Welcome To The New Idolator

Idolator Staff | December 17, 2009 8:01 am

Welcome to the new Idolator.

In addition to the design update, we’ve made a raft of improvements to the site. You’ll still find the latest MP3s and videos, along with pop and pop culture news (and gossip!).  But we’ve also added some new editorial and technical features that we think you’ll like. See full details below.

First, we’ve reorganized Idolator to make finding the content you care about easier.

Music What we really live for: delivering the most compelling songs from today’s hottest artists, rising stars, left-field prospects and new discoveries. Come here to hear a stream or download an MP3. This section also includes posts from certain previous categories, including ‘Listening Station.’

Photos New! We’ve been dying to introduce photo galleries to add a new dimension to our coverage, and we’re excited to start bringing you the latest pics, snazzy photo packages, and special coverage of whatever Muppet Lady Gaga decides to wear next.

Videos Because why should Vevo have all the fun? Click here to find music videos, commercials and other eye candy set to music. This section includes posts from certain previous categories, including ‘Videodrone.’

Lists You love lists. We love lists. So come here to find Top 10s, Best-Ofs, Worst-Ofs, and our take on everyone else’s lists too.

WTF? New! If it’s quirky, unusual, goofy or involves Bill O’Reilly cursing, you’ll find it here.

Here are some of the other new/improved features you’ll find:

Now in Rotation Across the top of every page you’ll see a carousel of the latest, greatest and best Idolator content – stories, galleries, videos, interviews.

Spotlight Pretty obvious, right? Check that spot for whatever we think is the one post you really need to see that day. One day it might be an installment of a new column, the next it might be a leak from Detox. Hey, it’s possible.

Most Popular Keep an eye on this handy box to see which posts are generating the most heat among your fellow readers.

Pop or Poop Our daily poll where you get to vote on a hot or recent topic. Is it pop, or is it poop? You decide.

Streamlined, improved commenting We’ve partnered with DisQus to bring you a robust new commenting interface. You can comment on blog posts and photo galleries using your existing Idolator login – or your Facebook, Twitter, OpenID or DisQus logins. Or, comment as a Guest without having to log in at all! You can also subscribe to comments.

Full disclosure: If you’re reading this the first few days of our re-launch, you might experience a few hiccups as we deploy the new site and migrate years worth of content over to our new system. The hiccups may manifest themselves in a few ways:

Comments As we move to a new and improved commenting system (see above), it may take a few days for all the old comments on existing posts to be ported over. While older comments may not appear initially, they will eventually make their way back on to the site.

General site wonkiness Moving to a new content management system and changing the design of a site like Idolator.com involves a lot of sophisticated Intraweb computing work, what with the Fetzer valves, flux capacitors, and ball bearings – lots and lots of ball bearings. So, you may or may not experience general site wonkiness, including but not limited to broken pages, 404s, slow page loads, hordes of locusts, and solar eclipses. Rest assured, we will be working to quickly correct any issues. You can help us out by sending email to contact@idolator.com with any issues you see.

So, enjoy the new Idolator, and if you have feedback or are having any issues with the new site, send us an email at contact@idolator.com. And as always, send us news tips at tips@idolator.com.

The Idolator Team

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