Changes Coming About

No doubt you've read some of our other announcements regarding an upcoming upgrade to our software. Although we do not know the exact date that these changes will all take effect, this upgrade is imminent; and we thought it might be a good idea to let you know a few of the changes that will be in store for you.

Many of these changes have already been made and tested on our test site - a second copy of this main site with limited access that contains the most up-to-date Drupal releases and modules. As we get closer to being ready to upgrade this site, some of these changes and new features are being retro-fitted onto this site to help with the transition of content. Because of the differences in software, not every change can be back-ported, but we're doing our best.

Rating

The rating feature for the upgraded site has been finished and tested. Comments and commenting formats are fixed and there is no more teaser view for the review comments. Instead, you will have the opportunity to rate each blog directly in one of the five categories as decribed before. Just as before, rating a blog entry is not required, and you don't have to rate each of the five categories (you can instead choose to rate just one of the categories). However, points toward the Blogging For Scholarship contest is on a per-rate system... which means if you rate all 5 categories, you will receive 5 points for the rating. We strongly urge you to rate - and rate fairly - using the new rating system.

Profiles

Some of you might have seen Fanaile Essence lurking around for the past few days... again. This time, she has gone through and cleaned up our member profiles pages. These new profiles are one of the features she's been working on at the new test site and we were finally able to get the feature back-ported. Each member may now create one Biography - by either clicking on the "Create Content" link on the right, or by clicking on the "Biography" tab on their account page. Members who do not create a biography cannot receive comments on their profile page. To see a completed profile, you may visit Fanaile Essence's profile here. There are still some things we're working on - such as re-establishing the Private Message links on the profile. But in the meantime, the key features of these profiles are in place and ready to use.

Teasers

Although this is one feature that cannot be backported, once the upgrade has been completed, you will have more control over the teaser lengths of your blog entries. While you are creating, or editing, one of your blog entries you will be given the option of either allowing our system to automatically set the teaser length... or you may manually set the teaser length yourself. We recommend allowing the system to set the teaser length; however, setting it manually can be useful in terms of ensuring that no HTML tags are broken - leaving the rest of the page skewed.

Layout

While we can't seem to figure out why our layout is so skewed on some of these pages (where the information that belongs on the bottom of the page moves to the right hand side) - the upgrade thus far seems to have fixed these layout issues.

Cleaner Menu

Once the upgrade is complete, the menu system will be changed drastically to cut down on the long list of links shown to the right. Make sure to watch for some of those changes as some of the menu items will be disappearing and others will be moved.

Buddy List Changes

This upgrade is one of the delays behind our upgrade right now. Drupal's new Buddy List system requires that you send a friend request, and that request must be approved before the other member can be added to your Buddy List. While this system is popular among other social networking sites, and has been requested by some of our members, Fanaile Essence is trying to work on a way of saving your current buddy lists. There is a chance that once the upgrade is complete, you will need to re-build your buddy lists from scratch.

Apply for Role

Another back-ported feature from the test site... the Apply For Role tab that you can find on your account page allows you to apply to join our faculty with the click of a button rather than by sending emails that can be lost or filling out long forms. If you would like to volunteer to moderate the site and help other college students get the most out of our services, simply click on the "My Account" link, and then click on "Apply For Role".

Other Ideas

While we're working on the upgrade, we'd like to hear from you regarding other new features that you would like to see... or perhaps old features that you feel are antiquated or not needed. We're working on a cleaner, less cluttered look to go along with our upgrade. So if you have ideas or would like to see specific changes, let us know by leaving a comment here or sending a private message to Fanaile Essence or to Chelle.