As you probably noticed, I’ve made a few changes here at On The Pitch. For a long time I’ve wanted to make the front page more than just ‘the blog’. So the front page is now much easier to navigate. You can easily view the latest posts, popular posts, recent comments, and my favorite posts by simply clicking a tab below the latest entry’s excerpt. The site can now be navigated via a high level menu, and as I add new features, there will be new tabs added as well.

So let me know what you think. This is just a start. At some point I’ll move the site to a fresh theme that is wider. However I want to work on some of the new features first. My goal is to make On The Pitch a complete youth soccer resource over time.

Now that the popular posts section is live, you can have an impact on what is listed there. Simply rate the posts you read by clicking the yellow stars at the end. The system will dynamically update the popular list, which can be helpful for new visitors.

What do you think? What could I have done differently? All feedback is welcome!

UPDATE: Yes, the tabs look bad in Internet Explorer (v5.5 and v6 anyway). Fixed now. They look fine in Firefox, Safari (fixing IE broke Safari slightly), Konqueror, and Opera. If you’re still using Internet Explorer, you really should consider switching to Firefox 3. It’s faster, safer, and uses MUCH less memory.

UPDATE II: Yes – I know the ‘Latest Post/Comments’ tabs on the main page are still messed up in IE. Just need to make the changes to that like I did the main menu. But gotta bolt. Will work on it tonight.