So now you've all heard the big news - GameCola's final issue is out before it will be changing format. I've been working hard to bring you guys an all-new GameCola. It's coming, and it will be big. There's quite a lot of new features to look forward to. Aside from the fact that authors can post content at any time, meaning there's always something to look at (as opposed to our once-a-month format now), we're going to be breathing life back into some old features and bringing you some new features to look forward to.

As Paul said, we do have a timeline for the transition, but even today, nothing's perfect. We'll be bringing you updates routinely to let you know what's going on, right up until the final launch.

That said, out of my busy schedule, I've got a large block roped off just for GC. Of that, I've been spending a lot of time focussing on getting the new GameCola launched & ready to go - and I'm happy to say, there's been a lot of progress in that department. In addition to this, one of things I have had to do was move the GameCola Interactive (RSS, blogs, forums, comments) stuff over to a new server, to get it all ready to be integrated with the new GameCola. The downside to this, however, is that I've been so busy, and as a result I've been neglecting to keep up on some of the more routine stuff that I usually do. As a result, I am aware that there are some bugs in the older parts of GameCola that have surfaced recently. Some of the comment boxes have disappeared, some of the flash videos embedded in blog posts are no longer working and the forums are once again being spammed. (Although this is nothing compared to what some of you remember from the past when we've had to deal with forum spam). Any of you familiar with web programming may have also noticed that, at the moment, we're being visited by the notorious PHP escaping bug. (For those of you not up with the programming, there's some rude little backslashes barging their way into various posts, particularly around apostrophes and quotes). 

I wanted to take the time to apologise for these bugs, and let you know that I am aware of them, and I intend to fix the more severe ones as soon as I can. The less critical ones - these would be bugs that are annoying, but don't hinder use of the site - may have to wait until the relaunch, since that should rid us of any old bugs laying around. I ask that you bear with me while I deal with all these issues, old and new.

If you wish to help, all I ask is that you keep an eye out for anything I haven't mentioned, and if you see any bugs I'm not yet aware of, post on the forums and let me know, and I'll address them shortly. Additionally, if you see any spam on the forums, take 5 seconds and click the 'report to moderator' link, and I'll ensure it gets removed shortly.

Thanks everyone!

Kevin

UPDATE:

• The backslash/escaping issue should now be resolved on all future posts made.
• The issue that caused the comments on the blog to disappear should also now be resolved.
• No more flash/shockwave errors should appear when reading the blog page.

As I'm sure everyone who has looked at the latest issue is aware, there are some big upgrades going on for some of the interactive GameCola features - in this case, comments and ratings. However, there have been some teething difficulties with these upgrades that have effected the following services in some way:

There is now an RSS feed available for the, blog, so that you can see when there's new posts. The URL for this feed is http://gcfeeds.kevinsnet.com/blog.php -- add this to your RSS application (including Google Reader) and it'll automatically grab the full content of the latest GameCola blog posts. Combine this with the comments feed and forums feed, and you can automatically grab all the latest GC content that's not this month's issue!



The above image is an example of what the feed will look like once added to Google Reader. Useful, no?

Just to review, there are four GameCola RSS feeds:
Comments - http://gcfeeds.kevinsnet.com/comments.php
Forums - http://gcfeeds.kevinsnet.com/forums.php
Blog - http://gcfeeds.kevinsnet.com/blog.php
Planet GC - http://gcfeeds.kevinsnet.com/planet.php

Have fun!

Does anyone think we need an RSS feed of the 'blog? It's the next thing I'm considering putting in. The nice thing about it is that then, the GC writers can include the GC blog into their normal, non-GC blog (depending on what it's done in) or their FaceBook or something... It would also let regular 'blog readers subscribe to the feed in their news reader/mail app/browser/Google Reader to automatically see when it's updated ;)

Just some new updates to the blog and comments system:

This is your friendly neighbourhood 'blog developer.