In our ongoing effort to make Topix better and easier to use, we're introducing a few updates to the site. Below I'll outline some of the major visual and structural changes that you, as regular users, will notice.

The "hat"
Overall, we've compressed and simplified the hat (the top part of every page that includes search, navigation, logo, etc). We also made a concentrated effort to improve the navigation, which is no small task considering we've got over 450,000 topics.

1. Promo bubble
We'll use this area to introduce and promote new features, as well as provide links to helpful information for Topix newbies.

2. Change city button
An easy-to-find widget that allows users to change the location for their local news.

3. Navigation
The top layer (in dark blue) is the general site-wide navigation, and the lower level (in light blue) shows the sections within that topic. So, for example, in this illustration, our top-level topic is "Palo Alto" and the sub-sections for it are Forums, News, NewsWire, Yellow Pages, Jobs, etc.

4. Editor button
A new position for the Editor button.

5. Other Topics
In addition to the general site-wide navigation, we're adding a drop-menu to called "Other Topics." We're going to use this menu to showcase more popular topics, as well as a dynamic list of the last 10 topics you visit on the site.

6. Browse/Search
A more prominent display and position for our Spotlight (browse)/search widget.

7. Sign In/Sign Out/User Info
New position for User info

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The body
While most of our pages (Forums, Detail pages, NewsWire, etc.) have not changed in this redesign, we have upgraded the news pages to take advantage of a three equal column layout. Below are the highlights.

1. Section Title
Centered and with a little more white-space around it to make it easier for users to know what topic they're on.

2. More news
We've upped the count from 10 to 20 news stories on the News page.

3. New ad position
We gotta keep paying the bills...

4. Upgraded Forum Widget
A more prominent placement for the forum widget. Top-center, and now with double (10 instead of 5) threads showing.

5. Photo widget
If you're on a local news topic (Palo Alto, CA, for example) we're highlighting our new user uploaded photos. On other non-local topics, we're showcasing a nifty new photo slideshow widget that dynamically pulls in related photos.

The rest of the page widgets (polls, weather, etc.) are still on the page.

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NEW! Also on Topix
We're adding a new feature to all our topic pages, the "Also on Topics" block. The idea is that from any news page, you can get a glimpse of what's going on across the entire site in a quick, easy-to-browse view. Below are the highlights.

1. Site mini-navigation
Quick links to the most popular topics on the site.

2. The Skybox
We love this feature. And so do a lot of you. So, as we were working on compressing the "hat," we realized that we just couldn't remove the Skybox. Instead, we're keeping it alive in the "Also on Topix" block, to show you the biggest stories in the news right now.

3. Recent Forum Discussions
The top ten most popular discussions across the entire site.

4. Video
Video news is becoming one of our more popular topics, so we're adding a new widget with links to our latest video clips.

5. Topix Extras
Not necessarily the news, but more about Topix, including our blog and our growing community of users and editors. Look for a link to the new Topix store coming soon.

6. News Trends
The topics getting the most attention by our users at that moment.

7. Most Popular
The 20 most popular stories on Topics.

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That covers the majority of the upgrades in this redesign. As always, your input is a huge factor in helping us determine the changes we make here at Topix ... so keep those suggestions coming.

You might have seen something new on the news and forum pages in the last couple days.

That's right, Topix has added photo albums to our local news pages. Users can now fill the albums for their town with all the sights that make your hometown feel like home. Of course, the judge it feature is right there with new choices customized just for photos. Go check it out! Look for the widget below on your local pages.

Now that you have the means, we want to see you! Show us where the news happens.

You may already be familiar with Twitter, a site for what may best be described as microblogging, sending out snippets of information or conversation in 140 characters or less. We've got some big fans of Twitter in our office, myself included. You can use it to keep up with friends or colleagues, but what's really cool is that there are news outlets on Twitter that you can follow to receive breaking news as well. I follow several of them, and use them to keep me up to date on what might be missing from some of our headlines on Topix.

Starting now, however, you can follow Topix on Twitter. Eureka!

All of our top news nodes, including Sports, Video, World News, US News, Offbeat, Science /Tech, 2008 Election, Popular News, Top Stories and Entertainment now have Twitter feeds. In Addition, you can follow the MLB, NHL, NBA and NFL. Wait...you can ALSO follow news from Austin, San Francisco, San Jose, New York City, Raleigh, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, Nashville or Boston. If you happen to root for the Orlando Magic or San Jose Sharks, those news feeds are on Twitter too.

This is a great way to keep track of breaking news for your edited page or for others of interest. If there are news nodes you would like to see on Twitter, leave them here in the comments and we can hook you up. In the meantime, check these out and give us a follow!

It has been a while since we've done a spotlight on one of our editors, so we've got a truly exemplary editor to spotlight today. What do you get when you combine a very active forum poster with cats and plop them down into a tiny town in Oregon? You get TrilbyKat. We've been watching TrilbyKat for a while. She edits up a storm and is a great (and prolific!) presence in the Topix community. Let's see what she has to say.

Why did you want to become a Topix editor?
I was enjoying the interaction on my favorite forums and wanted to become more involved. I first applied to be the editor for my (very) small town and then The Cat News. It’s really satisfying, so I’m glad that I did it.

Where else do you find articles, outside of Topix?
I peruse local news outlets, as well as county and state websites to find stories that are pertinent to my town. I also check recreation, visitor information and local agency’s websites (such as Fire & Rescue) for news. Sometimes I will write a story myself. For the Cat News, I have a newsreader and a long list of cat’s sites that I check in with.
(editor's note: This is a great idea. If you don't use an rss reader, it is definitely worth checking out. We'll talk about the basics of rss feeds and feed readers on an upcoming post.)

What are some editing pitfalls you've learned to avoid?
Having to re-edit a story because of a bad headline, summary or other error. The Preview window is invaluable.

What is your prior editing and writing experience?
I’ve done some writing for various projects including plays, songwriting, puppet shows, press releases, newsletters and children’s stories. I am currently working on curriculum for preschoolers. Topix has provided my first editing experience.

What question would you like to ask other Topix editors?
Do you think that the new judging option will make your job easier, since users now have a way to vent their frustrations at posters they disagree with?

Are there any newspages not currently on Topix that you'd like to see?
We absolutely need a page on Antidisestablishmentarianism, don’t you think? Okay, I was just kidding.

What other user-edited pages on Topix would you recommend?
My hands down favorite page is Science/Technology. Offbeat is fun, too. You never know what you’ll find there.

What is your most memorable editing experience on Topix? Big story? Reader response?
This is it, no doubt! What an honor. Thank you.

Are there any other user editors you'd like to promote?
Cash and Iria both make all their pages outstanding. Their personal blogs are also immensely entertaining. In addition, Topix Ed is doing a great job on the Topix Editor News page and throughout Topix.

What other internet sites do you visit regularly?
I post a monthly blog on Blogger, and check in on BlogCatalog, MySpace and Yahoo! Answers occasionally.

What advice would you give to other editors in making a great page?
Pictures really make a page pop.

What question do you wish we'd asked you?
Would you buy stock in Topix? The answer is, “Yes. It’s the greatest thing since cheese was invented.” I’m a big fan of cheese.

We're big fans of cheese too. :)

We've talked for a long time around the office about ways to make the forums more interactive, and last week we launched a new feature that does just that. More fun than a barrel of monkeys, more addicting than mom's mac and cheese, I bring you "Judge it!".

Clicking on the Judge it! link in the header of any post will give you a list of adjectives to choose from, each with their own fancy icon. You can select up to three descriptors for each post, but be warned, the robots are savvy. You can not click two contradicting adjectives for one post. In other words, you can't judge something "brilliant" and "clueless" at the same time.

We've had over 250,000 posts judged in just the first few days and we're showing no signs of slowing. One side effect you might notice in more heated discussions is that the addition of these fun little icons on a post can have quite a disarming effect to the reader. This isn't to say that posters shouldn't treat each other with respect and mind their manners, but it is hard to let even very controversial posts get under your skin when you see a cartoon peanut at the top of them, don't you think?

Technically, the forums don't fall under editorship at this stage, but many of our editors are very active in the forums, so I'm sure you guys have something to say about this.

P.S. Feel free to mark all my posts as Brilliant.

One of the easiest and best ways to format your news stories to stun is to include photos. I know this can sometimes make editors nervous because they are worried about legal restrictions with regard to use of photos or to taking photos at public events. Someone on our team pointed me to this awesome guide to Photography and the Law at Photojojo.com. There is some GREAT information here. I know I learned a few things.

Let's see some photos!

There was a little treat for you editors in the site update that went out yesterday. Those of you who are active in the forums are probably already familiar with the reply tracker in the header of your Topix page. It looks a little something like this:

Starting now, that reply tracker will show you not only the new activity on threads where you have posted a comment, but also the comments on any news stories that you have posted to your news page. Let's say that again. You can now keep track of all the comments that your news stories generate. How cool is that?

And with that, a whole new level of competition unfolds and new questions arise. How can you choose stories that engage my audience? Keeping track of the activity on different types of articles you post will give you a pretty good idea of what your readers are interested in. How many comments do your stories generate?

If you edit a small town's news page, you are probably no stranger to the issue of having to scour the web for news about your town. For smaller locations, there are not always a lot of sources covering your area, and finding current news can be a bit challenging.

The Topix wire is there to help, of course, but as smart as our systems are, they don't catch everything. There is a handy trick you can use when your wire just isn't cutting it. Below, is a snap of the wire for a tiny town called Willow Glen that was incorporated into San Jose, CA about a million years ago, give or take. At this moment, the wire for Willow Glen looks like this:

As you can see, there is some content in the wire, but not much. We're showing about 60 results in the Willow Glen wire. There MUST be more happening in this tiny burg, right? There is!

By doing a title search on any Topix page like this:

You get significantly more results, almost twice as many in this case.

This search will show you all of the content that has the phrase you searched for in the title of the article. Not all of these articles will end up in your wire, but many probably should. (Mental note: Humans ARE better than robots.) If you are having a tough time finding the content you need in the wire, try this search on Topix and see what else turns up. The results may surprise you.

We interrupt this blog for an unabashed solicitation from our Editors.

We realize that this is primary season. You may have already had your day at the polls, or maybe your day is coming, but this is America. Any chance to vote is a GOOD chance to vote.

As it happens, Topix is a finalist for CNET's Webware 100 Awards. How about throwing one of those spare votes you have laying around our way?

We now return you to our regularly scheduled blog.

Who doesn't love a good makeover? There is a reason that television shows centering around makeovers and transformations are so popular. We love to see the ugly duckling bloom into the beautiful swan.

Editing Topix pages is like your own internet mini makeover. A page without an Editor is pretty cool, but as savvy and hardworking as Roboblogger might be, he's no replacement for the magic touch of a human Editor. You guys are the ones that turn a ho-hum page into something to be proud of.

I present to you, a post by our own Roboblogger. This one happens to be on our Beekeeping page, but it could be anywhere.

Case study #1: Before

As you can see, the story is kind of a fun one, but looks pretty dry. There is nothing fancy here to grab your eye at all. If only we could edit it. WAIT! WE CAN!

Case study #2: After

With a little makeover magic, we get a very different look and feel for the post, and one that adds much more interest to the page. The change took all of five minutes. The title has been jazzed up a little to add some zest and shorten it for the sake of the page layout. A quote from the article has been pulled out and placed in the summary using the quote editor tool. Finally, a search on Flickr for a photo of a bee covered in pollen yields this little beauty, which is used under Creative Commons license and attributed to the original photographer with a link at the end of the summary. Nice, huh?

Now, you may not have been aware that you can edit Roboblogger posts, but you sure can. Have you ever gone to your page to post a story and didn't because Roboblogger had already been there? Chances are, even if he posted the story, it looks more like a "before" picture. You can do better, so feel free to give him a hand and edit his post.

Many editors go this extra mile already, but if you haven't delved deeper into the editing tools yet, there is no time like the present.