Deleted It's over there...

If you somehow managed to get to the forums but haven't figured out that something has changed with the basic site layout yet... the menu you are now missing up there (points to the top of the center section above the banner ad) is now over there (points to the left side bar beneath the Login panel). It may not seem like a huge deal to anyone else, but it actually will allow for a number of things I've been wanting to accomplish for a while now... not the least of which is the implementation of some stuff for people new to the Whateley Universe. Some basic history and site help stuff. And a few other re-organizations of things that are ways I WOULD have set up the site, if I'd had more than two weeks to learn enough about Joomla to build a reasonably functional and secure site. It's been a work in progress and now that things are starting to look nice and come together better... I want to put into play some fundamentals that should have been around all along.

That includes personal blogs, featured blogs especially for the authors, so they can keep their fans up to date with their ongoing work. I'd also like to lay some groundwork for an editorial corp with a couple tiers - including a fact/continuity checker and a couple test readers, people with a proven knowledge of the universe and who are known for given good insightful comments/feedback on stories... who we can give access to stories before the final polish stage to give authors some early feedback without having to rely on the other authors who also would prefer to keep their time focused on writing. As it is now, most of the primary level feedback comes from the other authors. Considering we're now putting 3 novels a month through the pipeline, that's a LOT of reading and rereading to give each other feedback where that time 'could' be going to more writing. Ultimately, the editorial and first eyes reader group would be under the guidance of DanZilla and OtherEric... and the continuity checker would work with them as a staff member.

That latter bit, with more crew/staff is just in idea mode atm... so don't jump up and start sending "I wanna be an advance reader" applications. Once I get everyone to admit how much we could use them and how we can do it without breaking things... we'll post more about it.

Hmm... its not supposed to be on the bottom of the pile... just below the advertisement. But the right sidebar isn't as 'clear' as you might think it is. There are some things that are only visible to authors, more that are only visible to canon authors... for keeping tabs on what's in progress and needing feedback/editing/etc. Also... as much as it 'sucks' for the look of the site, if you have to scroll to see an advertisement, that advertisement loses about 2/3 of its revenue. So... in order to keep the ads paying for the site costs; they pretty much have priority over most other choices for quick visibility.

Let me play, I'll see what I can shuffle.

Moving them 'center' doesn't change the default structure of the template, light. the sidebars don't exist inside the context of the header. The 'highest' the sidebars get are the spots currently filled by (left) the Login panel and (right) the Search panel. Just close down your browser width enough, you'll see what happens.