Well, it’s that time of year again at UCSC. We’ve reached October and classes are in full swing. That also means that we at City on a Hill Press are gearing up for the new school year, and what better way to do that than to announce the deployment of a site update?
Tomorrow, on October 7, we’ll be deploying a major update to our website. Some of the biggest changes include:
- New homepage design, to help make browsing stories a bit easier. We’re also adding a video player on our homepage, always up to date with our latest videos from our YouTube channel.
- Comments are now powered by Disqus, a platform for administering comment threads. You can leave comments using your Facebook account, Twitter account, a Disqus profile, or any other OpenID compatible site.
- Small improvements to archive pages and posts, to make it a little easier to browse around.
With these changes, we have a couple of things to take care of. First, we’ll be updating in the evening on Oct. 6, so the site may be intermittently unavailable beginning at 5 p.m. on Oct 6, continuing into the morning of Oct. 7.
Second, with the changes in our technical infrastructure, we’re revising the Commenter’s Code and Privacy Policy. You can view these updated policies at:
- Commenter’s Code: https://cityonahillpress.com/commentoptin/commenterscode.php
- Privacy Policy: https://cityonahillpress.com/commentoptin/privacypolicy.php
For current commenters, we have the technical capability to import comments over to Disqus automatically. However, because of the change in commenting platforms from a system maintained in-house to a third-party, we’re making this an opt-in process.
If you have left a comment on our website previously, you’ll be receiving an email from us very soon providing information on how you can opt-in, or you can email us at mods@cityonahillpress.com using the same email address you used to create your comment.
If we don’t hear from you by Noon on Oct. 11, your comment will be removed from our systems in preparation for the transition. Further, beginning today, in order to prepare for the switchover, we’re temporarily closing the comment threads and closing new account signups. Because Commenter Accounts won’t be required or used on the new Disqus system, we’ll be removing all Commenter Accounts beginning at 5 p.m. on Oct. 6.
As always, we thank you for your continued support and hope you enjoy these changes.