Introduction to the VermontBSD website
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Welcome to the new VermontBSD website! Hopefully it was worth the wait.
Whether you were a visitor of the old site long ago, or are a new user who hasn't been here before, you might be interested in this brief summary of the features of the site and what's here.
The central feature of the site will be the news list you see on the front page, with the newest articles appearing first. Here you will find FreeBSD and other relevant open-source news. Sometimes there will be more to the summary than appears on the front page... if so, you'll see a "More" link at the end. Somewhere in the summary there will be text that will be hyperlinked to take you to the article mentioned.
News stories can be commented on, so if you'd like to discuss the mentioned story right here on the site, please feel free.
Along the sides of the front page you'll see other things I might add to the site. Right now there's just a Poll feature (which will only appear if there are polls you haven't responded to yet), so feel free to cast your vote/answer for the heck of it.
Along the top there are some tabs for some other key features. The "User Menu" gives you a quick way to enter into the details of your account, make changes, or log in/out. VermontBSD also hosts discussion Forums as a place for our visitors to chat amongst themselves and help each other out, so be sure to check them out and post questions/answers as you can. The next tab is for Downloads... most of which won't be actually hosted off this site, but will give you links to conveniently download common things like FreeBSD itself or other items of interest. The final tab is Books and from here you can see a list of recommended books on FreeBSD that you can directly purchase from Amazon by clicking the link (be sure to buy them this way... it helps to support this site!).
Hard to miss, but for the sake of completeness I'll mention the Site Search box in the upper right. Use this to search the entire site for whatever you're looking for.
There are even more useful things along the left-side menu. The "FAQ" will contain answers to frequently-asked questions, so as items come up I will put them here (suggestions welcome!).
The "News" link will take you straight to the news list (essentially the front page without the admin message at top, or the poll/online/etc blocks on the right).
The "RSS" menu item is a slick feature you won't see many other places. This will take you to a list of relevant RSS feeds from around the internet, packaged up together and made viewable from directly within the FreeBSD site so you don't even need an RSS reader. A great way to have a direct link to news from other sites that might also interest a visitor of this site (although many articles will probably also show up on our front page too if I think they're worthy).
The "Reviews" section is where you'll find reviews of various FreeBSD versions or other related software. I'd love to have more content here, so if you have a review you can post please send it in!
You'll also see an "Advanced Search" on the menu. Like the name suggests, this works like the search in the upper-right, but gives you finer control over what you're searching for and how to do the search.
"Local Site Content" is where you can find local informational content (as opposed to news). Articles/documents I write up myself (or submitted to me by users) that aren't really news (such as how-tos and such) will go here. This intro article is an example of such content.
"Submit News" is your place to send me news leads. Found a story somewhere on the internet you think should be on the front page? Want to write your own story and have it posted here? Use this link.
"News Topics" will take you to a list of news topics. All news posted to the front page is assigned into a topic so if you'd just like to see news for a certain topic, go here first.
"Archived News" is where you can bring up a concise list of all news articles posted here since day one. If you're interested in older articles that have already rolled off the main page, this is where you want to look.
"Web Links" contains links of interest to other places beyond this site. While we'd love to have you stick around, we know we're not the only place of interest on the internet! Be sure to check these links out for more sources of information and help regarding FreeBSD. You'll also find the "Books" category here.
Clicking on "Polls" will take you to the full polls list, both open and completed ones, allowing you to see how the stats are doing and how other people are voting.
If you're a registered member (it's free!) and logged-in, you'll see a "Members List" item which will allow you to see who else is here. Hope to see this list grow!
And finally, if you'd rather not take the trouble to compose an email but would like to recommend this site to a friend, the "Recommend Us" link is for you. Spread the word!
Another item worth mentioning is the 
button at the bottom of every page. This button is special as it links you to the RSS feed for the VermontBSD website. So if you use an RSS news reader of any sort and would like to add us to your feeds so you can more-easily stay on top of the latest FreeBSD news, you can now do so.
Hopefully this intro has helped you get oriented with the site. Be sure to visit often and participate in the comments and forums. See you there!