About this Website
As you may have noticed, the format for the Eastleigh District Scout website has changed recently.
Here are a few of the changes, and how you can benefit from them:
(1) New layout
The new layout means that the site loads a lot quicker than it used to do. The layout is also a lot simpler. On the main page, you will find the news items down the middle (here, where you are reading this), and some menu functions down the right hand side (more on those in a bit)
(2) Easy to Add to
The software driving the site now makes it easier for other people to add their own items for people to read about.
As a starter, it is just myself and the District Commissioner who have access to create news items, but the plan is to expand this to the rest of the District team. If you want to become an author for this site, then please get in touch @ webmaster.
Because more people can add their own items to this site, it should become more of a place to see what is coming up in the future, rather than a place to see what has happened in the past.
(3) Leave your comments
Each of these news items also has a comments section that allows you to post your comments on a particular news item. To leave a comment, simply click on the “Comments >>” section under each news item.
You do not need to register to leave a comment, but you will be asked for your name and email address.
(4) Targeted news items
Down the right hand side, you will see a section called Categories. These will allow you to filter the news items into only those that you might be interested in.
For example, if you only want to know about the Cub related articles, click the Cub link, and the site filters all the stories for the Cubs. Likewise for the other sections.
Some articles will appear in several places, as the authors can specify many different categories if they think it applies.
(5) Easier menu structure, navigation and searching
On each and every page you visit, the menu bar will go with you.
The Pages section links you to some of the static information on the site. These are the pages that do no change very often.
The Archives section allows you to view the news articles by the month in which they were published. Click the month you are interested in and all the articles will appear.
The Categories section shows you the different categories and the number of news items that each category holds. this is not a complete list, but just shows those with news items.
If you get lost within the site, simply click the banner at the top of the page to go back to the start…
(6) Subscribe to the site
The software that drives this site also allows you to subscribe to feeds from the site. These feeds are files that you can subscribe to that will allow you to pull the news from this site without having to actually visit it.
Currently there is just the one feed running, but this may change as the site develops. The link to the feed is : http://eastleigh-scouts.org.uk/blog/feed/.
There are several ways to view the news feed:
- Dedicated Aggregator software like RSSReader (download it from www.rssreader.com
- Using the Thunderbird mail client from Mozilla
- Using a web-base aggregator like Bloglines
What you can do to help
- If you want to become an author for the site, drop us a note @ webmaster, telling us which category you would want to author, or suggest a new one to start.
- Come back to the site often, and leave us some comments on the events that appear.
- Subscribe to the news feed to keep in touch
- Send in your suggestions to webmaster.