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Photo from Decaturish reader Ben Stuenkel

Dear loyal and valued readers,

The design of Decaturish hasn’t changed much since the site launched as a business in 2014. That has its advantages, but over time our site layout has become dated and unable to keep up with some of the newer trends in web design. We also have a pressing need for more ad space to keep up with the demand.

But Decaturish is first and foremost a community site. Without you, we would not exist. Since you are the ones using the site and reading us every day, we would like your input on what kinds of things you’d like to see in a site redesign.

First, a couple of caveats:

1) I’m not proposing a radical, sweeping change to the design itself. My goal is it for to look similar to the way it looks now while making it easier to find content on the site. It will still look and feel like a community news site, but it will be cleaned up at the margins a bit.

2) Advertising isn’t going away. I know some people loathe advertising, but I’ve developed a fondness for ads since I started paying for my son’s daycare. Seriously, though, ads – and our loyal paid subscribers – are what keeps the site from going behind a pay-wall (i.e., being subscriber-only content). I will commit to doing what I always have done, which is run a clean ads program. I won’t infest your browser with pop-ups or blare noise at you while you’re on the site. I hate those ads. I also run native ads, which means I don’t subscribe to a third party ad service that tracks your online activity and targets you with ads based on your habits. I hate those ads, too. The one thing that will change about ads is I plan to open up additional spaces. We have numerous inquiries now and I’m trying to create as much space as I can without interfering with the readers’ enjoyment of the site.

So, with these ideas in mind, please tell me: What you think I could do to improve the look and design of the site? Is there anything you absolutely do not want me to do? Please let me know at [email protected].

I look forward to hearing from you.

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