As you see, the new Shur’tugal is now live! While there still may be a minor bug or broken link left over, we’re almost back to full capacity! If you notice any problems, please report them in the comments! In the mean time, lets jump right in to the details of this new layout, including an explanation on how to register for the site comments! Keep reading!
“Old Shur’tugal” was getting a bit dated. The layout itself had been running since August 2008 — released right before the release of Brisingr — and its size and the systems powering it were beginning to hold us back in terms of new things we could do with the website. We decided to not only create a new layout for Shur’tugal but to switch to the popular blogging platform, WordPress.
Our comments system is now handled by a service called DISQUS, which allows you to post comments one of five ways: a DISQUS profile (easiest), using your Twitter or Facebook accounts, OpenID, or as a guest. We recommend registering a DISQUS account to take full advantage of our comment system. Here’s how:
- Visit DISQUS’s website by clicking here.
- Enter your desired username, a valid email address, and choose your password.
- Congratulations, you’re registered! You can now optionally insert profile information, such as a preferred display name, an avatar (display picture), and more.
- You may now post on Shur’tugal using your DISQUS comment login!
We’ve simplified our navigation and have removed many of the pages that simply weren’t being used. Key information — the Book 4 pages and our interview archive — can now be easily located by using the navigation at the top of the website.
Another new feature we’ve added is the highlighting of publications, pages, sites, and events using three locations on the website. First you’ll find two featured news story boxes above the news on the home page; these boxes will highlight news stories we feel are worth pointing out. Second, you’ll find three site ads for site features on the right content area. These ads will highlight site features such as our upcoming book, Inheritance merchandise, and more. Finally, at the bottom of the website you’ll find four advertisements for Shur’tugal Network websites. These websites, including the forums, fan fiction, fantasy/scifi library, and our up-coming fantasy/scifi/horror blog, Lytherus.
Can’t forget the thank yous! We owe a huge thank you to Matthew Heck, responsible for all of the coding, tweaking, and WordPressing on the new website. He was a huge help in coding our layout for WordPress, showing us the ropes, and ensuring that everything was running smoothly. Big thank you to Joelle Saveliev, the uber talented artists responsible for the awesome mountains and dragon silhouettes!
Our aim has been to deliver the best Inheritance experience we can and we truly feel that our recent update to Shur’tugal is a huge step in that direction. But we need your help! What features would you like to see come to Shur’tugal in the future?
Please let us know in the comments if you spot any bugs, problems, or broken features/pages on the new website. We’re still working out some of the bugs!
