# Major news! Specktra platform upgrade.



## Janice (Oct 6, 2010)

I have been a little more silent than usual over the past few months - hopefully for a good reason.

I am sure many of you are aware of just how much I want to take this site to a place that better represents my original vision. For those of you who don't know, Specktra was established 6 years ago! Through that time we have done our best to make the right decisions regarding the site and the community in order to keep the site growing strong while retaining a unique, interesting, and informational atmosphere. While I think we have done a "decent" job with the resources we have, we have always had a strong desire to offer you, our members, a uniform site with more seamless functionality.

While we have excelled in achieving our goal for some areas - we have simply had to ignore others for the time being for numerous reasons - the most prohibitive being access to top-tier dedicated resources to make it happen.

I am very excited today to announce that Specktra has a established a developmental partnership that will take us from where we are now to something that will offer more robust functionality and a professionally designed experience. 

*What types of new additions will we have as a result?*
Integrated Wiki / Articles, New Design, Centralized Product Database, Better Member Reviews, Enhanced Buy/Sale/Trade experience, Integrated member traincases, a new photo gallery that is tag-based so it will be extremely easy to locate photos you are looking for, etc

*What are the tradeoffs?*
Change is never easy. We all know that. Think of this as reorganizing your vanity. Things may be placed in different places but we believe you will find it to be a lot of fun to discover and play around with some of the new features and functionality with the new platform. What we are proposing here is a roadmap that will eventually take us well beyond the offerings of most other "forums" and a development team to get us there. Our goal is not to replicate the current experience - but rather improve it where possible. 

Here are three examples of changes that could fall under the category of "tradeoff" for you.
No standard bb-code editor. It will be WYSIWYG only
No sort threads ability in thread view to help reduce clutter and # of links
No post icons to help reduce clutter
No images in signatures

*When will this take place?*
We have our launch date set for October 12th, less than a week away!

I appreciate you taking the time to read this and provide constructive feedback once the redesigned site launches. I understand we underwent a huge site overhaul last year, but unfortuantly it was never fully realized and I struggle to maintain the additional technology and compatibility issues that have arose since then on my own. 

I can't tell you how excited I am to finally have the opportunity to offer members a site that actually fully integrated and functional and to have a awesome development team behind us fully supporting our shared vision. I hope you enjoy the features, and that this upgrade will enhance your user experience on Specktra!

Kind regards,
-Janice


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## Janice (Oct 6, 2010)

Oh wow I was so excited to share the news I totally forgot to post the mockups so you can have an idea of where we are going!


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## LMD84 (Oct 6, 2010)

Guys the new design for Specktra is awesome! I hope everybody loves it 
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





 and thanks to Janice for spending time sorting it all out for us!


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## elegant-one (Oct 6, 2010)

While I completely understand about the clutter, I am sad that there will be no post icons or images in the siggys. It kinda made things personal & funny. Unless I am not understanding this correctly


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## Shimmer (Oct 6, 2010)

I understand the signature  thing, but I'm glad it's going away. So much easier for staff. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Janice - I'm excited!


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## Eleentje (Oct 6, 2010)

I see that te buttons "thank" and "quote" are missing in the example of a thread. Will we no longer have these on the new Specktra?


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## Janice (Oct 6, 2010)

Thanks and quote will still be available for use. Our development team worked to custom code and implement the features that I felt were a core part of the Specktra community. The mock ups I posted are not the live version of the site that will be launching, rather they are there to give you a general idea for the look and feel of the new platform.


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## Janice (Oct 6, 2010)

Just to clarify signatures and thanked posts. 

Certain usergroups will have the option to insert smilies into their signature. Also one of the cool new features for the site, the Gallery, will have a cool tie in for signatures. Once you set it up you can choose to display a small thumbnail as a link to folders and lists in your personal gallery. It keeps the signature clean and tidy while giving members flexibility with personalization.

Thanks will still work the way it does currently with the only difference being the way it is displayed by default. Instead of always having the additional area where the members who have thanked the post is displayed, you will be able to click to open a dropdown box see who has thanked a post.  The new way it is displayed is pretty sweet because it includes a tiny thumbnail of the members avatar.


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## Hypathya (Oct 6, 2010)

OMG!1 This is awesome news!! I've been completely absent for two weeks and now I found about this!!

I'm excited!! Sure I'll miss the Spectra I've known for all this time but I'm also sure we'll have the most fun in the new one.
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




Thanks so much Janice!!


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## ginlovesmac (Oct 6, 2010)

I'm excited to see the new site, looks great =D


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## LittleMaryJane (Oct 6, 2010)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *elegant-one* 

 
_While I completely understand about the clutter, I am sad that there will be no post icons or images in the siggys. It kinda made things personal & funny. Unless I am not understanding this correctly 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	


_

 





 This is sad. Not to be whiny but it's so easy to identify people by their icons and signatures when there are pictures.

Awesome about the other stuff though, thanks for your hard work guys! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	










 i love it here!


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## captodometer (Oct 7, 2010)

I don't really care about the signature icons, but I will miss the ones in the posts
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




  They give the posts character and personality; posts with nothing but 12 point Arial font are going to be kind of uninteresting to read.


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## nunu (Oct 7, 2010)

Exciting news 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 I can't wait! 
Thanks Janice.


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## vintageroses (Oct 7, 2010)

Quote:

   Originally Posted by *captodometer* 

 
_I don't really care about the signature icons, but I will miss the ones in the posts
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




  They give the posts character and personality; posts with nothing but 12 point Arial font are going to be kind of uninteresting to read._

 
AGREEEE! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 gonna miss it alot! 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 & we have awesome icons here in specktra! literally one for every expression!

But on the side note the mockups look amazingly gorgeous! love it!


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## Susanne (Oct 7, 2010)

Janice, thanks for all your hard work for Specktra!! 

I am excited to see the new site and I am sure we all can find our way here on new Specktra soon


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## MzzRach (Oct 7, 2010)

Frankly, I think the trade off for the new platform will be more than worth it.  Janice has worked so diligently on upgrading this site to take it to a new level, and although it will be an adjustment of course, I think it will be very positive.


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## elegant-one (Oct 7, 2010)

Will the new format/code be ipad friendly? 

I'm not sure if some code changes have already taken place here, but just recently, I can no longer use the 'new post' search function on my ipad - it says something like - 'there are no matching searches'...

I will also check to see if its something with the ipad, but it used to work several weeks ago, & now it doesn't.


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## Janice (Oct 7, 2010)

^ No, none of the upcoming changes are implemented currently.


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## elegant-one (Oct 7, 2010)

Thanks so much Janice!


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## banana1234 (Oct 7, 2010)

i would just like to clarify, sorry to be annoying, but no smilies in any of the text at all?


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## Janice (Oct 7, 2010)

No where in any of my posts on this subject have I said we're removing smilies. *The only change made with the new platform in regard to images is: we no longer will have *(often times over sized)* images in signatures* cluttering threads.

Post icons _are not_ smilies.


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## banana1234 (Oct 7, 2010)

thanks janice x


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## Icecaramellatte (Oct 7, 2010)

You know what would be great?  If you had the Thread Titles and Subtitles (I don't really know what they are called but the Directory and Subdirectory that is located at the top) located at the bottom too.  Another forum has this and it makes it so much easier to go back to the right thread/forum without having to wait for everything to load and scroll back up to the top.  I hope that makes sense.  

Looking forward to the new site though.  I visited Specktra here and there from the beginning and it was quite awhile before I actually joined and even then it took awhile for me to fully get into the swing of things.  It is a Super Big forum now with a lot of features.  I looked forward to the improvements on the new site.  Thanks Janice.


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## aussiemacluvrrr (Oct 8, 2010)

Great news. The mockups look fantastic. Everything looks a lot more user friendly, modern and streamlined. I likey a lot!


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## Dahlia_Rayn (Oct 8, 2010)

I can't wait to play on the new platform!  It's so exciting Janice!  Woot!


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## GlamQueen21 (Oct 9, 2010)

Awesome news Janice!! The new Specktra design is amazing!!!


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## imthebeesknees (Oct 9, 2010)

Wow, I am excited, looks awesome!!


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## spectrolite (Oct 10, 2010)

I'm excited and really looking forward to the changes. Congratulations Janice, mods and everyone!


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## kaliraksha (Oct 10, 2010)

Yay! I'm excited... I actually marked the date on my calendar. Thanks Janice for taking such an active interest in the growth of this community.


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## Janice (Oct 12, 2010)

We are pushing the launch date back by one day to give us just a little more time to tweak some last minute details. 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 Expect to see the new site starting tomorrow, October 13th!


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## Hilde (Oct 12, 2010)

I'm pretty exited about the product database and improved reviewing.


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## gildedangel (Oct 12, 2010)

Those mockups look gorgeous, I can't wait to wake up tomorrow and play with the new format! Thank you so much for all of your hard work Janice, you're the best!


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## redambition (Oct 13, 2010)

Late to the party but... It looks awesome! Can't wait to see it tomorrow


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## Junkie (Oct 13, 2010)

Wow I logged on and almost had a heart attack! Haha! But everything's good - change is always a compromise and many who may not be used to it at first will appreciate the hard work that went into making the site a better, more navigation friendly site. Thanks Janice! I definately was wondering where you had gone!


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## banana1234 (Oct 14, 2010)

good job, the new site looks good, but is there some where we can ask questions if we are having problems/getting lost?


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## LittleMaryJane (Oct 14, 2010)

http://www.specktra.net/forum/thread/171075/new-specktra-platform-feedback-and-bug-reporting


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## banana1234 (Oct 14, 2010)

ah thank you, i guess i'm finding it hard to find things, i'm sure i will get used to it!


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## BlahWah (Oct 16, 2010)

Bringing original question to the proper thread.  Sorry!

  	Thanks Janice and Specktra team for making this place so amazing!  I've been with Specktra almost from the beginning and even though I don't have as much time to visit, it's great to indulge in my MAC addiction with a solid does of Specktra.  =D


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## Honeylust27 (Oct 25, 2010)

Just some feedback - 

  	I had been away from the forums for a while and when I came was sooooo pleasantly surprised. I LOVE it. I looks great and is much easier to use. Thank you!!


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