Hi all,

We now have a Facebook group for UK based meet ups. When you’re on there, you’ll see we’ve also created an event for people planning on attending the next meet up.

We’ll see you in Leeds.

I’ve been working on a new look for the website for a couple of months now. It’s far from complete, but I feel that even in these early stages it still looks far better than what we’ve got now.

The new theme is functional, just inconsistant, as it isn’t quite finished yet. As usual I’m getting a bit too excited about the new thing, and I’m really really unhappy with things as they are. So I’m seriously considering just switching it on. Now I know what you’re thinking, obviously I shouldn’t release the new version of the site until it’s completely finished, but I don’t think it’s all that simple.

Making something available before it’s finished has advantages and disadvantages, but I’m thinking that the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. For a start, everything will look better pretty quickly and I won’t worry so much about new people finding the site. Then there’s the idea that it pretty much turns everyone into beta testers. It’s all well and good knowing that the site works well on my computer, but it might not work on yours. I won’t know that until I turn it on. In addition to that, it also lets you give me input as the work continues. Don’t like something? I can change it as I work.

To be honest I think I’m being influenced by the work of many tech companies around the world. It used to be that you made your game, tested it, and released it on a cassette tape (younger readers might need wikipedia). There was no internet so you couldn’t put out a patch or change anything. It had to work perfectly. Then, when there was an internet, we started getting products that aren’t quite finished, safe in the knowledge that there will be an update available soon.

Even Apple seem to have developed this idea of releasing a product that’s less functional than the version it replaced, with an aim to updating it later. If the perfection obsessed tech company can do that, then what’s the harm in me doing it?

You know what? I’ve decided to go ahead and do it. You’ll probably realise that because you’re looking at the new site right now. I’ll start a thread in the forums for you to start putting up bug reports and suggestions for anything I might have missed.

Please remember that you’re looking at the site as an unfinished product that will be updated at a rate of knots over the next couple of weeks. Eventually everything will work perfectly.