First, some perspective: the relaunched site has been up for eight days—really six as we were down for two days. We’re a tiny team and doing our best. That the passion for the site has led to some intense public Sixes and direct emails to me is a testament to how much you care. But let’s remember: these things take time.

I do hope the community can feel some of the changes/fixes we’re rapidly working to implement after a much rockier relaunch than anyone expected. Many of the issues (double posting, not seeing Sixes, etc.) were due to the site’s slow speed (people would, naturally, hit “publish” multiple times when a story didn’t appearing to be publishing). We’ve paid our server company more money to move things along!

We’ve also fixed: the Search button (one line of code created havoc); various issues with how Backstories display; being logged out when you didn’t want to be; and more.

Other areas of note:
• Getting everything working on mobile & iPads are a top priority.
• Having trouble posting a photo? Try saving it as a smaller file (4MB or less)
• Where’s my “Six count” that used to appear on my profile? We realized that the counter was slowing down the site quite a bit so for now have disabled it. Our new tech guru, the extremely talented and conscientious Blake, will rebuild to code for the counting. His list his long, but the count will return, and will include all your memoirs when it does.

One more note about some of the changes. In an email to me, one member noted: “The focus doesn't appear to be on words. It appears to be image based and more about selling existing products than encouraging new Six-Word Memoirs.” I don’t know if others feel that way, but I want be clear that the purpose of this new look and feel is to create a better user experience for all; an easier way for teachers to learn about the Six-Word teaching tools and download our free materials (and it’s happening already!); and indeed creating an experience that is somewhat more visually based in a much more visual world. If we don’t continue to grow this village will become a ghost town, one with no lights. Make no mistake, content and community will *always* be king. The first two pieces of content — as seen on the slider — are the Six-Word Memoir of the Day and the Daily Illustration (which I personally find delightful to see each day). Sure, one of the slider images is for the store (which is pretty cool-looking if you click through and take a look, not to mention has some excellent things available for holiday, hostess gift, and other forthcoming gift needs).

That said, I realized the Backstories/Images/Contest blocks should be right below the memoir stream and not be separated by the store call-out. There will be other changes as we see what works and what doesn't and all the gray area in between. We will continue to listen, to tweak, and to adjust as we go along.

To be continued….

Larry

p.s. Isn't the new "Meet the Community" feature sweet? I think so.