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Four site features that help make a better visit
The Biking Hub was designed to be an easy-to-use resource for cyclists. During the first generation of this site, I used a content management system that I put together myself. Very clever, you say? Well it would have been if I’d chosen to do x rather than y, or to change this function into that one. Instead of a glorious programming victory, what it meant was that obsolescence was on its way.
Also, there were a bunch of features that I thought were valuable sources of information but were missing from my program. The more I added to Making It Easier, the more I thought that things like a search function, comments, trackbacks, and a smart way of displaying lots of links would make the site that much better. I considered building these things on my own but, after looking at some of the available open source options I decided that my time would be better spent elsewhere. In the end, I went with WordPress, mostly because of its ease of use and installation and the large support community that’s grown around the software.
New features on The Biking Hub
There are four things on this site that can really make your time here entertaining and interesting. Now included:
- An integrated search engine
- A commenting system
- Trackbacks
- Lots of links
An integrated search engine. On The Biking Hub, the search engine component is found to the right of this text and immediately above the ‘Browse by Month’ archives. Enter a search term into the text field, press the ‘Look it up!’ button and you’re good to go.
Comments. Site visitors can now add their thoughts to the entries on this site. What do I mean when I write ‘comments’? Say, for example, you disagreed with something I wrote. With a commenting system, you could voice your displeasure at my naivety and proceed with your own argument. I could offer a witty retort and everyone who read it could chortle. Comments are meant to create dialogue between cyclists who are just stoked to talk about bikes.
To add your own comment to this site, make sure you are on the entry’s ‘own’ page. You can be sure that you’re there by clicking on the title of the entry. Once that page has loaded in, scroll down to the bottom of the page, where you will see ‘Add your thoughts’ in green text. Below that is a place to enter your ideas, and when you’ve finished doing that, you press the ‘Submit a comment’ button to post them online.
Trackbacks. Trackbacks allow readers to follow the movement of their discussions around the ‘net. If you have your own ‘blog, link to an entry on The Biking Hub and your site’s address will appear in the comments section of the piece. It’s good for us because it creates that dialogue I was talking about and it’s good for you because it introduces new people to your site.
Lots of links. I always have huge lists of bookmarks covering a crazy range of topics. With the way the site is set up, new links can be shown in a random pattern. The good thing about random link patterns is that they give you something new to look at every time you come to the site. And the more links that I add, the more time you can spend doing things other than work. So send ‘em in and I’ll post them up. The link list is located on the front page of this site, along the far right column.
I don’t believe for a second that any of these features are world-changing or original — they’re already out there and they’re already on a bunch of successful sites. Nonetheless, they make this site better and, for you, that’s a good thing.