Update on New Site Development

This was posted on Get Satisfaction, and if you click on that link you can read it there if you prefer, and you can also leave comments there.

I think there may be one thing which they forgot to add, but I'll double check with them before I say anything (in case they were holding it back for some reason).

Hi everyone,

It has been WAY too long since I updated you guys directly as to what has been going on. We set a relaunch date and then we pulled it. All done without much clear communication. Not the way I like to work.

Additionally, I promised to publish a list of items on a timeline so you all knew what was done, what we knew about still needed to be done therefore you could know what to test.

For all of this, I accept responsibility and I do sincerely apologize. I think you will see below that my radio silence did NOT mean work stoppage. ;-)

So let me update you all on some things:

New Site Launch Date
Last week we thought we could finish everything, (bug fixes and custom layout controls), and be ready to launch. We looked at all that still needed to be done, and all of the issues you all kept bringing up and quickly realized that was not gonna happen. Like I have said in previous posts and in QuackCast shows, we will launch the new site when it is ready.

With all that being said, the date for relaunch of the new Duck Webcomics site is July 1st, 2011.

Bug List
We have been addressing and/or implementing several issues with the site. (Even suggestions made by some of you.) As of today 5/21/2011, here is a list of issues that have been COMPLETED:

- Implemented RSS feed for each comic (located in the header links of the comic page)
- Fixed Twitter feed on the homepage
- Fixed a bug where comics titles and usernames couldn't include numbers
- When you click on “Favorites” in a comic page, it should display a list of your current Favorited comics. If you haven't favorites the comic yet, there will be an option at the top to add that comic to your Favorites list
- Comic Page – If the user is not logged in, the header links will only display Share, RSS, and the comic rating
- urls are no longer case sensitive
- "my favorites" and "my comics" are now clickable and will expand the user's list
- Added age ratings and total page counts to the "my favorites" dropdown
- Tutorials now display how many users have rated them
- When a user rates a tutorial, it will now stick to that rating within the tutorial page, and display the overall numerical average underneath
- Comic forums are now implemented. They can be toggled on and off via the Overview page in Edit Comics. The forums themselves are accessed via the "go to forums" link in the header of the comic page. Creators can create, edit, and delete their own forums
- Signature text has been shrunk to 10pt font to better differentiate it from reply text
- Topic replies and quote boxes have been slightly restyled and we've added a thin border to differentiate the reply area from the signature area of a post. This is still an on-going process

In addition to all of these, we have also put in a multi-page uploader. (MANY of you asked for this.)

Here is what is still OPEN:
- File locker: So users can keep a list of image assets to be included in forum posts, etc… (Yes, your current file locker files will be migrated over for you from the old DD site.)
- Comics stats: Each page will have
- Comic Layout Pro Controls: Better customization tools for comic page layouts

Timeline
The plan is to spend the next week and a half bug fixing and implementing the remaining OPEN issues. Then we will focus the month of June on what we are calling the Comic Layout PRO controls. The plan is to be done with that early in June so as to give you, (the community), the time you need to run both new and old systems side-by-side to identify and missing or broken functionality so we can get it in there by July 1st.

I hope I have not forgotten anything. Going forward, this will be "the list".

As you can see, we have been REALLY busy addressing site issues but most important to me is that I hope to be communicating to you all that we, (WOWIO), are indeed listening to you. We are listening to and implementing, (where we can), your feedback, your bug reports and functionality suggestions.

In addition to thanking all of you, I want to send a huge THANK YOU out to Oz, Skool and Srdt for keeping on me and the rest of the dev team to keep communicating when all we really want to do is bury ourselves away and just code. ;-)

As always, please continue to use the Get Satisfaction system to report any issues you find on the new OR original site.

Thank you,

L.