Direction that the Site is Going In

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Ben Ruset

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Oct 12, 2004
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Hi All:

So here's some news and updates.

I'll be purchasing the new vBulletin 4.0 publishing suite on Friday. The product is on pre-sale right now, so it will be a while before it gets rolled out to the site. There's going to be a lot of changes, so I plan on doing a lot of testing before it's made live.

What can you expect?

Well, the forums are going to look different. The default skin in vB4 is (I think) a lot cleaner than the one we're currently using. So forums are going to end up looking something like this but will be colored using the green/tan/orange color scheme we've been using forever.

The front page is going to change. Since the new software includes a CMS (Content Management System), we're going to migrate from our current CMS (Drupal) over to vB's. This will provide much tighter integration into your forum accounts. Posting comments on front page articles is a gigantic kludge right now, but it will be much cleaner when all of this software comes from the same source.

We've gone though several different pieces of software over the years: phpNuke, Mambo, Joomla, Wordpress, and now Drupal. Hopefully this will be the last software change for a long, long time.

NJPB Live Maps will live on as a separate entity than the rest of the site (as it was hand coded by myself and my friend Devin), so you won't see any big changes there. I'll be adding more maps as they become available from the State.

There's the possibility of more features showing up on the site, specifically the capability for you to blog here. You can get an idea of how the blogs will work by looking at the vB Demo site. I'd welcome feedback from folks if this is something they'd be interested in or not, and whether or not we should limit the content in the blogs to solely Pine Barrens related posts.

Finally, I expect that the Image Gallery will change software (again), hopefully to something much more user friendly, because I hate the software we're using now. I'm still in a wait-and-see position to see what software gets released for vB4.

I have a feeling that we'll be looking at the site being upgraded around the end of the year. I'm also really excited about what 2010 has in store. I've been kicking around ideas for some more get-togethers, and knock on wood I'll be in a position to do a bit more writing.

I also would like to ask that if you have any suggestions on how to make the site better, or any functionality you'd like to see, send me a PM or email.

Finally, I'd like to formally thank each and every one of you who come to this site and share your Pine Barrens stories and photos. This site is the largest and most active Pine Barrens site on the internet, and it's because of YOU that it is that way. Here's to many more years of fun!
 

dogg57

Piney
Jan 22, 2007
2,912
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southjerseyphotos.com
I also take my hat off to you! Takes alot of time to do a page such as it is.I click on this page 5 to 10 times a day.Will it still be green(color wise)? I have been in and out of the pines Starting in the early 70s and I have learn alot more Information from this page.So bring on the change.:bear:
 
Oct 25, 2006
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The new layout will retain the old colors, more or less. Green, tan, orange, and black. If anybody loves or hates the colors, let me know. I'm open to change.

The color scheme has always been fine with me, no changes needed IMHO.

Jim
 

PancoastDrifter

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Dec 7, 2008
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I am excited for this change as the new template will use all that unused screen real estate and allow for larger pics in threads. Thanks for this site and all you do!
 

46er

Piney
Mar 24, 2004
8,837
2,143
Coastal NJ
Finally, I'd like to formally thank each and every one of you who come to this site and share your Pine Barrens stories and photos. This site is the largest and most active Pine Barrens site on the internet, and it's because of YOU that it is that way. Here's to many more years of fun!

The thanks go to you Ben for doing this. It takes quite a bit of time to keep a site as nicely put together as this one running. :guinness:
 

Teegate

Administrator
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Sep 17, 2002
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I say keep the blogs to Pine Barren related only. Once the subject leaves that format things get out of hand. Are you leaning towards blogs? I am not so sure I will participate much.


Guy
 

PancoastDrifter

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Dec 7, 2008
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Oh, it's probably still going to be limited to the width that it's at now. Pics shouldn't be more than 800x600 anyway.

I respectfully and politely disagree.

Just so you know what the site looks like for some of us. Below.

desktp.jpg


I can see with the headers and images you have now that it would be problematic and a huge hassle to change it. No worries. :happycat:
 

Ben Ruset

Administrator
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Oct 12, 2004
7,616
1,863
Monmouth County
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Pancoast, what resolution do you run your monitor at?

Right now the site will size between 750px and 1050px. The photo you linked to is a 1.2MB JPEG clocking in at 1777 x 1020px. My 15" MacBook pro wouldn't display that without scrolling. You'd need something like a 24" monitor to display that without scrolling. Most of the target demographic here aren't running huge monitors or very high display resolutions like you do.
 

PancoastDrifter

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Pancoast, what resolution do you run your monitor at?

Right now the site will size between 750px and 1050px. The photo you linked to is a 1.2MB JPEG clocking in at 1777 x 1020px. My 15" MacBook pro wouldn't display that without scrolling. You'd need something like a 24" monitor to display that without scrolling. Most of the target demographic here aren't running huge monitors or very high display resolutions like you do.

Sorry, I am being a big monitor brat. I run 2 - 25 inch monitors on one desktop.
 

Boyd

Administrator
Staff member
Site Administrator
Jul 31, 2004
9,504
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Ben's Branch, Stephen Creek
I am excited for this change as the new template will use all that unused screen real estate and allow for larger pics in threads.

Pancoast: your pictures are great and I always really enjoy them, but I am going to have to differ with you here. Posting large photos becomes a bit of a pain as a thread grows and it takes forever to render the full page. (FWIW, I am on a 2.5mb DSL line which is all I can get here). I vote for keeping inline images small in your threads and linking to the larger ones. We will come to your gallery and look at the full screen versions.

Ben: as always, I will follow the site in whatever direction you take it! Keep up the great work. :)
 

turtle

Explorer
Feb 4, 2009
653
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a village...in the pines
People keep saying that and one of these days I'm going to surprise y'all with the NJPineBarrens.com Hot Dog Stand theme. :)


OUCH! That's awful....hard on the eyes too!

I'm just getting used to this whole thing and enjoying the heck out of it. Since the site is your expertise, please choose what works best for you and I for one, will be happy to participate....the photos may take me awhile to catch up with though.
I feel that members here are respectful of keeping the content in line with the intentions of Pines related material. I log in specifically because of the content AND the members who share their experiences. It's interesting to note when someone makes mention of an outside interest and where we can look further into it. I've done that and it's cool but I appreciate Guy's thought on the blog thing.
With humble appreciation for your work,
Turtle
 
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