Caglow Website Update

Posted July 22, 2012 by User 1

A few weeks ago, the Caglow website turned three years old. During those three years, the site received only a few additions such as the projects section, the info pages and the image gallery. Much of the site, including the overall design and structure stayed the same. So with its fourth year in progress, the site needed an update.

The most prominent change is that logo has been updated with a monochrome version. This new design represents the project as the Caglow project does not attempt to dwarf natural processes (as the old logo showed by dwarfing the eclipse) but instead, works with it, as shown with the diamond ring effect of a solar eclipse acting as a part of the text "Caglow."

The site's theme has also received an update. The header shows this prominently with its redesigned and more efficient menus which are easier to use yet take up less space than the original menu.

The front page has also been restructured as a response to a second goal of this site: to become an information database that can be used as part of the Caglow platform. Therefore, it made sense to feature an info page on the front page in addition to the projects, images and site/astronomy news.

The Terms of Use and Privacy Policy have been updated as well. The Terms of Use overrides the Aciqra License for usage of the material made available on the site, excluding the software. It now permits any free and open source project to use the material. Furthermore, it permits all browsers to access the material regardless of free/open source status -- which was assumed to be the case before but never specifically mentioned.

The CAPTCHA has also received an update. In addition to being more colorful and somewhat easier to read, it also shows a helpful notice to click the image if you can't read the text and need to refresh it. Hopefully, that saves users some time when trying to contact the management and registering for an account.

While on the subject of account registration, the process as been made much simpler. It is no longer necessary to provide a "reason" for joining. We know why you want to join -- that field was only there to deter would-be spammers. Unfortunately, it also cost legitimate users unnecessary effort in trying to join. It has been removed and is now replaced with an email verification system that most sites include. Accounts still need to be approved by the management but approvals are now based on registration information such as email address history, IP address and location.

There are now two levels of members: spectators and contributors. Upon registration, all users are spectators. Spectators have access to the messaging system, can comment on news articles and can rate info pages and images. They may not contribute to projects and may not create any pages or upload images. Such actions are restricted to contributors, a status which is obtained by submitted a copyright transfer statement. Since the site was created, users had to agree to give the Caglow project copyrights to all contributions upon registration. To ensure this is not overlooked, all users must submit a statement declaring that they agree to the specified conditions and must briefly summarize what they are agreeing to. This is done for legal issues as it protects the project against copyright infringement lawsuits involving dissatisfied former members of the project who want their contributions back.

So take a look around and get used to this new site -- it should be around for a while. This update brings many important changes and, once again, brings the Caglow project into the modern age.

Comments

No comments have been posted for this article yet.

Post a Comment

You must be an approved member and logged in to post comments
Join Us OR Login