On Monday night the 10th of December VicRock will be moving to a new web host and there will be a number of significant changes when that happens.

Please be aware that when the changeover occurs it will take many hours before I can get all functions and links working correctly again.

Front page
The front home page will look slightly different (and busier – sorry folks!) because there will be two centre columns. The centre left column will be Called 'News and Reviews' and will be reserved for anything Newsworthy in our Rock and Roll scene as well as selected reviews of dances and events from the 'Reviews' forum and selected video feeds from the 'videos' forum. The centre right column will be called 'Announcements' and current submissions to our Front News Page – News Desk (which are really gig and event promotions) will go there.

Links system
Our links system will change. The original pages of links (to bands and dance schools for example) with the logos on the left of each entry will eventually go. There has been a completely new automated links system installed where people with websites can submit their own links and attach their own photos to the links. The new Link system can be accessed from a new Links module on the top of the right column. Members with websites or web pages on sites such as MySpace are encouraged to submit their link to the new system asap after the changeover before the old link pages are removed. By putting the link on yourself you are can administer it yourself in future - change description, image and url etc, whenever you want.

Larger image sizes
Because we have more web space and bandwidth, the size of attachments (photos) to posts has been increased from 75kb to 150kb. The dimensions of the images are not important, only the file size is. The software will automatically shrink the image so that it looks small in posts but the full size image can be seen by double clicking the small image.

Photo Galleries
Members can now have their own photo galleries. These are public galleries that can be seen by anyone. The images can be any dimension as long as the file size is no more than 500kb. The gallery software will automatically change the image size during upload for thumbnail displays etc.

When thumbnails are clicked the image will appear to lift off the page and expand. The expanded image can be moved around on the screen and you can have more than one full size image opened at anytime. Click the enlarged image again to have it shrink pack to its place on the web page.

Members can now select any image from the gallery and insert it in a forum post. The link to access this feature can be found under the smilies when making a post. This is not the same as using attachments (which show on the left of a front page News post). These still need to be uploaded every time.

News submission changes
Soon after the change over, members that have more than 5 posts in the News forum (now to be called Announcements) will have their status changed so that their News posts go straight on to the front page without needing to be approved. Website administrators will still receive email notification of your posts as in the past.

Feel free to comment, ask questions and make suggestions by replying below.

Mel