I am very pleased to be able to announce that for the first time in a number of years, 17th Street has had a major overhaul. Thanks to the help of my wonderful friend Angela, the backend of the site has been completely updated and is now entirely powered by WordPress, making the content much easier to update. Thank you so much, Angela!
The layout should be compatible with most browsers and operating systems, but if you notice any problems, please let me know. The only known problem is font rendering in Windows XP. If you are using this operating system, this can be fixed by ensuring that you have ClearType switched on. This can be achieved by going to: Settings > Control Panel > Display > Appearance tab > Effects > Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts: ClearType.
In addition, the site now has a twitter feed (@17thstreetnet) and an easily accessible RSS feed. The message board has also had a significant upgrade. Given these new methods to stay up to date, I have decided to retire the email alert system that we’ve had for the past few years. Nevertheless, as there were several hundred subscribers to the mailing list, I realise that there may still be a few visitors who would prefer email notifications instead of twitter or RSS. If you feel this way, please let me know and I may look into establishing a new mailing list at some stage in the future.
In addition to bringing the website’s backend and social media presence into the 21st century, the content of the website has also had some significant cleaning up in recent weeks as follows:
- A search function has been added in the header which should be helpful if you have anything in particular that you’re looking for and don’t want to search through the various site sections yourself.
- The author section is now completely up to date: The Legend of Broken is now included on the published work page, Mr. Carr’s mini-biography has received a small update, and the newly renamed press page has been updated to include a number of recent articles/web chats along with some old ones that I had missed before. I am also in the early phase of compiling links to various articles and op-ed pieces that Mr. Carr has written and are available online, so if you know of any that you think should be included then please feel free to let me know about them.
- The book section has been updated and contains some new content: the third book page has been updated to include Mr. Carr’s recent announcement that another book may be in the pipeline, summaries and critical acclaim for both The Alienist and The Angel of Darkness have been added, The Angel of Darkness timeline has been revised, and the Alienist quiz has been updated.
- The character biographies have had minor updates and now feature additional portraits of the seven main characters, created by the lovely and talented Tiffany. You can find them on the individual character pages. (Stevie still lacks a biography, but I plan to rectify that in the coming months.)
- The previous “more” section has been split into two new sections: a locations section containing maps of Manhattan and Ballston Spa (in both image and PDF format for easier printing) as well as further information on selected key locations, and a history section. Neither of these sections are complete yet, and both will receive significant attention over the coming months.
- The site section has also been updated: the about page has been updated and now includes my contact information rather than needing to access a separate contact page, and the links page has been cleaned up with dead links removed and new links added.
And that’s it! If you encounter any problems as a result of the overhaul, please remember that you are more than welcome to contact me.
