Some New Features !

Listeners of the World,

As you know here at OurTown Media we believe that the best sites are the forever evolving sites that keep up with new trends, technology, new widgets, and so much more. That is why we have developers working every day not only on fixes, but on new features that for the most part have been suggested from our Local Editors! Over the past month we have added some new very cool features (that I am sure some have seen around), and I wanted to go over each one.

New Color Schemes :

- As you have noticed OurTown's colors have changed and not all the sites have the same color anymore. Well that is because we have brought back the ability to change your color scheme. You are able to change this by going to "Home" within your admin and going to the "Color Scheme" section. We have several new schemes that you can preview right from that page, and if you don't find one that is perfect then let us know! We are able to add in different color schemes at will!

New Text Editor :

- We have also enhanced our local article section by upgrading to a brand new text editor complete with many new features. This editor is up-to-date with the latest features and functionality that every journalism, blogger, or OurTown Local Editor could want! You will now be able to do even more when writing a new article.



New Language Converter :

- OurTown.com can now be ready in any of the major languages from around the world! In the footer of each page is a new Google Translator that will allow you to pick a language and then instantly the entire site is translated to that specific language. This has been a great new feature for many local editors trying to reach everyone in their community. Not only does it help reach those who can not speak English, but also allows community members that may have English has their second language to read more comfortably in their native language.

New Comment Counter :

- We have many requests from local editors and viewers to have an easy way to see what stories were getting comments and where the main conversation is on the site. So we created the new comment counter which allows local editors and users to see which articles are being commented on right from the main pages of the site. We hope that this increases conversation and helps local editors see which of their stories are appealing more to their community!


Towns to Check Out :

- Now we know that this is not a new feature and you have been able to see this section on the OurTown Home Page for a while, but we have now upgraded the feature. The list has now been extended to 10 towns (instead of 5) and those towns are based off of site traffic. The site with the most traffic receives the number 1 spot and so on down the list. We believe this helps give local editors a new goal and some friendly competition!

That is it for now, but be sure that we are still currently working on new features that will be added to OurTown very shortly. Just as a teaser one of them will be a new Groupon feature for all those daily deal users out there!

Your OurTown Superhero,

Chris