What the hell is going on at designbump?

by john - 26 weeks ago
  • Tweet

Wow. It feels like I have really been neglecting designbump lately. For those of you that don't know, I recently got married (yay!) and moved to another state. On top of that, I have started working on a new startup (more on that later). The end result of all these good things is that I have had less time than I would have liked to properly maintain and develop designbump. But no more neglect! There will be a lot of changes in a very short time to add to the ones you already see. The biggest change, which is why the site was offline this weekend, was on the backend. DB is still powered by Drupal but I have moved away from the Drigg platform and rebuilt the site's functionality anew. The end result should be much more speed and flexibility. Porting over the thousands and thousands of content nodes was no fun and there were a lot of glitches along the way but I think we are in the clear now.

So what is different right now?

New form submission and content types:

Now when you submit content you can chose between submitting an article, a tutorial, or a freebie (more to come in the future). These will be moderated by myself and hopefully those users that choose to downvote or mark as spam anything that is out of place.

New blog schedule:

I will officially be writting updates and posting articles at somewhat semi regular invervals from this point on. So you fine folks will always be in the know about what is happening at DB.

The backend of DB is much different now:

I have already noticed a huge increase in speed since moving away from more resource consuming pieces of the site. There are a lot of things I haven't done yet that will increase the speed of the site even more. I will be working on these things along with other improvements in the days to come.

No more external voting button to add to your site:

Sorry. I know a lot of you wanted it and have been using it but it was a relic of Drigg (see) and it has no place in the new system. There are no other compatible solutions for the Drupal system (that I know of) at this time. On the plus side, that button was the biggest reason for loading issues on the site.

(Almost) All the old urls have changed:

Most traffic is direct from users so this doesn't matter too much to me. Hope none of you have issues with it.

Old profiles are gone:

I know, huge pain. But lets be honest - those profile pages kinda sucked and not many people where using them. They aren't gone for good though. New and improved profile/portfolio pages are on the way. Keep reading for what else is coming up.

So is that it? Hell no.

There are a ton of little bug fixes I need to make - both design and funcitionality wise. I will also be rolling out a fair amount of new features.

In no particular order I give you the current TODO list for DB:

Profile/Portfolio pages:

I want them to be functional this time. So many designers have websites that most don't need portfolio pages hosted elsewhere. However, I want to have a profile page that can double as a portfolio page for those that don't already have their own online presence.

New users:

Spam has been a big problem in the past. I have yet to find a great way to combat this so I will be trying a bit of a different approach. DB will no longer have open signup but will allow new users by request/approval and invitation only. The new system will be in place and start accepting new users next Monday.

Better tagging/category system for content:

Right now there is none (removed with the old system) so it can only get better right?

DB Feedback:

I am making a request for feedback a permanent feature on the homepage. For the love of coffee, throw me a bone people. I need your feedback if I am going to make the site better for everyone. Drop me a line. I am usually pretty friendly.

Dribbble and Forrst flattery:

Both of those sites are awesome and have done a fantastic job. So, as a sincerest form of flattery, I will be copying them. A little. Some point soon you will be able to post your work and get feedback. There will be both a specific section for this and randomly rotating exposure on the homepage to insure lots of eyeballs on your junk (if you are into that kind of thing).

Claim content:

I like this one. If you submit a article/tutorial/freebie/cat/whatever to your own stuff you will be able to "claim it" and select bits of your profile (name, bio, site, twitter, etc) will show in the side bar when someone is viewing that content. If someone else submits your content you will still be able to claim it (some verification maybe be required but the movers and shakers in the design community aren't that numerous) and have your info show for the world to see. It is about exposure for all you talented people. Get credit for all your hard work.

Moderators:

I will be allowing people to request to be moderators. If accepted they will have extra "powers" on the site to help me keep the site free of spam and stupid things. I will post once I am actively seeking people to help.

Lots of other stuff too:

Save/share items. Job board. Messaging. Following. Dancing. Some many things. I will mostly be doing one issue at a time though. If something isn't used or people don't like it I will ditch it. DB is a huge work in progress and there is tons of fun stuff to do. Look forward to the future people. Wow. If you read all of that you have more patience than I do. Have any questions/comments/feedback? Message me @designbumped on Twitter or use the contact page. I would love to hear your thoughts.

TL;DR - Lots of changes now and in the immediate future at DB. Pardon the dust while I work.

spacer

  • spacer
    Daily Freebie #18: Vector Award Ribbon
  • spacer
    404 Error Page Design
  • spacer
    A Cute Free Heart Valentine Photoshop Pattern
  • spacer
    Free PSD Download Now Button
  • spacer
    Daily Freebie #17: Vector Flower
  • spacer
    Valentine's Day Butterfly Heart
Submit a new link

Popular Tutorials

  • spacer
    Create a Cool Water Bottle Ad in Photoshop
  • spacer
    How to Create a Stylish Image Content Slider in Pure CSS3 [Tutorial]
  • spacer
    Adobe Illustrator Tutorial: Creating a Disco Ball
  • spacer
    How to Create CSS3 Buttons [Tutorial]
  • spacer
    Creating a Real Estate Web Design in Photoshop

Recent Blog Posts

spacer
35 Amazing High Quality iPad Wallpapers

So, my wife just got a free iPad through her work. I do nothing but work with computers and no one gave me a free iPad. Hell, I don't even have an iPad I paid for. I have no iPad.

spacer
Free Giveaway - 1000 High Quality Business Cards! Did I mention that they are FREE!

Holy crap you say! I know, right? Free stuff!

spacer
FREEBIE: Worn-Out Soda Cans Social Media Icon Pack

These amazing icons were created specifically for DesignBump readers over a year ago by the amazing Jan Cavan.

Have something to say? I'd love to hear it.Tweet me @designbumped
spacer
John Campbell
maker/breaker of designbump
spacer
gipoco.com is neither affiliated with the authors of this page nor responsible for its contents. This is a safe-cache copy of the original web site.