What Is Being Worked On?

[Andy Millne]

Just thought I'd give you all some insight into what is currently being worked on for the town domains and ask for some feedback at the same time.

General Integration

The member bar that appears in the top right will be available through the entire site not just the community features.

Site Pages

Firstly, the news pages and static pages (Town Info etc.) will be getting a major overhaul and I'll be making it a lot easier to submit new content and also edit existing pages in a similar vein to wikipedia (The site is about collaboration after all). Article comments will work in a very similar way to posting in the forums and post counts will carry across. Also you will be able to rate articles.

The homepage sidebar will be reworked to better present the notifications of latest calendar, gallery, classified entries etc. They are a bit all over the place at the moment. I may even see if I can make it so people can show/hide these widgets on an one-by-one basis.

Classifieds and Business Directory

Both will be getting integration improvements. Classifieds will also be syndicated between the Morpeth and Bedlington domains.

The Business Directory will be getting search, category and mapping support. Not only that it is going to be listed as "Shopping" in the menu and will feature more than a bland directory, it will feature local shopping tips and all traders will be able to post special offers to appear alongside. Local Traders get in touch for ways we can help you!

Issue Tracker

The issue tracker will also be getting mapping support and private issues e.g. Submit a report to the relevant person without it being publically viewable. I'm debating adding anonymous submissions so they can still be tracked publicly but the original poster is kept anonymous.

Galleries

Too many to list but a better slideshow, reputation system carried to comments, Image rotation, Restrict galleries to your friends list and image notes are some of the highlights.

Search

The current search is pap and relies on people knowing advanced search techniques such as enclosing a phrase in "" to match the whole phrase or using -word to exclude words or +word to require them. This will become a lot easier.

That's about all I can think of at the moment but if you've got any suggestions let me know.

[Malcolm Robinson]

GGGG,

What about a dedicated page or whatever, you know how much of a luddite I am, where community groups can put up a poster which can then be downloaded and printed off. We could soon have a band of flyposters of course but maybe some might like to take it around their particuler areas and ask shops, offices etc to put them up? I know a lot of people who still don't know what is going on in the Market Place in the run

up to Xmas.

Would it be too much trouble to get a clear A4 size image?

If it was done responsibly you could always tag Bed.co.uk on the bottom?

[Andy Millne]

GGGG,

What about a dedicated page or whatever, you know how much of a luddite I am, where community groups can put up a poster which can then be downloaded and printed off. We could soon have a band of flyposters of course but maybe some might like to take it around their particuler areas and ask shops, offices etc to put them up? I know a lot of people who still don't know what is going on in the Market Place in the run

up to Xmas.

Would it be too much trouble to get a clear A4 size image?

If it was done responsibly you could always tag Bed.co.uk on the bottom?

Paper?!!? what the £"$34! is that?

It's certainly possible and essentially what the editorial accounts allow them to do. They can publish a story and add attachments whenever they like. This will be much improved very shortly and there won't be a need to request an editorial account you can just submit as you would a forum post.

The problem with sharing oldey fashioned posters for printing is the file formats. How many community groups are going to know that not everybody can read their publisher document or powerpoint presentations? Ultimately this would reflect badly on the site if a user on a slow connection spends some time downloading a file and then finds out they can't open it. There is a fairly standard format for this kind of thing which is PDF though so I suppose if they were educated to the nuances of the internet and we insisted on that format then I don't see why not.

Did you have any particular groups in mind?

[Malcolm Robinson]

I am thinking more into the future as it happens but I guess there are plenty of community groups now who will be holding events, bring and buy, dances, little fundraisers and the like who could benefit from being able to get 'posters' out to a wider audience. People who might not get the originals could be putting downloaded copies up in workplaces, surgeries, supermarkets etc……

I have just been asked today what will be on in the market place over the next 2 weeks. I know there is a poster for these events, if it could be downloaded, with a Bed.co.uk tag line, two birds one stone?

[Andy Millne]

I guess there are plenty of community groups now who will be holding events, bring and buy, dances, little fundraisers and the like who could benefit from being able to get 'posters' out to a wider audience.

OK wait and see how the news is handled once I've finished this round of improvements and we'll see if more needs to be done.