the front page
The last thing I think we need to do before we relaunch is clean up the front page. We've all been making pretty short posts lately and while it's nice that they get to the point really fast, when you put it all together, imho, it looks terrible. A second problem, and one we've always had, is that posts move fast when a lot of people are using the site, which when we relaunch, will be the norm again.
To solve each problem, I propose we shut off automatic front page promotion and reserve the front page for longer, more substantive posts --- essentially like the old posts we'd all contribute when the "front page rotation" was still going. They have longer blocs of text that just look nicer and if we stay on message, will give us more return visitors because as a whole they explain the site well.
The anarchic quick posts we've been making would stay in the Blogs section, which we could give more visibility in 2 ways. First, by manually creating links to EVERY post people have made on any given day in the daily OPEN THREAD, which would be promoted to the front page. (I don't mind doing it --- in fact, I'd kind of enjoy it.) Second, by removing the "Start Something" tab (or moving it all the way to the right) and putting Blogs on the far left side, so it comes up first when people read across the page. We should also consider renaming it to better reflect the fact that all posts go through there. Maybe we could call it "everything" and adjust it so all blogs, projects and events get posted there. Anything really good, we promote to the front page.
Also, as long as I'm on the subject, I want to get rid of the Start Something tab completely. It looks bad --- a 2 word phrase on a menu full of things that are all 1 word is a verbal no no --- my old grammar teacher would slap me upside the head. I wouldn't mind keeping the page itself around, but I want at least to change the title.
Thoughts?
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