Contributor Zone

30 March 2010 8:47 AM, PDT

Our Awards list is one of the oldest and most complex parts of the database and it’s long overdue for an overhaul. Everything about the list, from the way you send us the information, the way we check it, the way we store it and even the way we display it, would benefit from some modernization.

It’s not a simple task but we’re suddenly in a position to give it that much-needed attention and we’ve had to make a tough decision about how to go about it. Upgrading things on a live website like ours has been likened to trying to change the tyres on a Formula 1 car while it’s still going round the track and so we’ve decided to simplify the process a little by temporarily closing the list. We estimate that the work will take 4-6 months, during which time we’ll not be taking any new submissions of any kind (including corrections) for the Awards list. No data will be lost and the existing information will still be visible on the site, you just won’t be able to add to it or change it for a while.

So, from 10.00 BST on Wednesday 31 March we’ll close the Awards list to new submissions. We’ll process everything that’s already been submitted, then we’ll start work on revamping the whole thing.

It’s only temporary, and it will make things better on this much-loved list.

If you have any comments, questions or suggestions, there’s a thread about this on the Contributors’ Help message board.

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