The Road Ahead - Upcoming changes to 914World.com Options

[SirAndy]

There are several changes and improvements coming to 914world over the next few months.

The move to a new server this weekend was the first step in that process. By moving the site to a new server, we can now take advantage of better hardware and more storage space.

Our old server was running close to its capacity both in terms of processing power and file storage.


Here are some of the upcoming changes:

- Refactor the current codebase for the forums
The forum software was written almost 15 years ago and it is starting to become more and more of a problem. I'll be spending some time doing a major cleanup while adding some of the new features listed below.

- Create a mobile friendly skin for the forums
As more and more people move towards mobile devices it's time that we have a usable interface that works well in that environment.

- Upgrade the database to a newer format
Our current database is getting HUGE and it's time to move it to a newer format that can take advantage of the better hardware we now run on. This should drastically improve the loading speed on the site.

- Restructure the image file storage
The way the forum software currently stores uploaded images was never meant to be used for large amounts of files. We're now at over 700,000+ uploaded images taking up some 150GB of disk space and they're all stored in the same folder on the server (!). The new codebase will use a different approach for file storage that will improve access times to those images as well as categorizing them in a more meaningful manner.

- Allow members to tag images and threads
Being able to tag posted images and threads with keywords would allow for much easier searching. This could include both predefined tags and member defined tags.

- Update the VIN pages to be part of the forum
Change the pages for the VIN database to be integrated into the forum software. This would allow for better searching as well as attaching multiple images per VIN.

- Update the "914 Info" section to be part of the forum
Many of the current pages in the 914 info section need to be integrated into the forum software.

- Clean up the current forum skins
The current HTML for the forum skins is not compliant with the latest standards and needs to be reworked to work better with all modern browsers. At the same time, i'd like to add more color options to the skin selection.

- Add search function to your PMs
Allow members to search through their PMs easily.

- Add a "reply all" option to multiple recipient PMs
Adding this option will aid group conversations utilizing the PM system.

- Members map
We used to have a members map using frappr which was based on Google maps. I'd like to resurrect that idea and have a integrated map where members can enter their (approximate) location and add additional info, like a picture of their car.

- Add member tagging using @Username
Tagging a member by using their username in a post with the @ prefix will send them a notification with a link to the post where they were tagged.
This is a simple and easy way to get someone's attention to a post or topic.
Done ...


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