In preparation for the start of the Ashes, I am doing some tweaking of the website, intended mainly to improve navigation and increase the interactivity with other members of the online cricketing community.

Changes so far:

• Forum: I am removing the old phpBB-based message board. It isn't used anywhere near enough to justify maintaining it and, let's face it, there are squillions of other message boards on the net. Everyone is welcome to post comments to my blog.
• Technorati tags: I have implemented the tagging system used by leading weblog search engine Technorati, which will make it easier to cross-reference to entries on similar topics across the blogosphere (and, indeed, to give this blog a higher profile). Tags are explained by Technorati here.
• Podcast: My Cricket Oggcast - a podcast of audio files in the superior Ogg Vorbis format - is available at http://cricket.rickeyre.com/blog/category/podcast/feed/. I'll say more about the use of Ogg Vorbis files later if anyone needs assistance. Most Windows or Linux-based PCs can play Ogg Vorbis with the little or no additional software, and many of the newer portable audio players (iPod excluded) support Ogg.
• Tipping competition: I've opened up a new tipping competition covering all Test matches starting between now and October's ICC Stupor Series (thus incorporating the Ashes). More news on this in my next post.