Publicize recent changes to the website

[melange396]

In the not-too-distant past, we renamed a number of things on the website from "COVIDcast" to "Delphi Epidata" and we reorganized the navigation menu layout. We might want to consider creating a concise blog post that lets people know that we did it, explain our reasons, and help them locate things that moved.

[RoniRos]

Agreed. @carlynvandyke can you take on this task?

However, the move from "COVIDcast" to Epidata is not a rename, but rather a post-pandemic return to the original broader concept. We deployed Epidata starting in 2016, and it was in use by fellow researchers under that name. COVIDcast was a pandemic-era expansion & re-design to accommodate covid signals, which became the large majority of the signals during that period. So COVIDcast can still be used to refer to the Covid-specific portion of the Epidata respository, and the COVIDcast Dashboard and COVIDcast Classic can retain their name, because they are hardwired to display covid-specific signals.

So rather than "Epidata (nee COVIDcast)", should we instead say "Epidata (including COVIDcast)"?

Separately, I need to slightly revise the text in "About Epidata" #983 . I will do that shortly.

[melange396]

"COVIDcast Classic" has not been modified for quite some time and still retains a very COVID-specific perspective. However, we have already updated the "COVIDcast Dashboard" to be the "Delphi Epidata Dashboard" in its title (seen in the browser window's title) and hyperlink references to it around the site, and it currently shows non-covid signals (including flu related ones). That being said, "Epidata (including COVIDcast)" is still reasonable text.

[RoniRos]

Thanks for the correction. Ok, let's keep the "Delphi Epidata Dashboard" and a, say, "COVIDcast Dashboard (Classic)"?

I think we should also use these headings at the top of their respective pages. i.e. insert a line right above "Explore a LOCATION (or INDICATOR)". If you agree, can you please create an issue? Is that something Dmytro or someone else not named George can do?

[melange396]

I concur, and will create the issue shortly. Dmytro is more than qualified to make these changes, as are a number of other team members.