landscape and portrait photos has proven to be problematic both artistically and technically). Those photos will change each time you visit the blog or refresh your view. Hope you enjoy this cute feature.
Calendar Display –
The calendar is no longer just an informational item. It can now be used to navigate around the site. Dates on the calendar that have blog entries are highlighted. Clicking on the date will take you to all of the entries that were made on that date. You can migrate from month to month by clicking on the <<PrevMon NextMon>> tabs at the bottom of the current month’s display.
Contributors –
In the old blog, clicking on a contributors name only took you to their Blogger information page. That provided little value to us since we all know who each other is (plus no one other than me really filled anything out on the page anyway). In the new Legends blog, clicking on a contributors name will bring up that author’s posts. By the way, clicking on the author’s name at the bottom of any post that they’ve made will also bring up all their posts.
Informational Pages
In this section you will find a link to a page that links to a list of everyone’s birthday rather than the old countdown (the countdown may be resurrected in Ver 2.1). What’s also here is a couple of links to informational pages like this one and the Welcome to the Blog page.
Web Identities –
This is a new section that contains links to websites on the internet that some of the contributors maintain, i.e. Gary’s website, my Facebook Page, the Myspace page of Chris’s band Action Dallas, etc. There’s also a link to the archived version of the old Legends Blog. If anyone has a Facebook, MySpace, or similar account they would like me to link to let me know.
Recent Posts/Recent Comments –
The recent posts sidebar group acts just like the Previous Post group on the old Blog. The recent comments group is new and quite practical. You no longer have to search through various posts trying to figure out if a new comment has been made. Whenever a new comment is added to the blog, a link to it will appear in this group. Even better, if the comment is to a post that you have made, you will receive an email notice that someone has commented on your post. That email will contain a link that can take you right to your post so you can read it instantly.
Blog Administration –
Here you will find a link to log into the Blog if your cookie hasn’t already logged you in. If you are logged in, then you will find a link to log out if you deem it necessary for some reason. The Site Admin link will take you to your Blog Dashboard where you will be able to do things like write a post, change your profile, etc. There are also links to RSS feeds for both posts and comments (if you know what RSS means, you can use these links to subscribe – if you don’t know, this is not the place to describe it to you)
Help –
This section has a link for you to actually make a post. You can also get to the post making link through your Blog Dashboard which is accessible via the Site Admin link on the Blog Administration. Also available is the Need Help link which will send an email to Gary and me asking for us to provide assistance to you.
Categories –
That takes us to what I consider the most powerful feature of the new blog. We will now be able to categorize each post by tagging it with what I describe as who, what, when, and where information. If you want to find posts about Christmas, simply click on the Christmas category and you will be taken to a listing of those posts. Categorization is so powerful that I’ve created a separate section just to discuss it. Click here to read that section.
Archives –
The Archives section is handled on a monthly basis just like the old blog with the only difference being that the most recent monthly archive is at the top of the list rather than the bottom – something that I think makes for more logical navigation.
Searching –
A very handy box has been added to the sidebar that allows you to do a site search. Categories allow you to find posts based on the categorization that the author has done. But you can go even beyond that. The search capability is a content based search Simply type in a word and you will immediately be presented with all the posts that contain that word. This will be very helpful in trying to track down an old post.
Making Posts –
Making a post functions pretty much the same with some additions. We can now easily include video in our posts. There’s also a separate section for uploading any non picture files that you might want to reference. And we’ve added smilies ( 😀 
😈 etc ) so you can more easily convey the emotional message that you are trying to get across. Plus, publishing the blog happens instantaneously. No more interminable waits as the blog churns while it republishes.
All in all, I think the blog is quite improved and I hope you feel likewise.