Technology Update: Exciting Changes to ActiveRain.com

Hi Everyone,

I am very happy to write this blog post!

Last week, we finished the upgrade of ActiveRain.com to the latest software platform (Ruby on Rails 2.3.14) which should enable us to develop on ActiveRain much faster than previously.  This is the end of three month project.  We hit a bump near the end with site performance, but now ActiveRain is now more stable and faster than it was.  More improvements coming as we tune pages to improve pageloading and make some changes to our datacenter.

With the software upgrade, behind us, we are rolling out some MAJOR changes to ActiveRain.com.  

Change, change, grumble, grumble.  

I know no one likes change, but I hope you will appreciate these.  Well, at least the majority of these changes.  

Unlike the past, where changes to ActiveRain would just happen, now we have the new version of ActiveRain.com located at BETA.ACTIVERAIN.COM   Our goal is to allow you to play around with the new version of ActiveRain.  Collect feedback at beta@activerain.com.  Make appropriate changes.  Release to the entire site over the week or so.  

You can use beta.activerain.com just like you would use ActiveRain so that you can get a full experience.  All blog posts and comments will show up on ActiveRain.  We already know of some issues, but send them to us as you come across problems.  (We just made a fix to picture uploads)

So, in summary: go to BETA.ACTIVERAIN.COM and email feedback to BETA@ACTIVERAIN.COM 

What are the major changes you will see:

1) New Logo & Design:

• We have cleaned up and updated the design and header of ActiveRain to bring us into 2012.
• We also have made some tweaks to the logo to make it modernize it and also make it ring with the promise of ActiveRain as an aspirational community that is looking to connect, share and learn from each other.  We have moved the clouds & the sky to be part of the logo to represent the idealism that ActiveRain represents.  (Check out my first contest which was the Collage Competition - What Does ActiveRain Mean to You)

2) Persistent Search Bar:  The search bar is now presistent across ALL pages on ActiveRain, since search is such a core part of using the Internet.  We will be making more changes to search on ActiveRain in the near future. 

 

 

 

 

 

3) MyHome: This is where you will see the majority of the changes.  MyHome on ActiveRain has consistently been the most visited single page on ActiveRain, but was the least optimized for the core activities that we want members to engage it.  From an ActiveRain perspective, we want members to CONNECT with other members, WRITE/COMMENT, and READ.  

 

We also have made the "Activity Feed" the core content of the MyHome tab.  Over time, we will move blog post content and group posts into your activity feed as well, so you can see them all in one area.  

 

Making MyHome cleaner and more focused required us to move links around.  We have moved links up in the navigation that promote managing your profile, writing a blog post, viewing the traffic to your blog, and seeing your points.  All the links that were on the left side of MyHome should still be on MyHome.  Some of links which were used less frequently have been moved to "Blog," "Setting" or "Other."  You can click on the arrow to see all the links.

 

4) Settings: In the upper right now, you will see your name (or part of your name that are including your city & state in your name field).  When you click on your name, it will show your settings and billing information.  Only YOU will be able to see your billing information.

 

 

I hope everyone likes it as much as I like it.

 

Now, I know that change is hard (trust me I know). At the same time, we will listen to feedback before rolling out all the changes to the full site. Email your feedback to beta@activerain.com

 

Enjoy!