Groundviews is fully back online after an upgrade of its back-end content management system to the latest version of WordPress. While the site looks and feels the same, improvements under the hood make it more secure, responsive and easier to use.
There are also several significant new features to the site:
- You now no longer have to register to write a comment. A combination of Akismet and the WP Captcha Free plug-in ensures that bots are kept at bay and legitimate comments make it through. I can attest that the combination has dramatically reduced comment spam. Still not 100% fool proof though – so if there’s a comment that doesn’t appear after 24 hours that you think is in line with the submission guidelines, holler and I’ll see if I can dig it out. Â
- Another new feature is the list of posts under each article that alerts readers to content similar to that which they were reading. This allows older posts that are pertinent to contemporary discussions to be highlighted easily.
- Groundviews now automatically detects whether you are on a PC or mobile phone and renders content to best fit your screen and device. You can now read the full text on posts, navigate the entire site and even leave comments via your mobile phone. Just type www.groundviews.org on your mobile phone to get started.
- The site itself is now cached better on WordPress 2.5, delivering noticeably faster load times for posts and other content on the site.Â
- All existing authors should still be able to log into the site to post content, but may require to reset their passwords.Â
- The transition to the new version of WordPress messed up most of the UNICODE Sinhala and Tamil content and some English posts. To the extent we know, these are now fixed, though if you run into anything that looks awry, please let us know.Â
- Pages with background information about Groundviews (About page and FAQ’s) have been updated with details of our reach, readership and impact. Our partners page has also been updated with sources of funding.Â
Finally, please don’t forget that you can subscribe to all new posts on Groundviews via email.Â