Noooo, nobody is going anywhere…but after much careful thought and consideration, it’s time that RSHumor receive not only a face-lift, but also some heavy modification.

Realistically, the site framework that we are currently working on is about 2 years old, and was streamlined and state of the art for it’s time – but unfortunately a lot has changed in that time and I really think that RSHumor has a lot of untapped potential, and there are a lot of things that just bother me that I want to fix, which requires almost an entire redo.

But before I go any further I should make it clear that most of this has been in the planning stages (personally) for a while, and Linda is not aware of this, nor that I’m posting any of this – so it is entirely possible that some of these may get nixed before they ever surface, but the goal of this is to really ‘up our game’ so to speak.

What you will notice as I continue (written after everything below this was written) is that everything is nearly intertwined – so for Z to be possible A-Y must also be done, meaning this is going to be a huge project.

1. Site redesign
While the current site design is great and serves its purpose, it really is only fitting that something new be unveiled to not only showcase Linda’s wonderful talents (through additional experience), but also to accommodate some of the new features that I want to add (below). With this will hopefully see the addition of a “template” system, whereby you can customize RSHumor to appear as you want it – perhaps easier on your eyes, or in a style that you favor most.

2. Pages redone
It occurred to me that pages such as the “About Us” were written in 2005. Really? Time to bring everything up to date and make it more relevant.

3. Complete editor panel integration
This is where things get tricky. When the editors panel was FIRST created, it was the place where Linda and I managed the pictures on the site, and it kind of got rolled out onto a larger scale. The truth is, however, that the execution could be a lot better. I (hope) to integrate it into the main site so it isn’t so much an editors panel account as a “site” account, whereby being logged in and having account allows you more customization, easier addition of pictures, and the like. This will also pave way for…

4. Favorites && Picture Commenting
I’m well aware that people just like certain pictures, I really want it to be easier for people to find their pictures, which may not only mean the need for an improved search mechanism, but also something needs to be written to allow you to save pictures to your account that you like and want to have easier access to later. Furthermore, the current framework of the site has the picture commenting capability built into it, but it was never rolled out because there was no easy way to accomplish the task, with user account integration this becomes much easier and more manageable from an administrative and user standpoint.

5. Picture Notifications
One of the features added to the Editors Panel after it was released was the ability to ‘Status Check’ your pictures after they were submitted, however because of a process that occurs behind the scenes this is largely ineffective and if data is cleared on a picture (only upon rejection) you’ll never know what happened. Hopefully it can be made so that you can receive email notification (in addition to live status checks) to let you know what happened to a picture.

6. ID Recycling
This is down right a pet peeve. We have 10k images or so live on the site, but our image ID’s are at least 2x that, I want image ID’s to be more representative of the total number in the database, so it’s time to start to reuse old database rows, which means recoding the way uploads are handled (fun). Ahhhh.

7. Speed up review + add time.
IT MUST GO FASTER. WILL HAPPEN. SWEAR!

++ Much more.

Now while this may not seem like a lot – it IS. Due to the complex nature and structure of the site, and the overwhelming problem that Travis (I) work, and am a full time university student, and Linda works full time complicates and slows things down a LOT. This excludes all current site obligations and needing to keep things in tip-top shape which makes this a very difficult task. Because of this, I am going to guess that this process will take at least a few months to get all the bugs worked out a final launch accomplished, but I’m prepared to get the process rolling and will take all of this to Linda ASAP and see what can be done to expedite this process.

In the mean time I welcome ANY comments or suggestions via email (admin@rshumor.net), or you may simply reply to this post. I want to make sure there is something for everyone and that we can do the most to bring everything up to date and allow for much more continued advancement .

Sincerely,
Travis
RSHumor.Net Administration