The NEW NatureScapes.net

Greg Downing wrote:As you have probably already noticed we have made significant updates to the website!

If you want to see a video introduction to the new site you can find one here:

http://www.naturescapes.net/articles/editorial/welcome-to-the-new-naturescapes/

There are too many changes to list them all, but here are some of the major updates we have implemented:

Front page:

We’ve modernized our front page with a new feature section and a summary of every section of the website including the forums, image galleries, workshops and store. This page will be updated regularly and serves as a portal for the entire site.

Menus:

Menus are structured for quick navigation with drop down submenus to get you where you want to go in a single click.

Forums:

The forums have been re-styled and we have included modern social networking links for personal profiles and topic posts. We also added a “like” button that can be helpful for acknowledging replies without typing a new reply.  We’ve added the right column to feature other happenings on the website (editor’s picks, latest articles etc.)

Image Galleries:

The image galleries are now separated from the forums (though technically they are still integrated, which allowed us to retain all the archived images, comments, statistics etc.).

The galleries have now taken on a much newer look and feel; square user-editable thumbnails are now used throughout the site, allowing us to offer a more aesthetically pleasing user interface. Square thumbnails also encourage people to click on the images to see them in their original composition.

All images are now uploaded directly to our server (including externally linked images.) 

Note on thumbnails: We have created a great deal of thumbnails, one at a time, for archived images - at least the first page of each of the galleries. Past that thumbnails either do not exist or are blurry - we will continue to work on this in the coming days. Of course all new images will have user-created thumbnails.

The gallery home page displays all the gallery images in one place, sorted by date with the newest images showing on top.

Larger images are now allowed in all the galleries for paid members; up to 1280 pixels wide, 1024 pixels tall and 1MB is size. Free members can still link to images that are hosted externally but are limited to 800 pixels on the longest side and 250KB in size.

Gallery images can be clicked to display in a pop-up with the distractions grayed out behind them. If the pop-up images are too large to fit on the screen they will be downsized automatically each time they are opened.

What used to be “Images of the Week” has now been changed to Editor’s Picks – this is where we will display our favorite images. Unlike the Images of the Week we can now choose images simply based on their wow factor and without the restrictions of doing them weekly, or by gallery. Moreover, we have done away with the images of the year awards for the foreseeable future but have some ideas for something to replace it and we will keep everyone posted.

Portfolios:

We simply added some graphics and navigation links here – the portfolios are on our list of major updates that need to be done and will get a major upgrade in the future. Since we will be abandoning the current portfolio software system in the future, we have also disconnected portfolios from the image critique galleries. Members can still access and update their portfolios, add images, etc. We are also not increasing image sizes here since it would break the layout and we don't want to put extra work into something we're replacing in the future. 

Articles:

We’ve revamped this section completely and now offer RSS feeds, article comments for registered users (your existing forum username automatically logs you in for commenting on articles). We’ve added a large right column here, as we have in the forums, so we can keep people engaged. Social networking links and RRS feeds have been added. Images in articles are now going to be larger and pop up like in the galleries. All past articles have been moved and reformatted to fit the new style (a major undertaking in itself).

Workshops:

The workshops page has been completely revamped, and we've added new features like filter by date and region, a new information column on individual workshops for quick viewing of pertinent info, and new registration engine.

Store:

The store remains the same other than removing the flash feature rotation for featured products and adding the sub-menu for quick access. The store is also on our radar for an update in 2013 (it was updated in March of 2010). There are currently some alignment issues being addressed but everything should be functional.

Search:

We are not finished here yet, but we are working on bringing all of the sections of the site into one unified search interface. In the meantime we have a partially working model with links to all of the old section-specific search pages. We will finish this section up within the next week or two depending on how everything else goes.

I realize that everyone will have lots of comments and questions – this is the place to post them  

Please remember that this is a MAJOR upgrade all at once and we acknowledge that there is still work to be done and that we are bound to have some issues.

If you DO encounter something unexpected you may post here or email us at editors@naturescapes.net - we will respond to all issues and questions as quickly as possible.

Acknowledgements:

Many MANY thanks for Jamie Umak for her impeccible design work and unwavering patience through this process and to Nicholas Clements for his expert coding and also for putting up with all my whims and changes - this has been a long and complicated process and to say I could not have done this without them would be an understatement!

As always thank you for the support!