Massive Free Republic Changes

[John Robinson]

There will be some massive changes to Free Republic from now through the end of the year. I'll quickly iterate those changes now.

1. Most important, on the 27th, Free Republic will be down while I move my network along with Free Republic to a new host. We're moving from UUNET to Verio. This in itself is a massive undertaking, and availability of the site may be intermittent. We will use all available resources to mitigate outtage. Verio underbid UUNET by about $17,500 on a one-year contract, so this is really worth it. ;-) Overall, bandwidth will be less expensive 2002 by about $25,000 which will be passed straight to Free Republic.

2. I'm making massive changes to the structure of the database, will be replacing the posting program, and the latest posts program. While I'm converting the database and working out bugs some features may be down. Hopefully for not too long.

3. When Free Republic's new posting program is online, the routine to post an article will be different. First, an article will be indexed into many topics. So instead of a pulldown to select the topic, there is a field where you can list as many topics as you feel appropriate. And at any time later an article can be added to additional topics.

   Second, no more "Category" and "Section". Both have been replaced by the extended topic system.

   Third, the posting of an article and a comment have been decoupled.

   Fourth, there will be different types of articles you can start. Shouldn't really call these articles anymore, discussions is a better term. The very basic "Discussion" requires just a topic, title, and body. "Article" requires topic, title, body, source, source url, etc. Some topics may not allow some types of discussions. There will be only 'article' type threads in "Breaking News" for example.

4. The topic system in general will be completely changed. Once again you will be able to create your own topics. But to keep the topics from becoming the anarchy they were before my 1999 changes, all topics will live in topic groups. Those groups: General Interest (all existing topics); Highlights (Breaking News, Extended News, etc -- these are their own topic now); Hot Topics (current interests, such as Anthrax Scare, etc.); Local Topics (These will replace the Locales); User Defined (a sea of Freeper topics.)

5. Bump Lists will be integrated with the new topic system. Bang_List could have its own topic.

6. It will be possible to host many forums within Free Republic. Each forum would have its own management features, user list (with independent user levels), moderators, etc. Some forums may be private, some may be created for special projects, some may just be alternatives to Free Republic.

7. Finding articles should be much easier. There will be a title search, you will be able to list articles in a specific topic, or with a specific keyword. Maybe full searching of the article itself or its comments. (Looking for the right technology.) And Author and Source searches will work again.

8. Sidebars. Any topic can be added to your collection of sidebars.

9. There are more features, but I'm really pressed for time. :-)

[jjbrouwer]

Perhaps we can have a spin-off Harry Potter forum!

[NoCurrentFreeperByThatName]

ping

[.30Carbine]

FYI

[aruanan]

THANKS

[Shenandoah]

"Things are getting better every day."

oh.

[blondee123]

will you be posting the addy for the new forum?

[backhoe]

!Groan!

I suppose we'll adapt.....

[CONSERVE]

ping

[Rocko]

Thanks, bump.

[NerdDad]

A "Hey Joe, enlighten this guy" ping. See #90

[b4its2late]

Thanks for the info. You scheduled it perfectly. I won't be near a computer that day, so it is a good day to get maintenance done. LOL!

[xJones]

John, you're going to work yourself to pieces! Merry Christmas and don't sprain anything.

[patj]

Can you help me with a problem I am having? After reading an article I hit the "back" button, but I go all the way back to the beginning of the list of articles instead of back to where I was. Am I doing something wrong? What changed? It didn't use to do that.

[John Robinson]

"That's interesting about the beta version."

Oh yeah? How interesting?

As for the fundraiser, as I understand it, Jim is paying W&S 3,000/mo. Which chews through the entire (and then some) 2,000/mo savings in bandwidth. As for the remainder, I asked last fundraiser, and Jim responded that he's trying to build up some extra funds so that the site is not threatened every quarter when funds scrape the bottom of the check book.

Oh, bandwidth: If Mojo feels so confident that he could do a better job finding decent bandwidth, why don't you have him go out and fetch some quotes. If he's good I'll hire him next year this time when the Verio contract runs out.

[John Robinson]

It would all depend on how the "Cheers" forums where operated, their focus, purpose. I would think they should not duplicate FR main.

Also, you will be able to float latest articles in a sidebar box for any forum or topic you have access. You wouldn't have to miss out on some critical breaking news if your main haunt was a "Cheers" forum.

Again, the goal here is to bring the information to you in an organized fashion, so that you can actually find some of the jewels buried in this treasure chest.

[anniegetyourgun]

Thanks for your hard work - even over the holidays. I'll take whatever you put together!

[John Robinson]

A Commonwealth forum sounds like a good idea, but it is something you will have to sell to Jim.

Yes, please have your friend contact me, john@Robinson-DeFehr.com. I am very interested in a Java-based chat with voice capability.