Why is the upgrade taking so long?

[Steven P. Administrators]

I thought I'd update everyone on the progress of the update.

So far we have successfully installed our new server that we purchased in November, that's up and running and handling our SQL database as a secondary server (replication), it also hosts our development site.

We are currently running two projects, Ignition and Atlas.

Ignition is the new news site that will completely replace our content management system that we have used and upgraded since 2002. Various developers alongside Marcel have worked on this code for the past 7 years and basically it really needed replacing. This project is 80% done (in my own estimation) and will once we're happy with it, be opened for testing to a small group of members here, most likely the subscriber and MVC group as well as staff who already have access to it.

Atlas is the IPB3 and theme update, this is also around 80% done, we're just completing features (hacks) and the blogs need styling still. Timan who is coding the theme has estimated he'll be done by the end of the week, at which time the blogs will be started on and shouldn't take much longer than a week to do. It's important to note here that IPB3 is a significant update from IPB2 (what we use now) and the theme has been completely redone from scratch, whereas Swift, Shift and Finity were mostly based off each of the themes that preceded it.

We've had a few dates in mind to launch, but due to the fact that our whole dev team also works, or has college this has had to be pushed back a few times. At the moment, somewhere around the CES event (January 6th to 11th 2010) is looking feasible.

The other important factor is that we have really tried to create something here that can be a basis for a long while. If you select the Swift theme from the dropdown menu at the bottom of this board, you'll see that the theme has had a very long "shelf life" It was first created in 2002 and we didn't move away from it until Oct 2006, which was when Shift was launched. It's important to get it right.

Anyway in a nutshell, the wait will be worth it!

[master2k27]

nice to know, thanks

[Stokkolm]

Awesome, I'm really looking forward to it!

[_V_]

Looking forward to it. Keep up the good work.

[+Anarkii Subscriber²]

Thanks for the news Santa!

:)

[Calum Veteran]

Exciting times :)

[max84]

New year. New face. Infinite possibilities! :)

[Yusuf M. Veteran]

Awesomeness. (Y)

[Rappy Veteran]

woot! :D

[Fusion101]

Thanks for the update :)

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

Thanks for the update on the situation. Personally I don't mind waiting for a bug-free upgrade rather than Neowin being down ever so often in order to fix bugs after a rushed upgrade.

[RoomKid]

Great, can't wait. Keep it up :p

[Knife Party]

nice (Y)

[Chasethebase Veteran]

Great to hear exactly how long this'll be taking. Can't wait!

[Rob Veteran]

It's awesome, by the way. What's coming.

[Orien]

Good stuff. :)

[mad_onion]

It will be cool to try it out.

[Andrew Lyle Global Moderator]

Playing around with the new website for the last few months, I can honestly say it is amazing. The dev team has made some changes from the feedback, and I can't wait to see subscriber feedback.

[Hurmoth]

This is my first update not being on Staff for a long time, if memory serves me correctly. Odd being on the other side again :p

[Creamy]

Playing around with the new website for the last few months, I can honestly say it is amazing. The dev team has made some changes from the feedback, and I can't wait to see subscriber feedback.

Bring it on! :)

[Ci7]

great news,thanks for the update NB. :D

if i remember correctly , all old theme including the current one would be dropped correct?

[Stephen Veteran]

if i remember correctly , all old theme including the current one would be dropped correct?

I believe so

[buckboii]

i can not wait.

[Growled Member]

Great news. Thanks for the update.

[+Kyle Subscriber¹]

I'm looking forward to the Subscriber testing.