A totally new website

[Juan Aneiros]

For the last 3 months, we have been secretly working on a new website which was to replace the current one on a total estimate time of 10-12 months. Due to the current advanced stage, Oscar's continuos efforts and the back-end being near completion, a beta version will be soon ready for members to test drive. Although we are very excited, I don't want to bore you with technical description and summarize it as following: Blasting fast, easy to use, fully interactive, dynamic driven, improved GUI packed with many more features than ever before. The most advanced and easiest to use news interface that any editor can dream of, without having to write a single bit of code and still be able to have perfect control in the way the news is displayed, the back-end and databases do all the work for you.

Other language sites will be back soon after it's finished without anyone needing to provide me with any more translations for me to upload.

A new feature will take less than an hour to finish instead of hours or days as was the case will the old site. The old site will remain in place but not for much longer, it will take much longer to just update that get the new one live and working 100%.

I won't waste more time explaining, instead I go and keep coding until you can see it for yourself. Cosmetic changes will be left until the end, so it may not be the prettiest thing you've seen so far but that will change as soon as the back-end programing draws to an end.

It would be hard to improve on what you've already done -- so it must really be something!

Go Juan and Oscar!!!!! :)

[Charles Prepolec]

Well, I can't wait to see what new magic you guys have cooked up. One of the most interesting features of this site is the continuous evolution! Bring it on!

Cheers!

[Gena]

You guys are really something. Thank You for all your efforts.
Gena

[Juan Aneiros]

Thank you.

Please avoid bookmarking any pages now and always try entering through the front page and following the links which are provided. Membership at the forums will be extended throught the site in the new one and you may encounter cookie problems later on which will prevent you from accesing any new pages that may be uploaded.

Oscar is setting permission for different member levels and organising memberships into usergroups. Your current titles may change depending on how he will be doing it. The reason we are doing this is that some of you are already entitled some free merchandise and/or discounts under a new system and the merchandise store needs to know who you are so that those choices are presented to you.

Posts, reviews, news tips, etc will count towards a new rating system which is intended to reward members who participate actively. A full FAQ page will explain this in detail.

[Greg Harris]

Wow wow wow!

This is all very exciting!

Cant wait to see it, Its bound to be spectacular!

Well done Juan and Oscar. :)

[Jacob Remery]

Like Rebecca allready said...
It's hard to improve on this site were having now.

Looking forward to it. :)

[Joakim Lundberg]

You can never expect what marvelous things that can come from these great gentlemans. GO FOR IT GUYS!!!!!!:1roll:

[Charles Prepolec]

You don't hang about do you? Mention a change is coming and boom, it is on the way! My curiosity is ever growing!
Cheers,

[Colin Bushby]

What more can I say, I`m realy looking forward to this. You are a realy dedicated couple of guys. Like what has been said, it is hard to improve on perfection. Hope it all goes smooth.

Colin:)

[Juan Aneiros]

The new site has now been connected to all the databases and some very basic features are live. While we try to change the graphical content and add old and new sections, we could do with some help.

You can view safely the site by following these instructions, if you don't you will run into problems. If you are not sure of what you are doing , DON'T:

go to:

http://english.christopherleeweb.com/forum...go=1&styleid=29

That takes you to the forums and forces a new template. Then, from the left menu select home. DO NOT NAVIGATE USING THE BLUE BUTTONS ON THE TOP RIGHT, it will mess up your cookies. Play around for a bit if you like. Your member specific menus cannot be viewed as yet because permissions have not been set. Everything is in plain text because we are designing new graphics and flash movies which are not ready. The backend at the moment is more important to us than the GUI, until that works there is no point in proceeding further. The GUI will take just a couple of hours to complete.

While visiting the new site, don't go back to the old one until you are finished or it will interfear with your current cookies settings. To return to the old site, type the old url and follow links, please avoid bookmarking for now or you might run into problems as url's keep changing. Please make sure the site greets you on the right with your name or asks you to log in. Report any errors.

Here is how you can help:

If you know how to publish news and have permission, try formating a bit of text with graphics and instead of using html (works too), use the built in code that is present at the forums. In the title, use the word test or something like that. Since it runs from the current database it will show in the old site also. Once you checked that everything works and displays correctly, please delete it.

Under web links, which runs through another database table which is independant. Here you can add links to sites you know are interesting and related, that will save us a hell of a lot of work. The old ones (4-5) are already being added, so you can forget them. It doesn't matter who owns the site, we would like to have a full and comprehensive directory of other websites so we can all keep up with other news. More on this later as there will be a script which will automatically inform about articles and news on the net each time the word Christopher Lee is mentioned. Remeber to enter your current nickname and e-mail as each addition will count towards your points system thus increasing your interactive rating. Don't worry about privacy as those are hidden from public view.

Please report any broken link from the navigation menu here, so we can fix it.

Please don't add any old reviews to the reviews database, we will do that later when the GUI is complete.

Thanks for your help in anticipation. The faster we can get the new site cleared from bugs and live, the quicker we can move on to new features. With your help everything might be ready in 2-3 days.

[Charles Prepolec]

Wow Juan! That is slick and fast. Great to see that image links transfer from the News Forum to the front page without the need for HTML. Page transitions are unbelievably fast for my 56k connection. I like it! As a matter of fact, I like the whole set-up and layout of it. Can't wait to see how the themes and user options function.

Cheers!

[Juan Aneiros]

Thanks Charles, I'm glad you like it. The HTML business was a real pain and IMO, not only it took longer to post news but we were restricted to the knowledge each of us had. Poor Sylvain was never able to link an image in the French news but that's about to change.

Yes, learning HTML is not a bad thing but who the hell wants to write long code when it can be done at a click of a button. That was one of our main priorities.

Ftp uploading has gone away too, you can upload images straight into a news directory in many different ways. We just need to evaluate which one is the easiest without compromising security. Best of all, you'll never need to ask me to upload centain pictures or links to the ones in your servers.

A new improved Image Gallery will be there too, instead of displaying images in static php or html pages, it would do so by pulling them from a database reducing loading times. Members will be able to upload their own pictures and artwork, subject to copyright clearance if not original, going then into a queue to prevent any abuse. The sizes are corrected instantly by the server and thumbnails created on the fly. That will save me time with the ones from Mr. Lee's collection too. Before I had to create two pages, two different image sizes and link the whole thing together. Now is just a click of a button and the server/database does all the work for me.

The themes are actually easier to create than you may think, even members can submit their own themes if they wish. More of that later.

The most exiting thing for me is the amount of time that the new site saves me in terms of maintenance and which will be of better use in what is about to come.

I've just managed to learn how to use a very unique toy, a state of the art DVD camera. Just looking at it brings tears to my eyes. With this baby we can produce video footage that will challenge in terms of quality anything previously seen on the web. On Sunday and providing Mr. Lee is not camera shy or has his rap suit on (unless he's about to impersonate some rap teenager), we'll see what this thing can really do. And he'll never need to worry about having to come to me, but being chased by. I'm a disaster when it comes to using camcorders and cameras, but with image stabilizers, auto-focus and buttons everywhere, even I can produce perfect quality footage. Doing Q&A sessions used to be a real pain, it took ages to get those files edited and up. You've seen "The Many Faces of Christopher Lee", now you'll see many more.

This developments will come at a price, bandwidth. I'm afraid that high quality recordings will only be made available to active members and it's an impossibility for visitors. Can you imagine what an invasion of LOTR fans could do to my servers when watching some exclusive footage and comments from Mr. Lee at the LOTR premiere? They'll have to put a restraining order on me to stop me from filming, I just hope Mr. Lee is able get us tickets. Look at this simple equation 50mb x 2.000.000 visitors=100.000.000, that is 1.000.000 GB of data transfer. Even if there was enough available servers to cope with that, I would need hundreds of thousands of dollars to fork out the bandwidth bill.

Anyway, we'll see what happens. Those of you that have constantly supported us through thick and thin, even when there was nothing in it for you, will be rewarded in many more ways that you can think of. Those articles, reviews, news, translations, posts, etc. have to count for something other than sharing them with other visitors and making history in what is the website of one of the true legends in cinema and if you don't mind me saying so, the most approachable too.

Before I forget, "The Short Film Competition". We need to put an entry form up and some rules for submission, but in the mean time you can start by thinking about the plot. As long as you use common sense, there shouldn't be any problems. We'll publish some rules real soon but the most important thing is that the script is original and not an adaptation of previously published media. Characters must be original too and please no Draculas and monsters or you will be wasting your time. Mr. Lee will be selecting the one he likes best, so it is in your interest that he likes it. Special effects and stuff like that are not possible because we haven't got the resources to do it. The total film limit is 45 minutes so please don't go and write something the size of the bible.

Regarding actors, production and direction. Initially we were going to get in touch with a drama school to provide us with these. Since then, we have decided that it will be more fun to let Mr. Lee direct it himself and use fans as actors. If you are not approached or not sure if you are eligible please don't apply, you will know that yourself. We had two volunteer already, most likely that Greg Harris will definitely be in it. The other might be a bit doubtful. If we cannot get enough, I can complete the cast by using Oscar, Christina or some of my friends if they are up to it. However, that would be the last resource as they all would be very nervous about it. Joakim might want to have a go at it too, since he is not that far and is studying drama himself. London will be the setting and the time and date will be set so that it would be convenient for everyone involved, but first let's go onto those scripts.

Any suggestions on this competition are welcome and feel free to ask questions. There is nothing worse than completing a good script to find out later that is not possible to produce due to the location in where the story is to take place, the actors are not of the correct age and gender, etc.

[Greg Harris]

Wow!

I am glad you kept the now adopted CL colours, Yellow, purple and blue. It is great, Every ounce of space has been used too!

Lol. I can just imagine the zillions of LOTR fans. You probably cant imagine more people.

I am very pleased for you Juan. congratz on your new baby. :)

And I am soooo excited about this short film... what could be more exciting? I dont mind playing all the characters Juan :)

Mr.Lee directing! even more exciting!

Thankyou.

No other legends out there (If there are any) has a website as good as this.

[Joakim Lundberg]

Juan! I'l DO ANYTHING!!!!!!! Everything for the arts.
Just tell me when we start and I'l be there. Mr Lee directing OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!:1roll:

I sound to excited but that's who I am. My head is already spinning of ideas.:1roll:
WOW!!!!!! Calm down boy.(telling to myself)