Leaping Forward

I'm pleased to announce a massive update here at ITNewb with many new features and improvements to the site itself and the backend. Here is a list of highlights:

• Revamped Home Page
• Revamped Site Footer with Article Copyright / Usage Information
• Revamped Single Page Site Tour
• Revamped / Completed Help Central
• Revamped About ITNewb Page
• Updated Terms, Privacy, Publishing and Netiquette Policies
• Minimum Article Approval Rate Increased to 85% B+
• Improved Documentation for Authors
• New Member Dashboard / Home Page
• New Site-wide Activity Feed
• New, More Advanced Member Notifications
• New Online Friends Sidebar
• New Member Status Feature
• Member Ranks, Titles and Badges
• Improved Profile, Photos and Settings Forms
• New and Improved Profile Fields and Privacy Settings
• Article Search + OpenSearch Plugin for Firefox / IE
• Start of the Newb Initiative, Steered by New Topics index
• Invite Friends to Join ITNewb Back Online
• Revamped Author List Design
• Various Interface Design Improvements
• Improved Article Publisher Error Responses
• Various Improvements to CSM Tabs

Member Dashboard

Once logged in, you'll find the ITNewb home page changes to a cool new dashboard which has 3 tabs: Public Feed; Friends Activity; and Notifications. The new public feed displays activity site-wide, and is governed by the new Activity Filter settings which allow you to opt-out of a story or define a scope of "Everyone", "All Members" or "Only Friends" for the stories you choose to have published.

Friend activity feeds haven't changed, but they have been moved to the dashboard.

The new notifications tab delivers specific messages to you for every action that occurs on the site related to you (up to the past 60 actions). When you're in one of the other dashboard tabs, the notifications tab blinks if you have an unread notice (which are highlighted in yellow). While you're browsing other areas of the site, a large notification bar appears and blinks below the main site navigation.

You'll also find a new online friends sidebar, which appears in various locations around the site and displays up to 20 of your most recently active friends.

Newb Initiative / Topics Index

Most of you are already familiar with the newb initiative, but for those of you who aren't read this.

Member Ranks

You can learn more about the new member ranks here.

Like, Dislike, Bugs?

Due to the magnitude of this update, if we're going to find a bug, this is probably the update. So be sure and submit a bug report if you discover something that's obviously a bug or even something that just doesn't seem quite right. Before you do though, check Help Central to ensure the issue hasn't already been addressed.

Also, as many of you have already learned, your feedback and ideas are highly valued here at ITNewb. So please, feel free to comment and express approval, disapproval, share ideas and so forth.

Enjoy!