New Look Coming?

[uclabennett]

I was expecting the new-look BHQ to take effect sometime last week. Is it still coming and just taking a little longer, or is the facelift possibly on hold?

Also, what impact (if any) will it have on the forums?

[RAY@HQ]

Just a little longer. I'm really excited about it, personally. We're just trying to make it bulletproof. We're already launching closer to spring training than we'd like (our traffic starts spiking the morning after the Super Bowl, which isn't far away). Not that we didn't want to get it perfect whenever we launched this, but if we did it in, say, November, we'd have a bit more of a margin for error. Now, we basically have to get it right the first time (and we will), so we're just really beating the heck out of the test system. It's close... very close. Probably more than just a couple of days away, but it's worth the wait.

As for the forums, they remain unchanged to you guys. We'll do some different things over time (comment threads on articles, maybe a subforum that is open to non-subscribers), but these forums are a key part of what differentiates HQ, and we absolutely don't want to do anything to hurt them.

This is all change for the better, I assure you. Both readers and staffers alike have lived with our current circa-1990s web design for so long that you almost forget what you're missing. We're going to leap into the 21st century in a big way.

[uclabennett]

Maybe integration of some social media integration/functionality for the forums? I found myself subconsciously looking for a "Like" button to click on your reply :-) Thanks for the quick answer!

[RAY@HQ]

As part of the new site launch, the forums themselves won't change at all. Our forum software is from a third party (vBulletin), so we're at their mercy for new features, etc. We're pretty much current right now....