You’ve probably noticed some major changes on the TNM website recently. Let me explain.
Background
Let me begin by admitting that the changes didn’t start of as intentional. Rewind to the Nation Builder Leaders Meeting from November 25th. Once it was wrapped up, I followed the usual process of waiting for the video to finish rendering so that I could upload it to our video hosting company. That was all great and nothing was any different.
When I went to post it to the website, I could immediately see that something was very wrong. In non-technical terms, the website used an older theme and when one of the automatic updates was applied it broke the site. Honestly, broken may be an understatement. While all of the underlying data was intact, all pages and posts were essentially broken when people tried to view them.
The options before us were to rebuild all of the pages and posts in the old theme or rebuild them all with an eye toward solving some of the ongoing issues that we’d been having. We chose the latter. This has turned out to be one of the best things that could happen. In short, it’s all silver lining with no cloud.
My Favorite Things
While I’m not going to use a personal blog post to take you on a complete tour of every nook and cranny of the site, I am going to tell some of my favorite and most useful things.
TNM Academy – As somewhat of a self-determination wonk, this is probably my absolute favorite thing. It is chocked full of books, articles, and info all about core and related Texas independence issues. I could get lost in there for a year and never come up for air.
A Useful Insider Page – I’ll be honest. I hated the landing page for members. It was sparse and pretty much rubbish before. Now it has nice, big buttons that take you everywhere you’ll want to go. Plus, it also has big sections for key member campaigns. It has completely eliminated the need for dreaded submenus.
The Dashboard – It may seem trivial, but I love being able to manage my memberships, donations, and activism in one place.
Ranks & Awards – This was something we beta tested almost two years ago and could never get it to work right. It totally works now and I’ve been working my way through the available missions.
Legislature Directory – We’ve been able to roll out a complete directory of every member of the Texas Legislature. You can map your districts and get easy access to your reps to contact them. Every legislator has their own profile where you can report interactions and discuss them in the comments.
Speaking of Comments – Now you’ve got quick access to comment on posts and see where others are commenting. I expect to see some lively discussions now that it’s much easier to access.
County & Coordinator Profiles – Now every single county has their own profile page as does every County Coordinator. The county pages show news from that county and all upcoming events for that county. More importantly, you have direct access to contact your County Coordinator to get in on the action. If your county doesn’t have a Coordinator, you’ll see that too and can step up and join the team.
The Marketplace – For years, businesses owned by TNM members have offered special discounts to members and supporters or have offered to donate a portion of their sales to our efforts. We’ve never had a way to make that a reality until now. If you are a business owner, there is even a way for you to submit an offer right from the website.
There’s More
Those were a few of my favorites. The fact that I referred to it as “a few” should be a strong sign that there is way more than I covered here and there is way more coming up. We fully intend to make our site comprehensive, useful, and effective for all aspects of our life in the TNM.
I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the Scottish National Party for helping us navigate some of the trickier issues related to the development of the new site.
Enjoy the site. Dig through it. Your feedback is invaluable, but only if you share it. Thanks for your patience.
