Yes indeedy. You may have notice updates on the front page haven't been so forthcoming recently, and that's because I've been working in conjunction with Ger and Si on setting up a whole new site for the MCOI. This is no small task, so it's going to be another month before it's done.
So what's going to be new in the new site? Well, at the moment we're running a software platform called Phpnuke, which is fine, but it's very hard to make additions to it, and it's a bit buggy as most of you know. Google doesn't like it much either, so our forum doesn't come up too high in general searches. It also makes life very tough to update the site - did you know it takes me on average 30 minutes to do a front page article?
So, what we're going to do is step up to the plate and dump the forum integrated with the content management on the front page. We're going to rebuild the site from the ground up with a whole new forum based on phpbb3 - the latest and greatest forum software. We're going to replace the front page with a blog that you'll be able to follow through RSS feeds, and comment on. We're going to have our facebook page linked in, and we're going to be #1 on Google searches bar none.
What cool new features will the new forum have? Well, everything you have here at the moment, smilies, youtube vids, signatures, but you'll have the option to befriend people, create bookmarks of your favourite threads, compose and save drafts so you can half type a post - find the rest of the information and finish it later, and as users, you'll have the option to report any dodgy posts from people signing up just to advertise, etc, and the mods will be notified to take care of it.
The forum is going to look much more modern and sleek, and I think everyone will adjust to the new layout quickly. It will require us to boot everyone out of miniclub.ie for a few days, but we'll give you all plenty of warning.
Bear in mind it will also have the potential to mess up some peoples passwords, if it does yours, you will be able to just request password from the system, or get in touch with me directly to sort it out.
We'll keep you updated as the weeks go by.