You might have noticed, the place looks a little different today. After more than a decade of hand-crafting each page in HTML, I decided it was finally time to drag the site kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The whole thing has been redesigned from the ground up, using a WordPress engine; the original aim was to have everything done for our 11th birthday in February, but the new version just looked so much better, that I didn’t want to wait any longer.
As a result, this is still a work in progress. I’ve transferred over all the features, videos and started on the reviews. I’m currently back to September 2012, but there are a lot more of the last-named to import: I hadn’t quite realized how much “stuff” I’d generated over the past 10+ years! I do, however, have this week off work, and I’ll be beavering away, with the process being fully complete by the middle of December. I’ve also taking the chance to fix spelling errors, though I’m still using English and not American, so “colour” will continue to have a U in it, dammit. :) I’ve also pruned items which were no longer of relevance (who really cares what action heroine movies are coming up in 2004?), and adjust some ratings, as I discovered we have more five-star films than 4 1/2-star ones, which makes no sense.
The new structure should be beneficial in a number of ways. It’s a lot easier to produce new pieces, since the way it’s set up, things like the review list will be revised automatically, rather than requiring manual amendment every time. Rather than a big chunk being dropped in monthly, you should expect smaller, more frequent updates. This system is also a lot more image friendly – you’ll notice the “Galleries” section – so you should probably expect more visual material, and we’ve also started our own Youtube channel.
It’s all kinda exciting, and I’m looking forward to seeing what 2014 and beyond will bring for the reborn site. Hopefully, you’ll check back often for updates.