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Side 7 v4.0 Success, v4.1 Coming - Started by: BadKarma
Side 7 v4.0 Success, v4.1 Coming
Posted: 10 Feb 2009, 04:18 PM

Greetings Side 7 Members,

Well, it's been a successful first two and a half weeks since the launch of the site. We've encountered very little in the way of problems with the new site. As such, I'd like to offer my congratulations to the Beta Test team for conducting an excellent effort finding and identifying bugs and problems before the launch. I don't think things would have gone anywhere near as smoothly without them.

The development of version 4.0 of the site took far longer than I had anticipated. As a result, it was decided that a large number of the features that were originally to be included in the new site were to be pushed off to version 4.1, and some even further to version 4.2. What was unforeseen was the fact that schedules dictated that a very tiny number of features would have to be back-burnered to a small incremental update (v4.0.1) that will be coming in the next week or two. This update will include the controls for profile images, as well as enabling the "View Images w/ Comments" and "View Favourited Images" options under the Gallery tab in the Account Management page.

Version 4.1 will be a large update, bringing with it a very large number of new features. Primary amongst those features are the addition of Music and Prose submissions to the site, so all you composers, writers, and musicians will be able to share your works with the public. Additionally, we will be adding in Creative Commons (http://www.creativecommons.org) controls so you can list licensing information with your works. Also, v4.1 will include a comic engine for Serial Art portfolios for those of you who create and publish web comics, doujinshis, and graphic novels.

For those of you with higher-level accounts, we'll be including embedded graphics that act as graphical banner-like links you can put on your web sites, journals, and other web presences. These embedded graphics will be available for individual images, as well as your full gallery. When viewed, they will show not only a thumb of the image (if it's an embed for an image) or the latest 5 thumbs from your gallery, but also your gallery's or image's URL. What better way to help garner attention for your gallery than having an auto-updating embedded image that shows off your latest uploads?

RSS feeds will be coming back to the site. Not only will there be an RSS feed for the Recent Uploads page, but also for the site news. Users with higher-level accounts will have their own custom RSS feeds they can share so others can keep up to date with their uploads.

Version 4.1 will also introduce site skins to the web site. These will allow you to choose how the site appears, not just in terms of colours, but in some cases graphically, as well. When we are closer to Side 7 v4.1 launching, Side 7 will have its first site skin design contest. Five winners will be chosen, and their designs will become part of the Side 7 experience as a user-selectable option. Those five winners will also be awarded one-year 5 Star upgrades. Other prizes may be offered as details are worked out.

There are, of course, many other features being included, far too many to be included in this e-mail. Needless to say, Side 7 v4.1 will be huge.

Thank you for your continued patronage and support for Side 7,
-- BK

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