That headline was designed to get you conspiracy theorists and tin-foil-hatters imagining we are somehow transitioning to a pay model all excited. Don't worry, that's not happening, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't get excited.
You know how this works, right? On the Internet, where the pace of innovation is literally at the speed of thought, you either have to innovate or die. Just ask Yahoo! how that works. For A Sea of Blue, and the rest of your favorite SBNation blogs, that means more than just a new coat of paint.
Here are the high points of what these changes will mean for you, the user and consumer of our content:
- Significantly faster site load times (I can hear some wild applause. You're welcome);
- Much more flexible layout to keep the important stories in front of you, and to alert you of breaking news faster;
- Platform "independence." What this means, really, is that the experience will be the substantially the same on your PC browser, your phone browser, or your tablet browser (for those of you with such fancy devices);
- Better following of stories, and presentation that will make it easier to find out what happened then, how it changed, and in what sequence of events;
- All the FanShots, FanPosts, Game Threads, etc. will still be there, just like before. All the parts of SBNation you love will still be very much the same, but the format in which they are presented will change, and for the better.
A lot of this will still be dependent upon us, your correspondents and the members of the community. Nothing works without all of you, and as excited as we are about the changes, what this really is about is bringing the diverse sites into line with the national SBNation presence and producing a common branding that will help people understand immediately that they are on an SBNation site. It will also help us better deliver content from around our huge network of sites that you will find interesting and useful, while still retaining the full character of the Kentucky Wildcats community we all know and love.
That last paragraph was ... technical. Sorry about that. How about some pictures? We all like those, right?
The "cover" is what you will see when you dial up the site, and it is flexible. Above is one look, here is another:
I'm not going to bore you with all of them. Suffice it to say that there are several layouts available, and all of them are suitable for certain situations. Now, let's take a look at the "story stream" feature which will allow stories to be updated in a logical, sequential format. Those of you who frequent SBNation.com or some of our regional sites will be familiar with this feature:
Click on the pic to get a better look. We still have the FanPosts and FanShots (Greg will be very pleased to know this):
And for you mobile users, here's a look:
Finally, a ridiculously long full site view of the entire front page:
That should be enough for now.
So when will this happen, you ask? Sorry, I could tell you, but then I'd have to ... well, you know the rest.
Suffice it to say that it will probably be sooner than you think, but not soon enough for some. Cryptic? Yes, but hey, I was a reactor operator on a nuclear submarine, and I always had to be careful about what I said. I haven't lost the knack, I'm sure you'll agree.
Okay, that's enough teasing. Now, back to your regularly-scheduled beat-down at Florida.