The Community Calendar has been an integral part of Mountain Xpress since before the paper even went by that name (until 1994, it was a monthly known as Green Line—and if you remember those days, you can consider yourself at least an honorary Asheville native).
And thanks to IT/Web Assistant Patrick Conant, the Community Calendar is now entering a new phase. Conant has developed a new online-calendar system that’s much more user-oriented. Individuals will be able to submit events online, with the information posting immediately after it’s been approved.
In addition, the new online calendar offers an expanded search function enabling users to find events by date, keyword or category. In time, users will even be able to search for events months in advance.
There are also plans to add several Web 2.0 features to the calendar in the coming months: Users will be able to rate events, share event information with others, upload photos, receive RSS feeds of specific content and more.
We hear from folks all the time that we have the best calendar around, but the credit for that really belongs to our vibrant community. We’re able to offer such an extensive calendar because of our loyal readers, who trust us to get the word out about their community events. And now, submitting your event information should be easier than ever before: Just go to www.mountainx.com/events/submission.
But with the good news come some changes. As our community has grown, so has the Community Calendar, and due to space limitations, we simply can’t continue publishing all listings in print. In light of this, dated events will now appear in print within an eight-day window. Also, we will soon be able to keep publishing ongoing listings (i.e. those for regular weekly or monthly events) in print for only a limited amount of time (though they’ll continue to appear online). Users posting an ongoing event will have the option of extending their listing in print by paying a minimal fee using an online-payment system. The new payment system will be up and running as of early June, and we’ll be in touch with those who’ve listed such events to explain the details.
The new online calendar is still a work in progress, so check it out now (at www.mountainx.com/events) and keep checking back. We’d also love your feedback: After you’ve had a look, feel free to e-mail us at calendar@mountainx.com and tell us what you think.
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