It’ somewhat hard to believe but VirtualR is already starting its third year of existence today. It almost feels like yesterday that I started playing around with the blogging software, starting the site with no particular goal. To celebrate the site’s second birthday, the design has undergone a major change, more info on the new look and its features can be found below.
But first, it’s time to take a short look back at what was the second year of VirtualR.?? The site’s rapid growth has continued both in terms of visitor numbers and posted content. Until now, almost 3.000 news stories have been posted, enriched by over 12.000 screenshots and images.
The most impressive change has happened in terms of comments. While the first year had less than 2.000 comments, over 14.000 postings have been submitted in the past twelve months, posted by over 3000 signed up-users. VirtualR has not just become a place of news but also of discussion. Sometimes heated but mostly level-headed and interesting, the site’s comment section has earned a reputation for giving modders constructive feedback and offering interesting discussions.
2009 also put the site to its biggest test as the continued demand forced a rather problematic change to a powerful dedicated server, taking the site offline for over a day – A first in two years of operation. While running the site has certainly become more complex, it becomes more rewarding each day as I very much enjoy seeing it become a crucial part of the community.
An occasion like this is the perfect time to say “Thank You” and while I specifically thanked some people a year ago, it would be pretty much impossible to do so now as so many people have helped making this site a success during the past year. That’s why I want to thank everybody who submits news, gives me feedback, writes comments and e-mails, giving me motivation to carry on every single day. I appreciate the trust that countless modding teams, companies and other sites have put into VirtualR, every bit of support is very much appreciated.
My biggest thanks?? go out to the modding community and the sim racing community in a whole though – You guys are the ones making this hobby worthwhile, without you the site would have no reason to exist!
Off to year three….and many more to come ????
Facts about the new site design
As you can see, the design of the site has changed quite a bit. Even though it looks a little different, the site continues to work the way it did before. The new design features a wider main-frame that allows me to post even more content and embed higher-resolution videos.
The category listing has been moved into the header, if you??re looking for category-specific RSS feeds please visit the category to find the link on the top.
A major new feature in the comment area are avatars, helping to personalise comments and bring commenting on VirtualR a little further to the comfort you??re used to in forums. To add your personal avatar, please register at Gravatar.com with the same mail-address you??re using here, your avatar will be connected to it. Signing up there is done as quickly as signing up around here, you??ll only have to do it once of course.
The theme has been tested on all major browsers, including Firefox up to version 3.5, Safari, Opera, Chrome as well as the Internet Explorer 7 & 8. The site should look the same in all browsers, if you find any errors please let me know so that I can jump off a cliff, try to fix them.
I really hope you like the product of several nerve-wrecking webdesign hours. If you don’t right away, please give it a few days to adjust ????
