When my husband and I moved into our dream house in the Berkshires, I couldn’t wait to show it to…well, anyone who was willing to let me take them on a tour (100-year-old house with original woodwork! A music room! The world’s sunniest sunroom! Finished attic!).

That’s how I feel right now as we introduce Rural Intelligence, version 2018. We are now up to best practices in website design. It’s fully responsive, meaning it will display specifically to whatever screen you’re looking at, from a large desktop monitor down to your smartphone. The design is cleaner. But it still bears some resemblance to the version you’ve gotten used to; we didn’t want to leave everything behind. We’re proud of where we came from.

(Read on for an overview, or take yourself on a tour.)

Here are some of the new features, starting from the top:

  • Rural Chatter — This-just-in bits of info you’ll want to know about.
  • RI Info — Important links about us: Support, Advertise, Newsletters, Robin Hood Radio and Submit an Event.
  • Navigation Bar — Easier to read. We’ve eliminated a few subsections and added a few others, like Fairs & Festivals, and House Tours, in Community.
  • Upcoming Events — Similar to Instant Intelligence, these are a handful of events we especially look forward to. You can get to the full events calendar from the navigation bar, and then filter by category once you’re there.
  • Ads — Now spaced out within the page. Don’t they look beautiful?
  • Less scrolling, more clicking — Each feature story (and event listing) now clicks through to its own page. Easier to read, simpler to find, and allows us to track which stories are most popular among readers — so we can give you more of what you like.
  • Photos — Most of the photos are now included in a slide show at the top of the page, so don’t forget to click through all of them (especially on the parties).

Our request to you: Please be patient with us!

All new websites have glitches. We suspect ours won’t be any different. We are still working on some details and we know you will have questions, comments and suggestions. We welcome them and look forward to hearing from you. Rural Intelligence is a site that our readers feel invested in, and we want to continue to do right by this extraordinary community.

One final thought: Our move into the modern realm couldn’t have happened without the support of nearly 600 people who stepped up when we asked for financial help. Your vote of confidence got us here, but we have farther to go. The new website has energized us and we have ideas we want to implement. Please support us so we can put our plans into action.

So now, go forth and look around. And let us know what you think. Email me here.

Share this post

Written by
Lisa Green