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iBrattleboro Now Encrypted

by cgrotke | iBrattleboro
SSL Lock

iBrattleboro.com is now using SSL – a Secure Sockets Layer certificate. It provides an encrypted link between a server and a client—in this case the web site and your browser.

We’re the first local news site in Brattleboro to do this for you, and we join our fellow community media sites BCTV and WVEW in doing so.

Normally, data such as logins and passwords, is sent between browsers and web servers in plain text. This makes a site vulnerable to a “man in the middle attack,” or site spoofing schemes.

Let’s Look At Photo Fun

by cgrotke | iBrattleboro

The new Photo Fun looks great, and a few have you have already found out how to put photos up. Excellent!

For the rest, you can login and submit a photo by using the Contribute menu in the upper blue bar. This takes you to a simple form for uploading your photo.

Add a title, short description if you want, add your photo, and add tags to describe what’s in the image.

It’s easy to do from a phone or tablet. Take your photo of something in your neighborhood or around town, then submit it here. Your phone should allow you to choose among your recent photos.

Can Author Preview Their Story Before Submission?

by SK-B | iBrattleboro

I wanted to submit a story, but decided to wait until the following two item can be clarified:

1. I only see a “submit” button, but no preview. Before submitting a story, I want to see how my story will display so that I can make any needed corrections in advance. This was a feature of the old site: Does the new site eliminate that feature, or did I miss something?

Let’s Look at Classifieds

by cgrotke | iBrattleboro

The new Classifieds section is quite nice.  So nice that it has its own link in the upper blue bar. (You can use that pull-down menu to get your own classified. More on that later.)

When you get to the Classifieds page, you’ll see a list of all the current ads. Up at the top is a way to search the classifieds, which might come in handy if you are looking for something specific and there are a lot of ads. You can search by keyword or location. 

Let’s Look At Today in History

by cgrotke | iBrattleboro

One of the popular features of iBrattleboro is the old stories featured in Today in History. For the most part, these are taken from the Vermont Phoenix, a Brattleboro newspaper that thrived in the late 1800’s.

On the old site, we loaded them all into a sidebar. This time around we’ve kept a sample of them on the homepage, but given them their own section of the site.

You can get to the page by clicking on the Browse menu, then Today in History.

Let’s Look at The Directory of Local Links

by cgrotke | iBrattleboro

Continuing our exploration of the new site design, we’ll take a quick look at the directory of local links.  

As you might expect, this is our online guide to local businesses and organizations. There are a couple others in town (the Chamber, the town’s list of Business License holders,) but they cost money. We know that small businesses and non-profits don’t have a lot of extra money,  and often it is when budgets are tight that some extra, free publicity could be useful. So, free Local Links!

We had this with both other versions of iBrattleboro, but decided this time around to start fresh. All old listings were wiped out (some were very out of date) and we’re starting to fill it back up.

Let’s Talk About Weather

by cgrotke | iBrattleboro

As we get this new version of the site running smoothly, we’ll introduce you to some of the new pages and features. Today, let’s talk about the weather.

First of all, you can get a quick glimpse of the basic current conditions by looking in the upper right corner of the site.

Welcome To The Newest iBrattleboro

by cgrotke | iBrattleboro

It’s the same as before, except different!

Technically speaking, this is version 3.0. We’ve switched the underlying content management system, the site  is now mobile-friendly, and everything will soon be encrypted.

Our work isn’t finished, but it is close enough to let you join us as we make final adjustments. It helps to have people using the site actively as we fine tune. You may see a few test items come and go over the next few days, and you will see some definite improvements.