Goodbye to JWD ... hello to JWN !

As I announced some time ago, JWD as it is will not continue ...

... but ...

It's clear from people's comments that they do like the site and many would like it or something else like it to continue.

One issue was the forum software that was self-developed and not really in a good state to hand-over to anyone but I've been working on that and can now reveal the first release of what will probably be called JWN (son of JWD):

http://www.jehovahs-witness.net/

It is still work-in-progress so not all features are enabled yet but it will allow you to browse the site in a similar way to this one and it is pointing at the same database (although because of the way the caching works, new posts made on this site won't appear immediately). You can login and browse but not (yet) register or post.

I'm making sure that everything works cross-browser (meaning IE, FireFox, Safari and Chrome) including the posting which will have a WYSIWYG editor that works across them all. It's also optimised for page load-times so things should be fairly snappy.

What else is new? Oh, the orange RSS button on your browser should light up and let you subscribe to the whole forum, individual subjects or specific topics. This will also be usable by other sites wanting to integrate latest discussions etc... into their portal pages.

There will be lots more added as I work on it so expect it to continue to evolve based on my existing todo list and any suggestions I receive. One thing I want to improve is the layout and font-use to make sure it is usable by all including those that need larger fonts or high-contrast schemes.

Please let me have your feedback.

I just tried to log into JWN and it has me logged in as purplesofa@hotmail.com?????

I'm really glad to hear this Simon......One thing I've long wanted to see are more of the Smileys.  Plus, it would be great to have these available in Private Messages along with the ability to send links to someone.

Checking it out on my Mac with Firefox now. Looks good.  Love the interface, you can see it's the same software as here, but further developed.

Can I ask what the symbols next to the avatars are for? Looks to me like each poster has their own.

Good job...

Thanks Simon.

A question...what are those designs beside the avatars?

I'm still working on caching and other optimisations which is why you may have seen another login name.

There are no PMs or profile pages yet though - I will only put those up when I know the caching is correct.

The symbols next to the names are 'identicons' and are based on the IP Address of the poster.

Basically, they are like the IP Hashes on this site and allow you to visually see:

If several posters are posting from the same IP Address (typical troll behavior with multiple accounts)

or

If the same person is posting with a different IP Address each time (which could mean they are going through anonymising proxies)

Because they are visual, they are quicker to see and recognise than the text strings. Also, it helps recognise who is speaking in a topic (for those without profile images)

More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identicon

Looks nice! I will browse.

BTS

It retains a lot of the "feel" of JWD. I like this. What new features do you think will become available Simon?

BTS

God Bless You, Simon.

There are thousands of active JW's who have recently begun to doubt that the WTBTS is really God's channel of communication and this site is helping many of them break free from the cahins of darkness they are bound in.