I wouldn't say this is premature, but it's still going to be some time, but i'm genuinely pretty excited over it. The last few years I've been working in the news paper industry and I've really learned a lot when it comes to media, and of course, specifically online content.
I've finished designing a new site template. This will take some great advantages to SEO and usability. It'll also allow the site to expand into future functionality. The template is still in photoshop, so more tweaks will come out still, but they're minor at this point.
Where I'm at currently... First I should explain how this site was started. This was honestly my first large scale web project... With that said, I have redesigned the database, which is really the ground work for the site. I'm honestly impressed with the functionality I was able to put into this site back in the day, but the new changes I have in mind should really blow it all away. This should also to a very large degree enable future updates as well beyond what I currently foresee.
Usability and SEO are two very very large focuses here as well. The site will conform to more standardized layouts. It'll be able to fit more content, and it should be easier to get to what you want. I'm also making the site more ad-friendly, but in a structured method. The reason I'm doing this is so that I can potentially have this site generate a profit. This will all be recycled into the site for hosting and any other expenses. lol the one banner ad I have above generated an entire $0.04 last month.
I'm also planning some cool features like easy to use image hosting, facebook integration, and a few other things.
I'm also of course going to port all the info over to new site, I don't plan to lose anything.
So with all of that said, I wanted to check, are there any large features that anyones wanted to see on here? I've started building everything, and i'm in the very early stages of that, so this is the time to put in requests!!!
Aside from that, I'll keep you guys posted! I love having transparency, lol wikileaks won't ever be a threat to us here! If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
The only thing I can think of would be to allow flash content.
I use this a lot, so I figure I would ask for it.
Excited to see what you came up with.
Did you come up with a logo?
Now I'm really excited to see what you came up with!
Fusion is about to get re-fused! Look out down below!
Is flash really feasible if I link it back to my site, or is it too big of a security risk?
Maybe just my personal account rather than site wide?
lol that's something that I'll have to work out as I get to it. Right now I'm working on a core element of Articles. The important thing is to not think of elements strictly in a news sense, but from a functional point of view since any single post of text will be an "article". What's going to make this site so modular is I'm creating core elements, and I've come up with a pretty solid way to link them, so articles will have comments linked to them, and polls, and ratings and so on.
This should make things very powerful and customizable. For example, I'm planning on really throwing out the basic idea of a user profile and replacing it with something very similar to facebook. Afterall, we already have a lot of these features, they just haven't been tied together. We already have private messages, our own albums of our computer cases, the only new thing will be attaching short "articles" to user accounts, and comments to those articles.
I've been bouncing between design and development, I'm hoping tonight to finalize the design. This is always the hardest thing for me, I'm not a designer, so I think I'm overly critical of it. lol I don't know how designers do it because i love being able to run a test and knowing something works!
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
I'm pretty happy to announce that the site isn't ready yet, haha. but I have gotten a pretty solid chunk of it down. Luckily since i'm making everything so modular, once I finish the core functionality for one section, it's just the front end stuff for every other place that it's used.
I have to say too, I'm pretty happy so far with how the design is coming along too. I still need to do some overhauling on the banner, but as for the user content, it's got a really nice interface. Typically when a site goes through a redesign, the traffic takes a drop durring the adjustment period, but i'm thinking this change will keep a steady amount of traffic or actually improve it since the usability is so much cleaner.
but that's all, it's 4am, i'm done with my round of power programming for the night. haha just wanted to shoot out an update :)
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
I thought I'd give a quick update. I did some marathon programming sessions over the holiday, and I have to say, the new site is coming along extremely well. It still needs some artistic touches, but I can say, the programming behind it definitely borders art in it's own light, haha. I've gotten some major portions of the site built, and I'm still on schedule for moving the site over roughly 2 weeks into the new year!
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
The news building tools on the site are finished and the ground work for the new and vastly improved forum has been laid. tomorrow i hope to finish the user functions for the forum, and get a start on the moderator controls for it. The styling will still need to happen though. I'm also going to be setting up the human friend links in the process...
I've also got a pretty amazing idea for the news sections too, but that'll be started on the 3rd day.
I know it's nerdy, but i'm pretty excited by some of the ideas i'm putting into this site. I feel like it's a good idea for me to look at an enormous amount of details, so that i can hit this site as much on the mark as possible on the first try, but i'm always a little worried i'll get lost in them. lol but then again, i have a stack of notes (literally)... so incase i get lost, i should be able to find my way again.
lol and maybe i'll stop turning this thread into my own personal developer blog
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
Alright guys, I'm a bit behind right now in my programming... I've been very under the weather for the last 3 days plus I was out of the state for new years, so now I'm playing catch up :(
I have however got the basic functions of the forum in place right now. I've also got the news section largely completed and the ground work for the photo galleries in place.
I've got a TON of stuff I'm still planning to do, but a lot of it will come post launch. So I wanted to take some time and see what ideas any of you might have had, and feel free to be creative! Just because we don't have it now, doesn't mean we cant, lol. The beauty of this site has always been that i'm able to make changes to it where a lot of other groups can't :)
Some of the features I have in plan so far include....
Articles will include attachments for polls, ratings, comments, videos, and google maps. These are all optional since they won't always apply to a story.
In the forums...
Users will have built in image hosting. This will allow them to upload, post, and manage their images on the site without ever leaving a thread.
Case Rankings...
These will be taking some of the largest changes. There will be no limit to the number of images included. Ratings will still be available, since thats why we show them off, haha. You will also be able to post your components and temperatures if you want. I think this adds a pretty cool option for bragging rights. I'm still debating on tying in photos for the components themselves, since it might seem redundant.
Reviews...
These will now be handled the same as articles, except they will have a category of their own. I'm also rolling around the idea of pagination. This could be useful for breaking up a review based on the sections of it.
Overall changes...
Site usability... SEO is a consideration in this round of changes. The last time I went for such a major upgrade i am not even sure facebook existed, and google page rankings weren't such a big deal. The site will have improved navigation with previews of content all over. And something I've talked about in the past, lots of RSS feeds. There will also be the option to merge your FB account with your login to like and share content. The final option will be a weekly news letter. I used to send these out pretty frequently, but haven't done one in forever. I think at the end of every week or two it'd be cool to send out the top 5 articles/mods/contests/or anything else relevant. And at long last... Page Titles, will not only reflect where you are on the site, but the specific content you're looking at, lol which is something that I should have done a LONG TIME AGO!!!
Thats all that I've got at the moment to report, and I'm sure I forgot a few areas to include. Not all of this will be ready at launch. I'm looking to have the site match the current functionality at launch, but due to the way this is being programmed, new improvements will be able to happen MUCH MUCH faster.
So let me know what you guys think, if you have suggestions for the things i've mentioned, if you think some of them are a waste, or even if you've got ideas that I haven't even brought up yet
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
I'm kinda psyched. I'm working on what I expect to be one of the last big things on the new site. After this, everything is... not such a big deal to program.
I so feel like I've reinvented the wheel on this. I know they tell you never to do that, but i think i took the original flat 2d disc and turned it into a sphere. When you look at it from the same perspective it looks pretty similar, but when you come in for a close look, there are worlds of difference.
After this big step I'm going to start really settling into the design work, lol which is always the part I'm the most worried about. I've got the template pretty much down.... pretty much... but i still need to settle on all the small things. haha This is going to be something i need opinions on as soon as it launches!
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
I'm starting to put some content into the new site, and I'm going through everything on the user end now and it's made me aware of just how many completly unique web icons i need, lol. Does anyone know of any nice sites that offer a lot of these free for commercial use? I've got a collection of them already, but i'm going to need many more! lol I'll also probably end up making a number of my own as well but i wanted to ask incase you guys knew of any off hand.
The site is getting very close to a beta level. After being sick and still continuing to be sick for about two weeks, i feel like i've fallen a week behind on the development, but i think this weekend i'll have the site up for beta testing if anyone wants to volunteer to check it out.
Upon the launch, i'm going to have all the functionality that the current site has in place, but the usability and any restraints will be dramatically improved. After the launch i'm going to start working on the really cool features that extend the functionality.
I'm also already thinking about the first give-away to celebrate the new site launch. I'm still seeing what I can line up, my list of review contacts are much shorter right now since i've almost started all over again, but i'm going to see what i can do :) haha and once everything is all finished, i'll be starting my next HUGE case mod project
So for everyone else, let me know about who wants to do a round of beta testing, and let me know if you guys have any ideas for the next giveaway. I'm looking at doing some case giveaways, but i might be able to line up some other items if anyone has any suggestions.
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
lol i'll definitely let you know as I start sketching it all out. I'm planning to use those molds you made forever ago. I think they'd be a great way to kick off a site mod project right after the site relaunch!
lol i'll definitely be asking your opinion on some things for it though, and I'll probably be asking how you'd go about doing other things too. One thing i still want to try my hand at is some painting, nothing too intricate, but just some detailing with an air brush, but i have no idea where to start with that. I already have a compressor and it has an output regulator, do i just need the gun and paint after that? any recommendations?
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
