The new site is being finalised, there are still a number of features I am finishing coding and awaiting a fix on the forum integration that I havent yet been able to dedicate time to. But once the forum is completed I will be making an immediate switch over to the new site, and will finish the back-end coding from there.
Some exciting new things I wanted to tell you about with the new site:
1 - A Points system.
THe points system is designed to increase interaction with the site, you are awarded points for activities such as submitting articles, referring people to the site and they sign-up, reading articles, clicking on banners and a few other activities all earn you various differing levels of points.
The points will go towards various things, this year the main thing they will go to is when you gain a certain level you will gain access to a special forum for members who have either reached the same point level or have contributed to the site, either financially or with other content etc.
After that you will start to earn discounts for next years tipping competition and later when we have merchandise after getting a bit more capital, it will go towards discounts on certain products.
2 - Tipping comp is all but finished, I need to write a few backend things that are of little consequence at the moment, and then need to also complete the leaderboard. Again simple stuff but need to finish it, at this stage it is operational and I will put it on here, if we do not switch to the new site in the next 2 weeks
3 - Twitter, we will be integrating the site with twitter, where certain posts and articles will be linked directly to our twitter account, giving you a chance to follow along on Twitter
4 - Articles are linked to the forums. When a news article is posted to the front page, it is also linked to and partially posted to the forums, this is already running in our mirror and works well. I am also reversing this so forum comments will show up in the article summary too
5- Much much more.
The important thing I want to stress is that Articles and content are the real driving force of the site, and what we really want to focus on going forward, as such we are building a much more interactive site, and keep in mind, that you will lose points from the points system if you post articles directly in the forums rather than through the front page, this is simply to drive everything through the front page rather than the forums, where it is lost to search engines etc.
Dont worry the logins in the new site are 100% integrated
Some exciting new things I wanted to tell you about with the new site:
1 - A Points system.
THe points system is designed to increase interaction with the site, you are awarded points for activities such as submitting articles, referring people to the site and they sign-up, reading articles, clicking on banners and a few other activities all earn you various differing levels of points.
The points will go towards various things, this year the main thing they will go to is when you gain a certain level you will gain access to a special forum for members who have either reached the same point level or have contributed to the site, either financially or with other content etc.
After that you will start to earn discounts for next years tipping competition and later when we have merchandise after getting a bit more capital, it will go towards discounts on certain products.
2 - Tipping comp is all but finished, I need to write a few backend things that are of little consequence at the moment, and then need to also complete the leaderboard. Again simple stuff but need to finish it, at this stage it is operational and I will put it on here, if we do not switch to the new site in the next 2 weeks
3 - Twitter, we will be integrating the site with twitter, where certain posts and articles will be linked directly to our twitter account, giving you a chance to follow along on Twitter
4 - Articles are linked to the forums. When a news article is posted to the front page, it is also linked to and partially posted to the forums, this is already running in our mirror and works well. I am also reversing this so forum comments will show up in the article summary too
5- Much much more.
The important thing I want to stress is that Articles and content are the real driving force of the site, and what we really want to focus on going forward, as such we are building a much more interactive site, and keep in mind, that you will lose points from the points system if you post articles directly in the forums rather than through the front page, this is simply to drive everything through the front page rather than the forums, where it is lost to search engines etc.
Dont worry the logins in the new site are 100% integrated