v4.0 Beta Test ends today. So far, everything is looking peachy keen. There were some major issues found and fixed. There were a lot of little minor things found and fixed. And there were a lot of things I realised I had forgotten about, which have been put into place. After today, I'll perform a final checklist walk-through, ensure all the necessary cron jobs are in place, and perform a few tests of the updated migration system (which has had a few extra functions put into place).


Once I'm satisfied with the status of things, v3 will be shut down and backed up. Then, v4.0 will migrate in all the v3 data while it is static, then be moved to a live server filespace, and then turned on. As far as things are looking right now, v4.0 might just be launched before the end of the weekend.

Cross your fingers.

-- BK

That's fantastic! I can't wait for it to launch so I can convince all my friends to join. And have a place to upload my photography where it'll actually be seen, finally.

Consider my fingers crossed Hope it all goes smoothly!

We'll be there with bells on.

The new version looks beautiful! ^^ I must admit, I had some non-s7ers shoulder-surfing while I was testing out the beta, and they said it looked so cool that they might just have to join. Aaaaand, it even looks great on a Mac using Firefox.

Navi1101:

The new version looks beautiful! ^^ I must admit, I had some non-s7ers shoulder-surfing while I was testing out the beta, and they said it looked so cool that they might just have to join. Aaaaand, it even looks great on a Mac using Firefox.

Wicked! I'm happy to hear that.

And thank you very much!

-- BK

The new layout is astounding. I had completely forgotten about this place until I got an email. I'm excited to try everything out.

Kitsunia:

The new layout is astounding. I had completely forgotten about this place until I got an email. I'm excited to try everything out.

Much appreciated! Thank you!

-- BK

Everything appears ship shape captin karma the new site is smooth sailing so far.

The design is wickedly easy to navigate through and the upload system makes for a lot of easy uploads per pic which really makes S7 stand out more in a crowd when uploading artworks, the structure is good and stable and the design is eyepleasing but not over the top.

Can't wait to see what other goodies are in store for the site in the next upcoming months.

It looks excellent, Bad Karma.

I like having the sign-in thingy on the front page. The gallery looks much easier to navigate, too. Upload works great, too.

At first, I couldn't read the text in my account's Overview section unless I highlighted it. Forcing FireFox to reload the page fixed that, so no worries there.

It would be nice if the "Quick Reference" links in the Overview section worked, but I figure that's something you have planned for the future.

Er, why is the word "as.sociated" swear filtered into "acornociated" in one of my comments? --> http://www.side7.com/image.cgim?image_id=329687 Or this forum, for that matter?

Now I have to go around and try to remember everywhere I've posted the URL to Side 7.


Addendum ~ And now I learn how to get to my own gallery in a simple and easy click. Well, feez, that was so easy I easily overlooked it.

the new site looks awesome so far
altrhough I cant seem to find the "next page" inthe recernt uploads site.. or isnt there one... >.>

Roadstripe:

It looks excellent, Bad Karma.

I like having the sign-in thingy on the front page. The gallery looks much easier to navigate, too. Upload works great, too.

At first, I couldn't read the text in my account's Overview section unless I highlighted it. Forcing FireFox to reload the page fixed that, so no worries there.

It would be nice if the "Quick Reference" links in the Overview section worked, but I figure that's something you have planned for the future.

Yeah, I should make those real links. The original intention was just to have them there for reference for the site members, but making them actual links would be better.

Quote:

Er, why is the word "as.sociated" swear filtered into "acornociated" in one of my comments? --> [http://www.side7.com/image.cgim?image_id=329687](http://www.side7.com/image.cgim?image_id=329687) Or this forum, for that matter?

Now I have to go around and try to remember everywhere I've posted the URL to Side 7.

Addendum ~ And now I learn how to get to my own gallery in a simple and easy click. Well, feez, that was so easy I easily overlooked it.

It's showing as "acornociated" because the profanity filter isn't being as selective as I'd like. I need to fix the entry for that word. sigh

Hehe, there are already some link redirections in place so old links aren't broken, but I probably don't have them all. Any link suggestions would be appreciated.

-- BK

posesimo:

the new site looks awesome so far
altrhough I cant seem to find the "next page" inthe recernt uploads site.. or isnt there one... >.>

It was removed from the Recent Uploads site because log data implied people didn't use the next/previous links on the old site. However, it can certainly be brought back if necessary.

-- BK

I'd like a direct link to today's uploads more, personally. But I really love the new design. I'm going to be playing with this for a while. Thanks so much for all your hard work, BK!

I'm not sure I fully understand what you mean. Can you explain or give an example?

-- BK

Well, in the previous version, if you go to recent uploads, there was a link to "view today's uploads" at the top of the page. I usually browsed recently uploaded art that way, rather than by recent uploads. Of course, there is the browse by date function in the top bar, but I liked having the more quickly accessible link.

Ah, gotcha! Yeah, that could be brought back.

-- BK

I had to update my bookmark because it directed to http://www.side7.com/cgi-bin/S7SDB/Display.pl?act=main , the old front page, which at first gave me a 403: Forbidden error, and now gives me a 404: Not Found.

The error pages look nice, btw. ^.~

I think with links to active threads on the front page, you're going to see a lot more Forum activity too...

Hey Navi,

The main page link has been fixed, and is now redirecting. Thanks for the head's up.

And thanks for the compliments on the error pages.

-- BK

OMG I looove the little motto on the top of the main page! I just noticed it! ^^ "Great Art. Less Drama." That's the whole reason why I moved here from dA. WIN!

<33333

So am I the only person who absolutely hates the new layout and doesn't want to upload here anymore because it looks so flashy and bright?

Also, I don't know if it's just me but I can't seem to download a.k.a save-to-file any of my own art in my gallery. It saves every image as a certain clearpixel.gif and is, as it states, a single white pixel, nothing more. It would be grand if someone could tell me if that's normal or not. If normal, then yea I'm definitely not uploading here anymore.

It's a form of image protection. Image protection is something that has been asked for more often than not, and so we have worked hard to provide what we can in that realm.

If you need copies of your own artwork, then we can make arrangements to .zip up your files and send them to the e-mail address we have in your account. All you have to do is use the Questions, Comments, Suggestions link under Help & Support > Report A Problem or the Contact Us link at the bottom of every page.

Otherwise, I'm sorry that the new web design doesn't meet with your approval. We had many complaints about the site being too dark, and so we've tried to meet the goal of lightening it up, without making the site overly flashy.

Version 4.1 is in the works, and with it will come site skins, meaning you'll be able to pick from a variety of colour and graphical schemes, and yes, there will be dark ones in there. You may wish to hold off your hasty retreat until after v4.1 launches. We will be holding a contest for people to help design the new site skins. This would be your chance to have a direct influence on how the site looks, in a way that is pleasing to you.

If not, I wish the best of luck to you.

I really like the NEW layout of this website, to me it looks soo much better. Before it was rather dark, and kinda gloomy-like. I like how one can hold up to "300" pictures instead of "100". The only thing I kinda miss is the "comment grading" system, getting "between one to ten" account credits.

Beside that, I think the new upgrade is really AWESOME!

P.S.: It would hurt to put how the "Bronze, Silver, and Gold stars" work in giving account credits in the "FAQs" page, so everyone knows about it.

I hate to admit it, but that was supposed to be in v4.0. Due to time constraints, it was left out and will be rolled into v4.1.

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Beside that, I think the new upgrade is really AWESOME!

P.S.: It would hurt to put how the "Bronze, Silver, and Gold stars" work in giving account credits in the "FAQs" page, so everyone knows about it.

That's a very good idea. I shall put that into the FAQ.

-- BK