The Cult 2008 Launches!
ATTENTION: The site speed is back. In full effect. And it may even be getting faster yet. Also, you can now post new threads again. Sorry about that.
The day is finally here. The Cult 2008 comes alive! It started as a discussion between Kirk and I last Spring about updating the website. And what began as possibly just a redesign, soon blew up into giving you all an entirely new user experience.
I think many of you were assuming you were going to login today (or last week, lol) and see the same site, but in a different color. Perhaps with a new header? Fuck no. We went to bat for you all and spent countless hours designing and building and tweaking until we turned this ChuckPalahniuk.net into what it deserves to be. We encourage you all to explore every nook and cranny of this new house.
But here are some of the highlighted features:
- The entire site is now databased. This means every facet and element of it is now SEARCHABLE. You have to be logged in to use this feature. But go check it out.
- We have an entirely new Gallery system. This is so immense and detailed, that it could almost serve as its own website. I think we have over 500 images in there. Many of which, you've never seen before. And during Chuck's next tour, you'll be able to upload you're own pictures finally! (the navigation on the Gallery is undergoing maitenance)
- Dynamic sidebars. Never have our sidebars been this interesting. Between Random Images and New Content boxes, to Polls and a custom Workshop control panel for Premium Members.
- A brand new Writer's Workshop, with a dynamic dashboard which notifies you when you have New Reviews, New Buddies, New Submissions, and plenty more!
- Not to mention Chats, Groups, Blogs, and social networking Profiles!
And oh yeah... Chuck Palahniuk's exclusive writing essays return to The Cult! Not only has Chuck allowed us to repost his original 23 essays from 2004-2005 (as well as his 14 Q&A sessions). But he is unveiling 12 new essays for 2008! Not only that, but these 12 new essays are FREE TO ALL! The bonus to being a Premium Members is, you will get them one month earlier then . Not to mention, you get access to all the archived essays, which Registered Members don't. But to open up with a bang, and give you all something fun to chew on, here is Chuck's January essay, right now, available to everyone: Killing Time Part I by Chuck Palahniuk.
Then there's that other big piece of news -- the Forum is now completely free! 120x120 avatars for everyone! Signatures for everyone! And best, no limit on your Inboxes! Some of you may notice that we no longer use VBulletin though. We tried, folks. We really did. But it simply wouldn't integrate into our new database (called Drupal, by the way). So it had to be abandoned. What we have now is a work in progress. A 'soft launch'. It's going to get better though. Trust us on that. But for now, please go easy, and try to make the best of it. Many of the features you grew used to simply aren't available in the core install of this new forum, but will soon be added as modules. So stay tuned! We promise.
Also, if you have a weird character in your username, like an ampersand or something, contact Mirka about it.
I'll wrap it up there. As I'm sure you'd rather go explore the new site than read me all day. We have a Poll set up so you can vote on what new features of the site you like best. We also have a way for you to Comment and Rate most of the images in the Gallery. The Forum is up and running. You'll just need to be logged in to post. Premium Members are good to go with the Workshop. Just keep in mind that the next few weeks with the Workshop are very vital. We've only unveiled half of the new features you'll be getting. So your feedback is important for this section.
This goes for all of you: If you find bugs on the site, broken links, images that don't show up, or glitchy resolution issues. Anything. We want to know about it. You can email problems@chuckpalahniuk.net or post about it in our Website forum.
Lastly, I want to acknowledge the work of Kirk, Clayton, Mirka, Brad and Mark, who, along with me, all pulled it together during crunch time. Many of them were home on New Year's Eve working on the site. And spent most of their Holidays at their computer. But I want to make a special mention of Mr. Kirk Clawes, our Site Programmer. If it wasn't for Kirk, none of this would have happened. I may direct the whole operation, but if it wasn't for Kirk lighting the fire under my ass... then pushing me to consider all his new and dangerous ideas (lol), then going further by researching Drupal (what our new site is housed in), teaching himself how to use it, and then even designing the entire site (yes, this pretty new picture you're staring at, Kirk designed)... this would have been all talk. And no results. So thanks, man. All those long MSN conversations where you wanted to rip my head off amounted to something, eh?
Last minute thanks and acknowledgements go to Roland Gaberz, and old friend of the site who has done a lot of great design for us over the years. The header image you see above was based off a modificatin of Roland's original design. I also want to point out all the work Clayton did (and is still doing) on our Writer's Workshop. The guy is a locomotive. And when he wasn't working on the Workshop, he was helping Kirk, or answering stupid questions from me, Mirka and Mark. Clayton also spent all day Monday trying to get this site online. So he deserves our gratitude. And last, I want to thank Mark and all the Workshop mods who pitched in on our discussions about what the new Workshop should be. Without their guidance, Clayton would not have had a clear concept to work with.
Thanks, everyone! Sorry to keep you all waiting the past week. We hope we may it worth your while.
Comments
First!!!1
Totally kidding.
I almost cried when I saw it. It's amazing! AMAZING. I love it. Thank you so much.
Awesome, im excited to explore!
Wow, new essays.....that is just amazing. Thank you so much for that.....Site looks excellent...Congrats...
Hey guys,
We're aware that the site is moving slower than a drunk slug right now. It almost didn't even happen (yet again) today because the server just wasn't cooperating. Finally, Clayton had to revert back to an older version of Apache to even get it to show up. Now that it's here,it's moving very slow. Kirk had to go back to work today, and Clayton just ran off screaming from exhaustion to his friends house. So you'll have to bear with the speed issues tonight. I assure you we're working to improve things.
This is better than Christmas - new essays?!
Amazing.
i'm digging the new look, as painfully slow motion as it is right now.
And all the extra features - wow, beauty. Great work.
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This is beautiful. the cult, the redux
the essays are fantastic and new ones to match and overshadow
not sure how everything works quite yet. the inability to move about quickly really obstructs fast learning, but ill figure it out, though from this end, it is worth the work and i trust things will quicken soon enough: i vaguely remember a slowing when the last major revamp launched and that didnt last long at all, a few days max
just.. amazing !
kabol
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you will come to love drupal....
good move, and congrats to all for this...
and thanks to chuck for new essays in 2008!
Where should we ask questions about certain features? Such aspects of forum navigation we were all used to that we don't have here, etc.
This is brilliant Dennis, thank you so much for all the work you put in, my commendations also going out to everybody else who worked on this masterpiece.
Looks excellent - the essays are an amazing bonus.
Great work, as always, Dennis, Kirk, Clayton, Mirka et al....
He did all this himself? It's awesome looking. Great work. Great news about the workshop and thank you very much for the essays and that sort of stuff. I need to do schoolwork now though instead of play about here. And there are blogs too! Did Vig Puppy's idea about those sort of questionaire-style polls come into application? I thought it was pretty neat.
The new site looks fantastic guys, great job. My favorite part I'd that I can finally browse it on my iPod touch. Which is what I'm doing right now. Rock!
The new site looks fantastic guys, great job. My favorite part I'd that I can finally browse it on my iPod touch. Which is what I'm doing right now. Rock!
The new site looks fantastic guys, great job. My favorite part I'd that I can finally browse it on my iPod touch. Which is what I'm doing right now. Rock!
Hey - great site, even better news about chuck's essays.
Bad news? Tried renewing my Premium membership, but the online shop thing has no option in the address section for anywhere in the world other than US or Canada, so Paypal won't accept the payment as the addresses do not match. I'm in the UK by the way.
Cheers!
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im looking forward to the site being in top form, and until then we all have to work together, help out where we can
i had a few basic functions and i cant locate my buttons (for lack of a better description) so im still naving through the crossroads, searching..
also, it took a while to figure out how to locate "last posts" and there are so many more functions thatll take a while to find
but this is very beautiful and the navigation, once i learn it all, im sure will be easier
i remember when the workshop was revamped for oh-five, man that nav upgrade rocked, and this revamp is looking even better
just new for now
as for glitches:
please advise on them as they come up in the tech forum so that all know about them please please
here's to an incredible year !!
kabol
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Good job guys. Still getting used to everything but it looks great!!
Cheers to you guys and lady. Sometimes it's hard to visualize all the hard work that goes on behind the scenes of a website. It looks really well. I am personally really averse to change, but I guess change is good and I'll follow.. kicking and screaming... and in the end, I will thank you guys and gal.
Or before hand like now.
Est. 1999. Feels good to say that huh? Look back at all the hard work and the journey. And mother eff, new essays!!
Once I can actually navigate around the site, I'm sure I'll love it!
This looks great. Maybe this'll actually give me the kick in the ass to go premium and join the writer's workshop...
Are avatars not showing up for other people, or is that just me? I can't be bothered reading to figure out who people are!
<sniff> I shoulda got a thanks for just driving you nuts about internet explorer :P You're lucky I really like you big D!
Is this the layout from the winner of the "Design the Cult" contest?
The graphics at the top could use a little work...
Why do no ones avatars show up in here?
Rachel,
Thanks much for the IE heads up! I was putting off IE to the last minute because it always has goofy issues. It just so happens that with all the other stuff going on, the last minute kind of slipped out of my head. Anyhow, you rock, thanks for the feedback and screenshots, it really helped!
On the old site, News posts were like any other forum posts, except that News posts got promoted automatically to the front page. Still, when you clicked into a News post to respond, you were entering a forum that behaved just like all the other forums.
On the new site, News is not a forum. News is its own content type. Just as everyone now has personal blog space and photo gallery options, we also have several new admin content types.
All of these new content types allow user comments, but it isn't, strictly speaking, a forum.
What we've got instead is a dynamic site that allows you to comment on absolutely everything, without going specifically to the forums to do so. A forum post is now just one content type out of many.
The comments feature for non-forum content types is a little more streamlined, but you've still got the whole pallet of rich text and linking options. It lets you do more than just "sign the guestbook." And your profile is only a click away, from your user name, for the curious.
any idea when the intensives and workshops will be back up? thanks
Hi Richard.
The workshop is up and running. We've got small bugs to fix, of course, and several new features to add... but the core functionality of reviewing and submitting stories is all there. Check it out.
With the intensives, You'll no longer need an additional password for access, but I've got a somewhat involved process of double-checking the permissions on each and every subforum--to make sure they're set right--and then manually adding users one-at-a-time, through each individual's profile, to a defined group for the particular class.
This work was too tedious to bear when we first came back up and every single page load took well over a minute. Now that we're running a little better, I've been ediiting the necessary permissions. I've also been doing it at ridiculous hours of the night, when site traffic is slower.
But the Max Barry forum should be done. Check it out. As a member of that class, you should be able to click in and view everything, including all those cool videos Max made. If it doesn't work for you, please let me know.
Correction: We need to re-import the videos or fix the code for it. But all textual content should be viewable.
Mark
OK, thanks Mark. I'll keep an eye out. There was a lot of content from that as well as the CCI and MDI that I never got around to downloading, such as comments and critiques of my work, that I want to get back to. Appreciate everythhing.
Peace,
Richard
Mark is Vigorous Puppy, or another gentlemanly entity I've yet to encounter?
One and the same, good sir. I set up my admin account as "Mark" when we were still Beta-testing the new site. The vigorous puppy account came over from the old site, automatically, when we made the big transfer. And it's still where people tend to send me PM's, and so forth. But I've been in and out of each account for ongoing testing purposes, with different permissions levels set for each.
it's going just as slow as it was when it first came up
now it's loading after a pregnant pause.
I keep holding my breath until the status bar starts moving again.
The comics section is empty. Is this a known issue?
i heart you guys