New iBrattleboro Sections and Headers

The new version of iBrattleboro replaces icons for sections with new section page headers. Taking away the icons, we hope, will inspire you to illustrate your stories with images.

There are a few changes to the Sections, too. We’ve changed Kids to Family, to include all ages of family members. Recreation has now become Sports and Recreation. Police has now become Police and Fire.

New sections have been added: Culture, Economics, Living, Philosophy, State News, Travel, and The Region, including space for news from Vernon, Guilford, Dummerston, Marlboro, Putney, the West River Valley, and Deerfield Valley in Vermont and Chesterfield and Hinsdale in New Hampshire.


Guilford, You Have An Official Section!

Greetings Guilford,

As you can see, you have a brand new section of the site to publish Guilford news, events, and commentary. Your stories will still go on the homepage first, like all others, but now they can all be found in one place.

Chesterfield, Deerfield Valley, Dummerston, Hinsdale, Marlboro, Putney, Vernon, and West River Valley are also included in the regional section.


iBrattleboro Polling Improvements

Poll lovers will enjoy some new options with iBrattleboro polls.

First, we will be getting rid of the beloved “Other” option in most cases. It has served us well for allowing flexibility but its time has come.

It is replaced by the ability to add your own responses. You will now see (write-in) as an option. If you select it, you can add another choice for people to consider.


New Expanded Profiles

With the new site come new profiles. You’ll be greeted by your new profile page when you log in, and anytime you click on My: Profile in the upper green bar after you are logged in.

The View Tab

Your username is displayed on a nifty badge. There are places for you to add your location, a short bio, a mini-resume, your occupation, a link to your work or business, where you volunteer and what organizations you’ve belonged to in town.

You can add a profile picture, birthday information, your interests, and your hobbies.


Adding An Image

With this new site we’ve tried to make it easier to add images. You can add them to your stories, comments, and events, and also submit them directly to be included in new image galleries, or as a featured Photo Fun photo.

Let’s look at some of the options. (Note: UPDATED April 2, 2013)

Embedding Via Flickr

If you use Flickr, you can now use their embed code to place images and slideshows on the site.

1. Choose an image on Flickr to share.

2. Find the Share button near the image or slideshow.

3. Click on Grab the HTML/BBCode for an image, or Grab the embed HTML for a slideshow.


New Ways to Embed Media

Here are some examples of the kind of media you can now embed in your stories and comments.

To use one, set the story input mode to Advanced HTML, disable rich-text and paste in the embed code from the media you’d like to share.

You Tube (Old Style)


Pets Section Now Features Windham County Pets

If you look in the right sidebar in the Pets section, you’ll see that we’re now featuring pets available for adoption from the Windham County Humane Society.

It used to be that we could only show pets from all of Vermont. It’s great to now be able to feature local pets that need homes.

The box will load a pair of random pets from the available pet list maintained by WCHS.


How To Create a Repeating Event

Everyone who submits events should know that repeating and recurring events are now possible in the iBrattleboro Calendar. In this help article, we’ll cover how to make an event repeat, and a few other fun features.

1. The first thing to do is to log in. Why? Because if you log in, you will be able to edit, update, and track your event later on.

2. Click on Contribute>Event in the upper green bar.

3. The instructions at the top tell you that you are submitting and event to the calendar, and how to submit things to other parts of iBrattleboro.

4. The first box is for the title of your event.


A Bit About iBrattleboro Classifieds

Did someone say Classifieds?

iBrattleboro now has Classified Ads in a variety of flavors. Here is some information to get you familiar with some of the options.

1. Click on Browse: Classifieds in the upper green bar to get to the Classifieds section. Listings default to an old-fashioned style for browsing. You will see tabs for General Classifieds, Housing, and Jobs.


Brattleboro Town Planning Basics – Who Does What?

Information about planning in Brattleboro and Vermont is necessary for good community discussions of planning. The information below comes from the Town’s web site, Smarth Growth Vermont, and from The Vermont Planning Information Center (VIPC). VPIC provides a great, free document from the VT Land Use Education and Training Collaborative called .