Some Changes in the Works for XJRider.com
Posted: Tue Jun 25, 2013 12:30 pm
There are a few changes that I'll be making over the next few weeks, that I thought I'd clue you all in on.
First, our site hosting account gets renewed in July. With that will come increased bandwidth and new version of MySQL. I hope that this remedies some of the troubles we've been having.
Second, I've been giving great thought to switching from PHPBB over to VBulletin. This is merely a thought at this point but my come to fruition in the future.
Third, I will be weeding out some of the boards styles and creating a new one. The new one will be of similar caliber to the Absolution (default) theme though I hope to work the Thanks system into it. As part of this, some of the lesser used smileys will also be removed to clean up the posting screen somewhat (and reduce board load times).
Fourth, I will be changing the way I celebrate XJOTM. Instead of the XJOTM bike appearing at the top of the screen (as it does now), it will be integrated into the site logo through a photographic banner. I think this will clean up the top of the screen somewhat.
Fifth, because the nomination process for XJ of the Month has become somewhat laborious and stagnant, I would like to change the way its done. Instead of asking you all for nominations, I will nominate three to five well-deserving XJ's each month and you all will vote to determine which one gets to be the following months XJOTM. Nominations will be based on board participation, quality of photos upload, effort in maintenance & modification, etc (I'll be looking for those who put a lot of effort into their XJ's, who participate on the board and who are helpful to others). This should shorten the XJOTM process a bit and make it more recognition based. The current method isn't working too well but I do like the XJOTM concept. In addition to a site banner and board recognition, I expect that all XJOTM winners will receive an XJRider.com tee-shirt (past and present winners included) to show off at rallies, group rides and in photos.
And last, I will be working on rolling in a new site logo. Drapheus has created several and I'd like to give some of the others a shot. Keep an eye out for that in the near future.
First, our site hosting account gets renewed in July. With that will come increased bandwidth and new version of MySQL. I hope that this remedies some of the troubles we've been having.
Second, I've been giving great thought to switching from PHPBB over to VBulletin. This is merely a thought at this point but my come to fruition in the future.
Third, I will be weeding out some of the boards styles and creating a new one. The new one will be of similar caliber to the Absolution (default) theme though I hope to work the Thanks system into it. As part of this, some of the lesser used smileys will also be removed to clean up the posting screen somewhat (and reduce board load times).
Fourth, I will be changing the way I celebrate XJOTM. Instead of the XJOTM bike appearing at the top of the screen (as it does now), it will be integrated into the site logo through a photographic banner. I think this will clean up the top of the screen somewhat.
Fifth, because the nomination process for XJ of the Month has become somewhat laborious and stagnant, I would like to change the way its done. Instead of asking you all for nominations, I will nominate three to five well-deserving XJ's each month and you all will vote to determine which one gets to be the following months XJOTM. Nominations will be based on board participation, quality of photos upload, effort in maintenance & modification, etc (I'll be looking for those who put a lot of effort into their XJ's, who participate on the board and who are helpful to others). This should shorten the XJOTM process a bit and make it more recognition based. The current method isn't working too well but I do like the XJOTM concept. In addition to a site banner and board recognition, I expect that all XJOTM winners will receive an XJRider.com tee-shirt (past and present winners included) to show off at rallies, group rides and in photos.
And last, I will be working on rolling in a new site logo. Drapheus has created several and I'd like to give some of the others a shot. Keep an eye out for that in the near future.