The new site is coming along nicely now with only some minor tweaks to be completed and then it'll be ready for launch. Most of the historic content is over and there's only the Forum and the Gallery Left to style into the Benjy's theme and style.
Changes
We have re worked the information architecture of the site to hopefully make it more functional for those who use it regularly, as well as our more infrequent visitors.
With that in mind we are implementing a new form of sign up to the site which will make it safer and protect your precious user data in a more secure fashion.
This will almost certainly require all users to register or register to get the most out of the site. We could import all the users over from the old site but this is likely to cause stability problems later on. The preference is therefore to have a new clean working site which has no kinks which need ironing out.
User Profiles
We intend to implement a series of updates to the user profiles to give it a more Web .2 feel. This will include personalised image galleries and connections service (like Friends on Myspace or Facebook) in order that the users can contact each other via a private messaging system. This is up and running now and will be refined as the site evolves to suit the needs of the club.
Photographs
We have implemented a complete engine out overhaul of the Photography section and as well as it being renamed it now has much improved functionality. As part of the more social networking theme for the new site we will be looking into customising the Photos section to include the ability to upload from your mobile and also to link to Flickr accounts.
There’s some work still to do to make this site launch ready but it’s anticipated the launch will be at the end of July. Until then we have suspended registration on the old site to prevent the pain of having to register twice in quick succession.
