Out With The Old.........

If you have been either a Science File member or visitor in the past, you will notice some big changes from earlier versions.

Firstly, with the release, in August 2011, of the new version of Science File, some features of the old site have been retired. These were features which were not being used, or used very rarely, so it made no sense that they should continue into the new version because every site feature requires maintenance, server space and processing power. The events calendar, for example, has been retired - although this was a valuable resource for listing forthcoming UK science events, on average fewer than 20 site visitors a month were looking at it. As maintaining the calendar requires at least ten hours of data entry each month, it's clear that it's a bit of a wasted effort. Having said that, I would very much like to continue to promote UK science events on the site, so if anybody has any ideas about how we can do this other than in a calendar format then please let me know. I know Science File members are extremely resourceful and creative people, so put your thinking caps on!

Secondly, the new version of Science File offers far richer features than ever before. It also fixes annoying and persistent problems with site logins, where occasionally it was not possible to log in to the site, either from the front page or through the forums. The imperative to fix this problem - whose solution eluded even the programmers who wrote the affected site components - was the primary reason for rewriting Science File. But as a result of the rewrite we have ended up with a much better website which will give us more exciting possibilities for the future.

Another problem with the old site was that all the components were separate and could not, due to software limitations, be related. For example, book reviews and articles behaved as two separate components. If one wanted, for example, to list all articles and book reviews relating to a particular subject, it could not be done.

The new version removes these restrictions altogether and allows the site to behave much more as a science magazine, as it should have done originally. We have had to wait for the software to attain a level of complexity where a magazine-like structure could be created in the way that we wanted. The new site is the product of that, and we hope that you will enjoy using it and contributing to it.

Here is a list of new features.

New! Categorised Site Structure

In the new version of Science File, there are five main subject categories, modelled after the forum structure in the Science File forums and thus familiar to site members or visitors.

• Earth
• Life
• Universe
• Technology
• Foundations

In addition, there are supplementary categories:

• People
• Help
• Futures

The front page of Science File lists all of these categories.

New! Unified Item Types

Each category, with the exception of Help, now contains four types of item: Articles, Book Reviews, DVD Reviews and Videos. So, for example, should you wish to see all items, of whichever type, for the Universe category, click that category on the front page and you will see two things:

• The four item types listed - to see all Book Reviews, for example, simply click the relevant item type.
• Underneath the item type links is an integrated list of all items in the category, with the most recently-published item first. So, if you clicked on "Universe" initially, the list will show you all book reviews, DVD reviews, articles and videos relating to "Universe". New item types will be made available in the future.

New! Latest News

The categories of Universe, Earth, Life, Foundations and Technology now exhibit the very latest science news relating to each category in a scrolling display. Across the top of the news scroller is a list of subcategories to view news from. Keep up to date with the very latest science news, often only made public within the last hour! Plus, you can create an RSS feed from your favourite category or subcategory so that you can keep right up to date all the time, wherever you are!

New! Item Tags

All items can now be associated with "tags" - words or phrases considered important for that item. The tags can be used to search for items and to find related items. For example, searching for the tag "volcano" might display a list of items of any (or all) of the four item types. The author of the item can assign the tags. The text of tags are also used by search engines like Google.

New! Related Items

At the foot of each item there is now a "related items" section which lists related items based on their tags.

New! Tag Cloud

At the bottom of each Science File page you will see a tag cloud. This is a representation of the 20 most-used tags, with the size of the font representing the frequency. That is to say, the tags most used are in a bigger font. Click on a tag to view all items containing that tag.

New! Item Rating

Each item can be rated with up to five stars by site members. This can be useful for gauging the popularity of an item. We might offer some sort of prize for the most popular author!

New! My Page

Each member now has "My Page", which lists everything they have had published at Science File. This is very useful for keeping track of a particular member's contributions. In addition each "My Page" has an automatic RSS feed which you can subscribe to in order to be informed when that member has published something new.

New! My Account

The "My Account" option allows you to publish a lot information about yourself, particularly your username etc., on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. Use these options to inform site visitors about where to find you on the web!

New! Social Networking Links

Each item can now be sent to social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and more. Simply click the relevant icon at the foot of each article. Please do make use of these if you particularly like an item. Help Science File gain a wider audience on the web!!

New! Multi-Level RSS Feeds

You can generate and subscribe to an RSS feed from each category, item type and author. So, for example, if you want to keep informed about new items written by a particular author, you can easily subscribe to the feed by clicking the RSS icon against that author's name.

New! Featured Multimedia

The item type of "Video" will list and play featured videos, selected by the Administrator.

New! Auto Comment Feature

You can leave a comment at the bottom of any item. You can use the comments to discuss the item with the author and/or other members. If you are the author of  an item, you have the option to moderate any comments written about it. Both that option and the number of comments you have written is always shown in the user panel on the front page of the site.

New! Subscribe to Item Comments

You can also subscribe to an item's comments by clicking the option in the section at the foot of an item. You can also see how many other people have subscribed.

New! Latest From...

At the foot of each item there is an author information area which, among other things, lists the most recent contributions by the item's author, as well as a list of tags for that item - you can click on a tag to view items containing it.

New! Site Map

We now have a fully-functioning site map which lists every single item and every single forum post. This site map is used by Google to index the site, so now, for the first time, every single item on the site is easily accessible so that it appears not just in Google but other search engines as well. This in itself should give Science File a much greater visibility on the web. Please note that the site map does take a couple of minutes to be generated, simply because of the amount of site material it has to organise into an index.

New! Latest Items

The front page of the site now lists the most recent items to be published, so that you can keep bang up to date with what's happening on the site (this list does not include forum posts).

New! Authors List

We now have a list of authors, i.e. those members have contributed material to the site. This is available on the "Members" menu. It would be nice if all members could be on that list.

...and other new features.

The emphasis of Science File is now very much more, therefore, on being an online science magazine.  As regards articles, we'll publish articles of any length. So if you want to write 50 words about something in the news, then no problem.  This is one of the reasons why "articles" are now more properly referred to as "items" - don't think in terms of writing something long and detailed: think instead of using Science File to write about anything science-related which interests you, whether it's a comment about a news story, an interview with somebody in science, whatever.  And you can write items really easily, either using the online editor or by writing your item in MS Word and mailing it to us.

If you're involved in science at any level, tell us about it and what you do. Share your passion for science. Share it at Science File.