Why did we switch? Well the reasons are too numerous to mention however there are some key things about the new site I thought I'd share. This offers a glimpse into the future of the site and might offer some insight into some of the changes we've made.

First off, that hidious page header is gone. Purple and black wear on you after a while. So for me, The new header offers a brighter more crisp look, thanks wesmaster for his hard work on that, I love it.

The forums remain pretty much intact from version 2 with the exception off some condensing of information the functionality and layout remains. Regional clubs are moved to their own section to accomodate some changes that will be happening with clubs as I'll explain.

The really interesting additions to version 3 are in the Library and Gallery. Let me start with the Gallery.

The Gallery provides an organized way to manage all of the multimedia resources of the community. Right noew we've got the photos live but audio and video are coming very soon. The Gallery can manage thousands of multimedia resources in an efficient way and can even be searched. We have over 1000 images in there and haven't had time to add captions to all of them but when we can get volunteer help we will. These description can then be searched to find the images you are looking for.

In addition to the main community gallery, each owner and each club also have a Gallery of their own. Same interface, same features including multiple albums, private albums and options for selective viewing. Images and multimedia files can easily be moved between people and albums, attached to posts and private messages and even email. You can upload items to your Gallery from your computer or even from a web site. No more Save Picture...

In short, we get a handle on this image and file management problem. No more broken links or files that can't be viewed. Complete, site-wide multimedia content management. Awesome.

What applies to the Gallery also applies to the Library. The document content of the site has been organized into catagories and made searchable. We are able to open up content creation to non-programmers and get more information out more quickly. The FAQ section of the old site was aweful. You couldn't search it, all the articles we're styled completely differently and of very variable quality. The new content management system tidies up that mess and will develop much more rapidly than it has.

Each club and each owner also get a Library of their own that they can use to create a small personal or club website. They can link in images from their Gallery, manage links, lists, contacts and even have an event calendar. A club posts an event and it shows up in the members calendar, too cool. Again content can easily flow from owner to club to community and back.

MyS2000 will develop into a portal of sorts for each owner. They can access their gallery, library, subscribed forums and threads, private messages and so forth from there. In time the site will become more focused around this section of the site, tieing together all the different areas of the site into a personalized view. We realize it will take time for the shift but we're patient. Don't be surprised if things become a lot easier to do from MyS2000 than elsewhere however.

Behind the scenes we've made it possible to get site updates out quicker and testing easier and more complete. We need people willing to surf on the bleeding edge to help, the more the better.

That's about all I can say for now. You'll see much of what I'm talking about above occur over the next weeks and months. It probably won't be complete until at least October due to the shear magnitude of the stuff we're working on. I will say this on closing. We've paid great attention to the feedback you've all provided us over the past year and before. Version 3 will make the tools available to do most of what everyone has asked for and a whole boatload more. One of the goals of S2KI is to get in touch with all owners, even those that are not inclined to participate in message forums. The things we know need to be available to everyone. Version 3 takes us a step closer to that goal.

Peace.

 

Wow! Sounds fantastic. Thanks for the headsup cthree and for all the hardwork you and other admin staff have put into this! Perhaps if you'd posted something like this on the eve of the changeover people would have a lot more understanding of the intermediate problems!

 

Another thing I like to say is that some fine people, regular S2000 owners like yourselves, woke up this morning to an assault on the thing they worked hundreds of hours of their spare time on without any compensation whatsoever. They did this work on your's and the community's behalf in the hopes that the effort might be appreciated by their peers.

Very classy, 'nuf said.

 

I like to said that most people do not like change, if it is for the better.
At first I was one of them, since I could not go side to side on my screen, but with that working, I like what you have done.[/B]

 

All I can say is Thank You !!!

It may take me awhile to get used to the new format
but, I'm confident in the fact that you are making an
awesome site even better.

 

Looks great. Very good job!!!!!

 

I know what it's like to do stuff in the background on my own time for the betterment of the group as a whole, only to be assaulted with "unpleasant" individuals. It's a thankless task. WELL, I THANK YOU ALL! Change is always met with opposition, filled with "glitches", things that need to be "resolved". The road into the future has never been without potholes. For all those who immediately posted with "I hate .......... " ------ I'm sorry, but your horse and buggy may NOT traverse the modern day thoroughfare. We no longer have parts for your black and white TV. I will NOT pump your butter churn - do it yourself. Oh! And that first generation cell phone? You know the one - the one you carry in that dedicated brief case? Soooooo NOT with it! If that cell phone wasn't so big, maybe you'd have room in there for that first Texas Instruments calculator - yeah! the one that could only +, -, *, / and cost you almost a hundred bucks! Sure, criticize. But do it constructively.

 

Just to clarify so you don't all hate wesmaster The design is.

~60% my own (blame me ) but Wesmaster, Schatten, and Schenkel all put lots of time into to helping me fine tune what I had started.

I would like to thank the 3 of them a lot for their advice, support and millions of pesos worth of their thoughts.

-Rylan

 

The site is growing on me fast, I like the colour scheme
Can anything be done about having to scroll across the page to read posts, it's driving me potty.

Thanks.

 

FYI - when I display the home page the first time using NS 6.2.1, it doesn't display correctly. The text is there, the top bar with the selections is there, but the cool graphics are all missing. When I go back later (like if I hit "Home" now), it displays fine. Weird. I really don't like that we're becoming an IE world since I access the internet from Linux and Unix, not just MS.

And I'll chime in again about the left bar in the forum land since it's just a poor use of space. Would even make more sense if it was its own frame which didn't scroll, but it isn't, so it's sort of anoying.

But let me say that the rest of the layout looks great and the graphics I've seen look great. I do software for a living, so I certainly understand how much work you can put into something to improve the infrastructure that nobody sees. I hope all the feedback is not discouraging.

Tony

P.S. Just received the following when I tried spell check: Warning: Failed opening '/article/frontpage/2/' for inclusion (include_path='.:/home/httpd/s2ki.com:/home/httpd/s2ki.com/forums/include:/usr/local/lib/php:/home/httpd/s2ki.com/') in /home/httpd/s2ki.com/index.php on line 297