Hello again! You've no doubt clicked on this Blog entry to find out why VCDQ looks different... Again!
Since our relaunch several months ago we've tried to address many of the criticisms directed at the redesign, mainly the things we struggled to get working such as a full search, release highlighting and a submission and commenting system that is easy to use. It was the result of a rushed development because the old site was fundamentally broken, we had no choice and hoped the compromises we made wouldn't come and bite us on the ass, we were wrong. It quickly became apparent that running the system we were and trying to build on top of that was going to progressively make the site less stable, slower and ultimately drive the staff and users crazy. So instead, the decision was made some time ago to move VCDQ back to a nice, bespoke system that we can build on... Which is what we've been doing for the last couple of months. Why change now? The new site being ready has coincided nicely with us changing host in an effort to reduce costs - so this time it's planned, sorta :-)
PLEASE NOTE THAT FOR THE NEXT DAY-OR-TWO THE NEW SITE WONT BE RUNNING AT FULL SPEED AS IT'S RE-PARSING THE DATABASE TO PICKUP NEW TAGS/FEATURES. AS SUCH, THE SITE MY CHUG A LITTLE AT TIMES AND NOT *ALL* RELEASES WILL BE AVAILABLE AT FIRST. THE IMPORT PROCESS SHOULD COMPLETE IN A DAY OR TWO.
WHAT'S NEW?
Nothing too dramatic, we're still VCDQ, it's mostly a re-design. Be we have a few new tricks up our collective sleeves... Including, streaming samples! That's right, not only can you get a delicious trailer for many releases on here but from now on we hope to bring you samples of the release where possible as well... Now you have no excuse for rating a release based on screen-shots alone (a crime tantamount to murder on these here forums!)
Also, gone are the category selectors across the top, now you can select your own filters from the drop-down boxes. Genre and year filters are now included. Search filters should now fully work, there's also a group filter. Commenting can be done anonymously (if you want) there's no need to create threads - just type your comment, give a rating and off you go.
That's not all though!
- New filtering system. When you first visit the site it will default to the "mixed" view. But now you can click the column headers, click filters to turn them on or off, then roll the filters back up by clicking the column header again. Want all releases in one table? Disable all the filters. This way you only have to list exactly what you want to list and nothing else. Brief instructions can be found here.
- Don't like the site style? Pick a new theme or even create your own!
- Site too cluttered? You can disable columns using the options at the top/right
- Want a specific release list? We defy you not to be able to build it using the filtering options ;)
- NFO viewer now has old "white on black" option
- Want to create an RSS feed? Simply build your filter using the drop-down boxes then click the RSS link at the bottom.
- Want a poster/cover? Check if there's a "PST" icon next to the release.
- Want to see a streaming sample? Check if there's a "FLV" icon next to the release.
- Improved scraping. The Release Info pages should have even more details (and it should be more accurate). We hope to provide more trailers for movies and ultimately plan on extending this out to games as well.
- Improved commenting. No more "create thread" prompts for commenting, no more confusion. Give a rating, give a review and you're done!
- Improved release submission. Click, click, click submit!
- General layout and speed improvements, especially on the Release Info page.
- Tapatalk Support. Now you can keep up with the forums on your smartphone with the excellent Tapatalk app.
WHAT'S TO COME?
- Rating system for comments/reviews/reviewers.
- More release categories (we're currently looking at Bluray and PS3 releases)
- Scores and stats for: Most popular releases, best quality group, most prolific group, best uploader (members can opt-out) and maybe anything else we can pull stats for.
- Gifts/prizes for members who top the monthly charts (don't expect much but you may get a "I sucked off ZootedLooter and all I got was this fucking T-shirt" T-shirt... Or maybe a collection of fluff and lint collected from Neversoft's ass crack. Whatever they are, they'll be epic and possibly slightly sexy.
- Search tools to submit the release to several popular search engines for Torrents, Newsgroups and IRC.
- We're open to suggestions... So long as those suggestions aren't "Why don't you die in a corner?"
DONATIONS - THANK YOU ALL!
We'd also like to thank each and every one of you who have donated over the last couple of months. You have, quite literally, kept us afloat while we scrabbled around in the background to ensure the survival of VCDQ - and so far it's worked! You may have noticed a few ads on the site, hopefully they're not too intrusive but please feel free to feed back any comments you have on the redesign, but it's either have a few adverts on the site or try and survive solely on donations for the future - which we don't believe is possible.
Having said that, donations to the site are still much appreciated, if you like VCDQ and like what we represent, vote with your wallet (even if it's just enough to buy the staff a beer - we're all volunteers)
THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO READ FOLKS. HOPEFULLY YOU'LL ENJOY THE NEW RE-RE-DESIGN... AND IF NOT, WE'RE SURE YOU'LL LET US KNOW :-)
