Hey Everyone,
I know things have been slow around here lately, but we are in the process of working on some very big things. Be prepared for a lot of changes in Coin Brief over the next few weeks! Some of you may have noticed a few that we are testing out already, but they are just the tip of the iceberg. We will provide a bit of detail now, but this is far from a comprehensive list.
Site and Flow Redesign
While we have been working on many new features, sections, tools, and pages for quite some time now, much of that is lost for the majority of our users. Our homepage, or article pages, don’t make all that we have to offer very clear, and it can sometimes be difficult to find exactly what you are looking for.
Site Navigation and the New Sidebar
To remedy this problem, we have begun to implement and test new navigation tools. Some of you may have noticed the orange arrow at the top left of the screen. Clicking that, or this link, will open a popout sidebar with multiple ways to navigate our site, including the following:
A Calendar for Navigating Articles By Date
This is a request that we had from a few users a while back, and it seems to be somewhat popular thus far. If you want to browse through recent posts, this is an easy way to do it.
A Search Bar to Search for Any Term on Coin Brief
Yes, it is true. We did not provide a search bar before now. We had hoped to make navigation easy enough that it would be necessary, but as the site continues to grow, it has become obvious that is no reliable. If you want to look for any specific term on Coin Brief, the search bar is where you should go.
A “full” sitemap of Coin Brief
I say “full”, as it does not directly list all of our Coin Pages, as they would clutter the page, but it does provide a link to this list. Also, pages that are not yet ready for the public, or require a user to be signed in to use them, are not included. However, beyond that, you should find every page, category, and article available on Coin Brief.
Table of Contents for Coin Brief Articles
This sidebar also contains a Table of Contents for whichever article you are currently viewing.
This new sidebar isn’t perfect yet, and we are still working on a few other features that will be added to it as well as testing out various color schemes, font sizes, styles, and more. Please feel free to leave us a comment at the bottom, or email us at [email protected] if you have a suggestion.
Site Redesign and Beyond
We have plans to provide a complete overhaul to the structure of Coin Brief, but in a way that should feel familiar to users who choose to use our currently available tools and information, while streamlining the way in which new and returning users alike access our content. At this moment, we cannot provide too much detail on that, but it will be a big improvement when it is finished!
Coin Portfolio (BETA) and Additional Personalized Tools
This was mentioned once before, but our Coin Portfolio Beta is underway. It can be accessed via the popout sidebar, or in the drop down account menu at the top right of the screen.
How the Coin Portfolio Works
Our Coin Portfolio allows you to manually add the public key and total amount in your various wallets, and the portfolio will keep track of the individual, and total values in terms of BTC and USD. At the moment, this process still requires that you manually update any change in the amount of coins that you have in any wallet. However, in the near future, it will be modified to allow automatic updating for wallets that you wish us to track.
Unfortunately, this is not always possible with coins that are in an online wallet, or exchange, due to the prevalent use of cold storage and consolidation of funds by these services. Once automatic updating is available, our users will be given the option to choose automatic or manual for each wallet entered, thus allowing for maximum usability.
What is Next?
The Coin Portfolio is still in it’s early stages. At this current point it may not be incredibly useful for every user, especially if you only use a few cryptocurrencies (or only one).
However, it is only the first step in a much larger package of tools that will be customized for each user that chooses to use our services. We want to provide our users with a way to really dig down into their finances, and immediately be informed of any change that is happening. We have many ideas for how to accomplish this, and are already working on some of them, but as I have said before, Coin Brief was created to be driven by the community, and thrive on crowdsourcing. If there are any tools that you would like to see, feedback you would like to give us, or general suggestions, please do not hesitate to let us know!
Coin Representatives and Community Driven Content
Our Coin Representative program has been successful thus far, and has resulted in some highly motivated members of the various digitial currency communities stepping forward to represent their community and currency. We will continue to move forward with that program, and further streamline the onboarding process for individuals that are interested in joining.
However, the Coin Representative program is only one part of our commitment to providing access to high quality information provided by the community, for the community. Watch for a new announcement in the near future about a system that will be less under our control, and will make it fun, engaging, and maybe even profitable, for individuals that would like to help others.
Job Opportunities
There is a “Jobs” link in our footer already, but at the moment we have some specific short term, and potentially long term, needs. If this applies to you, and you are interested in working with us, please contact Coin Brief via any method listed.
Site Development/Design
Clay does a great job with our development, but we would love to provide him with a bit of assistance. The redesign we are undergoing will require a lot of work, and if you have experience with HTML, PHP, CSS, UI/UX, Graphic Design, or other related skills, and would like to help, please let us know.
Writers/Authors
Coin Brief has a team of writers that produce great content, and are very skilled at what they do. However, we are always seeking new, quality authors to work with us. If you have experience in this field, and would like to work with us, please send us an example of your past work, as well as any unique skills, education, or knowledge you possess, and an estimate of how frequently you can write. If you do not have examples of prior work, please write a 600+ word sample article for review.
