17 December 2002

New Look for a New Year

For two years, the look of the website has changed very little. The last minor change was a year and a half ago when the site was resized to look good in all browsers despite low or super-high resolutions. With 2003 approaching, the site has finally undergone some major cosmetic changes. The site structure (where everything is) has not been modified, but some new navigational features—like the new drop-down menus—add to the site's convenience.

Almost all of the pages contain the same information they had before, just with a different layout and appearance. New backgrounds, designed quickly but effectively by webmaster Joshua David Ramsey, grace the pages with little added load time. The new menu does take slightly longer to load than the old menu, but this only needs to load once. All of the information pages open in an inner-frame, which won't reload the whole menu system, so once it is loaded, the rest of the site will load quickly as you travel through the areas and pages.

You may also have noticed that the site is using the term "East Tartan Regiment" to refer to the band now. This alias has been used to describe East's band for almost 15 years now, but it's use has never been anything more than alternate. While some may say that the reference is a pretentious attempt to copy DCI's Phantom Regiment, the fact remains that the band has been called the "Tartan Regiment" for years, and now, with the term increasing in use, and with the band striving to initiate new traditions while hearkening back to old ones, the East Tartan Regiment gives a more unique and exciting identity to the same great band it has always been.

With this new design, the discussion boards have also been reset. This is partly because the same abusive posts began to show again. In fact, the boards now require you to create a posting account with eZBoards: no more unregistered posts will be allowed. Also, IP numbers of all posters will be visible to all, making fake posts more difficult, especially for broadband or direct network connection users. One word of advice, though: pay careful attention as you go through the free sign-up process. Uncheck everything you do not want, or you may end up receiving spam in the email account you sign up with.