Site upgrade planned in next month

Always wanted to get a site revamp up since last year, but just do not have the time and commitment to do so. I guess I has been more busy creating and building websites for my clients that I think that I am starting to neglect this very site. Bummer.

Furthermore, in the age of code compliance, web 2.0 shit obsession, this design conceived around 2001 is starting to show it’s age, still spotting tables and hard-coded styles which can send any other webmaster snickering in the darkness. I guess I am not doing justice for the site I call my own.

This revamp to design 12.5 version v1.0 will “grow” up abit, but still retain much of the site’s look, colour and layout, but will spot a more clean and user-friendly backend. It will be less database intensive despite the increased number of functions, sounds along the pitch of “increased horsepower with lesser emissions?”, maybe, to auto manufacturers.

Maybe the difference is that I ain’t needing any bailout here. With the jokes aside, this upgrade/revamp will also mark a new start in my life as well. This old design was for my transition from secondary to JC/Army/Poly, this new design will be dedicated for my time in college and doing my masters. Now, only to get it all coded by the end of next month.

The updates, as planned.

User orientated and accessibility features

• User customizable module layout (planned)
• 3 levels of user defined site-wide font setting (currently only on the blog)
• Fixed or fluid site width
• All settings and user fields are saved for all site components (avatars, comments and shoutbox)

Code improvements for faster page loading

• Full table-less CSS driven site
• Condensation of all JS files (currently about 5) into one
• Condensation of all CSS files (currently about 3-4) to one
• iframe-less div scrollable shoutbox
• Re-writing and cutting down on queries of certain functions
• New backend integration and facility for article, tutorial management

The ability to have a single CSS file will simply many of the wants I always wanted for the site, such as the ability to change the site colours on the fly by loading in another CSS file, currently most of the styles are hardcoded in the template, so that will be quite a pain to change. Now I can get the site to automatically say load a white look for the site for Christmas, a black one for Halloween and say maybe a red-white one for national and on!

Furthermore, much of the site content will be revamped I find few sections of the site quite irrelevant on the site now, considering these had been here since the site started. This also catered to the needs of my users and backed using statistical evidence on popular pages. Those getting the hook will be the photo galleries as well as the links section:

Site content re-arrangement

• Expansion of about and portfolio sections
• New “column” page for articles
• Addition of apparel store
• Removal of photo galleries (who visits them anyway haha)
• Removal of links section
• Various re-organization of content for SEO

Same as always, the site will always be Ad-free! (who likes ads anyway).