Welcome to the new zoochat.com website. It is exactly 5 years to the day since I launched the original ZooBeat website and discussion forums - and our members have made this one of the best zoo discussion forums anywhere! Now with a new name, a new server, new features and a new layout, I'm sure our community will become even bigger and better. Just a couple of things to get us started: Please note that the paint is still a bit wet in places on the site - so be careful where you step, some parts aren't quite finished yet and other bits may be broken. If you find something that isn't working properly - please let me know ... there's bound to be some stuff I've missed! All of your posts will still be here, as will your private messages, photos and other content from the old site. As I write this, the photos from the old server are still being transferred across (80% done - only a couple more hours to go). Until they have all been moved and I've had a chance to properly test the gallery, I'll be leaving that part of the site offline. I'm also still working on the photo gallery redesign - and that may take a few more days yet, so when the gallery does come back online (tomorrow hopefully), it will still be the slightly clunky old version for a little while until I finish the new version. One exciting thing I'm looking forward to testing when the new photo gallery design eventually gets launched is the new Flash upload tool, which should hopefully make uploading photos much faster and more reliable for everyone. I haven't done any testing on that yet, so I'm not sure how well it works - but if it does, I'm sure you'll find it very useful. I'll keep you posted as to how the photo transfer and gallery update is going ! Other new things you will notice - the new home page. I've moved the Forums page which was originally the home page to a separate /forums page, and we have a new summary page for the home page. I'll be adding more information to the home page as I implement new features. Also new is the Chatroom - this is an IRC based chatroom with an easy to use web browser interface. This is ideal for getting together with other members and chatting in real time. Just be patient if nobody seems to be talking, while it is still new there may not be much traffic in there yet - but it will pick up. We may find it best to schedule some regular chat times suitable for people in various time zones so that you know when people are likely to be in there. Obviously one of the biggest changes with the new site is the new layout and design for the forums. I've tried to simplify the design a bit from the old version, and I've added the sidebar for quick access to key information like links to the various types of search we can now do online. One thing to note about the Google Custom Search bar on the right is that this relies on the site being indexed in Google. Being brand new, Google doesn't have much information about the site yet - so results may be somewhat patchy for a few weeks until the Googlebots have had a chance to fully index our site. You can still use the "Forum Search" feature to search the forums directly. Also, there may be links in posts and other parts of the site which point to the old zoobeat.com domain. I've redirected that domain to be an alias of this site, but it may take up to 48 hours for this to take effect, so some of those links may appear to be broken for a short while. If they still don't work in a couple of days, there might be something else wrong - I'll look into it then. I have implemented a new Donation option which allows you to contribute financially to the ongoing operation of this site. With the rapidly growing photo gallery and increasing traffic on the site, the costs are starting to grow significantly, so I've had to take steps to try and cover those costs as much as possible. By donating a modest amount of US$25 via Paypal, you'll get 1 year of upgraded forum access with improved features such as more Private Message storage, fewer adverts, and more. It is completely optional and you'll still get full access to the site either way - but any thing you are able to donate would be very much appreciated. If you work for a business or organisation who would benefit from getting your message out to members of the zoo community, please consider buying some advertising space on the site to help offset some of the costs. Contact me so we can discuss your needs and goals. One more thing that's not quite finished yet - the ZooChat banner across the top of the site is just temporary until I can finalise my plans for that part of the site. Even so, I think the giraffes work quite well - this was a photo I took recently at Monarto Zoo (I seem to get all my favourite photos there - that's where the old Lion photo was from too!) of a 2 day old Giraffe baby and its mother. Oh - before I forget, check out our Facebook page and if you use Twitter, you might be interested in our Twitter Feed which sends out updates whenever a new thread is started. So if you have any questions or find anything that isn't working - please let me know. Enjoy the new site!
Congratulations Sim! The new site looks great (and I particularly like the new banner!) Can't wait to see the new photo gallery!
I hate the new interface. It looks like the major think is more room for ads. I think Zoo-wahtever is changing constantly as soon as we get used to the most recent change. I'm tired of it already.
Given the option, I'd prefer a site without ads also. But if some advertising helps keep the site up and running, I'm not against it. I'm sure it costs a decent amount to have unlimited photo uploads/storage, a forum, etc. As long as it doesn't get super advertisement heavy, like Myspace did, I'll be happy. And there's the yearly donation option, which it's said will reduce advertisements.
Thanks for the not all that constructive comments Unfortunately with the growth in traffic on this site, the cost of running it has increased dramatically. I need to recover as much of these costs as I can. Part of the move to a US based server was designed to help minimise some of the costs (with the added benefit that around 75% of the visitors will find the site much faster than before).
Yes ... if you can do it with no advertising it makes it much easier to build a clean looking site ! But as you mentioned - there are very real costs involved in running a site like this - especially with this many photos and the amount of traffic coming in now.
Hey Sim, Just a thought, why not post a link to the old zoobeat group on facebook, on the new zoochat facebook page... Zoobeat | Facebook
Good news! The file transfer for the photos finished much faster than I expected - so the gallery should be ready for use again now. Note that this is still the "old" interface, which will be replaced in a couple of days once I finish the new design for the gallery.
Excellent Job! The giraffe picture looks amazing! Keep up the great work! And Sim just to let you know the Stats link is not working.
I like the nice clean layout and I haven't had any difficulty finding my way around. Good job, Sim. But my signature looks funny without its BBcodes. Alan
