Well, it hasn’t been the smoothest week around the blog. The blog’s new design launched one week ago, and some of you have been experiencing login issues that I’m still working on. Thank you for hanging in there with me. I appreciate your patience — I had a feeling there were going to be some bumps in the relaunch road, but some of the things have been out of my control. (I won’t bore you with the laundry list, but the server my site’s hosted on has also been experiencing repeated, extended outages this week which no one’s been able to explain.)
So, here’s where we’re at. If you are having ANY issues logging into an existing account, please email me at jill@supercouponing.com with your username on the blog and I will manually reset your password. Remember, ALL passwords were deleted when the new site came online, so your old password will not work until it’s reset. Restoring the “Recent Posts” page is something we’re working on — the query “Where is Recent Posts” is currently the #1 thing people are searching for on the blog. I do realize how many of you used this feature to track which posts were new since your last visit. Setting it up within this site is more complex than it was on the old site, but I will post an announcement once I’ve been able to restore it.
As far as the design, change is never easy. I DO want to hear from you, and with anything new, reactions are mixed. Some of you love it, some of you hate it, some of you are patiently waiting with me as things are tweaked and moved around. I am listening, and the site you’re looking at right now is not necessarily going to be the site’s final form. I’m hanging in there as we work on this daily, and I hope you can too.
I’m getting quite a bit of email asking why the site had to change. The reasons are detailed here — know that is is not a change I necessarily wanted to make, and certainly, scrambling to do it in just a few weeks’ time has been a grueling process and continues to be. I don’t like change any more than most people do, and I’m continuing to do everything that I can to build & maintain the site that you have come to love and trust for coupon deals, talk and all things moneysaving-related.
To answer some of the other commonly-asked questions:
- Where is the site search? Click the magnifying glass icon in the navigation bar at the far right side on the top of the screen.
- Links to CouponTom, the Insert Schedule, expired inserts to remove and coupon policies are found at the bottom of each store’s Deals of the Week post.
It’s funny — one of the things I used to get the most email about with the old site was that people felt there were “too many text links” down both sides of the page. People were very vocal about not liking that or wanting to see that, so part of the redesign involved moving content within pages to have fewer text menus. The adage that you can’t please all of the people all of the time is true, because I’m now hearing from the “where are all the text links” fans. :) The text links were one of the areas Google rated as “unfriendly” to users because they are difficult to select when browsing with a touchscreen, so I continue to try to find the balance between keeping everyone happy. My husband remarked that it’s a sad day when Google has so much influence over a design. For what it’s worth, Google’s mobile-friendliness evaluator now loves my site. That doesn’t mean all of the site’s users do.
I’m continuing to evaluate design and layout elements to rebuild a site that’s easy for everyone to use. If you are having trouble accessing any areas of the site, you can visit www.jillcataldo.com for a simple list of the most recent blog posts on one page while I continue to work behind the scenes.
Calibabydolly says
I hated MUM when she changed her site and rarely went there and only HERE at that time. It is the opposite now! I was sad to not be able to find the recent posts on your new design and am glad you will be restoring that feature. That is the main reason I come here and am glad to know I am not the only one. It is just hard to learn new stuff when we are stuck in our routines……but I guess you can teach and old dog new tricks. Thanks for the update!
Outlander says
I second all Calibabydolly said. This is the second time I came on here since you changed it. I tried once, managed to change my password, but then had so much trouble with doing anything on my iPad that I gave up. So now I am trying on my computer which kind of defeats the purpose, since I used to go always on my iPad, even a few times a day. It seems to work fine on the computer now.
Sorry, but I’m not a fan yet. I know you are still working on it and it can’t be easy. I also need Recent posts. :)
Also, this Logged in as, the date, Previous, Next… is too light in color I can hardly see it. I would also like some line divider on the side, that separates this main portion from the side little posts. It just seems too busy to me and no clear distinction.
I’ll let you know when I try it on mobile devices. Good luck! :)
rswehrle says
I would like to suggest that when I click on coupons or a story for the newspaper column, that it opens in a new tab. Thanks.
ConE says
I am learning daily about your new site format. I am a little lost, but will hang in there because the info you provide and your entertaining family experiences of everyday life are well worth the effort. Thanks for putting up with us readers.
ms40s says
I like your redesign. It has a more modern feel to it. Still trying to check everything out. One suggestion, I wanted to leave this comment and wasn’t logged in. Instead of going below the last comment on this page, I went to the Login section on the right side of this page. After entering my login information, I was transported back to your home page. It would be great if I stayed on the page I was viewing.