YC Updates

I just thought I'd give everyone a heads up on what I am doing with YC in the next few weeks. I've taken the initiative to learn the PHP programming language (like really learn) so that I could upkeep with this site on my own from now on without relying too heavily on developers. So, here's what's going to happen:

1. Redesign of the site, once again. Despite my semi-decent knowledge of css-design, I had no idea how to design IPB and the network before. However now I understand the elements involved, and hopefully this next skin will be much more successful, and fast.

2. I've decided to go with blues, purples and whites for the main design, with a minimalistic approach. We'll see how well that goes for us, although I will keep this red theme as an option for those of you who are liking it so far (YC Modern).

3. I've educated myself on how to integrate IPB and the network, so that I can upgrade anytime I want. Once upgraded, I most likely will depreciate the Feed and profile forum feed. In replace of this, we can simply use that area to keep track of your "whats on your mind" posts.

4. I am going to be replacing our standard flash player with a much better looking player, that can handle multiple movements.

5. I'll be adding a "groups" feature, where group leaders can PM everyone within their groups. This will come in handy for competition reminders, and other group functions.

6. And finally, my main goal is to tidy up this site before I start mass marketing it for the real reason why we are here. We will have our own online internet radio station, and each night I'd like to broadcast certain works of people from this site. We will invite groups of people to listen in, into a chatroom while everyone tunes into the YC radio. Discussion on pieces will take place in this chatroom, and I am hoping we can make this a nightly habit.

1. Redesign of the site, once again. Despite my semi-decent knowledge of css-design, I had no idea how to design IPB and the network before. However now I understand the elements involved, and hopefully this next skin will be much more successful, and fast.

2. I've decided to go with blues, purples and whites for the main design, with a minimalistic approach. We'll see how well that goes for us, although I will keep this red theme as an option for those of you who are liking it so far (YC Modern).

Another skin and design... already? Why not just tweak the YC Modern design. I think, and I'm sure others on the site do as well, that YC Modern is perhaps the BEST skin since all the changes have come around. Just tweak it up. Fix the IE9 errors. No need to really completely overall it.

3. I've educated myself on how to integrate IPB and the network, so that I can upgrade anytime I want. Once upgraded, I most likely will depreciate the Feed and profile forum feed. In replace of this, we can simply use that area to keep track of your "whats on your mind" posts.

Elaborate?

4. I am going to be replacing our standard flash player with a much better looking player, that can handle multiple movements.

No Complaints Here.

5. I'll be adding a "groups" feature, where group leaders can PM everyone within their groups. This will come in handy for competition reminders, and other group functions.

Elaborate?

6. And finally, my main goal is to tidy up this site before I start mass marketing it for the real reason why we are here. We will have our own online internet radio station, and each night I'd like to broadcast certain works of people from this site. We will invite groups of people to listen in, into a chatroom while everyone tunes into the YC radio. Discussion on pieces will take place in this chatroom, and I am hoping we can make this a nightly habit.

I like the idea of the radio and chat. Not sure if it can logistically be ran every night. Would require a lot of dedicated followers to even warrant it. I would say, do it 1 or 2 times a week. That way it's not causing a lot of work for the person hosting the radio chat AND you have more of an audience.

I just thought I'd give everyone a heads up on what I am doing with YC in the next few weeks. I've taken the initiative to learn the PHP programming language (like really learn) so that I could upkeep with this site on my own from now on without relying too heavily on developers. So, here's what's going to happen:

1. Redesign of the site, once again. Despite my semi-decent knowledge of css-design, I had no idea how to design IPB and the network before. However now I understand the elements involved, and hopefully this next skin will be much more successful, and fast.

2. I've decided to go with blues, purples and whites for the main design, with a minimalistic approach. We'll see how well that goes for us, although I will keep this red theme as an option for those of you who are liking it so far (YC Modern).

3. I've educated myself on how to integrate IPB and the network, so that I can upgrade anytime I want. Once upgraded, I most likely will depreciate the Feed and profile forum feed. In replace of this, we can simply use that area to keep track of your "whats on your mind" posts.

4. I am going to be replacing our standard flash player with a much better looking player, that can handle multiple movements.

5. I'll be adding a "groups" feature, where group leaders can PM everyone within their groups. This will come in handy for competition reminders, and other group functions.

6. And finally, my main goal is to tidy up this site before I start mass marketing it for the real reason why we are here. We will have our own online internet radio station, and each night I'd like to broadcast certain works of people from this site. We will invite groups of people to listen in, into a chatroom while everyone tunes into the YC radio. Discussion on pieces will take place in this chatroom, and I am hoping we can make this a nightly habit.

Okay, some of this is *sigh* not again, but the last one, I have to say is AWESOME! I like the idea of a YC radio featuring the works of the composers on here. Overall, I think this is good though.

Good luck Mr. Chopin. Good luck indeed.

WHAT ? You are not going to argue anything ? Do you have a cold ?

Someone hacked his account.

Mostly sounds good to me, although I get worried whenever many changes are implemented all at once. Like Jason, I think the radio thing every night is a little ambitious, but I'm curious to test it out. If you can get groups running again that might be cool too.

Well, my main goal is to get to the last point. But to get there, the site needs work, and a better and more fluid design. The design is coming along, I will use much of what we have on the YC Modern, however I'm going blue, and simple. To "elaborate" on the two points for Jay, the "what's on your mind" posts to the right of the forum (where you enter in what you are doing), will also be on your profile, so it's easy to keep track of comments. The wall feed will be depreciated for now because I will be doing a lot of clean up work. Elgg (the main network structure) will be upgraded, along with the integration. Because I know how to integrate systems now, I can also integrate Mediawiki myslef. Thus, I can upgrade any time I want now which is a huge plus.

Groups is a cool modification that I will buy for IPB. It's sophisticated, and the forum handles groups better than the network. The network will be used mainly for the quick comments, favoriting music, searching the music directory, etc.

The radio will be on a subdomain radio.youngcomposers.com. This isn't set up though, so don't bother going there yet. It will be a very simple page, just a link to the radio, that's all.

Oh, and the homepage will have a cool visual forum map pointing to the various parts of the uploads on the forum. I might make use of flash, or html 5.0, but either way, we need a nice visual for the homepage.

Overall, this place will be much cleaner and more intuitive to navigate, especially since now I understand how to edit the site, and clean up everything myself.

Someone hacked his account.

Nah, that was all me.

Can you make sure it all works before you bring it live? Please?

I'm not sure I like the idea of the blue colors. It was wayyy to bright last time you had it blue - that kind of worries me. As someone who is colorblind, I like the distinction of neutral, darker colors - it enables me (and I'm sure others) to be able to crisply see the site's text, etc. I'll just have to bite my tongue on it (or at least my fingers.) I still don't see the need to change the site color scheme/layout again - we've not even had time to get used to YC Modern thoroughly enough AND I think, again, it is a very well designed page - despite the problems it has in IE9.

I think the problem is that you're still using IE9

:lol: :P

jk ;)

I think the problem is that you're still using IE9

:lol: :P

jk ;)

I only use Mozilla. Others have had problems with IE9.

Don't worry, I am using a test site right now for everything. When we go live, it won't be nearly as dramatic as it had been in the past. As for the blue colors, let me see what I can come up with, it may not be as bad as you think. YC Modern is still a prototype skin anyway, it isn't mean to be the final product. I will most likely model the new skin off of this one, however I am interested to see how this site will look with a simple design. The whole point is to increase usability, and if a simple design has this effect, then this will be our route.

Don't worry, I am using a test site right now for everything. When we go live, it won't be nearly as dramatic as it had been in the past. As for the blue colors, let me see what I can come up with, it may not be as bad as you think. YC Modern is still a prototype skin anyway, it isn't mean to be the final product. I will most likely model the new skin off of this one, however I am interested to see how this site will look with a simple design. The whole point is to increase usability, and if a simple design has this effect, then this will be our route.

Consider this: The only issues you have with YC Modern are it's being able to run on IE9 AND the brown color (which is easily addressed). YC Modern is the most simplest layout we have had on this forum in QUITE some time. I understand it is a prototype BUT.. of all the prototypes we have had in the past... it is the only one that has been successfully received by the community. That says a lot really, imho.

And that's why I am going to expand upon this prototype, and migrate parts of it to the wiki and network. I also don't think the issues exist anymore with IE9. Where's Peter :P

This skin is not integrated with the rest of the site, which is why it will remain a prototype until I redo the other parts.

Dear everyone:

Hate the colors on a site? Set up a user stylesheet. Hell, you can even change most of the layout if it's not coded badly.

Have problems with IE9? So does everyone else. It's a radically different browser. And no, making cross-browser css work isn't as easy as you'd think. Add to that the fact that IE9 only works on the latest versions of Windows, and you have a small userbase. You're using a browser with only 3% of 24% of the internet. You're using a browser with less than a percent of userbase. You're using a browser that has less primary users than Opera. (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp) That's no excuse for not working on it (which is happening), but just that bugs will happen and the vast majority of the world won't care.

That said - Chopin, we need to optimize workflow and think about what you want to consider a "conversion," especially after signup has already happened. The fact that I can never remember what set of screens I need to navigate through to upload an work is kinda annoying.

Ahem.

THE MODERN SKIN HAS SOLVED A TON OF THE ISSUES I'VE BEEN GRIPING ABOUT WITH IE9!

That is all.

I only use Mozilla. Others have had problems with IE9.

Ah, I see. Good for you! Well, I guess since there are still people with IE....yes, it would be good to make sure they can use the site

A radio...?

when it be fully working?

Question:

I noticed that the section of the forums have gone missing, The upload section, and has been moved to the archives. My question is: when we upload music to the site where it go? I know it goes to the server. Did you change something? and why?