With all the growth DSiPaint / DSOperaSDK has seen in nearly a year, I've decided to start overhauling the layout. Both content and a traffic growth have led to increasing lag and a cluttered homepage. Upcoming features will just keep adding to that clutter and slow load-time, including forums more minigames, language chatrooms, and TMJ. Before it became too unbearable, I decided to break the homepage into separate pages with a centralized menu. Let me explain these changes to help with any confusion...

Accessibility
The homepage and the sectional pages are all being designed for better accessibility without a stylus. Although the website is built for use on the Nintendo DSi Browser, some members have voiced concern that certain elements are not usable on iPhones, Droids, and Windows mobile, making access tougher when they do not have the DSi handy. While still keeping everything working 100% on the DSi, I am also making quick flipping and tapping with an index finger easy. This necessitated the use of icons instead of just text links.

Bookmarking
We all have our favorite aspects of the website, be it the chatrooms, blogs, game shows, messaging, DSiPaint, etc. Thus, breaking the website into sections will allow for bookmarking of a favorite page. Then instead of having to hit the homepage each time, you can login directly at your favorite section.

Customization
Originally, I was planning on setting up the homepage to allow sorting of the order sections would appear on login. Actually, about half of that code was in place. It was getting messy, though. One new plan for the overhaul was the ability for featuring favorites on the homepage, just under the section icons. Let's say you like to see featured blogs, your DSiPaint album, Minco Says, your mail inbox, and Chatroom TMJ. You can set those icons to show on the homepage whenever you login.

Branding
First this website was DSOperaSDK.com because of the developer tools. Then the website became DSiPaint.com because of the painting. It has also become DSiChatroom.com. There are about 8 domain names for it. Branding has been difficult over the months because its direction has kept evolving. There has never been a title on the top of the homepage for that reason. By breaking the website into discrete sections, I can finally put to use the new brand I've had in mind for it: DSiUniverse.com.

Sponsorship
I've been searching for a good ad sponsor for months, after Google dropped the site without warning. The ad revenue allowed for monthly contests and investment in growth. I found a few companies over the months that produced the funds, but I quickly dropped them due to inappropriate ads or slow server issues. Finally I have set up the website with AdMob: the biggest mobile ad website in existence at the moment. The revenue stream from it will help me to invest in development tools to continue growing the website. I would also like to bring back contests with real prizes like I did last year, including Nintendo Points cards and games. Since this has been brought up in the past: Do be aware that the sponsor brings in revenue for the, but do no just click every ad you see. If you see something you like, go ahead and check out the ad, but it does not good for the site if click fraud causes an advertiser to drop picking this website for a venue.

With some of these updates will be some temporary growing pains. for instance, the link to member profiles from the chatrooms had to be removed until I get the synching between this site and WiiOperaSDK back up. There may be some broken links or page errors that come up. If you notice any of those, let me know, and I will take care of them.

Once all these changes are in place, I hope that your experience on this website will be much better.

Let me know what you think of the changes, and feel free to provide any suggestions.