Just wondering are you planning on doing anything to the private messaging system? Maybe a better interface for your sent/ relieved folder.

Also I would like to see a search engine, but I have a feeling that would be really hard to do.

One thing that also might be nice would be to have a low-bandwidth version of the site. It would have the same stuff as the rest of the site, but it wouldn't have necessarily as much graphics or pretty scripts.

I have to say this overhaul sounds amazing.

the mail system will be the overhauled pm system. The origional PM system was a bit short sighted and I didn't envision a lot of the necessary uses for it.

The search engine is also something I'm looking at implementing. lol this would be a real pain in the ass to code so I've actually opt'd to integrate googles' search engine on an inter-site level. This will save me a ton of time and it'll help archive the site for google as well.

The low-bandwidth will be addressed but probably not to the extent that you'd like to see. The main problem comes from this site being on a shared host. That being said i can't really administer how well other sites use the server, so we get bogged down a fair amount because of them. Now a dedicted server cost can range between $100-300 per month, so thats actually out of the question right now. lol this site has never been propped up to a position that it yields any sort of profit, lol.

Now the ideal approach to the low bandwidth solution would be to implement a caching system. A lot of forums use these as well as blogs like word press. But to design one from the ground up (would likely be faster then re-engineering an existing one for another site) would take a great deal of time. So while this is something I'd like to do at some point, my current plan has been to go over a lot of the sql, this will be the major point that optimizes the load times. I'm also planning to use ajax where possible. Ajax is great because it's only loaded on an as-needed basis, and it only fetches the info needed, not an entire site, so theres no waiting on images or anything like that to load.

lol it was probably a lengthier explination to what you were asking, but in short I can answer...
yes - yes- and kind of

I love the idea of revamping the site, especially making it more professional. I still would like the see the review pages revamped, and let it "span" multiple pages. I would also like to see the PM system revamped, as well as the Case Gallery.

I do plan to do the reviews section too. it's down the on the list though and will probably happen after the major overhaul is finished though

right, understandable. I would make it so the old reviews are available as they are now(in forum format) so we don't have to reformat all the reviews. I know I keep a backup of all my reviews on the FTP, but thats the only place I have them... and it would be a slight pain to repost them into the new format.

Just a thought as far as the review thing goes it might make the reviews look better if you set up a similar theme/icons/layout for all the reviews. I know cantstraferight has titles of sections on his reviews that looked good. I think a set standard like that for the reviews would look neat.

it would, and I totally agree. BUT we would need the photoshop files for that, as well as the font he uses. It COULD be something that could get built into the review builder as well...

the list faceless presented is exxxxxcellent (hear burns there?)
a new look a faster way to find info and more efficient messaging hmmm
how about a link to see all the posts from one user in addition to the most recent.
not replies, just posts.
would be really really cool if you could host photos lol
i don't understand what the point system is for in each users profile
i have no points =[

the sides of the page, when your redesigning them if they could look more three-d instead of the flat grey panel, that would be really cool. the page, after youve been here for a few hours, starts to feel a bit flat and medical clean.

haha you know where i stand with the search engine, and incorporating Google is fine
as long as we can click FORUMS, then go to search and type like: WATER COOKING and all the threads with those exact words come up i know Google lets you do title and thread search so you'd find what you were looking for and more....
just be real careful:
with Google, if a user has a ton of Malware and ad ware, when they search the Google engine, the ad ware will redirect them to another site instead of interior of your site. one downside of search engine is that it may take some users away lol if they aren't superusers.

i would sadly like to see a more intense user profile. i hate to compare it to myspace, because i am NOT referring to modeling after the site... but the main page you see when you sign into your own profile, it would be cool to have something loosely similar to that page as our profile page.
optional pictures, retain avatars and sig, option to add more photos, separate case section attached to top of profile... hott seeing as many of us have numerous cases... retain personal links to external mod sites and worklogs....
allow for contact outside of site if desired... oh and it can allow us to list our specific talents like i have string carpentry and mechanic skills so if someone wanted to speak to me based on that talent, they would be able to see it in my profile and hit me up and ask me a question. or they could see how awesome ghostly is with software and progs and fire right to him even though they never spoke to him before. im not saying to take away from the forums, but sometimes you have a specific question, and asking the right person helps. the forum is great you get a wide degree of response. ti would just be cool to see

abusiv3
carpentry, mechanical, electrical and general khaos
can help with wiring schematic and 3d rendering
myspace/traumaunit2
new haven ct
(link to cases)


and what does fusion want for Christmas?
come over here and sit on Santa lap hahaha spell check wanted to change it to santos have a spanish xmas lol

**safety note**

you pose some very interesting site addons. I like the idea of being able to change the theme of the site, as alot of sites let you choose from pre-set colors for their forums.

selecting different themes is something I've wanted to do from the begining, but due to my lack of design ability, it just never took off because of the problem of making the multiple designs, lol.

Here's the current template I've been working on. A number of the behind the scenes work is finished, but the template will probably be the last part that I complete.



I'm getting pretty close to a design that I'm happy with. I wanted some feedback and color scheme ideas. I'm not a designer so don't feel like you need to hold back because I'd love the feedback. I don't think the shades of gray is a very cool look :P it's not bad, but i think it's not with the times.

This pic is just the homepage, and I'm planning to put the news at the bottom and it'll extend lower than the pic shows.

The logo area will fade into a box that upon clicking will alternate between a login/CP box - (like we have now to the left) and a search the site box (I know, finally a site search, haha)

I'm shooting for a more ad friendly site. I want to keep them from getting in the way of course, but I am hoping to make this site profitable enough to cover hosting contests, lol

I also wanna say, I really love the idea of two top menus, since it makes it a lot easier to expand the content we might want in the future without big changes to the site.

---------------------------------------------

A lot of the suggested updates are updates that I do have in mind for the site. The search engine will be powered by google, but it'll just be an internal search engine. The mail system needs a real over haul, and I'm going to redesign that system from the ground up. I'm all for the better profiles. I'm done with school after today, so I'm about to have some more time on my hands.

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The image hosting is something I've talked about in the past. I've got the base of a pretty solid frame work done, but I want to do the front end in flash since it'll allow me to incorporate some nice levels of functionality on a universally compatible scale. As of this moment that is a bit on hold, but it really is something I'd like to come back to at some point.

But for the immediate time being, I'd love some feedback on the design, and advice on the color schemes. I'm really debating between a dark or light site. I think our content falls comfortably into both acceptable trend areas. We're a professional community i think would be a fair way to put it so we can really go either way.

The only other change that I would make, is if the forum page layout stays similar to how it is now, to let us adjust how many "new topics" are shown on the forum front page. I would like more than 5, but others may be fine with 5 or less.

If you guys want more thats no problem, thats a real quick easy change :)

Im just thinking it should be user selectable as to how many you want, say in the CP, you could put an option for it.

What I might like for something like that would be to show how ever many new topics there are up to a certain user set number. So if there were no new topics since the last time I checked it would show none and if there were 3 new topics it would show the last 3 and if there were 16 and I had set my max number at 10 it would only show 10.

I don't know how hard that would be to code, but I would like something like it.

thats exactly what I was thinking doghills.