Reminder: Patience is a virtue, especially with new websites

You've probably noticed by now that HME News has a new website. We editors think our headshots are a little large, but other than that, we love the look of it. It's much cleaner. We like clean.

The new website has a number of new features, too, that I'm pleased with. Among them: A tweet roll that features the tweets that we editors make, as we make them (we're trying to figure out if we can get our re-tweets of your tweets up there, too); a guest blog for all of you who are feeling verbose and opinionated (email me at ebeaulieu@hmenews.com if you want to post); and a blog roll that lists HME-related blogs (email me if you want to be listed).

Note that, with all of these new features, we're also trying to help you get up to speed with having more of an online and social media presence. We don't have all of this figured out, by any means, but at least HME News is there and we want to talk to you and interact with you there.

Of course, nothing is perfect, including the new website. I've received emails from folks reporting an inability to find stories online and an iphone app that's listing wicked old stories.

It turns out both of these have to do with the “re-indexing” of our old site to the new site. Our web guru tells me this process has now been completed, so you should find stories OK again (though web searches aren't turning up stories in a logical order, with the most recently published stories at the top—we're still working on that).

As for the iphone app: Now that the new website has been “re-indexed,” we have to wait for apple to approve our new app, which should take a week or two.

In a nutshell: Any pain from this new website, we're feeling, too—and then some. Just ask Managing Editor Theresa Flaherty, who posted the May issue using the new system this week.

In the long run, though, we know, and you'll learn, that this is a much better website.

In the meantime, let's all be patient, especially the reader who emailed me this week saying, about the iphone app, “It's annoying to know that I am paying for this.” Our web guru would like your mail address, so he can send you your 99 cents back.