I’ll be upgrading the site in the next few minutes. Expect 15min downtime, if any.

Edit 8:14PM
Whoops! I had a feeling I was supposed to back up the site. Oh well, now we’re back to the green. But that works out anyway because Creative Summit was canceled and we needed to remake the skin to reflect DSVC only.

Having been in a relatively beta format for over five months, expanding and contracting through my own education and understanding of the WordPress environment and the language of PHP, and listening to several suggestions and requests of current and past members, ug2.org has frankensteined itself into an awkward organism with no sense of purpose or direction. With lulls and explosions of member activity, strange and clumsy appendages, and an apparent lack of awesome, our website needs some counsel.

It is my understanding that hardly anyone uses the website. And those that do visit are often frequenting on Thursdays, which is not surprising. Also, although greatly appreciated, most of the blog posts are completely unrelated and discontinuous in nature.

So in an effort to repackage and tame this bolt-necked creature, I’d like to welcome the awesome. Bring it on as if it were a Teen Choice and MTV award nominee about cheer leading. Suggest new features, or spit upon the unpopular ones. Feel free to use references/examples as well.

To start, I’ll share what’s been on my mind:

1. A dedicated area for upcoming events and reminders, aside from the calendar page
2. Guest contributors who are professional designers and/or faculty
3. UG2 Review posts, like this one, that spark dialogue about websites, print pieces, or user submissions (student portfolio reviews!)
4. Weekly Q&A from professionals and/or faculty
5. Weekly/biweekly design competitions
6. Website staff, who collaborate on interesting topics, and post weekly textures and tips

Suggestions are open to the public; membership is not required.

If you’re wondering where the minutes have gone, I’ve taken them out of the main circulation and put a link to them in the sidebar. They remain, however, in the RSS feed.

Also, the number of posts on the homepage has been reduced to avoid copious amounts of vertical scrolling.