Admin: Coming Blowing Wind Forum 2015 Upgrade

[HendryTan]

1. Over the next few weeks the Mods and Admin will be testing an upgrade version of the blowing wind forum at another url.

We have taken many of the good suggestions by members / guest provided at http://www.blowingwind.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=62320

2. We will be sharing the new look and feature set when more are confirm.

So come back to this topic again.

3. We will need members to help provide feedback before we finally upgrade this main site .

As we have limited manpower ( we are doing it after our professional work) , we can only support a small group of previewers and testers .

For interested members, please apply here with your member's nick or send a PM to any of the mods.

 

 

On behalf of the Mods

Hendriy Tan

[HendryTan]

Thanks to the volunteer testers, we will be getting in touch with you this week.

We like people from different backgrounds to test and feedback. Just send in your application via PM to any Mod

[HendryTan]

Blowing Wind Forum Upgrade 2015

We will be previewing some of the new features in this topic in batches.

1. Security using SSL (https)

Many readers use public, company, school Internet to read blowingwind. With prevalence of Mobile WIFI, more people are using these too. However we know that these medium (wifi, public Internet) are susceptible to operators monitoring what you are reading/posting.

We are upgrading the BW forum to use SSL ie https://
This will encrypt all information between your browser and our BW servers.

This will definitely add more load to our BW servers, but we have decided that it is time we should just do it.

Note1: Yes you guess right, the mods have voted for a new URL for BlowingWind too. (Coming Soon)
Note2: Users still can use the older http://www.blowingwind.org/ URL after the upgrade.


2. HTTP 2 (TWO)

HTTP 2 is a new technology supported by the newer versions of browsers like Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox to make web page download faster.

We will be supporting HTTP 2 in the new release so we hope this will enable browsing experience to be faster.

Readers don't have to do anything, if you are on the latest browsers versions, the browsers will switch to http 2 to make your experience faster. We encourage everyone to update to the latest browsers release to enjoy the speedup.


3. Responsive User Design for Mobile Devices

More readers are surfing BlowingWind from their mobile devices. There are many feedback to make the User Interface more consistent between the PC/web and Mobile version.

The new upgraded software will support "Responsive Design". This is techie talk to make user interface similar on PC/Mobile and more functional even on mobile devices.

4. That is all for tonight batch announcement.
Will announce more enhancements soon.

[Guest Guest]

Note1: Yes you guess right, the mods have voted for a new URL for BlowingWind too. (Coming Soon)

Note2: Users still have can choose to use the older http://www.blowingwind.org/ URL after the upgrade.

 

What is new URL ?

[lovehandle]

thank u for the hard work

[Guest Guest]

Change might not always be the good thing , there are many web sites that have changed or upgraded and decline in numbers drastically and closed eventually ....most are comfortable being in a familiar environment . Hope no drastic changes....

[HendryTan]

1. Guys thanks for the words and encouragement .

2. We wound prefer NOT to change for change sake.

However the technology train of the Internet is in "Fast-Forward" mode, it introduces new mobile , http2, new ways to interact, social network etc. Not all are better as it has new bugs, new demand for hardware as well.

3. However we know that if we do NOT move forward and evolve, history has proven that readers will definitely choose newer web destinations and move away. Remember the Friendster, Yahoo of yester-years.

4 We are on this technology treadmill and we just have to constantly upgrade the site to keep BW current and relevant.


Cheers !

[darkflame]

Here's some feedback on the new site. Not sure if I should actually post here but here goes:

 

1. For replying statuses, I think a quick reply function will be better i.e. the current method in this forum.

Going to your own profile page to reply is a little cumbersome and may load longer for slower internet users.

2. Quick reply option in the threads is really good, especially with useful edit tools.

3. Message conversation format is good. Thanks for the change!

4. Deleted conversations can still be replied to. Is this a bug?

[Cube3]

Always grateful to our Mods + Admin! :clap: :clap: :clap:

[cloz8dude]

Wish I had seen this thread earlier, I'd really like to try out the preview version! Anywho, it would be great if you guys can make this forum work with Tapatalk:D It will be really convenient for those(like me) who use the tapatalk app on their phones to keep track of everything happening in this forum.

Edited December 23, 2015 by cloz8dude