I know what you're thinking: WHAT? ARE YOU INSANE?
Absolutely not. This is a great thing we're doing right now. By eliminating our old code base, we are able to start fresh with a much better solution. Here's some of the changes we're implementing to make this all happen.
New servers:
We're in the process of switching to DigitalOcean, a virtual private server host. This will allow us to do incredible things not possible on our current hosting platform. From a technical standpoint, we have been using a programming language by the name of PHP for years. Don't get me wrong, I love the language, but it's extremely basic and difficult to develop for the modern web with. There's so many better alternatives, and that's why we're moving to DigitalOcean. DigitalOcean allows us to do such by giving us a server we are fully able to customise and mess around with. This gives us more power, which is better for everyone involved. Remember when I said mods would have a really low upload limit? Ha, well that not may be so anymore after this move! We'll discuss more about that at a later date, but we have some ideas sketched out that you'll most likely love!
Re-start without Reload:
When you're using YouTube, you click on a video and the content loads in faster than it did multiple years ago. That's because the content isn't being entirely reloaded like it did in older versions of the site. You can see this in action in this GIF:
YouTube loads the content for you, not the browser. This is something we really want to achieve. It's not set in stone, but this would allow instant messaging across pages without being interrupted. Or playing web games and being able to switch to the forum for a user-created guide.
Video shown in GIF is "Why I Hate Halloween" by Emma Blackery. She's the bees knees, so check her out!
The Future of Donut Team:
While we have a lot of plans internally, here's what I'll leave you with that we can say publicly:
- At least one more year of The Simpsons: Hit & Run content.
- An original video game released in the next few years.
- A brand new community driven website with a brand new forum, chat functionality and web games.
- The ability for the community to share their creations on one platform, together, for free.
- Discontinuing other products, services and chats soon in favour of new ones we'll be releasing.
TL;DR: We're doing something new, and to do that we need to start fresh. Give us time to figure it out.
side-note: our code is still backed up, we're not monsters!