mycouncillor Update 30 November 2007 Updated
Update for all ALDC members who’ve registered a “mycouncillor” website to let you know about some recent developments and give some examples of mycouncillor sites “in action”. (Revised so that hyperlinks work in all email browsers.)
Sites of the Month! You might like to look at the following sites to see how the system is being used in different parts of the country.
Martin Redbond (www.martinredbond.mycouncillor.org.uk) is a good example of a site which is regularly updated with local news and information. Mark Foster (www.markfoster.mycouncillor.org.uk) is a good example of an ALDC member who is not (yet!) a councillor using the site to campaign in his local area. Its often easy to forget to use photos in your stories.
Andrew Morris (www.andrewmorris.mycouncillor.org.uk) makes good use of photos on his new site. Lloyd Harris (www.lloydharris.mycouncillor.org.uk) from Herts uses good old Lib Dem “clipart” to good effect on his!
Remember you can see the 15 most recently updated sites on the list at www.mycouncillor.org.uk
Recent Changes
Hit Counter: A “hit counter” has been added to the system so you can see how many visitors you’ve had to your site. The counter records unique visitors each time they visit the site (the whole site, not an individual page). If someone comes back to look again the same day that will be recorded as another visitor. The hit counter can be viewed in the admin screen under “manage” then “hits”. Its quite remarkable how quickly a site can start getting vistitors. Richard Baum (www.richardbaum.mycouncillor.org.uk), who updates his site daily, has so far had 8500 vistors in November - over 300 visitors a day!
Links with Categories: It is now possible to “categorise” your links which, if you have a lot of links, can help make the left hand part of the site less cluttered. Tim Pickstone (www.timpickstone.mycouncillor.org.uk), has done this on his site where links have been divided into “local council”, “personal links” and “useful links”. You can add whatever categories you like!
Making a post “sticky”: Many users have asked us for the facility to make a “news post” stay at the top of the page. This might be useful if you have a very important story that needs to be at the top of the site, or if you want to have a short welcome to your site always at the top. We’d urge you to use this sparingly, as there is a danger that it makes your site look like it is never updated! To do this when you are writing or editing a “post” go to; “custom fields” down towards the bottom of the edit page. In the “key” field write “sticky” and in the value box write “true”, then press “add custom field”, then save your post. We will be adding these new features to the Manual shortly, together with an index page.
What’s Coming Next We’ve got a few changes in the pipeline for the rest of the year.
Comments: Many of you have asked for the facility for “comments” to posts. This is being made available as an OPTION shortly - we’ll let you know when.
Bar Charts: We’re currently working on a “bar chart generator”. Particularly as the election time nears, many people will want to have key election messages on their website, so a bar chart facility (as an option) will be available to put this on your site.
Improved Themes: We’re also working on a new theme based on a cleaner white background, and also improving the existing themes to take account of some of the new facilities. Please don’t hesitate to ask if you need any help getting your site going. Email or phone David Ball at ALDC on 01422 843 785 or email david.ball@aldc.org Good luck with your sites!
