As most of you already know, we have been working hard behind the scenes to put Menewsha on the new software. Currently we have all the staff members and about 30 beta testers testing the new software, looking for bugs, posting suggestions and making sure everything is working as designed. I know many of you are fed up with waiting for it to be released and I'm positive that many are very excited for it to come. Please understand that it's not an easy task to take ALL of the data currently on the site and make it work for the new site. Everything on the new site has been completely recoded. This includes Threads, Post, PMs, Avatars, Inventory, Gold, Games, CI's, Shops, Layers and everything else that is stored in the database. Every single one of these sections has been completely rebuilt from the ground up, all new code and all new designs with some really sweet artwork done by the developers. To give you a better understanding, here are some of the current stats that we have to make sure gets ported correctly.

2.9 million post, 130,000 PMs, 42,000 Trades, 45,000 Threads, 22,000 users and their avatars settings, and over 120,000 Inventory items.

This of course takes a lot of time to do and a lot of testing to make sure that it's working right. Every single piece of information needs to be ported into the new software one by one without being corrupted. As much as I would like to release the software now or even last week or last month, it's just not ready yet. There are still about 20-30 bugs floating around that needs to be fixed, a few more pieces of artwork that needs to be done and a little more testing to make sure that it's going to go as smooth as possible. Everyone is working very hard behind that scenes and I think we all should cut them some slack.

So, what do we have to look forward to? Allow me to tell you.

1. Brand new homepage with some amazing artwork. The homepage will include the ticker banners, the admins pick, login/control panel box and the most recent threads posted. Not much different from the current homepage, but way more attractive.

2. Brand new forums home layout with some brand new icons for each forum. The icons will switch back and forth to indicate forums that have new post and you can simply double click the icon to mark that forum as read. New icons are still being worked on, so hopefully those will be done soon.

3. The profile link that your used to will be called your account section. From there you will be able to manage friend request, profile messages, thread subscriptions and new PMs.

4. Your Mail box will have much more space to hold messages, a tracker option to see who has read your messages and the ability to create mailbox folders that will allow you to organize your mailbox the way you like. You will also be able to download all you private messages to your desktop as an XML, CSV or Text file. I should also mention that there is also a noticeable indicator to let you know when you have new mail.

5. Your inventory has been completely redesigned to allow you to move multiple items in your own custom drawers for a better organized inventory. You will be able to rearrange your inventory to your likens as well as equip multiple items at once. Oh, and we added the most requested unequip all button as well.

6. Brand new trades system with trade notifications, trade comments and a trade history box that will allow you to see the complete history of any of your [new] trades.

7. A complete blogging/journal system for every member. Users will be allowed to comment on your blogs, subscribe and view your blogging archive via your calendar.

8. The new gaming system was completed a couple of nights ago with 5 brand new games. Each game will allow you make gold and I'm currently discussing it with others about the capping rules. I would like members to make as much gold as they want on the games without some ridiculous 24 hour cap on it. So I'm working out the math on that to see how we can meet somewhere in the middle. The games section will record all your high scores that you can comment on, and you will have the opportunity to beat other members score and gain some gold plus some bragging rights.

9. Pax has created an amazing shops map entirely done in pixels. You will be able to jump from different parts of the menewsha town to get into the many different shops. You will also have the ability to buy a single item, or add as many items as you want to your own personal shopping cart. This will allow you to jump from shop to shop, add a bunch of items you want to your cart and pay for them all at once. Or you can come back at a later time to pay for them if you don't have enough gold.

10. The ability to edit your post in place (without page refreshing) and a quick reply box that will post your reply without having to reload the page again. Entirely done in AJAX

Those are just "some" of the main features. There are a bunch of little ones spread all through out the site that many of you will pickup on and enjoy. With that said, we are getting VERY close to that day we've all been waiting for. There is no set date (and one should have not be posted) because there is no telling how long certain bugs will take to fix or how many bugs are left. I will say that I'm "hoping" to have it ready for you in just a couple more weeks (gotta play it safe), but that's what I'm shooting for. If its sooner, even better but you never know. :)

I just wanted to take a few mins and give you all an update on progressive and whats coming in the near future. I can't wait!

Ken