Well it's high time we gave you an update on when the site's going to finally open, so here goes.

We're waiting on a few updates to some scripts we're using to run the site, all of which we should have on the server and ready for testing in roughly two weeks. In the meantime we'll be hard at work adding the remaining pages and making sure the skins are complete.

Once we have those updated files in place, we'll need to upload data to the updated areas, so we'll be uploading images to the new image galleries and fixing up the site menus, as well as giving the file database a thorough checking. We don't expect this to take more than a few days once we've got the updated pieces of code in place, but we also need time to iron out any remaining bugs. As such, I'm going to very tentatively say that the site should be ready to open around March the 12th.

Granted, there will more than likely still be some bugs in the system even after release, and some sections may still be incomplete, but a full list of what's still to come will be posted at the time of opening and we ask you to please bear with us once the site is open and report any bugs in the Chat to Staff forum.

We will also be sending out another newsletter when the site opens so that you don't miss anything - you've waited long enough already, so we don't want to keep you from having a look around the moment it's ready!

Thanks for your continued patience, and keep an eye out for updates in this forum!

An important update:

Okay, due to time restrictions and the fact that I won't be about much at all next week, Slaughter and myself are doing what we can for the opening date mentioned above.

We hope to have most of the X-COM and Aftermath pages back up and will leave out links on the menus to anything that's not finish so as not to confuse anyone.

It is unlikely that we will have time to convert the Silent Storm site by the opening date, so we will simply link to the temporary location where S2HQ is currently at - HERE

Other things that have currently been shelved due to time restraints:
· Section-specific skins - Instead, the logo and a relevant image will replace the default one (see top of forums). I aim to have complete colour schemes for each at some point, but dark blue will suffice for now.
· Image galleries - We will attempt to get some images up, but we're awaiting an updated module for the software we're using for the main site before going gallery-mad
· Fan Work section - X-COM.co.uk's fan work section will be shelved until I get back, but a proper fan fiction system will be looked into and I've just had some excellent thoughts along that particular line


We made some other great plans for the site that we will not go back on, we're just rather pressed for time and eager to get a site back up in some form as you've all now been so long without one.

Granted, the site we have up for you on the opening date will not be complete, but it wil have most things back up for you. If anyone is concerned over a particular section that they miss, please let me know in this thread and I'll be able to give you a definite yes or no answer as to whether it will be back when we open.

I hope that's nothing to do with a certain mug volunteering to run the bloody thing...

Most Aftermath fanfics were posted in the Aftermath forum, but a few were in a different part of the site. Are they gone forever or will they be included somewhere in the new site?

@ FullAuto, no I just came up with a thought to make it all a lot easier. If we had a dedicated Fan Fiction forum with yourself presiding over everything, we could order the fictions into topics, order the chapters into posts in those topics and get the site to pull the data directly. That way we have them handy on the forums AND the site and there's no new systems to learn

@ Accounting troll - see above. If the above happens, and I can't see why it won't, the forum fan fictions can be move to this dedicated fan fiction forum (what a tongue-twister!) and any that were in a special section of the aftermath site can be posted in that forum too and the new site will take care of the rest.

The code to actually pull this off is almost the same code as that which pulls the forum news topics to the front page of the site, but I'll modify it slightly so we get chapter numbers and possibly even chapter names It's not that much work, but it will have to wait a while I'm afraid.

Swish.

I have them on my PC and will add them, so no worries .

Just so long as nobody's overly disappointed by the fact that not too much will be up by the time we're open, I'm happy Everything else will all follow on soon!

Real men cry quietly.