Dave,
I am on leave for almost two more weeks, then I fly out to Hawaii and report in to my Squadron. So, in my free time that I have off, I have been testing and putting to gether a new website. Still uses the same Forum engine, but there is a lot more versatility to what the new site will have.
My scanner and the rest of my computer is waiting for me in a Hawaii, and I am bound to have time on my hands out there, so there is a stack of gouge (T44) and photos (T34, Corpus, T44, NAS Jax and the P3) waiting to get scanned in. Just trying to get what I can done now (coding and ASP wise) with the website, that will make life a little easier for me later on, with regards to updating the website. For those of you who are familiar with code and website design, I am shifting the whole site to database and using ASP web pages.
Some of the things coming to the site:
- PHOTO GALLERY: improved photo gallery (Steve is sitting on a mountain of photos to upload and is impatiently waiting for me to get it up and running) To a lesser extent I am sure that Matt and I also have photos to put up. Also, you will be able to upload photos to the gallery.
- FILE UPLOAD: ability of YOU the forum member to upload pictures/files(gouge) to my website that you may have (possibility of abuse/objectionable material, but I believe we can police ourselves) and that you might want to include in your forum posts
- WHERE IS EVERYONE?: a sortable OCS/API/SQDRN/AIRCRAFT page that you will be able to sort through to find out who else on the forum will be at OCS etc at the same time as you are. Saw the need for this awhile back when we had multiple forums topics up "Who's in the 14JUL OCS class?" etc.. Doing this by adding a couple of fields to the Profile each of you has on the forum when you registered (OCS start date, ACES start date, API start date, current squadron and aircraft flying).
- GUESTBOOK: guestbook is tied into the main database
- LINKS MANAGER: revamped links page and directory of all the links I have sent into me by other sites, plus useful sites that I have come across. Plus you will be able to send in and add links that you come across
- ARTICLE SUBMISSION: article/content creation/submission system (ie makes it easier to just type in journal/article entries or other info without changing the html) with ranking, hits, and it also becomes searchable. Moving all the journal entries and other information on the original site into this format, also many of the "big" and informative posts that have made it into the forum. I am also sitting on some great articles that some of you have sent in on OCS, ACEs, and one that I got from an IP on the subject of "how to succeed in flight school". One of the main reasons for this is to have things easier to find for new people coming to the website.
- QUOTE: a compilation of military and aviation quotes that I have come across, in addition to the ones people have put on their profiles that will show up on the front page of the website
- MILITARY HUMOR: have a bunch of new jokes people have sent in, and transferring that to the database, it will also become searchable and categorized, and the shorter ones will be randomized and thrown up on the front page of the site
- MY JOURNAL: and of course last on my list is what most ppl have been bugging me about, finishing off or bringing up to date my journal entries.
Specific Forum Improvements:
- subscription
- bookmarking
- message system
- archived topics
- integrated poll (put a poll in your posts)
- avatars next to your name (don't know if I like this feature or not, might disable it)
- spellcheck
- recent topics (a new search that will bring up all the recent vice active topics)
- My Page: each person has there own statistics page that lists all the topic they have created and or participated in
- active users who are currently online and browsing the site are listed by name, in addition to the number of guests (non registered or logged in) at the bottom of the page
God, the list goes on, but those are the main highlights. One of the best features will be the front, or "homepage" of the new Air Warriors website. It is going to pull together everything that is on the website into one easy to access package, will have 8-10 of the newest gallery photos thumbnailed on the side, the "hottest" and "newest" forum topics bulleted out, the most popular and accessed links from link gallery, top downloads of gouge, most accessed articles, latest guestbook entries, and a quote/joke of the day... Sounds hectic, but looks a lot better than what I have presently.
But DOES it work? Right now the main system is up and running, just fighting with the Photo Gallery and Where is Everyone pages. Mostly just bug hunting right now. Most of the code was already made by other people, I have just been spending time adapting it to what I want it to do. In the end, it will make the website easier for me to update/change/ or add material to, instead of having to ftp and change html code. Especially when I want to make additions while I am on deployment!
Whew, a lot of changes, sure I am forgetting some things, but I think everyone will enjoy the new changes.