Returning from a two-week winter break, The Feather staff members prepare to start the year off with changes to its website. During the break The Feather Online shut down for two weeks to upgrade the website’s design and provide a new upgrades.

The major problems that plagued The Feather in the past included: broken links, photos, videos, and podcasts. This allowed room for improvement and updates to The Feather’s design.

A new improvement called ‘Voice Your Opinion’, which is found in all articles, allows anyone to comment and/or write a Letter or column while still viewing the article. Within the Voice Your Opinion, anyone may submit a Letter to the Editor, write a guest column, or give story ideas. Additionally, anyone in need of assistance while writing their own opinion piece can read the ‘Tips for Writing a Column’ which provides 10 suggestions as to how an opinion article is written.

At the top of each article published are ways to share an article. This capability is new to The Feather Online and provides instant sharing of a column through a direct link. The piece can be shared through Facebook, Twitter, Email, Google+, or print.

On the right hand side of an article, recent videos, podcasts, posts, and comments are accessible, allowing people to keep up on The Feather’s recent publications. The archives (located in the bottom right of an article) of the Feather are available for anyone curious to view the history of the website. They allow anyone to search for any articles made from Sept. 2001 to the present.

The latest bar on the front page now provides ongoing news for the happenings at Fresno Christian. Scrolling further down, the brand new ‘The Social Feather’ issues a new take on social media, updating the Feather Online’s Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook feed daily. Additional feeds include The Feather Online’s Soundcloud and Vimeo galleries.

Scrolling farther down to the bottom, an ‘About Us’ tab can be found, with sub sections showing the Feather’s ‘History’, ‘Achievement’, ‘Philosophy Statements’, pictures and information on the ‘Feather Staff: 2015- 2016’, and ‘Editorial Policies’. The Feather Online’s affiliations with the National Scholastic Press Association and the Columbia Scholastic Press Association are now located at the foot of an article.

Directly under these tabs are links to the Feather’s social media accounts. The tabs are in the form of maroon boxes, and allow direct access to the Feather’s Facebook, RSS, Twitter, Vimeo, Instagram, Soundcloud, and Email. Additionally, these links can be found at the Feather’s primary page on the left in the form of maroon boxes.

Starting from the Feather Online’s homepage, the columns on the left hand side offer direct links to articles on News, Features, Media, Social Media, Athletics, Arts & Entertainment, Opinion, and Blogs. New innovations for the Feather Online has allowed unique backgrounds for each of these tabs. The news tab backdrop displays a background of book pages while the features page is that of a typewriter.

Feather advisors and editors hope the new updates and design provide a fresh new outlook for the website, while allowing interaction in the community between the staffers and readers.

For more news articles, please read BREAKING: Changes made to traditional NOTS event.

This author can be reached via Twitter: @justus_briggs or via email: [email protected]