Last night, VizEds founder Robb Montgomery unveiled a massive rethinking of VisualEditors.com — basically, moving from the bulletin-board model that was created four years ago to something more like a social networking model.
Right now, this is really only a beta test. But less than 24 hours in, it’s looking pretty swell.
Is this a good thing or not?
I think it is. Just a couple years ago, the forums — and galleries and chatroom — at VizEds were jammed with activity. The site still has plenty of visitors — and Robb has the bills from his web host to prove it — but folks aren’t participating nearly as much as they once had.
Perhaps this is because navigation there can be a little complicated. Perhaps this is because the site loads so damn slow. Perhaps this is because folks are tired of seeing that drawing of me in the left-side rail.
Either way, I think you’ll find the new site much more flexible for the needs of VizEds members. And it loads faster, too, which won’t hurt.
Robb has set it up so you can integrate links from your new VizEds profile to your Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and NewsPageDesigner pages. I already have my blog spilling into my profile page, thanks to good ol’ RSS.
Robb assures me all our forum galleries will still be there for searching and reference purposes.
The only drawbacks? Two, that I have found, and neither is a major issue. First, you’ll have to join — even if you’ve been a VizEds member for years, you’ll have to create a new profile.
Secondly, we’ll lose our chat room. But hell, no one had used the chat room in ages. We had a ball in there. But we’ve apparently moved on.
Check it out. Take it for a test drive. See what you think.
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