The movie Jurassic Park was rereleased recently in 3D format, and over the weekend I went to see it with a group of friends. One way to sum up the movie is that you’ve got a pretty cool idea, essentially a wildlife refuge for dinosaurs brought to life through genetic engineering, that gets screwed up when a sketchy programmer tampers with the computer systems. And then other tech people try to fix it and create whole new problems. And then people get eaten.
Judging by some of the feedback I’ve gotten since the New London Patch and several other Patch sites transitioned over to the new format, several people—or at least some of the more vocal readers—think we’re in a bit of a Jurassic Park situation.
The first thing I want to get out there is that if you’re having any issues with the site, you can report them to support@patch.com. I’m not the person who handles the tech side of things, and the people at that address are the ones who will be able to assist you.
The second thing is that there's a feedback form on the front page to allow you to let the people behind the redesign know whether you love it or hate it, or if it's a mix, or if there's a feature that didn't make it to the new site that you want to have returned. Scroll to the bottom of the home page and click on "What do you think of the new Patch?" Or you can just click on this link.
The third thing is that this isn’t an attempt, as some of the more conspiracy theory minded readers have screamed at me, to silence readers. In fact, the redesign had just the opposite intention.
 Under the old design, I frequently reminded readers in the Daily Five that this is meant to be an interactive site as well as a news site. Readers can post announcements, events, and blogs to add to the content and give more of a community feel to the site. However, these features weren’t always clear and in some cases were buried in a faraway section of the site.
The redesign promotes these interactive sections more. Several readers who had already taken advantage of these features have kept on posting without a hitch. I’m also seeing some new names as people post about garage sales or job opportunities. A few people have written me to say that they really like the new design.
 On the flip side, I’ve also had some complaints about the design and certain issues that have cropped up in the changeover. Most of them are polite inquiries. Some of them are angry declarations to leave the site and never look back. One barely coherent ranting e-mail called me a few things I can’t repeat in polite company, except maybe that part where he said the Patch editors were zombies.
 To some extent, I share your frustration. It's not like the site magically works for me and acts buggy only for you when there are problems. I know it can be aggravating when this happens, but working out bugs are part of any transition and a little patience will go a long way. The tech team has solved quite a few issues and they don’t ignore any reported problems that are sent their way.
 As John Hammond said, when Disneyland opened nothing worked. And, despite that zombie accusation, if Patch breaks down we don’t eat the readers.
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