Thanks for your comments throughout the thread.
The website is in need of attention; it's fragmented from ten years of ad-hoc growth, and newer technologies present better and simpler ways of keeping it up to date, as well as letting others get more involved in the site. From an aesthetic viewpoint, although I hope that each redesign has seen it get a little better, it's still a high-traffic site which has been designed by someone with no design skill. The offer that Luke and the team at Vivoo have made is generous and challenging, and will hopefully raise a little for Comic Relief. Even if we raise nothing then it's something the site and the visitors are participating in to support the World Record attempt that Chris and the team will be undertaking.
What comes out the other end some will love, others will hate ... it's the nature of things - it's been the same with every redesign we've ever been through. This time you've the chance to have your say, so if you have particularly strong feelings about something then make your voice heard before next week. Although the team aren't starting work on the site until the 37 hours begins, some ideas are already floating around.
As part of the redesign some of the pages on the site will be retired. There are areas which haven't changed for years and there seems little point in keeping them front-and-centre of the site. The material will be preserved and will make its way into another part of the site in the weeks ahead.
The core of this site is the forum and that isn't going away. You'll still have a place to argue, whine and (occasionally) praise.
To the poster somewhere above: this site is all about the community, you're right. It's a group of people with shared interests, which is a great place to start a social interaction. Indeed this site has spawned relationships, a baby and (soon) a marriage. Without the visitors it's rather pointless. But let's remember that the community wouldn't exist without the site. The money that goes into the site each month to keep it running comes from my pocket, as it has for the past thirteen years. If I thought nobody cared then I'd stop in an instant, so I hope (and believe) that everyone doesn't share your opinion.
Let's look forward to 37 hours of Chris on the radio, and some exciting changes to this site. After the dust has settled you'll still be able to pop in and chat, you'll still be able to download your sound clips, and we'll still be posting news for you to read and comment on. Thank you to the 60,000+ unique visitors who have been here in the past month, 57% of whom have never visited before. Let's kick this site into 2011, encourage the new people to stay, and build it into something we are all very proud to be a part of.
(edit: and for those who haven't ever seen it, here's how it all began:
http://chrismoyles.net/mw/oldsite/index.html)
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chrismoyles.net
