Remodeled PatsFans.com main page

[jmt57]

Just wanted to mention for those that may not have seen it, but the main page for this website has been completely overhauled recently. I have a feeling that a lot of forum members may skip right by it because they have the site bookmarked to the fan forum page. If so you may want to consider changing that to simply PatsFans.com as there is a lot of great stuff there, and it is updated far more frequently than it had been in the past.

There are several people regularly writing columns now, and the front page has links to their work. Besides Ian and Bob George, who have both been posting articles here for a long time, Russell Goldman, Joe Gill, Derek Havens, and Nick Stewart all have blogs that can be found on the front page. There are also links to all the Pats Cast episodes that we have been treated to this summer, as well as Twitter and Facebook links. Then at the bottom of the page there are links to the last five articles about the Pats from the primary sources in the local media: Mike Reiss' espnBoston blog; Chris Price's WEEI blog; the Boston Globe's Extra Points; Ian Rapoport's blog in the Boston Herald; CSNNE's Patriots blog; and NESN's Patriots news.

If you haven't done so already, check it out. In this case the new and improved version truly is new and improved.

 

[patsox23]

Looks awesome! Congrats, Ian and everyone involved!

 

[Gwedd]

Yeah, I noticed that a little while back. Must have been right after the change-over. I do enter through the main page because, like you said, it always has some good linkage to stuff I might otherwise miss.

Respects,

 

[Uncle Rico]

Nice work! I have to admit, I get here via a bookmark of this main forum only, and almost never look at the home page. But it's nice to see it has links to good stuff beyond the message board.

 

[IcyPatriot]

J

If you haven't done so already, check it out. In this case the new and improved version truly is new and improved.

I noticed and I like it.

I especially like that we have class people posting on the main page.
The people we have go right after content and leave out the fluff which is what makes this site the best.

 

[Ian]

Just wanted to mention for those that may not have seen it, but the main page for this website has been completely overhauled recently. I have a feeling that a lot of forum members may skip right by it because they have the site bookmarked to the fan forum page. If so you may want to consider changing that to simply PatsFans.com as there is a lot of great stuff there, and it is updated far more frequently than it had been in the past.

There are several people regularly writing columns now, and the front page has links to their work. Besides Ian and Bob George, who have both been posting articles here for a long time, Russell Goldman, Joe Gill, Derek Havens, and Nick Stewart all have blogs that can be found on the front page. There are also links to all the Pats Cast episodes that we have been treated to this summer, as well as Twitter and Facebook links. Then at the bottom of the page there are links to the last five articles about the Pats from the primary sources in the local media: Mike Reiss' espnBoston blog; Chris Price's WEEI blog; the Boston Globe's Extra Points; Ian Rapoport's blog in the Boston Herald; CSNNE's Patriots blog; and NESN's Patriots news.

If you haven't done so already, check it out. In this case the new and improved version truly is new and improved.

Yes, unlike before it's now updated every morning, with the "PatsCast Daily" video being updated immediately after they film it, which is done in the wee hours of the morning here on the East Coast by BradyFTW!, who makes this possible because he and Stephen are both on west coast time. Each day you'll find their brief video report underneath the main headline with a summary of the morning's stories just to update you quickly on your way out. So be sure and check it out. They also have a YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/patscast.

On my blog the headlines are done in the morning as well, although I had been finishing it a bit later prior to now. However, with the kids being back in school I'm up earlier now so they'll be done by 7:30am so, which means you'll be able to read them a lot sooner going forward.

As for the bloggers, we have a pretty good group of guys who are starting to put out some good stuff, so there's generally new articles to read each day - and the news entries will start being updated more frequently now that the redesign is just about finished, so those will also be there.

To lighten things up a bit you'll also find some Satire stuff (written in a similar style to "The Onion") that will start being updated with new entries a couple of times a week. The Parking Lot is also being revamped (home of the "Girl of the Day"), and will have a new video each day along with some new article sources that are entertaining that I'll be changing over to.

I've also added two new feeds to the main page at the bottom in the Local Links area, with the top six resources from the Patriots Beat all on there. There's Mike Reiss, WEEI's Chris Price, NESN's Jeff Howe, Ian Rapoport, The Extra Points Blog, and Tom Curran's Blog at CSNNE. So plenty of access to good information.

A couple of other things are coming as well, although I'll wait until everthing is finalized before I mention them. But yes, be sure and check the front page in the morning and at least a couple of times in the afternoon. There's generally new stuff there so hopefully everyone enjoys what we're doing, and if there hasn't been an update from us - I'm pretty sure you'll find new stories by our local beat writers in the "Local Media Headlines" section.

So lots of good stuff on the way, and I hope everyone likes it. The goal is to make the main site a resource all of you find useful and entertaining, so hopefully we're making progress in that direction.

 

[IcyPatriot]

So lots of good stuff on the way, and I hope everyone likes it. The goal is to make the main site a resource all of you find useful and entertaining, so hopefully we're making progress in that direction.

That's an understatement ... this site was great and it gets better from there.

 

[Ian]

That's an understatement ... this site was great and it gets better from there.

I don't know...the other side definitely needed work. The focus had been on the forum last year due to the equipment issues, so now that that's solved I thought it was time to really step things up on the content-side and bring in a few new people to help out - and we've been fortunate with who's joined in to this point. You'll see a couple of new faces in the next week or so, and I think we've got a really good group.

The last thing I'm working on is a new area for news, so hopefully if it's been written elsewhere, we'll have it listed on the front page in the upcoming news section. There's also another area coming - but that won't happen until probably next week.

We do need a volunteer for one other thing, so if anyone is interested it's a quick once a day thing, and preferably someone who spends way too much time at YouTube.com and has a good sense of humor

Ian

 

[IcyPatriot]

We do need a volunteer for one other thing, so if anyone is interested it's a quick once a day thing, and preferably someone who spends way too much time at YouTube.com and has a good sense of humor

Ian

That has Kontra's name written all over it ... he's everywhere.

 

[ausbacker]

Ooooooo the vaunted left justify just like patriots.com. I see what you did there you cheeky businessman Ian .

 

[Reckedtrek]

Looks great! Fantastic work. :rocker:

 

[Frezo]

Nicely done. Patriots.com could learn a few things.

 

[GrogansArmy]

Just curious, since this is a thread about the website. Who is Nikki Cole? And how come there's always a hot pic of her on the front page? She someone famous? I see other pics there too, but dunno if they're always there as I tend to get distracted by nikki's pics lol

 

[Ian]

Ooooooo the vaunted left justify just like patriots.com. I see what you did there you cheeky businessman Ian .

That's always how it's been, although with everyone's monitors getting larger that may eventually change. But my 10-year old Sony notebook is 1024x768, so I'm somewhat set in my ways there

 

[Ian]

Just curious, since this is a thread about the website. Who is Nikki Cole? And how come there's always a hot pic of her on the front page? She someone famous? I see other pics there too, but dunno if they're always there as I tend to get distracted by nikki's pics lol

She's a Patriots fan who is also a model and joined the forum and posted some of her photos. She was trying to get her name out there and I told her she was welcome to join the board and put them in her gallery.