Get to see what goes on in the background of this site, and perhaps gain some insight as to why I can be a "jerk" to some.
Here we go...
Posted 03-09-2009 at 12:12 PM by Steven
I haven't updated this blog lately... lots of stuff getting in the way.
It was December of 2003 when we launched the current revision of this site (TNv3). Knowing that sites tend to get old, We have been planning to do a major revision of our site for a couple of years now, but three things have been getting in the way... time, money, and resources.
Running ThrillNetwork is not a full-time job by any means, because we only make enough to support the hosting as well as other neciessities (software licensing and so forth). None of us get paid, so yeah, we all pretty much have full-time jobs (except for those of us who may have been affected by layoffs and such... I'm grateful that I still have my job). So, whatever we put into this ends up coming out of our pockets at times.
To complicate matters, the person who owned the company (Belahost) that helped complete TNv3 passed away recently after dealing with longtime health issues, so that left us in a bind, considering we had the relationship going back to when we first built SpeedZone.
So, what we decided to do was see what was working and what wasn't working. I started up the social group, invited a good active cross-section of membership, and saw lots of great feedback. Based on that, along with observations I made over the years, I took on the job of coding and designing the new version of ThrillNetwork (TNv4).
I'll be happy to say that our logo won't be changing (much... it will not be in its present form for our masthead -- the top part of each page -- but it will be recognizable in that the basic "TN" part will still be there).
We will still feature a top navigation, but it will be better and help make it easier to get to other parts of the site (including drop-down menus).
Besides the look, the major change is how we treat news stories. We will, for once, have integration between our stories and the forums. You will see a special "News and Special Features" forum at launch, where all news will go. Along with that, we will go to more of a blog-style format. While we already have a quasi-blog-style, we cannot extend it the way we want to, especially with the forum integration. It will also allow you to submit news stories a lot easier, and allow for greater member participation in the publishing of news.
We will also have a bigger content area (950 pixels over our current 750, with a cleaner look that will allow us to do even more that we cannot even do now.
The last major improvement will involve how pictures are displayed in the forums. Right now, people using photobucket or other 3rd party photo sharing services will use image tags in-line, which breaks our current design template. There will be solutions in place that will thumbnail those images, and when clicked, will blow up so that they can clearly be seen on the computer.
I will post updates as progress has been made, along with other little tidbits. Until then, sit down. log in. hang on!
It was December of 2003 when we launched the current revision of this site (TNv3). Knowing that sites tend to get old, We have been planning to do a major revision of our site for a couple of years now, but three things have been getting in the way... time, money, and resources.
Running ThrillNetwork is not a full-time job by any means, because we only make enough to support the hosting as well as other neciessities (software licensing and so forth). None of us get paid, so yeah, we all pretty much have full-time jobs (except for those of us who may have been affected by layoffs and such... I'm grateful that I still have my job). So, whatever we put into this ends up coming out of our pockets at times.
To complicate matters, the person who owned the company (Belahost) that helped complete TNv3 passed away recently after dealing with longtime health issues, so that left us in a bind, considering we had the relationship going back to when we first built SpeedZone.
So, what we decided to do was see what was working and what wasn't working. I started up the social group, invited a good active cross-section of membership, and saw lots of great feedback. Based on that, along with observations I made over the years, I took on the job of coding and designing the new version of ThrillNetwork (TNv4).
I'll be happy to say that our logo won't be changing (much... it will not be in its present form for our masthead -- the top part of each page -- but it will be recognizable in that the basic "TN" part will still be there).
We will still feature a top navigation, but it will be better and help make it easier to get to other parts of the site (including drop-down menus).
Besides the look, the major change is how we treat news stories. We will, for once, have integration between our stories and the forums. You will see a special "News and Special Features" forum at launch, where all news will go. Along with that, we will go to more of a blog-style format. While we already have a quasi-blog-style, we cannot extend it the way we want to, especially with the forum integration. It will also allow you to submit news stories a lot easier, and allow for greater member participation in the publishing of news.
We will also have a bigger content area (950 pixels over our current 750, with a cleaner look that will allow us to do even more that we cannot even do now.
The last major improvement will involve how pictures are displayed in the forums. Right now, people using photobucket or other 3rd party photo sharing services will use image tags in-line, which breaks our current design template. There will be solutions in place that will thumbnail those images, and when clicked, will blow up so that they can clearly be seen on the computer.
I will post updates as progress has been made, along with other little tidbits. Until then, sit down. log in. hang on!
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