Centauri Dreams began as a website back in August of 2004. I’m startled to realize, looking through the stats that my site’s software provides, that in the subsequent nineteen years, there have been 4,659 posts, along with close to 100,000 comments. The irony is that I started the site simply as a research venue for myself, thinking to keep up with the latest news by building a collection of articles and scientific papers. It took about a year before I even switched on the comments function.
One of the benefits of publishing for such a length of time is perspective, as the interstellar research scene has grown and changed over the past two decades. But one thing I didn’t do is keep up with the software. Always focused on content, I’ve kept writing but have let too many generations of internal programming stay mired in older iterations. The dangers of this are obvious. A site with obsolete internals is all too open to hacking. And now, completely normal upgrades to some of the site’s functionality threaten to break some of the older software. Something has to be done.
What’s now happening is a thorough re-doing of the internals of Centauri Dreams, one that will solve the immediate problems and allow upgrades to some of the external programs I use. The most obvious change to readers will be the site theme, although things should remain pretty familiar. I want Centauri Dreams to continue with its basic layout, and that means no advertising, no pop-up windows, no annoyances to distract from the text. Behind the scenes, the site will be rendered more secure and also more efficient, with less chance of an errant move on my part bringing things down.
Please bear with me as the work proceeds. The new look comes with significantly tightened security. Work behind the scenes will continue on a number of issues I want to resolve. I’ll tweak the look and feel around the edges, but let’s get through the transition first. This should be done within the next day or two. If any late-arriving comments get lost along the way, I’ll get those restored as soon as I can. Anticipating problems – and they always turn up, no matter what – should help to deflect them.
Thank you for all the hard work that went into curating all this information, good luck & best wishes for the next 20 years.
Let’s hope another 20 are in the cards! I certainly plan to make that dream happen. Thanks!
Let me take this opportunity to thank you for the incredible piece of work that is this website. I have rarely commented, but I have been reading you for the best part of ten years. In the meantime, also thanks to these pages, I have grown from being a student in engineering to pursuing a career in space exploration. I am still blown away by the quality of these posts. Thank you for that.
Much appreciated, Paolo. Your comment about choosing to go into space exploration means a great deal to me; I’m so glad the site helped in that direction. Thanks for being here.
Kudos for all the work you have done through the years!
Few if any sites give me as much as centari dreams.
Looking forwards to any changes and many new exciting texts.
Why thank you, Martin! Very kind of you. Delighted to have you as a reader.
Perhaps the most important endeavour for the human species (and on behalf of all other species) is to get off terra firma and seek habitat elsewhere. Your contribution and perhaps the support of the commentariat should be a great satisfaction to all concerned.
Becoming an interplanetary, and perhaps one day interstellar species is one huge challenge. Thanks for your part in keeping the discussion active, Robin. Much appreciated.
Paul, thank you for the heads-up. My websites too need updating and I was astonished when searching for development software, how manipulative of clients the offerings I encountered were. I have studied both front-end and back-end programming but to save time wanted development software such as Apple’s long-gone iWeb that provided functionality needed to quickly assemble a site. I’ve used code snippets to add modern features but need a more thorough re-vamp. Hope your efforts are utterly successful.
Thanks for the support, David! So far so good, after initial issues that caused some consternation. Fortunately, I’ve got a brilliant web designer/developer on the case who has resolved each issue as it has come up. Still more to do, but I’m pleased with the current changes.
” I want Centauri Dreams to continue with its basic layout, and that means no advertising, no pop-up windows, no annoyances to distract from the text.”
Yes, don’t “improve” it, have seen that before. Keep this site lean and mean.
Will do, William!
Why William, are you saying you don’t want the opportunity to press a “Click to load the next 5 comments” box a dozen times per article? Nor comments hidden because they got 2 or more downvotes? Why, I imagine you don’t even want a Javascript “click to keep reading” button to mark the middle of each article, nor giant bars of whitespace meant to give any laptop the familiar comfortable look of a cell phone screen. Where have you been hiding out the past two decades of internet “improvement”?
Hi Paul,
It is always healthy to upgrade the website. Congratulations!
By the way, I suggest you insert an ‘old entry’ navigation link at the top of the site. I will make a lot easier to access former articles.
Is it possible?
Regards
Ricardo Orsini
Thanks, Ricardo. I’m hoping that having the search box at the top right should be useful (under the illustration). Do you mean a link to the archives that show up further down the page? I’m open to suggestions, so tell me a bit more of what you have in mind.