General State of the Site and Roadmap
Posted: Tue Nov 20, 2007 5:54 pm
Here in the US "State of the XYZ" is a common title for a speech or report, so here I use it for the site 
This year has been a quiet year. For various reasons, the planned graphical redesign has taken a lot longer than intended. However, I feel the end is near Many of the new sections have been postponed until after the re-design so that they don't have to be modified weeks after being written. Or that was the plan.
Here is the plan for the end of this year and next year, in approximate chronological order:
1.) Add the Reid-Macleod Steam Turbine (possibly today!)
2.) Implement the new web design for a sampling of pages to check everything looks okay.
3.) Fix any design issues (eg. the picture of the V2 on the new title page)
4.) Implement the design on the engineer, links, and any other miscellaneous pages.
5.) Add the new Constituent Companies section. This might be called "Regions" but would be divided along company lines. It would include geographic articles. I have already started on some of the text and timelines for these. It will be an on-going process, probably taking years to get the "basics" completed. I intend to have: Timeline, Potted History, and Livery Information; plus things like CME lists, crests, prominent locomotives, etc.
6.) Re-arrange articles, moving geographic articles to the new Regions section.
7.) Work through all locomotive pages moving them to the new graphical design, and ensuring all length and weight data is consistent.
8.) Implement the new locomotive database (there's a good chance this will start before or during #5. Launch will be in three stages: My initial development; a "beta" when other admins will be invited to test and build data; public release. Data will take years to add - so this will continue during the public release.
9.) New articles as time allows, eg. George Hudson, Leeds-Wetherby Line, Thorp Arch circular railway, various Gresley patents, superheater design, etc.
Richard
This year has been a quiet year. For various reasons, the planned graphical redesign has taken a lot longer than intended. However, I feel the end is near
Many of the new sections have been postponed until after the re-design so that they don't have to be modified weeks after being written. Or that was the plan.Here is the plan for the end of this year and next year, in approximate chronological order:
1.) Add the Reid-Macleod Steam Turbine (possibly today!)
2.) Implement the new web design for a sampling of pages to check everything looks okay.
3.) Fix any design issues (eg. the picture of the V2 on the new title page)
4.) Implement the design on the engineer, links, and any other miscellaneous pages.
5.) Add the new Constituent Companies section. This might be called "Regions" but would be divided along company lines. It would include geographic articles. I have already started on some of the text and timelines for these. It will be an on-going process, probably taking years to get the "basics" completed. I intend to have: Timeline, Potted History, and Livery Information; plus things like CME lists, crests, prominent locomotives, etc.
6.) Re-arrange articles, moving geographic articles to the new Regions section.
7.) Work through all locomotive pages moving them to the new graphical design, and ensuring all length and weight data is consistent.
8.) Implement the new locomotive database (there's a good chance this will start before or during #5. Launch will be in three stages: My initial development; a "beta" when other admins will be invited to test and build data; public release. Data will take years to add - so this will continue during the public release.
9.) New articles as time allows, eg. George Hudson, Leeds-Wetherby Line, Thorp Arch circular railway, various Gresley patents, superheater design, etc.
Richard