I guess I just like making Roadmap posts. Here's another one!
Immediate future (this weekend for sure)
Fix all of the outstanding issues with the MyCard update and the fetch posts Revamp
Do some user-requested upgrades to the MyCard feature (maybe all of them)
Possibly finish the fetch posts revamp. Possibly not.. it works pretty good as is.
Play around with some ideas I had for new themes and options. Probably at this stage my ideas will be upgrades to the existing v0 rather than precursors to planning a full v1.
Things I'd like to start doing this weekend
Work on revamping the OP and OP tools
Work on revamping the quick reply area
Sone initial probes into revamping the forum header (quirks v0)
Next week
Some more work with NIFE probably
More aesthetic/UI revamps (not sure which)
In general for this project
After I get MyCard and the fetch posts Revamp pretty solid, my next Revamp Phase I project are more aesthetic and functionality upgrades. There's quite a bit here to do, but I'll have an overall timeline pretty soon. Some more interesting parts of it:
A much better private messaging system. This might be an actual v1 depending on how I feel when I get to this stage.
Improved site navigation and a different feel to its pages in general. This is mostly to improve the experience for new users. You guys will of course still optionally have the quickinks because it's still totally GT.
Next project: Stream feature v1
I've covered this already in another section. I might do this in parallel with the Revamp project above, depending on how it goes (been surprisingly fast so far... I have a great development strategy).
Final parts of Revamp I
After the UI Revamp (which will really feel like the Revamp I promised in 2013 and less of a "small project") and the stream feature, there will just be a few minor projects to polish up gtx0 and prime it for advertising.
I'll also spend some time getting various advertising campaigns off the ground here.
Revamp Phase II
It's hard to tell whether NIFE or Quirks is going to drop first. Both still require a lot of planning and pre-development. Let's assume NIFE will happen first though.
In this stage I will be building out a robust game engine called NIFE. This allows for a variety of text-based Multiplayer games that can be easily built and automated to a huge extent.
The biggest change here to the existing site will be the addition of lots of new optional features to the mafia and adventure games. Redack had said he'd be willing to Host again if adventure could be largely automated, which it will be!
Mafia, meanwhile, runs pretty well as-is so theyll just have the features available if they want to use them, but that game won't be restructured at all. Some changes might happen to hosting though since there will be better tools available.
The next phase of this is getting gtx0ers interested in making and playing other NIFE games. I have a couple ideas of my own, and I definitely want to make Aliens a consistent thing outside of whatever oth er Adventure stuff there is.
The final stage is a campaign to get people outside of gtx0 interested in creating and playing NIFE games. I know one community in particular that would absolutely love it, but considering how robust it is, it should be an easy sell in general.
Revamp III
The third Revamp is one that turns the general forums into a really robust content platform. Old-school things like reviews and tips will be supported, as well as new things like surveys, galleries and articles.
The purpose of this Quirks engine is to give each forum its own unique flavor depending on what its community is like and what kind of content it wants to serve up. Every part of it will still allow replies and lengthy discussions by members without accounts because GT is awesome.
At this point I consider gtx0 to be "done", not in the sense of never upgrading stuff again, but in the sense of six years of ideas evolving together and finally coming to awesome fruition.
When will all this happen?
Soon! I'm almost three revamp projects down now. Everything else is very planned out already or has a plan where it can be easily. There are no huge gaps in my understanding of what these projects are or do. Compare this to 2013 where I had 50 pages of notes and still didn't know what I was building.
These are better not just because I've spent a ton of time thinking and researching and planning, but also because I have an underlying Revamp philosophy that drives the way these features act and feel.
