Dear Friends,

Whoah - I step outside for a breath of fresh air and two minutes later, I return to a forum bustling with buyout rumours. I guess it's time to call a press conference

Okay, the situation is pretty straight forward. Yes, the eternally-knowledgable Serge is correct - the VB-World Network is currently being transferred from Jelsoft Enterprises through to White Cliff. The move is currently underway and raises that very obvious question: what does all this mean to members?
Thankfully, nothing bad. The first thing to change will be the VB-World site. Every single piece of content currently online will be manually rechecked and filtered through for accuracy, relevance and new English-usage standards. Those that pass will be re-entered into the new site, under one of four new sections: Tutorials; Features; Code Snippets and Reviews. We're also working on new articles and writers (if you're interested in being in at the beginning, let me know!).

Elsewhere on VB-World, you'll have the Codebank, which enables you to post your own snippets for others to download (a little like the Planet Sourcecode site John talked about some time ago). There's also the new VB-World Messenger, a HTML-based messaging system that will allow members and the system itself to send messages to each other - such as reminders, questions, submission alerts and more.

What else? VB-World will see the return of the Directory that we once had here (including the ability to submit your own sites), plus you'll also find a new Events diary. A "My Network" area will also provide you with more customisation.

At the moment, we do not have an official release date for the new site. March 1st was a date we banded about during the early days, however all we can really say is that July 30th will be the absolute cut-off date. Everything will be completed by then.
Regarding the other network sites: VB-Square will undergo a complete revamp; VB-API will be updated in design only; VB-Forums may be altered in some form so it integrates with the new "personalisation" features of the site (this may include a complete rewrite of the entire Forums).

Anyway, gang - that's the situation. Yes, things are changing. But for once, it's a good change - and one that should result in a community truly better than the rest.
Incidentally, should anyone have any thoughts/ideas/suggestions on what the new VB-World Network should inlude, please post them this way. We've already had a number of consultancies on it this end (we have five developers working on the core site as I type), however we're always open to suggestions. My e-mail, as ever - [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
And in reply to MarkMan asking about the Sprinks popups - one of our first executive decisions has been to completely scrap all but a couple of frontpage advertisements. They *are* annoying, aren't they?

Big thanks to everyone for their support during this time - especially the Jelsoft crew - and I look forward to working with you all to deliver a new and greater development network that will prove an invaluable resource for years to come.

Sincere thanks,
~ Karlos
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Karl Moore MCP, MCSD
Managing Director, White Cliff
Senior Editor, VB-World
Phone: 07092 17 18 19
E-Mail: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]>
Web: www.karlmoore.com <http://www.karlmoore.com> - *updated*