news [3]

We are pleased to announce we've thrown the switch on our new content management system. This system will make it easier to add news and updates to the LDraw.org website, and it will also allow for more people to get involved with content.

Before rushing off to view the new site, please read the information contained in this article.

Special thanks goes to a few individuals who have worked very hard to get the new site to the point it is at today. Rebecca Swartz and Dan Boger customized the PostNuke system for our purposes. Steve Bliss was there every step of the way helping integrate the Parts Tracker.

While we've thrown the switch, it doesn't mean the work is done! We followed the philisophy of "Release early, release often" here. :-) A lot of the content from the old site is still missing. We'll work to fix the most important pieces as soon as we can. In the mean time, you can post about problems and missing pages to this group.

Please do not email one of us with these reports, as we'll end up with many messages saying the same thing! Post to here, so everyone can see what's been noted, so we don't receive repeat reports for the same problem.

Looking for Volunteers!
The LDraw.org tech group is looking for a couple volunteers to help with the website content. If you have the drive to see things made better on LDraw.org, please help us out! We're in this for the fun of it, and there is a lot of work to be done which often gets missed.

Tasks will include:

Taking leadership in shaping content on LDraw.org

Adding, arranging, and updating pages

Fixing error reports sent in by site users

Writing news articles

Working with the Download pages

Please email Orion at orion@ldraw.org [4] if you are interested in helping in this way. We're looking for a couple (read, 2-3) people for this task. In the future, we'll be looking at ways more people can get involved.

Housekeeping:

Accessing Missing Information
If you need to access information that hasn't been moved over yet, you can view the complete old site at http://www.ldraw.org/OLD/ [5].

Some missing sections are:

a complete download section (looking for contributor)

Tutorials and some specs

Site ID's
The new system allows you to create a login on the site. You can use this to vote in polls, post comments to articles, suggest items for the FAQ, etc.

If you are a Parts Tracker user, your PT login is your login for the new website as well. We merged them to ensure you had first pick at your specific username on the new site.

NOTE: We moved over the PT user ID's, but didn't move over the passwords. You need to reset your password on this site as if you had lost it. You can do that via this link: Password Reset [6].

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The LDraw.org Website Team