The Editorials
The New Women of Country
Written by Jeff Krasky
It’s been a long time since we’ve given Women of Country a face lift. There was a time where I sat down and took the time to redesign the site from top to bottom once a year. This was an enormous amount of work but it kept things fresh. At some point life got busy and the available time to spend working on redesigns quickly evaporated into about nothing.
Three or four years ago I made a design which I was hoping would allow us to focus on generating content and not having to spend so much time working on the look and feel of the web site. Internet technologies had slowed down and there wasn’t as much driving reason to change things just to keep up with the latest and greatest. The Internet had become loaded with Flash and other multimedia heavy content that just went against what I thought good web design represented. You’re not supposed to make someone sit through a slow loading Flash web site just because you want to make things move around. I started to lose interest in the design aspect of the web. Then Web 2.0 started to happen (which is what the v2.0 joke in the new logo is supposed to represent, it's actually redesign #11 if you're counting). This has brought about a number of exciting new technologies which are supposed to make design easier (that’s the theory anyway) and also allow us to integrate in tasteful effects which are still quick loading. The web never stops evolving and the design of Women of Country had fallen decidedly behind the times. It had fallen behind to the point where I didn’t feel it was doing justice for the content we have here. I decided it was time to learn some of the new stuff that is available and give Women of Country a much needed face lift. What you see now is the results of those efforts. I need to send thanks out to Darren for his help with some of the design aspects that had me stuck.
What does all of this mean to you as a reader? I hope that you will find the new site easier to navigate and easier to read. We’ve learned a lot about designing sites in the last few years which never made it into the Women of Country designs. I have always placed content above snazzy looks. But I also hope that the new design provides some of those cool looks while keeping the focus on the content and the music. If we have accomplished that then we did what we set out to do. I’m hoping the site will spark your interest again for many of the talented female vocalists that are out there in country music who don’t get their proper amount of recognition.
You will find that the Latest News section is back and links to a new site that Darren and I are working on called TwangWire (http://www.twangwire.com). Country news has always been scattered all over the web and was hard to find. We’re looking to make a single site which you can go to for all your country music news needs. You’re going to find news on all country artists, male or female on TwangWire. The unique thing about TwangWire is that it’s community driven. Users are encouraged to submit stories they find on the web and then other users get to vote on them. The stories with the most votes get promoted to the frontpage. This system basically puts you, the reader; in control of what stories you think other readers should see right off the bat. I encourage everyone to take a minute to jump over there and sign up for an account so you can take part in this new community.
I also know that we need to do a better job of providing you fresh new content. I still do a lot of the work on the site but my available time isn’t what it once was so I’m learning to let others help. Chris has been doing a great job as our first new staff writer. I’m looking forward to finding a couple more people to help in this regard so we can continue being the top source for female country music information. Expect more frequent updates in the coming year. More album reviews, more interviews, more special features and perhaps even some concert reviews (country concerts are rare out here in northern California). Be sure to check out Rachel Proctor’s exclusive WOC blog titled “Real Life with Rachel Proctor”. We’re very happy to have this talented singer-songwriter contributing to the site.
If you like what you see please tell your friends. The more people who take part in this site the better the site will become. Please let us know what you think. I hope you enjoy it.
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