Dear Readers,

Welcome to the next version of Advocate.com. We're hoping it feels like a familiar friend, who you still love after a bit of reacquainting.

The presentation of stories on the home page is simplified to clearly delineate which articles our editors believe are most important. Oftentimes, the stories you will find under "Editor's Picks" will be original content. But the biggest don't-miss stories of any day will be kept there, as well. That should help those of you who are stopping by as part of a daily morning routine.

For the large contingent of our readers who check Advocate.com several times each day, the "Latest News" column helps you locate what's newest. That column will continue to include links to stories all over the Web that we found interesting.

As you might have learned, Advocate.com covers and links to so many stories it's nearly impossible to read them all. So we've changed our technology to ensure that channel pages are more reliably updated with the latest in Politics or Arts & Entertainment, for example, if those are topics you prefer to follow more closely.

Although you are sure to notice we've changed, there's a lot you won't see. The technology we used for posting stories has been replaced with Drupal, an open-source, content-management system. That allowed us to speed up loading of articles. We're thrilled about Drupal, but we think you'll be happiest about the faster pages, especially in slideshows.

Maybe you've already forgotten what the last version of Advocate.com looked like. As much as we like a good makeover, we're not expecting to shock you with changes. Please continue to send suggestions to feedback@advocate.com and thanks ahead of time for your patience as we work out any unexpected bugs. You've stuck with us for a long time as we continue growing and getting better -- and covering the LGBT community.

The Advocate is celebrating this year its 45th anniversary. Thanks to all of our readers in print and online for supporting LGBT media.

Sincerely,

Lucas Grindley

Editor, Advocate.com