May 12th, 2007
Long time no updates
Progress has been slow. Much slower than I had originally hoped, due largely to problems that occured over the summer.
A quick update to give you an idea of the all-new gallery system that will be featured.
Galleries will be quite different
Whenever there are updates etc., they will appear as grouped galleries much like they currently do. General photographs of rides however will not be grouped in this fashion. Instead each park/ride/coaster/show will have its own page of photos with all photos of the particular attraction shown. From this page the gallery can be narrowed to only show construction photos, general photos, photos of only certain rides (for park pages), or photos by a certain person.
All users can add photos
Every single registered member will be able to upload their own photos. Users can add an unlimited number of photos to any entry in our database. They will enter a queue, but this is just so we can make sure it’s not a duplicate, irrelevant or porn or whatever. Photos will then appear on the gallery page for the attraction in question.
Each user will have a content page
Every single registered member will have their own content profile. Basically a portfolio of every single piece of content that user has added to the site. If you submit an article, modify or add a database entry or add photos it’ll appear on this page so you have very solid recognition for your contributions. Where your name appears (beneath photos you’ve added, articles you’ve written or on our credits page etc.), it’ll also link back to this page. It’ll be separate from your forum profile.
Photos will be tagged
Each individual photo will be tagged so it can appear in multiple ride galleries if it’s a photo of two rides etc.
Plenty more surprises to come so stay tuned!
What are the odds of ditching the flash driven system of enlarging images in the new gallery system? IMO it is far better to just have it in a new window, that way you can have multiple images open at once, and can see how long each image has to go while loading (rather than staring at a circle). Also flash can be a little unreliable at times. Just a bit of constructive feedback.
The current system is actually pure Javascript and HTML, but I get what you’re saying.
Because of the scope of the new system, it will call for a display method that’s different to the relatively two-dimensional system currently operating.
Photos will be displayed in rows of 2-3, caption underneath, much like how they currently are. When that is clicked, it’ll take them to an intermediate page, more or less the same as the “Link to Image” links/pages currently in place. The width of these images will be about the same as what they currently are.
From there, if one wants to see a higher res version they can click another link from that image page (this link will also appear on the main gallery pages… more or less switching the “Link to Image” and thumbnail links on the current site) to bring up the current Javascript popup of the full image.
It is worth pointing out too that bringing back the subscription system in a more major way is being considered, by making the highest resolution version only accessible to subscribers, as the bandwidth costs of serving the same images up to 2-3 times per view will be considerable.
The existing system actually preloads the previous and next images while you look at the current one, which is one of its major benefits.