Over the last few months, we’ve been hard at work to bring you this new version of the ITS website you’ve been eyeballing! We went back to the drawing board, focusing first and foremost on making your experience here more enjoyable by removing obtrusive ads and making it easier to find our articles.
Thanks to the continued generosity of our supporting members, we’ve been able to fully remove all the advertising blocks you’ve been seeing here for years. When we say that joining our membership helps us make ITS a better place, we mean it! While the majority of websites you visit just seem to get worse with annoying ads, popups and garbage, you can rest assured your experience here won’t require an ad blocker, or penalize you for using one.
To make it easier to find our content, we’ve upgraded our search, which you’ll find in the top navigation section of the site. As you scroll down chronologically through our content, the navigation disappears, allowing you to focus on what you’re seeing and not on a menu that follows you around. A quick scroll back up towards the top will pop it back into view and allow you to get where you need to go. Just before you hit the footer, there’s a link to “Load More Posts,” which displays even more articles in chronological order for your reading pleasure.
Also in the top navigation, you’ll find one clear “Topics” category. By clicking this link, a full-featured content hierarchy appears with clearly labeled categories and sub-categories for your browsing convenience. In addition to topics, you’ll also find links to our most in-demand pages like the ITS Store, Videos, Podcasts and our Membership. Other pages are now listed in the footer of the site, which is an easy place to head to find ways to contact or connect with us.
We’ve also made some style changes for easier reading and consumption on any device. Continuing with our responsive designs, this iteration of ITS is even faster when it comes to viewing on your desktop, tablet or mobile device. Featuring better readability through font selection and full-width, high resolution images for even more detail!
One last feature to point out is that if you’re viewing the site from a desktop browser, the right sidebar towards the top is labeled “The Bulletin” and features pertinent updates that give you quick access to important information as soon as you visit.
We’d like to again thank our members for their support, which has allowed us to make your experience here more beneficial and enjoyable. Life Members, Plank Owners and Crew Leaders, this wouldn’t have been possible without you! We’d also like to thank those that have chosen to make ITS a daily stop on their journey through the interwebs!
Feel free to grab a snack and start exploring the new ITS, let us know what you think in the comments below!