Just a brief update to let everyone know that I have been working on some new pages that should be ready soon.
There are also several minor updates (general improvements) that will be sprinkled around the site. Those things you'll notice when you bump into them, but they are not completely obvious. For example, you'll be able to drag some windows around which previously were stuck wherever they opened. There are performance improvements and graphics improvements here and there. Again, nothing shocking, but you'll just kind of notice some minor things as you go around.
This is actually a substantial update, in that the majority of pages are affected, but because many of the changes are internal, you may not see much difference.
The biggest change will be a really cool, brand new member profile page. You'll be able to see expanded information and stats about members, and -- FINALLY -- you will be able to see and use Favorites!
So here's the deal on Favorites: Lots of you have been tagging Favorites in the topic threads by clicking the little Favorites button, and selecting Favorite Topic, Forum and/or Member from the popup menu.
Well, the first change is that you'll get one more option in that menu: Favorite Post. Now in addition to saving an entire Topic as a Favorite, you can save one individual post as a Favorite Post.
There are two other types of Favorites that I'm building support for: Favorite Blogs and Favorite Blog Entries. You'll see space reserved on the new Favorites page for these two things, but I have not yet built the part that lets you tag a blog or blog entry as a Favorite. That will happen in the near future, but the important part for now is that all the support is built-in, so once it is ready, it will be instantly available to use and view.
Next, I think you'll really like the page that displays Favorites. Each member has the ability to share their Favorites list, or to keep the Favorites list(s) private. The default is to share your Favorites. Most people will want to share their Favorites, as it is a nice way to indicate which parts of Lottery Post YOU feel are best, but the option exists to hide your Favorites if you are so inclined.
The six Favorite lists that everyone gets (Favorite members, forums, topics, posts, blog, and blog entries) can be individually configured to share or keep private. For example, you can share your list of topics, but keep your list of posts private. Again, most people will probably share everything. (Note, you cannot share or hide individual items, only the whole list is shared or private.)
The Favorites list will be integrated into the new Member Profile page, as one of the tabs. When you're viewing your own Favorites you'll get extra options to edit your list and change sharing options.
One of the things I am really excited about in this new upcoming release is a lot of AJAX functionality. Non-technical folks may think I'm talking about cleaning supplies, but what I'm actually referring to is a technology that gets the page loaded quicker, and then reaches back to the Lottery Post computer for other bits of the page, only as they are required.
These technologies are sometimes referred to as "Web 2.0", because they make the Internet experience feel more like an application running on your PC, with fast response and fast interactivity that does not require a reload of the entire page every time.
There is some very advanced stuff going into this release, and I'm anxious to hear how you all like it. I personally think it's great, but in reality it's only great if it serves the purpose of making lottery-related information easier to attain and quicker to use.
I hope that I'll be able to install the new pages over the next couple of days, so if at some point you see the site acting funny, just give it a few minutes and try again.