Huge upgrade coming to the site very soon

Important announcement!

I am excited to announce that very shortly you can expect to see some improvements that will significantly change the look and feel and then functionality of ChrisMartenson.com. The site will be offline late tonight and into the early morning of Monday April 20th as we make the switch.

This will be coming in phases and the first phase involves significant modifies how the site looks and feels.

Here are some highlights of the redesign:

PHASE I

A friendlier, more optimistic color scheme

Many users have suggested changes to the current color scheme. We have considered your ideas and have gravitated to a calmer color scheme that embraces the “cool colors” side of the spectrum to reflect an atmosphere of community building and positive change. We have updated the color scheme to appropriately reflect this shift. Here's a sample:

A site experience that is better adapted to the way you use the site

Based on your input, we have come up with a "smart" layout system that offers distinct site layouts to different types of users. The layout seen by someone visiting the site for the first time will be different from the experience of a registered member, which will be different from that of an enrolled member.

An introduction for new users

In addition to a specially tailored layout, new users to the site will also encounter a short video located on a splash page providing them with an introduction to what they will see in the Crash Course, a site tour, and suggestions on how to make the most of site resources and integrate effectively with the site community. Most importantly, new visitors will not be overloaded and exposed to “too much” on their first visit.

PHASE II

Better organized forums

Many of you have asked us to segregate the forums into more useful categories and make it easier to locate forum content that you might be interested in discussing. Some of these changes will be evident on the day of the new site launch, and some we will be modifying over time in response to your additional suggestions. This is our site, we can make it any we want. Just keep letting us know what you want.

Fixing all the things we find in Phase I

We know that we’re going to be fixing and tweaking things for a while after the site overhaul so that’s part of this phase. Your feedback and patience are requested.

PHASE III

Groups

This will a vast expansion of the site’s capabilities that will allow interested members to form, join, and manage groups. The groups can be based on either/both geography or interest. For example, there might be a Richmond VA group (geography) as well as a Permaculture group (interest) and someone might belong to both.

Many new features will be involved:

• Locate each other by geography
• Plan and post events in your group calendar
• Send messages within and across groups
• Move up through the group structure and heirarchy as far as your skills or desires dictate

Why it’s not being released yet – this will require a lot of management on our part to assure it all goes smoothly. I anticipate having to hire someone, full-time, just to manage the first 3-4 weeks of “learning” that will be sure to ensue. There are so many things on our plate right now that this simply had to be pushed off as we have no available bodies to dedicate to this right now.

Wiki

Somewhere along here, either in Phase II or III, we plan to install a Wiki so that critical information can be retained and “lost” as it ratchets down the forum post list as new information floods in.

Thank you for the guidance many of you have offered in the site development process. Please let me know what you think about the upcoming changes, and please continue providing feedback on all aspects of the Crash Course and ChrisMartenson.com so that we can continue making improvements that address your needs and concerns. I take your feedback very seriously and I take all of your suggestions under careful consideration. I believe our collective intelligence, as always, will lead us to the best solutions.

I hope these changes will make experience of visiting ChrisMartenson.com more useful and enjoyable for you - and more appealing to first-time visitors, as you spread the word by encouraging your friends and neighbors to check out the Crash Course and ChrisMartenson.com.

Thank you in advance for your patience,

Chris Martenson