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Roadskater.net RSN2.com Update

OK if I remember I will use this page for news about changes and experiments with the site. I've been quiet again lately because I've been putting in a lot of time in the background, updating the software for security and looking for ways to address some things I didn't like. Here are some things to try or note:
- News
- I've moved the sidebar content so that news from feeds will be nearer to the articles we create.
- I spent hours (proving my limitations) trying to find solutions to:
- reduce the number of duplicate entries (some of this is impossible but it's much better)
- finally eliminate the & codes for quotation marks and other characters.
- Please remember that you can blog on a news item by clicking on the blue b graphic beside news items.
- There's a neat news summary at view/news articles or view/news articles/sources.
- If you like the news blended together, try view/news articles/categories, or go one more menu level to separate by general category.
- Popular and Quality (Five-Wheel) content
- Check view/recent popular content for a new tab called "quality content" showing articles sorted by average of votes given by roadskater.net users via the five-wheel tool; a vote five wheels equates to a 100% vote, while four stars equates to 80%, and so on. The quality content screen shows the average vote and the number of replies. I hope I can improve this, but due to limitations of the views code it may be awhile before I can make it how I want it to be. I want to add a "rate some articles" page that will show you content on which you have not voted. Now that I'm using the votes, I hope you guys will go do some voting if you like. It is entirely legal to vote for your own content!
- The popular and recent items may move in the menus when I work on menus again to streamline them.
- Color
- It is obvious I'm sure that I've been playing with color and style, especially in the tag cloud. I wanted to spark it a bit, and make it so that a hover would light it up and a visit would change a link's color. I set some tag power levels to italic in hopes of separating some of the items that run together. I will be working on other ways of separating using color or shading, but these are more complicated and I am still learning.
- Polls
- I've changed the way polls display in the sidebar so that you see a random poll instead of the latest one.
- I'd like ideas for polls, including answer sets, via email or site/feedback.
- I killed some old polls and may close others soon.
- Events
- Please add some events, especially rides you plan to skate and roller derby you plan to attend or skate or ref.
- For now I've moved events up a bit, included tags by category and recent cities on the lower left.
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Comments
Freshened Sidebar News Feeds
Just a quick note to say I have updated the Google News feeds so they are no longer deprecated nor defecated. I got rid of or combined some pro cycling stuff that is seasonal (combined and made more general the Giro, Tour, Vuelta items. With a nod to timv, I added a unicycling section. I also moved things but they may move again. The feeds probably come out for you differently than for me. Some feeds seem to pull the same content with different RSS links. I tried to boost the number of articles that will show up for training topics of general interest. Also i tried to get some more inline-related info, which I think will be better after the Olympics. Some blocks and headers won't refresh until your machine clears its caches. I hope this will bring along some more good info, and it seems the links in the right sidebar are working better. Also, recall that you can hit that icon with the b in a box to initiate an article on a feed item, and it usually brings along a photo. I haven't tried it lately. Enjoy! Skateylove!
Map Pins Broken
Events Work OK Now, Scheduling Off for Now