Author Topic: A New Plan - (Ongoing site updates/status thread)  (Read 26901 times)

shavethewhales

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #15 on: January 07, 2011, 10:11:11 PM »
Just a head's up, I'm working on the site again and will have some updates implemented by next week.

I should have posted back in September that I was once again having to put off work on the site because work/college was getting too hectic. I had a pretty wild semester and I got a bit overwhelmed at some points, so for a long while I kind of just forgot about the site and some of the things I was going to do got lost in the shuffle. It seems like this site is cursed in that any time I start working on it life starts pulling me elsewhere.

However, it's a new year, I'm not working currently and I'll need something else to do besides schoolwork, so hopefully you can look forward to a much improved SDCFans experience this year.

I'm currently doing a kind of soft re-write of the site's code so that everything is easier to maintain and update. Plus, I'm finally implementing a better URL system so that links will be formatted such as www.sdcfans.com/news/115

I'll also be implementing that wiki system that I was talking about before. The Celebration City section will be moved into a new HFEC wiki area that will include info on WW, DW, WA and other HFEC properties. The old photo galleries will be moved into the wiki area as well, so that on each ride's wiki page, there's an attached gallery of photos both official and user submitted. The trip reports section (that was never really usable before) will also be updated to allow small galleries to be attached to trip reports as well. Many other changes and upgrades are coming as well, but I don't want to bite off more than I can chew again.

Junior

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #16 on: January 07, 2011, 11:45:25 PM »
Feel free to pull anything from my Flickr site you want to. A credit would be nice, though. Good luck with the upgrades.
"Howdy there folks! My name is Junior Dugan, and I'll be drivin' your diving bell!"

Ozark Outlaw

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #17 on: January 08, 2011, 12:55:09 AM »
Everything sounds great! I know that we all greatly appreciate the hard work that you do.

I completely understand about life having a tendency to get in the way. I just got back from a two month hiatus for similar reasons. I am completely supportive of the changes that you have proposed. We all love pictures, so having a trip review area that makes it easier to post pictures will definitely be a plus. This website is well on its way to being the absolute best unofficial resource for anything Silver Dollar City. :)

sanddunerider

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #18 on: January 08, 2011, 05:56:15 AM »
yes keep up the good work.  I find it humorous that even though this is the "unofficail" site for SDC fans..  The website is listed on the SDC facebook page as "one" of there contact sites.. Steve has to be proud of that.  Thanks Steve for your work and everybody else that helps you maintain,modify this site..

shavethewhales

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #19 on: January 25, 2011, 08:31:54 PM »
Still working, albeit much more slowly since I didn't get things more finished before college started again.

I do plan to have things more wrapped up by the end of this week though, for the new wiki at least. The rest of the new features may have to fall in line after that. I might need some help with testing this weekend if anyone wants to help, so be on the lookout for that.

Another thing: I've given some thought to finally caving in and adding a facebook page to compliment the site. Would anyone be interested?

rubedugans

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #20 on: January 25, 2011, 09:19:54 PM »
I say the Facebook needs to be done.

Joy

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #21 on: January 26, 2011, 01:04:26 AM »
Yeah, a Facebook page is definitely something that should happen.

sanddunerider

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #22 on: January 26, 2011, 08:12:55 AM »
Steve, what ever you decide to do, You know we will appreciate it, and help any way we can.

Junior

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #23 on: January 26, 2011, 09:40:27 AM »
The Facebook thing sounds good to me...anything to draw more people to this site!
"Howdy there folks! My name is Junior Dugan, and I'll be drivin' your diving bell!"

shavethewhales

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #24 on: February 05, 2011, 11:08:00 PM »
I'm finally about ready to push the first part of the new upgrades live. I'll probably end up waiting until tomorrow night though, at this point.

This is going to result in a lot of content being inaccessible for a while as I have to copy everything into a new system. It will also do away with the old review system that was rarely used and apparently broken anyway. I'll try to figure out a new way to implement a personal review system later.

You'll also have to bear with me on some of the formatting. Because of the new way pages are going to be handled, there are a lot more pages with nothing but clunky lists of links that go to sub-pages in that category. I'll have to work on these pages later and add a quick search box so that things are easier to find.

Swoosh

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #25 on: February 05, 2011, 11:31:46 PM »
Feel your pain.  I just recently relaunched MiG with a new layout and template design.
SWOOSH

shavethewhales

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #26 on: February 07, 2011, 12:02:29 AM »
^Looks great!

I've just started pushing a few changes live. As soon as everything gets transferred and error messages stop showing up, you guys will be able to take advantage of the first rendition of our new wiki system. I'd hold off on it for now though, I don't have time to totally debug everything right now, and I want to get some formats established that will make reading our content pages easier and more informative. Plus, there's a bit of a learning curve since the pages use a little HTML, so I'll need to write out some more detailed rules and instructions for editing. Also, the interface is still a bit clunky and is missing a few things.

Right now only the SDC content is live, except for the food section (a lot of the food places I had listed don't even exist anymore). The CC content will be put back up under the new HFEC section, which will also have some content about WW, DW, WA, and the rest of the company.

I'll try to start on the new gallery system as soon as the new content system is running at least somewhat smoothly.

shavethewhales

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #27 on: February 09, 2011, 02:01:23 AM »
Today I made some changes to the home page that I think will make things easier to scan. The empty box on the right is supposed to be an ad space, but I'm having trouble with the ad network I signed up for.

I haven't got much done on the wiki side of things yet, but I hope to get the rest of that straightened out tomorrow. Here's an example of a reworked page for Wildfire: http://sdcfans.com/page/16


okiebluegrass

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #28 on: February 09, 2011, 07:21:58 AM »
I like the new wiki :D

sanddunerider

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Re: A New Plan
« Reply #29 on: February 09, 2011, 12:37:27 PM »
steve, looks good so far...

Question: on the home page, you have a paragraph about HDH..  then the words (see more).  When i clicked on that i come up with a blank page, that has a place to leave comments...  No additional info on HDH.

Do I need to change something on my puter, or is that a "glich"?

Dan