Well folks, it's about to happen again -- another revolution in the long turning wheel that is Swaylock's. Sometime in the next month, I'll be rolling out Swaylock's on upgraded version of the forum software. At that point, very little will change. The layout of the site and virtually all of the current functionality will be retained. There may be a few minor functional changes, but more or less Swaylock's will be the same old Swaylock's.
The new platform, however, will lay the foundation for a some new features. These will include the following, which should roll out over the coming months:
**Swaylock's Groups - **This new feature will serve the Swaylock's community by providing a place for groups to organize, plan and work on projects. Real world local user groups (sometimes called meetups or Swayloholic's Anonymous) and regional groups in particular are encouraged to setup their online presence here. Your group can be regional, topical or virtually any other aspect of surfcraft, surfing, and the surf lifestyle.
**Swaylock's Blogs -** For those of you who feel like you have a little more to say, show, or share with the Swaylock's community (and the greater Web), here's your opportunity. Swaylock's Blogs will provide a platform to publish articles, images, and videos to your very own section on the site. Your work has to stay on topic -- that means Theory & Design, Construction, Restoration & Repair, History Travel & Culture (basically anything surf related). In addition to instant fame, Swaylock’s will share with you a percentage of the advertising revenue from your pages. With thousands of daily visitors, that could mean a nice chunk of change.
**Swaylock's Template Archive** - I'm thinking this will simply be a file repository where members can save and share template images and/or files for the variety of CAD programs out there.
**Swaylock's Board Archive & Quiver** - My long term goal is to move all the boards in Quiver back into Swaylock's and make Quiver a periodic print publication of the boards in the archive.
Of course, as always, there will be some bumps in the road, and all I can ask is that you are patient along with the changes...
I like the self publishing part. A place to go wild with what we are working on. More build threads!
I really like the revenue part too, if only I had enough to say that others would follow.
But could you maybe have a registry? Someplace where we can easily see when someone has posted to their blog? Otherwise I’ll spend half my life checking up on my soon to be favorites.
When the time comes I’m interested to hear more about the revenue sharing with blogs. Will this mean that a contract will be required? Are you going to post Swaylock’s monthly income to the others so they know how much they are making? Will there be a way for bloggers to view how much they’ve made (Content management system)? What about ads? Will there be ads on the blogs? Can Swaylock’s members buy/create ads? Is there going to be animosity when a blogger starts making a profit on the blog from selling their boards?
Will any of these updates/upgrades mean pages will load faster, login will be faster, the site will have less quirks?
this will be such a leap forward for the members here, the chance to diversify, tha opportunity to be more of who you are and do it in your own way, blogs can edit comments so no one will get harrassed maybe even a little earner for the ones who can bring more traffic to the site,
the template section will be a great resource for those willing to share and the groups section should bring members closer together to lend a hand and collaborate on projects
this will be the best surfboard site when it happens
Hi sway lock and tanks for everything you’ve ever done to create what is already the BEST site on the web. Is there anyway you could add functionality to make links open in a new window instead of navigating away from the page you’re on?
Cheers and thanks again…I don’t heap praise like that lightly, this place has been my bible and salvation since I joined.
Cheers
Rich
