A few weeks ago we launched a \u201cconsultation\u201d into the future of British Trams Online and what we did well and what you would like us to do going forwards. A huge thank you to everyone who took their time to either comment on the article or to send an email through. On the whole you told us you liked what we did \u2013 it\u2019s always good to know we aren\u2019t wasting our time and effort! \u2013 but there are a few things you asked us to feature in the future. After much though what follows is just what you can look forward to on British Trams Online in the future.<\/p>\n
* A fresh new design to the website. The main purpose of this will be to make it easier to maintain from my point of view (to try and save time!). Unfortunately none of the packages on the market will give us exactly what we want so this will be a bit of compromise solution but we will still feature all of our favourites. [Medium Term]<\/p>\n
* A new logo. If there is anyone out there who is a bit artistic and would be willing to design a new logo please let us know! [Medium Term]<\/p>\n
* We will be consolidating the website into five main areas: News & Features, Fleet Lists, Photos, Events Diary and Tram of the Year. This is in effect the main areas we are regularly updating now so you shouldn\u2019t notice any major changes to the site. [Medium Term]<\/p>\n
* All existing feature articles and tram profiles will be moved onto the news pages over the next few months. [Short Term]<\/p>\n
* All news articles from pre-November 2011 will gradually be added to the current news pages. This will eventually give us a searchable news archive all the way back to September 2002. [Long Term, very Long Term!]<\/p>\n
* The Fleet Lists section will be completely redone with all fleet lists being in a consistent style, including colour coding. One question for anyone who cares: we currently have operational trams as red but it has been suggested we should change this to green as green does normally mean go! Does anyone have any opinions on this? [Medium Term]<\/p>\n
* The Links page will be removed \u2013 at least initially. As you may have noticed it is still on an old design and always seems to be second or third on my list of things to do. Some links will be added to other areas and the Links page may return in the future. [Medium Term]<\/p>\n
* Several of you asked for us to feature the LUAS system in Dublin and so we will! Initially starting off with news coverage and photos (starting very soon in fact!) we will also eventually include a fleet list. We will also be including the Volks Electric Railway more regularly rather than just the occasional photo gallery. [Short Term]<\/p>\n
* Several of you also asked for a complete list of preserved trams in the UK. We have always avoided this before but as you asked we shall give \u2013 eventually! [Long Term]<\/p>\n
* Live Coverage \u2013 our live coverage on Facebook will return during this year although we will possibly be pulling back with the number of updates (it depends how we feel to be honest!). We are also stopping the \u201cToday at\u2026\u201d coverage on Facebook and so this will be only as it happens coverage. [Short Term]<\/p>\n
There are also likely to be a few other additions over time but in the main<\/p>\n
that covers just about everything. As you can see a lot of this is medium term which could mean anything from about 3 months to 12! I will be fitting these improvements in between other BTO updates (in reality I should have done this over the winter!) and life so there could be delays but I thought it would be handy to let our readers know exactly what we have planned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A few weeks ago we launched a \u201cconsultation\u201d into the future of British Trams Online and what we did well and what you would like us to do going forwards. A huge thank you to everyone who took their time … Continue reading