We would like to wish all our members and guests, a Merry Christmas, a Happy Hanukkah, a Cool Kwanzaa or whatever you happen to celebrate at this time of year. :)
I think now's about the right time to let you all in on a few plans we've been working on here for the site.
First up is the newsletter. Some of you may have noticed the little sign-up box over on the left hand side of every page on the site. Well, we've finally gotten to the point where there's quite a few recipients willing to receive the newsletter, so all being well, we be sending out Volume 1, Issue 1 on January 1st, 2004.
Thank you all for your suggestions and ideas for the newsletter, and please keep them coming. Some of the feedback we received was great, and a few ideas are being implemented, and some may take a while to work their way in.
We are also currently looking at running some competitions on the site. We do have some sponsors who have offered some great prizes, so keep an eye out for that one. We'll be posting more news and info on those as things start to come together.
The biggest thing regarding the site right now is that we're currently in the process of developing a new version of the site. It will essentially remain the same, as far as navigation goes, however there will be quite a bit more content being added when it goes up, and the site will run a lot smoother and faster. All the current software is either being upgraded, optimized or completely rewritten to help speed things up a bit.
The site has grown to the point where it won't be able to hold up for long if the traffic continues to grow at the rate it has been this past year. So, these upgrades and modifications will help us handle much more traffic than we're already receiving (Thanks everybody!).
Along with a major site overhaul and upgrade will be new features. Some of the existing sections of the site, such as the shows database, will be completed and streamlined to be a bit more useful, and we will be expanding the functionality of these areas to enhance your browsing experience on the site.
There are a couple of other big things that are coming as part of the site upgrade, but I do want to leave a couple of surprises for you all so I'm not going to say anything about them just yet.
The overhaul of the site is a HUGE undertaking (we're basically recreating nearly 4 years of work), so don't expect any changes overnight. If we manage to stay on schedule, this upgrade should happen near the end of February. I will be taking the site off-line during this process, but I will let everybody know well in advance that it's going to happen so you can all be prepared.
Again, happy holidays to all, and thank you for visiting The Reptile Rooms!
