I'd like to take this time to thank our sponsors and also talk a bit about the new site which we're currently testing.
If you haven't noticed, we have two fantastic new sponsors. Infinite Interactive and Electronic Arts Australia are kindly supporting Sumea, and it's very much appreciated! Thanks also to the many other sponsors who have renewed their sponsorships with Sumea. If it weren't for sponsorship, I'd have a pretty hard time in keeping things going here, so you have my utmost gratitude!
For those who haven't been following my posts in the forum about my plans on Sumea, I'll give you the low down below..
About mid last year, we had our 5th year celebrations, and while I was happy with the way the site was going, I knew there was a lot more we could do to improve the service we provide for our visitors, members and developers. I also wanted to expand the site and offer it to other regions around the world. Sumea runs on a custom content management system which I wrote from scratch, and while it's pretty damn efficient and lean, it would have been a hard slog to add the new functionality that I wanted, particularly on a dated and abandoned scripting language (classic asp). I had thought of rewriting the lot in .net and learn some C# in the process, but I realised that it would have taken even longer to get where I wanted. I think the days of developing and maintaining a feature complete (by today's standards) content management system by one person has long gone, there's just too much work involved. So, I began looking for a new content management system. There were plenty out there, some costing $20,000, and many others were free. I settled on one, and spent the last three to four months migrating all our data across and configuring the site to function the way Sumea does normally. It was a pretty hefty slog, but we're nearing the end of that process, and we're currently testing things out.
If you'd like to come and test it with us, please visit www.tsumea.com
Once we're happy with things, all traffic from www.sumea.com.au will be redirected to www.tsumea.com, but in the meantime, we'll be updating both sites.
There are a few important things to take note if you're re-registering:
- if you have registered an account from our forum, then you should have a profile set up already at www.tsumea.com. If you want to check to see if you have a profile, then visit: http://www.tsumea.com/user/souri
Of course, replace souri with the name your nick. If it's there, then all you need to do is make a request for a new password. Otherwise, you can simply create a new account.
- member galleries
Unfortunately, we haven't migrated the journals across. We're depending on you to re-upload your work. There are plenty of important members work who I'll go and upload myself, but it would be great and much faster if you could all do it yourselves. It's important that you let me know when you finish re-uploading your work, so I can go and edit the database to put back your gallery view counts and correct entry dates.
Improvements
There are a lot of improvements that the new site offers.
1. One account.
Previously, the forum, the wiki, and journals were separate. You had to have a different account to register and use for each service. The new site requires just one account to access everything.
2. Groups
This allows members to create their own groups and invite other members to join and discuss things public or privately. If you use groups on Facebook, it's just like that. I think it would be a great use for our members who want a group for their developer company, or a group for graduates to keep in touch etc. If there was one thing I noticed from Ratbag Games and Auran, there was a need for a closed group discussion for ex-employees, so hopefully members will find this service useful.
3. Musicians
We want you on board! Musicians who want a journal and a place to upload their work, then you can do it on the new site!
4. Less trolling
The anonymous posting function was abused way too much and had become a major problem. Anonymous posts are going to be approved by our moderators before they are made public.
5. Misc improvements
Jobs are better categorised, and can be searched by occupation and region. Member galleries are improved. Members have buddylists and private messenging capabilites. News have Tags functionality. Sumea maps are back and now appear in developer profiles. For example, check out http://www.tsumea.com/industries/australia/pandemic-studios
As I mentioned in my new years post, I'm very excited about the new site, and we're planning some awesome stuff this year too. The next modeller challenge, the return of the programmer challenge, we're bringing back art activities, and a whole lot more. We'll also be connecting with other organisations to further promote the jobs on the site. And we're going to look into uploading all our media on youTube's service so our content can be more easily accessed.
The new site looks great
The new site looks great Souri, well done