Ray Charles has died. I’m very bummed about this.

He passed away last week actually, but I dont watch TV anymore really…so I had no idea.

….sigh…. it’s the end of an era.

On another note … I’ve broken some things on the website. Sorry for the error messages and broken links you’ll be seeing. This was done on purpose actually. I’m in the middle of yet another site revamp. Some really really cool new features will be available to you all soon.

I’m currently working on a complete revamp of the site (yes again ) that will allow for a bunch of much more sophisicated features that you can enjoy. This revamp will have some improvements to the style and layout of the site, but primarily it’s a revamp of the “back-end” technologies that run the features here.

From my perspective, the revamp will make Blogs, News Articles, Site Annoucements - all sorts of articles - much much easier for me to manage. And while you wont notice a significant difference in the look in feel of davidmeade.com, you’ll notice some great new features like the ability to post your own guest blog, the ability to send private messages between users of davidmeade.com, more sophisticated “Whats New” features, RSS Syndication, member profiles, and even a discussion forum.

It’s the discussion forums in fact that are at the heart of the revamp. The new system is based off of an open source community application called phpBB. It’s probably the most popular web community (forum) application out there. phpBB has built in user membership abilites, usergroups, and security.

What does this mean for you? Well it means that you may want to become a registered memeber of davidmeade.com! (If you are currently listed in the Other David Meade’s database you will be issued a new membership automatically … but you can register yourself if you just can’t wait anymore ).

Q: Do I have to register to comment and stuff now!?

A: No! Anything you could do at DavidMeade.com in the old system you will be able to do at DavidMeade.com in the new system without the need to register as a user … however if you register you will have access to some new features and gain access to member-only content!

Q: Why would I want to become a registered member?

A: For lots of reasons!

• You’ll never have to type your dang name / email / url again when commenting on a blog! The system will remember you and do that for you!
• As a registered member, you can subscribe to a blog or news article and be notified by email when it’s been commented on!
• You’ll be able to send Private Messages to me and any other DavidMeade.com member via the website!
• You’ll be able to recieve private message from me and any other DavidMeade.com member!
• You’ll gain access to special member-only conent at DavidMeade.com! (I’m still working on this, but fully plan to make some member only stuff!)

Q: Just to be clear: I dont NEED to register in order to comment on blogs or anything do I??

A: No you dont. Unregistered users in this new system will have all the access and abilitys that all users had in the old system.

Q: When does all this start?

A: Soon! I’ve got the about half of the “hard stuff” done. In fact, this very blog is using the new system!

Q: Holy crap! What can I do to prepare!?

A: Register as a member!! Then sit and hit refresh on your browser in breathless anticipation for your first Private Message!

Now there will be some problems and bugs as we move into the new system I’m sure, but not to worry … we’ll get through it… together.

Some of the benefits of the new system begin RIGHT NOW with this very article. In the new system, you can comment on just about anything - not just blogs. If you have questions / comments / concerns about the new system and how it works, or if you’ve found a bug or have a feature request / suggestion …. you can comment on this News article and let me know! (No promises that feature requests will actually be done - and I certainly wont commit to a timeline … but I would be glad to hear them)

As the launch progresses, you will see more and more features come on-line in the weeks that follow. Also you will notice that alot of the stuff that looks like phpBB will go away in favor of my own front end. That is, some pages that we’ll be using now will be replaced with more customized version soon. (Basically … if you see a page that doesn’t quite look like it fits in … it will as soon as I update that particular page or function).

Thanks in advance for your help and patience as I roll out the new system!