Written by DCist Technology Editor Tom Lee.

Between the nearly-biblical rains, eruption of explosions and massive scheduled work stoppage, you may not have noticed the recent changes to our humble corner of the Internet. But the folks at Gothamist have been hard at work, furiously wiping sweat from their brows with labcoat-clad arms (the pajamas go underneath). And now you can see the fruits of their labor.

Behold: the mighty “Recommend this!” link now lies underneath each post. We’re certainly not the first people to realize that AJAX-powered community voting is an idea worth stealing, but that doesn’t make it any less neat. Just click the link on stories that you find interesting, and your vote will be recorded. The top-rated stories will be featured on this page, giving you a snapshot of what left readers enrapt (or enraged) over the last week.

Perhaps more usefully, we also now have a contribution page, allowing you to suggest items worth featuring. You can do this in one of two ways: either use the form to submit an anonymous tip, or tag a link with “for:dcist” when you submit it to del.icio.us. Of course, you’re always welcome to email a staff member with your missive. But this should help us keep on top of your submissions a little more easily — we can’t even begin to tell you how much random cruft comes in via the “Overhead” mailbox.

So that’s the sum of our new toys. Love ’em? Hate ’em? Think we’re missing something important? Let us know in the comments.