In celebration of our 15th anniversary I am making a lot of changes to GBO.
1) COMPLETE REDESIGN OF EVERYTHING ! The Default GBO Theme will be getting a complete makeover and will not even remotely resemble what it is now. I will be bringing a new concept to the site where there will be no page loads. I will be using a technology called AJAX to grab the info from the database and post it "as it happens" so if you are reading a thread and someone replies that reply will just pop in as if it was there all along. New PM' s will trigger a message to slide in from the right with the pm info and a short teaser of the message as will replies to your posts. Also all the empty space will be gone and a much more compact and cleaner look with advertising clear and visible but out of the way.
2) I will be putting all the GBO content at your finger tips. The campfire tales, product reviews and everything else in the GBO archives will be brought back and fully integrated into the site. The GBO Home page which is nothing but a splash page now will be the "GBO News Center" where members will be able to find current news on issues affecting them.
3) Will have already set up a Face Book page
http://www.facebook.com/GraybeardOutdoors and will be adding a YouTube Channel soon. I know many folks hate Face Book and to be honest I am one of those people. However the truth is that GBO has been on a downward slide for several months now as far as pageviews goes which has caused some advertisers to drop from GBO and others to cut back. This has put GB and myself in a tight spot as we depend on the GBO revenue to keep our heads above water. Our search rankings have been falling for years now and are at a point that about the only traffic we get anymore is from folks searching for " Graybeard Outdoors or GBO ". Now mind you that is great "Name Recognition" but we need to bring in folks looking for the information that GBO has to offer even if they have never heard of us and the best way to do that is through the Social Networking Sites such as Face Book and YouTube.
4) I have been wanting a GBO Magazine for a long time now and still do. So I will be working to make that happen as well and anyone still wanting to be a part of that can send me a PM so we can talk.
I will also be bringing in a GBO wiki, GBO News Letter and setting up GBO Meet Ups for the GBO Members. At one time there were several GBO sponsored events held across the Country and I want to bring those back. GBO Postal Matches and the like are the things that I think made GBO great back in the day, everyone was more or less friends and POLITICS had no place and never took center stage. I want to go back to that idea and bring in the GBO sponsors to offer give aways on the forums and at the events. Call me crazy but I want to shake hands with the GBO members, poke some holes in paper with them, listen to the sound of silhouettes dinging and spend a few hours around a campfire listing to the stories I know every member has. As I said I think that was part of what made GBO great and I think it is what is needed to put us back on top.
Oh, and before I forget and get told off...
There WILL BE Themes WITHOUT ANY of the new stuff for all those of you who just cant stand changes.
There will be an exact copy of several of the most used themes WITH NO UPDATES / No Face Book, No YouTube, No Chat, and NO CHANGES.
I will say though that if you choose to stay with old themes YOU WILL MISS OUT ON ANY NEW FEATURES THAT GET ADDED!
After the roll out of the new site I will be adjusting it so that members will be able to turn on and off most features they do not want or need!
Matt
