PixlBit

I'm happy to report that the PixlBit 3.0 implementation has been smoothly sailing along. I've been working on it nearly every night that I can muster the energy to do so. The progress has been very satisfying to see and I wanted to take a moment to share some more screenshots and give some details on what's done and what's yet to be implemented. If you're impatient and just want to see a big gallery of screenshots, you'll want to check here.

Alright - if you're still with me, let me walk you through where things are at. First, I've migrated the account system to a proper identity store, which means you'll be subject to a couple extra steps on your first visit. You'll need to sign up for a new ID and then either choose a new user name or (if you're reading this) you'll need to convert your legacy account. I've tried to make this as easy as possible. When you first sign up, you'll be met with the following dialog:

If you avoid it and decide to close it, no worries, as you'll notice in the background, there's a helpful prompt to bring the dialog back up in the places where you'd normally perform an action - like post a comment. After you plug in the credentials for your existing account (the one you're using at the time of writing) and click Begin, if your info matches what's on record, your old and new accounts will now be linked and you'll be set to start interacting.

Speaking of interacting, here's the new comment section for articles:

And here's what it looks like when you want to reply to a comment:

Also, the forums have been converted (even though they don't see much use - more on this later):

Though not pictured, following users has been converted and you will be given prompts in appropriate places to follow users that you don't currently follow. Private messages still need to be implemented along with collections and the overall user profile page. Article posting is also outstanding, but is probably the final item I will implement due to some of the complexities.

What complexities, you might say? Well, in this iteration of PixlBit, almost all of the fancy tools that the staff had to post articles will be opened up to everyone. This will allow you guys to post articles that look just as official as the staff content going forward. While there will be a few types of articles not available to non-staff users, these are mostly just because they represented special series that cetain past staff members wrote and shouldn't be expanded by anyone but the original authors (should they ever return to write here again).

In anticipation of this, the whole framing and navigation of the site has been altered accordingly, check out these screenshots for some context. When you arrive at the site and you're not logged in, you will get the official article feed from the staff:

If you're logged in, you'll get a mix of content - official articles, as well as those from users you follow, similar to a feed in social media. This will make it easier to stay up-to-date with everything happening in your community.

This also means that articles can be "upgraded" to official articles. If they get enough upvotes (new feature pictured in screenshot below) or stand out to the staff, they can be promoted to an official article!

You'll also notice in this screenshot the Related Content and the pagination capability - this is support for all of our niche legacy features that have also been converted. I also enjoy the new display for review scores (which will be available in user reviews too!)

Given this new mix of content, you'll now have access to a nice filter at the top of the page that let's you see the content you want based on where you navigate to.

Also, surprise! The new site supports theming - Light/Dark, preset based on your OS but controllable via the menu:

If it's not clear yet, PixlBit 3.0 is all about the community - while PixlBit 2.0 added all of the community features we have now, they were always an add-on to the existing site. These features are now a part of the DNA and the boundary between staff and community capability has been blurred.

While I am eager to contribute more again from a writing standpoint, I know that I can't sustain it on my own. I am hoping to bring back as much of the community as possible and see if we can bring this place back to life. I think more than ever, it's important to have independent platforms for people to congregate on and share ideas and I hope PixlBit can continue to be such a place, but one that isn't mired in the past much longer.

I will keep you guys updated on progress, but I'm hopeful that it won't be much longer before everything is ready.