Yes. Finally. The mystery is no more. As many of you guessed, we’re relaunching our website starting–now. (Though, depending on your service provider, the new site rollout might happen later tonight, or tomorrow, but, by golly, let’s hope by Monday.) dmagazine.com and all of the blogs that call it home–Hey! Like this one!–have a new look and scads of new features. More on that later.
But first, to those among you who are underwhelmed by the Big News that D executive editor Tim Rogers has been promising all week: know that Tim Rogers does not have cable television. He’s easily impressed by all matters technological.
Now, for more on the relaunch, let’s jump like we used to …
Did you jump to read more? Or was the suspense too much to bear and you couldn’t help but click around? You couldn’t help but check out the new homepage, the gorgeous nightlife galleries, and the various subpages. You lost yourself in our deep, deep directories–finding pizza parlors, plumbers, pediatricians. You plotted out your weekend’s pub crawl with the Happy Hour Google Map Mash-Up. You explored the site and the city, and the city and the site. If not, you should do so soon.
Now, this being a blog–not to mention a blog known as FrontBurner–many of the first reactions will be, um, less than supportive. As noted and self-proclaimed expert John Hodgman recently said, such anticipated attitude is “part of the toxic Internet art of constant callous one-upsmanship.” So unleash your “Meh”s in my direction. Or yell “FAIL” at Tim for his inelegant bid to build suspension. But please acknowledge (or, preferably, applaud) the gargantuan efforts of Team Web.
Team Web is D’s cast of characters, all incredibly hard-working, unbelievably tireless, impossibly patient, inspiringly intelligent, dutifully diligent, and so many other good qualities, alliterative and otherwise. In no particular order and in no small measure, huge shout outs go to:
Online publisher Julie Blacklidge-Kinzie, who kept trains running, even when those trains were out of gas, off the rails, and/or headed for other oncoming trains. Online designer Stephen Edmondson, who did so much more than merely make pages pretty, though he did that for sure, and then some. Programmer Josh Pearson, who learned another language and was still able to communicate to dolts like me. Producers Kyle Kearbey, Raya Ramsey, and Laura Behl, who never once complained about all of the crud work that ended up on their desks (or, if they did complain, they were able to keep it a secret from me). And Stephanie Snell, who has and will spread the word in online-marketing mania. Also, big ups to Ben and Mat, the duo in NYC who built the thing. Champagne all around.
A caveat for those who have not yet browsed elsewhere: the site is in beta. That means there may be a bug here or there (but not, fingers crossed, everywhere). If you find one, let us know. There’s a bug report link at the bottom of every page. We’ll fix it sometime between now and the next relaunch. [shudder at the thought]