AnswerBank Update Coming Monday (We Think!)

[AB Editor]

Good Afternoon,

We've got some good news - there's going to be a site update on Monday.

That's right, you now have an excuse to go to the pub this coming Monday - don't say we don't ever do anything nice for you!

Some things which might get upgraded/added while you're having a pint or three:

(if you've not got much time, just read 6 & 7! Quick!)

1. Improved Contact Us Page - Bigger text, bigger boxes, no requirement for a phone number (as it was causing some to head to spam) clearer and cleaner... we hope

2. Improved Registration Page - Believe it or not, some new users have trouble signing up or put the wrong information in the wrong place. We've improved the layout of the registration page to make everything clearer.

3. Improved Ads on Desktop and Mobile Sites - currently there's some spots on the site where we can't get the most for the space we've got. We're changing that. Better cash flow means better improvements down the line.

4. Housekeeping! - excitingly there's a few improvements to the tools I use to manage the site. This includes things like being able to move threads and categories around. We can finally move Crosswords to a top-level category! I can FINALLY move your stray questions into the right category!

5. Deactivate Account Button - Those who want to leave AB (for whatever reasons) will be able to revoke their account with the click of a button. It makes flounces more fun and flounce denounces even funnier.

6. Best Answers V 2.0 - You'll now be able to see threads where others have had their answer marked as best in the public profile.

7. Badges - To recognise the outstanding contributions of some members of this excellent website we've put together a "badge" system. Badges are earned through contributions to the site. They include things like the "newscaster" badge for posting a great number of threads in News and "debator" for contributing to a certain number of long threads. We'll reveal all the badges and how one would achieve them once the site is live.

Hope this all sounds palatable to you. We'll update you as we get closer to the launch.

Please let me know what you think.

All the best,

Ed

[AB Editor]

"I'd be curious to know if a deactivation removes all a users posts or not."

It doesn't. Your posts belong to us :)

(It would be pretty rubbish if someone took years of answers away with them when they left - we wouldn't be much of a bank of answers if many are missing.)

We've got a "are you sure?" message on the deactivate button.

[Mamyalynne]

Can we have an 'ARGGGh' badge??

[mrs_overall]

Our posts belong to you?????

Why is the word "payment" springing to mind?

[factor-fiction]

Do you have an approx time for the downtime, Ed? I'm just planning when to go out

[gness]

Phew!!! Thought I was going to have to start being careful. My life would be so dull then but my Mum would be happy. :-)

[dotty.]

that happened to me ed when the clones took over, I lost 25,000 answers in a second! they've all come back now though cos someone fixed it, justin and the other techie did it i think.
is thera a Garth fan club badge?

[ChuckFickens]

"It doesn't. Your posts belong to us :)"

I suspected (and hoped) that would be the case.

[Ellipsis]

all your base are belong to us

[AB Editor]

"Can we have an 'ARGGGh' badge??"

How would you win one?

"Do you have an approx time for the downtime, Ed? I'm just planning when to go out"

Need to confirm this afternoon, but it's likely to be later this evening and be for around 2 hours. We've had to change the db structure - so there's lots of testing to do before we go live.

No idea Mrs. O :) It's all in the Terms, point 7 here: http://www.theanswerb...werbank-terms-of-use/

7. If you make any posting or contribution to The AnswerBank you hereby assign by way of future assignment any copyright in your posting to AnswerBank and you also waive any moral right in such posting or contribution.

Sounds nasty, but it means we can grow the site without leaving lots of holes :)

[ChuckFickens]

"and you also waive any moral right"

I'm not sure I've ever had a moral right in my life, plenty of moral wrongs though.

[AB Editor]

No, probably a bit redundant :)

[Mamyalynne]

Sorry Ed, did not think my Badge idea through, perhaps 'ARGGH' is best kept in private rather than flaunted.

[Ann]

From Ed //Need to confirm this afternoon, but it's likely to be later this evening and be for around 2 hours.//
Ed - can you please do it while Emmerdale and Corrie are on, so I won't be without AB later on? LOL

[AB Editor]

We've spoken here about how hard it is to make "positive" badges - it's so easy to think of the fun negative ones first :)

Any ideas welcome.

[AB Editor]

When are they on Anna?

[Ann]

Between 7pm and 9pm please Ed - thank you for being so considerate :))

[bibblebub]

Is there going to be a badge for having the most badges?

[murraymints]

Will there be a badge for the best goatherd keeper for you know who ???

[woofgang]

can we have a self control badge for not posting tetchy answers on the stupid threads....I mean I would never win one but it would be nice to know it existed.

[AB Editor]

"Is there going to be a badge for having the most badges?"

We could do a league table.

"Will there be a badge for the best goatherd keeper for you know who ???"

Sadly, we don't record this data - so we can't give out badges for it :)