Yes, things do look different around here …

What began in late 2000 as www.orange-empire.com — a site primarily intended as a photographic journey around Inland Southern California — eventually morphed into www.raincrosssquare.com, an informal website created in mid-2006 with an emphasis on downtown Riverside and local history for the city of Riverside.

The original site (orange-empire.com) was the first attempt at showcasing various aspects of Inland Southern California. In mid-2006, a sister site (raincrosssquare.com) was established, which focused primarily on downtown Riverside.

In 2008, however, orange-empire.com was merged into raincrosssquare.com. The merged website remained focused on downtown Riverside but was expanded to include more of Riverside in general as well as occasional tidbits from around the region.

Throughout the years, both sites were managed using the Movable Type publishing system. Very flexible and customizable, MT was an early workhorse in the personal content management system field, and indeed, raised the bar beyond simply being a “blogging platform.”

Today (May 2012), we launch a new version of raincrosssquare.com. This time, however, we’re employing the Word Press content management system, which we’ve grown to admire over the past several months. In essence, we’ve found WP to be a smart and well-crafted CMS with powerful advanced features without many of the hassles and complications found elsewhere. In particular, we’ve found its in-article photo gallery feature to be a pleasant surprise. And, of course, we greatly appreciate WP’s well-organized documentation as well as its creative and very helpful plugin development community.

Although the new raincrosssquare.com looks much different, much of the former content is still available, including a “Latest News” section located on the HOME page. You will also find expanded “Share This Site” options and the usual “Search” box as well as “Spotlight” and “Of Interest” sections highlighting various features. Located atop each page are two types of navigation — breadcrumbs and tabs — linking to the primary sections of the new website, with HOME directing you back to the front page and NEWS directing you to the “Latest News” archives (a PHOTOS tab for showcasing our in-depth photo galleries is forthcoming). And at the bottom of each page are various links to related local websites, most of which pertain to Riverside.

We hope you like the new layout and features (thanks in large part to Gradient Pixels). Please note, however, that some aspects are still in progress and existing links from the old site may no longer work. And if you find an error, want more info or just want to let us know what you think, please leave a comment below. If you would rather contact us via email, please do so via the CONTACT tab.

Thanks!

From Orange Empire to RaincrossSquare