How to Navigate This Site

Posted by toj8j@alumni.virginia.edu, 7/13/01 at 1:25:29 PM.

I am continuing to experiment with improving the layout and usability of this site. If you have comments about navigability on this site, please use the Comment button at the bottom of this page to post your suggestions. This page has been updated to discuss the new structure of the site home page.

This navigational discussion has the following sections:

Site Structure

The site has four main types of content:
  • Stories: This is a part of the site that I write. A story appears on the home page of the site and is updated frequently. There is also an archive of old stories.
  • News items: This is also a part of the site that I write. A news item is one section of the front page with its own headline and, sometimes, icon picture. Old news items can be found in the discussion section. You can also see all the news items for one day by visiting the calendar.
  • Discussion: This is the part of the site that YOU write! Each new story that I write starts a new thread in the discussions for which you can provide feedback. You can also start new discussions completely unrelated to my stories!
  • Support: Includes the Feedback and FAQ pages, your Preferences, and links to help data and my other site.

Main Page

The main page of the site consists of news items that are posted several times during the day, surrounded by navigation elements that allow you to access other parts of the site.

There are two main ways you can work with the news items and stories on the main page:

Browse
You can use the small calendar control on the bottom of the page to flip back to previous stories. Clicking on a day in the calendar display of the current month takes you to the story or news items that was posted on that day. Clicking on the name of a prior month takes you to the last story or day of news items posted in that month. If you're navigating in previously posted material, you can also click forward to the first post of the next month by clicking the name of the next month.

Comment
You can post a comment on the currently displayed story or news item by clicking the "Comment On This Page" button beneath the story, or the Discuss link beneath the news item. This takes you into the Discussion area of the web site (see below).

Permalink (or, #)
If you want to link to a particular news item, the # sign after a news item is linked to the permanent location of the news item on my site.

Discussion

This site is designed to allow people to provide feedback and insights on the material on the site. With the site's discussion features, you can You can do any of these things from any point in the discussion area of the site. The standard navigation provides three unique access points to the discussion area:
Recent Discussion
This link shows all discussion activity in the last twenty-four hours. Each discussion item listed in this view shows the title of the discussion item, its author, the number of times the discussion item has been read, and the date it was posted.
Create New Topic
This link allows you to start a brand new discussion topic. Please feel free to add discussion on any topic you like!
List by Topic
This link shows all active discussion activity. Currently, "active" is defined as "having been updated within the last thirty days." Older discussion items can still be accessed through the calendar, but are not available in the List by Topic view. I'm trying to figure out a better way to make older items available.

With news items, you can also access all news items on a particular topic by clicking on the icon next to the story. For example, clicking the script icon next to some news items on 11/12/2001 brings you to the Scripting Department Archive, where all the scripting news items are collected.

Standard Navigation Elements

There are two types of standard navigation elements that are present on every page in the site: Top Links and Side Links.

Top Links
The top row of links provides quick access to different sections of the site: the Home page, the Discussion area (Recent Discussion view), a listing of Documents (which is the listing of all Stories posted by means other than the front page), a link to email me your feedback, and the FAQ area.

Side Links
Most of the side links are pretty self explanatory. However, a few bear specific mention:
Feedback
This goes to a page where you can offer me feedback via email.
Syndication/WAP
Advanced topic. You can use the instructions here to syndicate content from my site to another site, a story aggregator, or an offline XML newsreader. You can also use these instructions to access my site over your mobile phone.
Discussion links
See above.
Membership links
The display of this area changes according to whether you have logged in to the site. If you are logged in, this area allows you to access your preferences (update your email address, from what time zone you are browsing, your privacy preferences, and other options). It also allows you to sign out (please use this link to sign out when you're done with the page if you sign in from a location other than your computer, such as an Internet cafe).

[Discuss]

Last updated Monday, December 29, 2003 at 10:41:14 AM.

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