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The A Cappella Blog

Hmm... Something's Different

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This January marks The A Cappella Blog's fifth anniversary. To celebrate, we have completely redesigned the website from the ground up. We knew we wanted to freshen up the look and feel of the site and, in the end, we wound up making some changes behind-the-scenes which will allow us to include some great new features down the line. After almost a year of hard work, we're really excited to roll out the new design today. I'd like to take you through some of the new features of our website.

The first goal we wanted to achieve with the new design was to make the content on the site accessable on all devices. We've noticed that more and more users are visiting the site from their smartphones and tablets, so we set out to make the reading experience consistent from the largest computer monitors down to the smallest mobile phone screens. Whether you are checking out the group directory on your phone from the seats of an auditorium, or reading articles on your 27" iMac, we want you to feel right at home.

Our next objective was to make all of the sections of the site more user-friendly and more functional. We've reworked our Group Directory and our Events section to be more relevant and up-to-date. We also added a new menu—which we're calling the Reader Menu—to make it easier to perform actions around the site. Going from page to page, the reader menu will change based on the type of content you are viewing. For example, on an article page, you can use the reader menu to share an article you like on Twitter or Facebook.

In order to eliminate spam and further discussions between users, we have replaced the old user registration system with a newer, more secure platform, and we've made it mandatory to become a registered user in order to post comments on articles. With the new system, we have fixed issues from the past, and you may now post comments or register as a new user, again.

Adding the new login system is better for the future of the website, but it does have one down side. We've properly imported all usernames and email addresses tied to our user accounts, however, as a security measure, we've not imported any passwords. Therefore, upon your first login, we ask that you request a new password to update and secure your account. During this process you'll receive an email with a one-time login with which you can manage your account. If you need any assistance, please let us know.

We hope that you enjoy using the new A Cappella Blog. We're looking forward to a 2012 full of great a cappella music, and wish you all of the best for a happy new year.

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