Hola!

If you've been here before, you'll notice a subtle change to the place. New colour scheme. New layout. New features. We've entered the new millennium eight years behind everybody else, four or five years after I originally intended to re-design the site, and it feels good. HURRAH.

Frankly, BCK was becoming impossible to manage; if it had continued in its old form any longer, I was gonna have to run amok in a McDonald's. Goodbye static html pages, hello dynamic php. A bunch of content still needs to be restored, and you may find bugs here and there - if so, lemme know.

The new banner was designed by Claartje van Swaaij, who produced some really outstanding Eternal Sunshine fan art back in the day. Big thanks to her.

Let us know what you think, and take advantage of the new commenting system or shoot me an email. All questions, comments and suggestions are welcome. For a thorough summary of new features and whatnot, click on through. (One new feature: the ability to click on through.)

Stuff that's new:

• Commenting system. Currently everyone can post comments; if we start getting spam, or it turns out you've all been waiting for this opportunity to publicly abuse me, I'll restrict it to registered users.
• Social bookmark thingies (the "Share It" link at the end of this post)
• RSS feeds: subscribe to the News page, or subscribe to selected News categories
• Registration/profile system. (This is NOT connected to the forum. If you're registered here, you're not automatically registered there.) For now, registration allows you to create your own profile, upload an avatar that will appear beside your comments (note: all avatars will appear SQUARE in the comments, so you're screwed if you need a rectangular one), add certain news items to your "Favourites" for later perusal, and keep track of comments you've posted. More features might be added to this at a later date.
• Site search engine
• "Latest News," "Popular News" and "Recent Comments" modules, the better to see who's been reading what and what they've been saying about it.

Stuff that's changed:

• The layout, the colour scheme, the navigation
• Better archives
• Categorised news system. If you only want the latest news about a particular film of Charlie's, for instance, click your way over to that Project and then hit "Recent News" on the right. Spiffy, I know.
• Redesigned Media section. It's better-organised, I think, and hopefully a little lighter on the server.
• The BCK store. Looks tidier and the products have been updated. I'm thinking of selling BCK coffee mugs and such at a later date, maybe with witty slogans. What thinkst thou?

Stuff still to come:

• Articles/Interviews archive - it'll take quite a while to transfer all the old articles and reviews over to the new system. Bear with me.
• 2001/2002 News archives. Haven't finished transferring them over yet.
• Image galleries.
• Re-designed forum.
• FAQ pages for each Project of Charlie's.
• Possibly a private messaging system, but I haven't decided. What do you think, is that worth installing?

How you can help:

• Comments, questions and suggestions are all welcome. If you spot something buggy, let me know, either by emailing me or posting a comment.
• This re-design took for-bloody-ever, it was a one-man operation, the site's bills are due soon, and there's a Donation link near the top of the site. That's all I'm saying.

A few quick thank-yous:

Jess, Laura, Pav, Adam, Sue, Robix, Will, and Alby all tested out the site. Laura, Pav, Gregory, Toulouse, Joel, Bryan, Tim, Dani, Adam and Sadie all saw a screenshot of the front page a while back and offered useful feedback re: the colour scheme. If there's a problem that hasn't been spotted yet, it's completely their fault.

More stuff soon, including something pretty cool later in the week. (Hint: it's a script. Hint: it's not Synecdoche. Hint: it's not a new project. Hint: it's not "New Ear"-related.) And if, after completing the site re-design, Charlie announces his retirement tomorrow, I shall kill myself.