Almost two years ago, we launched IVN with a simple idea: to provide a place for readers and contributors of all political tendencies to publish real news, bound only by a simple etiquette.

During that time, we’ve experienced rapid growth and witnessed a productive community develop that cannot be found anywhere else on the internet, or in government. We are proud of the array of articles that we are privileged to publish and the participants who, by in large, have helped raise the level of civil discourse.

Today, we reach over 2 million people a week online with news and information that is often overlooked or completely uncovered in the larger public dialogue. For those of you who have been following and participating in IVN for a long time, you’ve been patient with our small development team as we continued to build an expansive system for independent contributors. Without going into the nitty-gritty, what we’ve done with the new IVN is very simple: we took out all the unnecessary bells and whistles that either slowed the site down or confused readers and built a cleaner, responsive (so it works on any device) and easy-to-use publishing platform.

Why?

(1) Reader experience  

http://youtu.be/IS8tP_aA0XwWe did a complete analysis of the traffic to IVN to understand exactly who was reading our site, with what technology, and how they navigated our network. What we learned was that almost half of you now access IVN through a mobile device. The old system, because of its size, was neither compatible, nor quick enough to keep up with you.

Now, the site loads on any device in a fraction of the time. We’ve also added better navigation tools and “short-codes” that allow our contributors to insert cool things into their articles like story summaries, charts, and picture galleries.

Also, the commenting system is more seamless, easy-to-use, and it communicates with our one-of-a-kind content management system, so that the most talked about content is visible to more readers, encouraging deeper conversations. In the near future, we can implement unique features like an author "political tendency score."

Inherent in any new website launch, there will be bugs and other issues that either don’t work, or you don’t like. In either case, please let us know. IVN is nothing without the great contributors and readers who are its voice. Please speak up in the comments below so we can make it better for you.

(2) Writer Experience  

Prior to the launch, many contributors had their own “columns” on IVN. This gave them the autonomy to self-publish, but created significant development obstacles and reduced the overall site load-time. It was also more difficult to promote articles through the main website because of a bunch of stuff that is over my head.

In short, all contributors will now use a stream-lined edit-flow system. This allows all our writers to see what articles we are working on, to “claim” story ideas (and get compensated for them!), and our editors to make sure articles are fully polished before they are published to the public.

(3) Producing, Partnering and Promoting

By simplifying our website, our small development and editorial team can focus on producing high-quality articles and productions, integrating our publication with partners that share our goal of elevating the public discourse, and using our limited resources to get that information to more readers.

We’re not about reaching people with sensationalized headlines or talking about the latest twerking incident. But we will continue to bring readers more and more news and information that you won’t find anywhere else. Our goal: let the others be the place to go to for gossip and know that the people who come to IVN get real information.

Don't forget to give us your feedback in the comments below or email to: contact@ivn.us