It’s the dawning of a new day on Mamamia and you’re sitting in the middle of it. I hope you like the view. Please take a breath because I don’t like change either. But sometimes? Change is a good thing and so it is with this new site……

The sound you can hear is my hair turning grey, strand by strand as my brain whirrs and snorts and grunts with the strain of trying to wrap itself around the technical side of this re-build.

Just so you know, we’ve been planning this for months and working on it night and day for approximately 150 years (hello to the magnificent Dean and Dave – and also Jason, husband extraordinaire who has driven this rebuild from the start.).

The back end is infinitely more complicated for me to operate and, being not naturally inclined to tech stuff and being VERY naturally inclined to having my head spin off into the ether, there have been some terribly entertaining moments during this process. Especially during the last few days when, oh, every hour or so, I have stood up from my desk, wailed “I CANNOT DO THIS” and walked out the front door to sit in the garden with my head in my hands.

I’m hoping that everything seems familiar so you’re feeling at home while you marvel at all the shiny new toys I’ve strewn around for you to play with.

Now I’m going to do a Kevin Rudd and ask myself some questions so I can then answer them. Ready? See I’ve started already.

WHY DID YOU HAVE TO CHANGE ANYTHING? I LIKED THE SITE BEFORE.

Thank you. Yes, so did I. But there were some real flaws in the old format, the main one being inherent in all reverse chronology blogs – SOOO much copy gets lost. Due to in-built human laziness and our collective disinterest in scrolling very far very often, most of what I write and post is lost from the top of the home page within hours. This makes me sad. And it’s a waste because I write a lot of stuff that never gets to be seen by many of the site visitors (believe it or not there are some people who don’t come here several times every day IF YOU CAN BELIEVE THAT. I know.)

So the whole premise of this new site is to make more of my content available and accessible for you to read and share and enjoy. That’s all.

BUT THERE ARE ADS. WHY?

Well, for two years now I have published this blog without earning a single cent. I have, in fact, spent a large amount of my own money and thousands and thousands of hours of my own time to provide content right here for anyone who wants to come a check it out. Now? It’s time to try and make a buck, so I can continue to publish Mamamia and spend even more of my time making it great. So no apologies for the advertising. In fact, I would be DELIGHTED if you showed support for me and for Mamamia by clicking on the sponsor’s ads whenever they take your fancy (and even if they don’t, just because a click doesn’t cost you anything).

WHAT’S THE FEATURED POST?

This is the main post of the day, the one that is, you know, the mainest. It sits at the top of the site so new visitors will see it as soon as they arrive. Other posts will continue to load below it as normal.

WHAT IS MIA TV?

Regulars may recall I asked a few weeks ago for you to submit any questions you wanted to ask me. There were some terrific ones and way too many to answer in one go so I’m going to do regular video posts answering questions. You can leave new questions in the comments section under that post.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH FROCKWATCH?

I love looking at pictures of celebrities and their outfits. It reminds me that there’s a life outside jeans and sneakers. Although I also like looking at pictures of celebrities wearing jeans and sneakers. Anyway. The frockwatch pictures are now bigger so you can see EVERY DETAIL. Two frockwatches are loaded onto the front page – click the celebrity’s name to go through to the gallery of photos of that celeb – and you can find the archive of other frockwatches once you’re in there. Please leave comments and tell me who else you’d like to see in upcoming frockwatches.

WHAT ARE COOL CLIPS?

These are videos – some funny, some silly, some inspiring. And some of small animals. I’ve put these in a seperate section for easier access.

THERE ARE SOME BUTTONS THAT DON’ T WORK – WHY DON’T THEY WORK?

That’s a fantastic question. I’m so glad I asked it. There are a bunch of things that aren’t yet finished and we are working feverishly to get them up and running. Please be patient.

WHAT’S THE STORY WITH COMMENTS?

We’ve built a whole new commenting system that allows you to create a profile and even upload your picture if you want (you can still use screen names or be anonymous). Now you can also reply to comments and start threads within comments instead of having to scroll and flick around to follow a conversation about a particular comment.

WILL THERE BE A MAMAMIA COMMENT MODERATOR?

Why yes! There will be! How did you know! The lovely Amanda (bugmum) who regulars will know and love and many of you will have got to know when she did her beautiful guest post about her baby daughter Sophia who was born premature. As life at MM HQ gets busier and I am about to embark on the publicity tour for my book, I’ve asked Amanda to keep an eye on things and take care of any trolls who drop by to cause trouble. I’ve also posted the new comment rules underneath where you post your comments so there can be no mistake about what will and wont’ be tolerated. Mostly though, no time on the naughty mat will be required because this community blows me away every day with its ability to be kind, nurturing and self-regulating.

WHERE ARE ALL THE OLD COMMENTS?

We’re in the process of transferring them across from the old site (difficult! there are more than 600,000 of them!) but it’s taking some time. When they do arrive, unfortunately we can’t attach your old comments to your new profile (if you’re a regular commenter) so let’s just think of this as a fresh page and a new start.

WHAT ARE THOSE LITTLE STARS AT THE TOP OF EACH POST?

That’s so you can rate the post depending on how much you like it. For example, if you are my parent, you will rate everything 5 stars because you are ‘not at all biased’. The ratings system helps me to understand what you like so I can write more of it and also feeds into that “Best Of Mamamia” box on the bottom right that lists the most popular posts of all-time and from the past 30 days as well as my personal faves.

DO YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT WE THINK?

Yes! You betcha. And absolutely. None of this has been done for our own amusement. It’s all been done to make your time here more useful and enjoyable. Please take a look around, play with your new toys and leave a comment on this post.