I wanted to take a few minutes to give everyone an update on the current state of operations on the new website.
First, and foremost, all user accounts and all message posts from the old site made it over to the new site. That was the most difficult part and one that had to be outsourced at a cost. The old site still remains in operation and can be accessed by IP address until it is shut down: 66.116.109.230.
There is considerable content on the old site that has not been moved over to the new site yet. Namely
Articles, Pictures and
Classifieds. I am going to have to move the
Articles over manually and I am doing so at the rate of a few a day (also posting new
articles as the home page shows). I could use some assistance in bringing over pictures though. That is pretty easy to do, simply go to the old site and look at a picture, right click on it, save it to your hard drive then come to the new site and upload it into the new
gallery. I will probably have to move
classifieds over manually myself as well. In other words the content transition is going to be on-going for some time, but every day we get more so that's a good thing!
The new site also lacks a finished style/theme but I am currently working on that aspect of the site with an individual who knows how to create/apply these themes. I could buy something off the shelf but I'd prefer a custom look similar to what we used to have but more updated. I had contracted with someone to do this work previously but they took the initial downpayment and disappeared so I'm not holding my breath for that to come through.
Some features have not made it over to the new site yet either. The two most prominent are probably the Cayman Registry and the Cayman Shop. I'm still investigating options for either of those as I want to do what makes the most sense and gives us the most flexibility. At some point they will return. In addition to this I've given all sponsors a reprieve while we investigate, install, and operate a new banner advertising system. I think I have one picked out but I'm trying to work with someone about the installation of the software since I don't have time to hack through it and figure it out myself.
Speaking of figuring things out, I've successfully figured out how to do some behind the scenes stuff here, coding, shell access to Linux, etc. that I had no clue how to do before, so certainly some of the pace of the transition has been influenced by my own learning curve. If there are members out there who are fluent with vbulletin and want to pitch in and help with the transition simply send me a PM, I'm always happy to have help.
Did I mention that while all of this was going on we had Croctoberfest last week and I got sick and lost my voice? (which means I can't do my radio show until at least tomorrow!). Croctoberfest was great, we had 10 cars and almost 20 people attend and I think everyone had a lot of fun and I look forward to next year's event (and yes I've heard the suggestions on locations already but if you make a suggestion please be willing to coordinate and staff the event
)
Do you like the speed???
Thanks for the many messages stating "The new site is so much faster!". I apologize for the manual resetting of passwords at times but evidently the IP address associated with the new server had been placed on a BlackList a long time ago and no one new it. Our ISP has since made changes on their end and made official requests to have the IP removed from those banning/spammer lists. Judging by the amount of email going through the system today it seems that most people should be able to receive email from the site now. If you can't then it is probably still a blocking issue which will resolve in time. If you are reading this and can't get logged in simply drop me an email and I'll send you a temporary password so that you can log in again.
I welcome any thoughts, suggestions, etc. and I realize that doing things on the new site such as submitting photos or
articles is going to be a little different but in time I am hopeful that we will all grow comfortable with the "new" way of doing things. Change is never easy, but in this case was certainly necessary and overdue.
Last, but not least, this is my 5,000th message posted since the site began! Woot! Do I win a prize?
That State of the Union er Website...
