For The Love Of Port

Stewart and I met this evening to go over an extensive agenda of progressive changes for the future of the FORUM, the Newsletter and the Website. Most improvements will become apparent over the next two months.

The FORUM on the other hand, will be remodeled in the very near future (dates below). The aesthetics will receive just a minor tweak, but there will be additional FORUMs added and you all know how judiciously we have expanded FORUMS during the past 11 months. The functionality will also improve and new features will be added to make For The Love Of Port, even more user friendly and fun.

Although a large majority of the work has already been completed behind the scenes, some of the changes require that we "shut down" the FTLOP site temporarily to work on data bases and implementation of software. Both Stewart and I are very conscious of providing plenty of advanced notice and we are confident that the transition will be smooth and speedy.

Therefore the FORUM will shut down on Thursday night July 6th at midnight and it will be up and running no later than Monday, July 10th at 5 p.m., if not sooner. We realize that this will inconvenience the "regulars" but it will give everyone an excuse to:
a. see their family members
b. eat regularly scheduled meals
c. put in a full day's work at the office
d. come back to find improved features and efficiencies which will be part of the new Forum.
e. ALL OF THE ABOVE

Please feel free to ask questions by posting in the Website Questions & Suggestions Forum.

Roy/Stuart,

I manage systems and business transitions for a living so I share your pain in making this happen whilst keeping everyone happy - best of luck!

Can I suggest that you send everyone on your FTLOP address book an e-mail as soon as the site is back up and running? It might even be worth sending a preliminary e-mail to 20 or 30 of the regular visitors to allow the upgraded site to take a few hits before the thousands on your list know it is up and running? I'm sure you could even get a few volunteers, including me, to login during a pre-arranged time over that weekend to do some final confidence testing before you flick the switch.

Thanks for putting the work in guys - very much appreciated.

Derek

That's a great idea. Consider it done.

BTW - I might add several additional options to Roy's suggestions on what to do while the site is down:

f. Reorganize your wine cellar
g. Crack open that bottle of Port you forgot you had
h. Go to the library and check out a bunch of travel books on Portugal in preparation for Roy's Harvest Trips
i. Catch up on your sleep, since you are normally up in the wee hours of the morning on the FTLOP Forum :)

Therefore the FORUM will shut down

OMG :help: I'm feeling faint, whatever will I do...I guess its movie rental time

P.S. Stewart, I can't wait to see the changes. Thanks again for all your hard work

Stuart,

Please PM or e-mail me if you want to arrange a time to do some testing over the weekend.

Anyone interested in joining the FTLOP Test Team?

Derek

I would offer to do so under normal circumstances, but I will be travelling that weekend and unlikely to have much access to a computer that week.

Alex

I would love to take part. However, I could only do it on thursday and friday, as I work the weekend shift (Saturday-monday) and don't get home till late in the evening, so that will probably rule me out.

If you'd like to help test, just post here and I'll send you a message with more details when I've finalized the testing plan.

Stewart

I'd be glad to help testing. I've got no life, so I'll be available to help as much as needed :type:

I'll send out links and info this week to those of you who have volunteered. Nothing too complicated - just hitting the site, looking for issues, problems, and reporting anything amiss that you see.

Thanks in advance for your help!