Omnivolution
“Evolution is the change in the inherited traits of a population of organisms through successive generations. After a population splits into smaller groups, these groups evolve independently and may eventually diversify into new species.”
Thats what Wikipedia defines Evolution as, but it’s not always confined to organisms. Through developments and successive changes in ones state, throughout a person’s life time we can say that we evolve personally, mentally or spiritually. A TV show that is constantly building upon it’s plot adding ot the themes and stories, until it appears to become a different theme all together can be said to have evolved. Even computer programs, as new versions are released where developers have tweeked and built upon an original concept to create a program that may be quite different from it’s predecessor but still retain everything that made it the program it was.
So to does Ultima-Java evolve, and while we are updating and compesating for changes in the Wordpress, Comicpress and phpBB systems, we to have split away that which is Ultima-Java from that which is mearlly the programs by which it is presented, and we are developing and evolving a new improved foundation, on which a better and more efficient set up can be created.
In the background of these superficial updates, an all encompassing site is being built. This new site is called Ultima-Java: Omniverse.
The biggest problem we’ve had so far with UJ is all the different logins. There is a login for the forum, there is a login for the site, there are logins for each of the comics, and there’s a login for the Mumble, and aside from just allowing anyone to post on everything, there’s no real way we can make UJ as it stands, a single login site. So things are changing. Drastic changes.
Already the programming of this new site is underway, which will allow access to the homepage, and leave comments, post on the forum, view comics and post comments, view and upload to art galleries, create your own comic page, amongst many other new features that we intend adding to UJ, all through a single login. We’ve discussed this once or twice on the forum, and asked for peoples oppinions on other features they would like to see on UJ, and though the forum response has been limited, I have had a lot of feedback through Facebook (which you will be able to link your account too), MSN, and on Mumble.
Our biggest worry was loosing all the posts and haveing to get all the members to sign up… again. Again… again. However we have put our efforts into this and we have solved atleast half of the problem, by extracting data from the current UJ database, and reinserting it into the database structure that we are looking to use. The next task is to make sure we can retain all the posts. This isn’t much of a consern but we can see it has potential to become one.
The plan for the building of Omniverse is going to start where we percieve to be the priorities. Ultima-Java was built as a community, and I think we have lost sight of that fact. As we’ve kept the forum tucked away from the web. Directing people to the site rather than the forums. However Omniverse is going to take us back to basics.The first part of Omniverse to be built will be the Forums, as it will be the forum log in that will give us control over everythign we do on UJ, from there, we’ll look at the comic pages get them usable and active, and in doing so make comic hosting available for everyone who is registered on the forum. The comic pages will not only be controlled by the users forum account, but will also be plugged into the forum it’s self, showing recent updates and comments in their own threads on the forum. the next stage will be the homepage, this is forseeable as a particularly short stage of the projects but will help tie everything together and solidify the previous two stages. With a few extra surprises in there to boot!
Untill the pages are replaced by Omniverse pages they will remain as they are now.
Overtime we will provide you all with glimpses of what various pages and functions we will have, and keep you informed of how long we have left on our current project. At the moment the forum part of the project is still in it’s infancy, so we can’t give a date yet on it’s completion, but like I said, from now on updates will be more regular and we’ll keep you all very well informed. Don’t forget that we want to see your feed back on this, throughout the development stages so that we may be able to adjust our plan to suit the needs of our members. Any ideas you have for features and functions, feel free to post them on the forum in the Omniverse Thread. If you have any questions about the Omniverse site, then please feel free to field them here too!
One thing you will have seen on the UJ Facebook Page, the UJ Youtube page UJ:TV, or maybe even my Twitter page, is the new UJ logo. That was designed for use on the Omniverse site. So incase you haven’t seen it yet, here it its!
