Upcoming changes for goTitans.com

What's the deal with the front page?
Due to no longer having the time to manually update the front page, I'm moving towards a page which updates automatically and is designed to compliment the forum.

What you are seeing now is not what you'll see at the start of the 2010 season. I'm currently testing the reliability of various news feeds. When the front page is finished, it will be a place to quickly catch up with Tennessee Titans news, twitter feeds, the latest and most active forum threads, video and audio feeds and more. The goal here is to allow a fan to go to one place and catch up with the team in less than a minute's time.

What else can we expect to happen before the 2010 season?
Some of the changes will be "behind-the-scenes" and go unnoticed by our members. Others will be. Besides a new front page, here's a quick rundown:

1. New, faster server. The days of the database error are nearing the end. We'll be making a switch in a few months to server which can handle our cpu needs. Yes, even on gameday.

2. New design. Though some of you are new to the forum, we've had the same design now for three years. It's time to make some changes.

3. Updated forum software. This is the biggest change you'll notice. Our current forum software is outdated and at risk for hacking and other issues. vBulletin made a dramatic update to their software earlier this year. It's more secure with more features such as a build-in blog and CMS. Since I hesitate to make any switch as soon as new software is introduced, I'm waiting for more bugs to be squashed and more of those extras (like the gameroom, high-five, etc.) to be written for this new version.

Obviously, not all will embrace change. But I've done (and continue to do) research which I feel will improve the user experience.

When will this happen?
I think our server switch will happen in mid-May with, hopefully, the forum software update and design changes to be in place by training camp.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask in this forum.

 

There shouldn't be but I know bugs arise. If the front page does not allow you to log in, go to the forum by clicking the "goForum" menu option.

 

No. And I find that unacceptable.

Seriously, we can expect 3-5 days of downtime so I thought it better to make the move after the draft.

 

As part of this update, vBulletin created their own CMS. I think the jury is still out as to whether or not it'll do what we need it to but I'll either go with it or Wordpress.