About the new version of the site

Obviously you've figured out by now that we've launched a new version of PointBuzz, the first since its debut in 2004 as the combined efforts of Guide to The Point and Virtual Midway. We have a lot of goals in mind with his new version. Here are a few of them:

• Concentrate on where the people go. We realized looking at the stats that Walt, who serves more as the content guy while I act as the programmer, was spending a lot of time on content that no one was really using. The volume was so enormous that much of it became very outdated. For that reason, we're going to concentrate on news, community and the gallery (photos and video). This isn't to say there aren't other things we'll add, but that's the focus. There's no point in duplicating a bunch of stuff that's already on the official Cedar Point site.
• Fast, fast, fast. The old site was based on four-year-old code I wrote, which was in turn based on code from three or four years before that. It hasn't scaled well. So far, most pages are rendered in less than 1/10 of a second, and averaging 5/100 of a second. Long threads will no longer bog down the server.
  
• Search. Yeah, I'll take responsibility for that one. The old search code was so bad that I turned it off. It's back. It'll take another hour or two from the time of this post before it's done indexing, but it's getting there.
• Beautiful images. Walt and I both love photography, and Walt in particular is out of control with the scope of his photos. We wanted to really show that stuff off. You've been using the photo app for months, but now it fits within the site. There are some photos that are too big, but we'll fix that eventually. Also, we've got a lot of work to do in terms of tagging. Please be patient.

There are some known issues too...

• PointBuzz Premium isn't quite working, but it's at the top of my priority list, and I'm working on restoring it. I appreciate the patience.
• "Missing" forum features. I know that there's no avatars or recent topics, and I'm working on those.
• Formatting weirdness can be found here and there. It may take awhile to clean that up.

Overall, it may feel like it's not totally done here and there, and I'm OK with that. Waiting for a big bang launch would have denied you the chance to start playing today, and I didn't want that.

Have fun... we're looking forward to a great 2008 season!

Again; great job Walt and Jeff! Its a great!

It's all Web 2.0-like, very well done!

I really like the new way the site looks. Is this officially "PointBuzz 2.0"?

Great job Walt and Jeff! This new version is awesome!

It's awesome. You guys obviously put a lot of work into this site and getting the updated version launched. Great Job! :)

I love the look of the new site and look forward to seeing the updated Coasterbuzz site as well.

Great work!

It's so Web 2.0. I love it.

I was a bit surprised to see this webpage load initially, I was like, "what is this?" I am glad to see/read the updates on PB and look forward to the added features.

Thanks Jeff and Walt.

I don't care for it at all. I'm sure you put a lot of work

into it, and I guess you can call me old fashioned, but the

old site was a lot easier to navigate. I was comfortable and

used to where everything was, and I don't see the need for

the change. The old site was great.

Think of the changes you see as just some re-arranging of minor things at the front desk of a warehouse.

The entire warehouse has been gutted and rebuilt to be more efficient. Its just that they rearranged the pictures on the receptionists desk when they did so.

**EDIT**

I wouldn't mind seeing theme's for the site. Each user can choose their own color scheme and background settings to kinda make PB custom for each user. It'll still look pretty much the same just with different colors for everyone. Just a thought though.

I wouldn't mind seeing theme's for the site. Each user can choose their own color scheme and background settings to kinda make PB custom for each user.

Almost like Ask.com.

That would be really neat. Where someone could pick a ride and a background color. But I do love how the site looks now. I can't say enough. Great Job Jeff and Walt!!

A great Christmas present to all of us! Thanks very much Jeff & Walt!!!

What the old pointbuzz had was the posts that someone had just recently posted in on the front page. How do you find that here on the new site?

Hmm, that's odd? Anyone else showing the posts that they posted showing that they posted it yesterday when it was actually posted it today?

P.S. Also thanks for the expandable text box too! :)

The time formatting should be fixed.

Great job Jeff and Walt! I like the new look.

site looks great guys

Oooo, I like the dark blue title bar. That separates the "re" from the response better. I noticed the "full profile" doesn't have a link now.

I like the new color for the title bar. Nice work!