Hi All,
I thought I'd share with you all part of our GrandOldTeam 'roadmap'.
Approaching 7 years since we started, it's probably fair to say we've grown to become the biggest Everton community. That brings a degree responsibility as we work to ensure we deliver a top notch platform for Everton fans and that our platform accurately represents the Evertonian community as the very best in the footballing world.
So, we're making some improvements to our forum and website.
Starting with the priority;
Forum
We're ditching the software we're currently on. We've been with 'vBulletin' since day one but as a piece of software, it has become stagnated and its future looks bleak. To progress, we need to move to a faster, responsive and current solution.
I've set-up a development forum, and you can see some screen grabs below showing some key components.
1. Forum Home - Link
2. Tagging and Alerts
You'll be able to 'Tag' users as so which will give that user an alert. Within your accounts 'Alert Preferences' you can opt to receive an alert for a multitude of forum actions, so whenever someone replies or quotes you, you can receive an alert like so.
3. Responsive Design
The new forum has responsive design, meaning a separate skin or style isn't required for mobile, iPads etc. It will just adapt the desktop version to whatever platform you've viewing it on - Like here.
4. Immersive
It just 'works'. Everything is easier. As an example, here's how easy it is to insert an image. Drag and drop (or even copy and paste!)
[video=youtube;zvUACUzZrr4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvUACUzZrr4[/video]
Testing
I'll be posting a link in the Upgraded Forum soon for some wider testing, keep an eye out if interested. If you'd like to demo/test the new software, drop me a PM.
Launch
We will be migrating the database across to the new platform in the coming weeks, taking the opportunity to also move to a new shiny server which will cause some downtime/inaccessibility. Further details will follow on that.
Website
We're also working on implementing a new front page website (Click here) which we hope to release soon. More details to come soon.
I thought I'd share with you all part of our GrandOldTeam 'roadmap'.
Approaching 7 years since we started, it's probably fair to say we've grown to become the biggest Everton community. That brings a degree responsibility as we work to ensure we deliver a top notch platform for Everton fans and that our platform accurately represents the Evertonian community as the very best in the footballing world.
So, we're making some improvements to our forum and website.
Starting with the priority;
Forum
We're ditching the software we're currently on. We've been with 'vBulletin' since day one but as a piece of software, it has become stagnated and its future looks bleak. To progress, we need to move to a faster, responsive and current solution.
I've set-up a development forum, and you can see some screen grabs below showing some key components.
1. Forum Home - Link
2. Tagging and Alerts
You'll be able to 'Tag' users as so which will give that user an alert. Within your accounts 'Alert Preferences' you can opt to receive an alert for a multitude of forum actions, so whenever someone replies or quotes you, you can receive an alert like so.
3. Responsive Design
The new forum has responsive design, meaning a separate skin or style isn't required for mobile, iPads etc. It will just adapt the desktop version to whatever platform you've viewing it on - Like here.
4. Immersive
It just 'works'. Everything is easier. As an example, here's how easy it is to insert an image. Drag and drop (or even copy and paste!)
[video=youtube;zvUACUzZrr4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvUACUzZrr4[/video]
Testing
I'll be posting a link in the Upgraded Forum soon for some wider testing, keep an eye out if interested. If you'd like to demo/test the new software, drop me a PM.
Launch
We will be migrating the database across to the new platform in the coming weeks, taking the opportunity to also move to a new shiny server which will cause some downtime/inaccessibility. Further details will follow on that.
Website
We're also working on implementing a new front page website (Click here) which we hope to release soon. More details to come soon.
