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Major changes at Blogivists.com
There will be an official announcement coming out this week, but I wanted to drop you a line letting you know why you’re seeing changes happen during the weekend.
First of all, regarding the server move that happened Friday night, it went pretty smoothly for the most part. We think we got all files and databases moved, and we think the domain structure is also fully intact. We are experiencing some slow downs on the backend (after you log in), but I think we’ll be able to iron those problems out this week.
You might notice significant decreases in the number of themes available. In fact, the theme you’re using may be taken out of the system during the next few days. The reason for this is that we’re getting ready for a major overhaul and software upgrade, and most of the themes we’re running are old, outdated, buggy and overall problematic to the site’s performance and visual appeal.
Chances are high that during the last week of January, there will only be about 20 themes available on Blogivists.com. Don’t worry though, we’re going to be installing some new themes that are much more modern, user friendly, up to date, bug free and visually appealing.
The same goes for plugins… many of our plugins were outdated. Some of them weren’t even supposed to be running with our current version of WordpressMU, so there was potential for serious damage within our code.
We’ve stripped out almost all of the plugins that were running on Blogivists.com. We’ll be taking a look at our current situation, the fixes that are coming with WPMU 2.7, and based on our findings, we’ll upload new plugins that will better fit our needs.
The support system will also go through a complete revamp. Instead of the old ticketing system, we’re now going to be using BBPress for a discussion forum setup. The cool thing about BBPress is that if you’re logged in to yoru blog, you’ll automatically be logged in to the forums and will have the same profile.
This should all be cleaned up, completed and ready to roll out in early February.
Thanks for hanging in there with us while we go through these changes!
-Eric Odom
February 1st, 2009 at 2:39 pm
We all understand that you must be very busy with the changes and inevitable problems, but as a Blogivist I know you also realize how important timely communication can be.
I am confident from knowing the results of your past efforts that the new Blogivist will exceed our expectations. I was just beginning to ramp up my blog, installing such improvements as slideshows and podcast audio. I was in the process of podcasting many of the founding documents including all of the Federalist papers when the switch began, and I hope that capability will remain in the new system.
Anyway, I understand that you are facing some huge tasks, but would just appreciate an update so that I can also post it on my blog. Not complaining, just looking for information.
Thanks,
Tim (tmc32)
http://knowsomuch.blogivists.com/
tmc32’s last blog post..Block Senate Stimulus Bill
February 1st, 2009 at 2:57 pm
I’m not sure if you got it or not, but we indeed sent out an update last Thursday I believe. It laid out specifics as to what we’re up to and what you can expect moving forward.
You should have gotten that update, but if you didn’t just let me know and I’ll forward it to the email address you used in the comment.
Also, we *should* have our support forums in place later today. Hopefully that will help a bit when questions like these arise.
Thanks,
-Eric
February 1st, 2009 at 9:02 pm
I did get the update that you resent this afternoon, and after checking through my my spam folders and the recycle bin I was able to find the original email. I get a couple hundred emails a day, mostly junk. I am usually pretty careful, but occasionally something important gets misdirected. My Bad!
Thanks for your quick response to my error.
Looking forward to the changes.
Tim
tmc32’s last blog post..Block Senate Stimulus Bill
February 1st, 2009 at 11:31 pm
No worries man… just glad we were able to get it to you.
BTW… we just opened up the support forums. Hopefully this will help a bit with this.
http://blogivists.com/forums/
-Eric