If you are new to MexConnect, we hope you enjoy the site and discover its incredible richness of information.
If you are a previous reader of the site, we hope you will take the time to discover how truly powerful the new design is as a means of discovering all your old favorites, as well as the new articles that will be continuously appearing. Any time there is change it can be confusing at first. Your habitual ways of using MexConnect may no longer apply, but all your old bookmarks should still work! We believe that you will grow to appreciate the new MexConnect even more than the old one!
Why have we redesigned MexConnect?
The answer is simple—the old design was no longer manageable.
When MexConnect first went on-line in 1996, we used then state-of-the-art methods to produce the site, hand coding and manually integrating all the materials. We were a VW Beetle racing on a track outpacing other VW Beetles. Over the ensuing thirteen years, we were still driving our VW while others were driving ever more complex and faster vehicles. Finally, our long-time and beloved VW began to fall behind. So, we designed and built a new vehicle from the ground up.
We hope you become even more attached to the new version. We have tried to retain the best of what we already had and then improve beyond that. We think we have succeeded.
The site is not yet perfect. Although there are things we are still working on, we had to release the new site sometime and that tme is now..
So what has changed?
- MexConnect is no longer hand coded. By using a dynamic database system it is much easier for us to produce, maintain and change the materials.
- The site is now free – all the materials are available.
- There is a completely new front [or home?] page which presents all the most recent articles and Columns in a much more user-friendly design.
- New articles will be added on a continuous basis rather than just once a month.
- There are 6 major Theme areas: Living, Travel, Arts & Culture, History, Cuisine and Business
- Theme home pages include articles and Columns relevant to each specific Theme alongside the newest materials for that Theme area.
- The search engine is magnificent and presents you with not only articles relevant to your search, but also photo galleries and recipes.
- All articles have tags which enable you to find other articles similar to the one you are currently reading. These Tags cover major areas of interest to our readers.
- Our Places tab offers a powerful way of exploring by location: by Region; by State, and by city or by unique site, whether natural, historical or archeological.
- The Cuisine Theme provides you with the ability to search by specific ingredient, type of dish, or even by Regional cuisine! In addition, many of the articles and recipes are available in Spanish.
- MexConnect has more than 6000 photographs and maps. Our new Photo Galleries present you with a very intuitive visual feast. Be sure to explore these Galleries! You will be amazed.
- In the very near future, you will be able to add comments to articles so that you can provide updated information or expand on the information provided. This function is available at the choice of the individual Author.
And, what hasn’t changed?
- The Forums stay the same, although the layout has changed the same functionality is still the same along with all the posts and PMs etc..
- The quality of materials will stay the same. We will continue to edit and moderate all materials presented. We take pride in the fact that MexConnect is one of the few sites that really pays attention to the quality of information and presentation
- Our dedication to providing quality, informative, useful and relevant information on all aspects of Mexico.
Together with Carol Wheeler, Tony Burton, the Forum Moderators and the development team of Loren Johnson, Sean Cribbs, Paul du Couday and Sott Randolph, I welcome you to the new version
Sincerely,
David McLaughlin
Publisher