The latest iteration of The ‘Grok went live when the Trump assassination attempt story broke, so there was a lot going on while we were working on getting this thing up and running. I was updating both the old and new sites with the Trump story because we’d already moved the data for the live launch, and it would have disappeared when the new site went live.
When new replaced old, the story was front and center as it should be, so that worked out. I’m sure we’ll have plenty more to say about that story with all the noise, the media’s yellow journalism, and the rest, but that’s not what I’m writing about.
New Website.
So far, there have been mostly good reviews, with a few complaints. One wrote – not an improvement.
Everyone’s a critic.
The biggest complaint was bylines on the home page, which is a good point. Everyone has authors they prefer, and hunting and pecking is a waste of your time, and we apologize for that. This will be fixed in the next day or so.
Note: The temp fix was my adding last names to the headline.
We’ve had some import issues with posts showing the wrong author byline even though they were created under that author’s user account. We’re working on that problem as well.
The new ad package default is too heavy, too many ads in posts (in my opinion), so I’ve asked them to dial that back a bit. We should see improvements this week.
We are still on DISQUS, but the plan is to move to WordPress as promised, but it might take a few weeks. For technical reasons, I don’t quite grasp it, but I trust the source.
The mobile version is…let’s say I am inspired to work sooner on the Grok App but need to pay for this update first to see where we are.
I’ve been fielding questions from authors about how to do things in the back end and answering them as fast as I can. A few of them jumped right in without issue, and some can’t seem to get started. We’ll get them all there as soon as we can because you want to read them and so do we.
The Newsletter was expected to stall and stop for a bit, and I’d announced it would. Today was hit or miss. The old ones are pointing at the old host and server ( I suspect). You should (May?) keep getting it, and it may or may not work [Note: The newsletter worked for me this morning]. You visit the home page for content if yours is not resolved.
Some of you really liked the old Grok scroll, but that’s dead—very outdated. We’ve moved on. We all need to get over it, but it’s not that bad. New content will appear in the top stories as well as in its category (VT, ME, NH, NE, etc..) in the other sections and pages.
This means that the eight most recent published pieces (that’s almost an entire day’s worth) will always be on one screen when you hit the home page (Top Stories), but please take time to Grok Vermont and Maine, as we will be adding local content to them that isn’t always featured at the top of the home page.
Behind Enemy Lines. Please encourage Vermont and Maine residents to read us and submit op-eds. We want to grow the audience and reach in these states and are looking for regular contributors in both states. There are good people there who need backup and air cover, and we mean to provide it.
Site speed seems a lot faster (to me). I hope you agree.
Finally, it’s early days, so I’m sure we’ll have other issues to address. Feel free to send me your thoughts. And, as always, thanks for reading!
Sorry. One more. Right Rally? What is that? We combined our various other media bits into what will hopefully evolve into a podcast platform. Past efforts have been lackluster or failed to attract an audience. GrokTALK was great for 3 1/2 years but has been archived. We hope to find the spark, whether it is us or us and others, and that’s where we’ll share it