Visit the all-new TECHWR-L site

[Deborah Ray <debray -at- RAYCOMM -dot- COM>]

Hi, all,

For the past two months or so, I've been working on
overhauling the TECHWR-L site and have (hopefully!)
improved its design, accessibility, download time,
organization, and content. I decided to make these
changes based on the following:

* Your comments and suggestions.
* Site traffic logs that indicated which pages are
  used the most/least.
* Accessibility issues that needed to be addressed.
* Content that was (is!) growing out of control.
* Javascript/mouseover effects that were irritating me
  (to download, look at, and wade through when updating
   pages).

Here's what you'll find at the new-and-improved
TECHWR-L site (http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/):

A NEW DESIGN:
The new design is text-based, spiffy, and speedy to
download.

A NEW SEARCH FEATURE:
I've added a mini-search engine that will let you search
content on the site. Just type in your keyword(s), click
Site Search (or press Enter), and view the resulting links
to matching TECHWR-L pages.

A NEW WHAT'S NEW PAGE:
This new page summarizes updates and changes to the
site. You can also submit your email address and receive
an automatic email notification each time the site is
updated.

SEVERAL PAGE PROMOTIONS:
The Books, Resources, Archives, and Features pages have been
promoted to main site pages. The new site organization should
make these popular pages easier to access.

A NEW CHAT FORUM:
Visit the new real-time chat forum, which provides more of
an interactive discussion forum than the message board
format. From the activity logs, it appears that you folks
are interested in off-list conversation, and I think this
forum will provide a better format for that.

If there's interest, we could try a scheduled technical
writing-related chat. Let me know whether this is something
you're interested in. In the meantime, the chat room is open
24 hours per day, 7 days per week for conversations you want
to take off list.

A MENTION OF RECENT AND ONGOING TECHWR-L TOPICS:
On the Home and What's New pages, you'll find a list of topics
currently or recently discussed on TECHWR-L.

A CATEGORY DELETED:
Due to lack of contributions to the Education database, I've
removed it from the TECHWR-L site. If you're looking for a
technical writing-related education program, you might check
out STC's education database at http://www.stc-va.org.

(Note: The Contractors database is still available, and in fact,
it's thriving. As of today, 174 of you have contributed to this
database. Thanks!)

Again, thank you all for taking the time to email me with
your comments, suggestions, and support. I still have a few of
your suggestions left on my ToDo list. If you've emailed me
with content to add and you don't see it on the new site within
the next week or so, please let me know.

Enjoy the site!
Deborah

 From ??? -at- ??? Sun Jan 00 00:00:00 0000=