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24 August 2004
Posted in
Site News
Welcome to the relaunch of NZMac.com. This is perhaps the biggest change to the site in its short history. After more than a year and a half it was time for a redesign and time for better integration within the site.
Let me say for starters that the next few months will see changes and fixes a plenty. I have always said that the site would be a 'work in progress' but with the moving of the site into an integrated content management system, there has been a lot of work that has been carried out and a lot more to come. Please let me emphasise, I'm sure there are a few glitches and I'm working to iron them out...however, any feedback from you would be greatly appreciated.
Of course, the thing you'll discover quickly (with it being our most active area of the site) is that the forum is now accessed from the main page and integrated into the site more.
In a later posting to the site, I'll explain a little more about the changes under the hood, but for now, a quick explanation....
I've moved the site over to a database driven content management system known as Mambo. This is a superb open source system which I have started using over the last few months and I absolutely love it. Whilst there is still a lot of static content from the former version of the site, it has allowed me to integrate the phpBB forum into the site and to make sure that forum members get the most out of the redesign.
So, from today, registering for the forum and registering for the site is the same thing.
Having 'Members' in the site means that I'll be able to start adding features for you to get involved in....you'll be able to submit weblinks, be able to tell me about events coming up around New Zealand for Mac users and more. In short, this site becomes more of a site for you to interact with other Mac users in New Zealand.
That change has been quite intentional and I really hope to make more changes over the next few months to enhance your 'NZMac.com experience'. This has started already with the move of the mailing list onto the site (rather than my local Mac) and a new HTML format for those newsletters.
Many aspects of the site are still in their infancy (the RSS news feed from the site needs work, for example) and I'll explain in another posting why I went with Mambo, what I see in future development with the site, as well as what I know needs fixing. Trust me, I'm working on it.
So, welcome to the new-look NZMac.com. I truly hope you like the design as much as I have enjoyed putting it together.
Feel free to take a good look around, post comments in the forum or drop me an email (
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
). I'd love to hear from you.
Best wishes,
Philip Roy
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