Heads Up!

Heads up
I'm assuming that a lot of the changes will be behind the scenes and not particularly obvious. What I'm looking forward to are the visible changes, whether of policy, appearance, procedure or whatever. It all sounds very interesting, and I am certain the changes will be good.

I don't think Craven and his hamsters are going to all this trouble just to have change for the sake of change (although that itself can provide interesting challenges) so I'm really eager to see what the hamsters come up with.

Just a heads up: the new site has been delayed a few weeks and will likely be launched sometime after summer.

Thanks for the info.


and, bump..

BBB
bm

Rome was not built in a day.

And that by twins!

Walter--

Don't forget the twins' faithful and fertile foster mother.

Woof!

Craven and jespah,

What will be lost and what gained? Will the A2K Beta be a site to draw a different demographic of posters?

It will take far longer than I have time for at present to detail the change (which will be both fundamental and pervasive) and many of the details have not yet been defined, but I think it's safe to say that demographics are sure to change, in the very least in that there will be far more topic categories which would inevitably draw some additional diversity.

With a move towards individual preference in lieu of top-down management of content the site will be able to be both more strictly censored as well as more leniently censored depending on how you configure it for yourself.

Many factors that govern the regulation of content will be placed in the viewers hands (for example, you will be able to choose to view or not view classes of content at your preference).

This helps provide a structure for self-sustaining community, and one's individual preferences are better tailored to. Of course all of us care to some degree not only about the content we view ourselves but also of the content others view, and those kinds of considerations will suffer for those on the more authoritarian side of the spectrum.

With the added control individuals have for content they see, the control of the site on content permissible will be more lenient, and some will inevitably see this negatively. For better and for worse, demographics will probably change, and my strong belief is that the changes will be toward a fundamentally better community.

heads up
Sound good to me.

Really looking forward to this.

If I understand what you are saying, Craven, the changes will be exciting and interesting but organic. They will become what you have set in motion but will evolve in their own form and direction.

Heads up
I've read Craven's description of the new A2K approach a couple of times now,and the more I think about it, the more I like it. We're all grownups here - I hope - and I think we can comfortably handle the new flexibility and freedoms.

I think there will be a lot of both. Everything is being rewritten, and the software (phpbb) we've used for years will no longer be used in favor of completely custom software.

This will change featureset, looks and many other details as well as being aimed at a fundamental change. It will also be the foundation to build many things that currently don't exist at all here (like, for e.g., blogs and photo sharing).

Any possibility of an IRC function?

Heads up
What's IRC?

BBB
I think I will like the change. Who said old people are resistent to change?

BBB

Re: Heads up

IRC = Internet Relay Chat