What kind of site changs would you like to see?

[FixAmer1st]

Congrats to both you and your wife Mark. Best to the both of you.

Jerry

[Jasonanne]

Congrats Mark, Well done on the job and the Baby making!



Cheers Jason

[Colin_Rommel]

Here's another suggestion for Mark. Since we need to get as many people playing Links as possible, please get Baby Hulka swinging that mouse ASAP!!

Congratulations Mark.

[gibby]

Congrats to you and your wife, don't worry about us if there's events to play we will be fine

[albatros]

congratulations to you and your wife mark. and then there were three I agree with Michael Jensen in that from experience i can say that this is a special time!


albatros

a bouncing ball never sleeps (nor do parents of newborns )

[lstouradmin]

Thanks for all the kind words guys! I'm really looking forward to the experience and having a son! To be honest, it's just now starting to feel real.

- HDTV? already installed
- Green room? Wife already painted it blue - long before we knew a boy was coming along.

Mark

[Modman1]

Nothing more exciting then your first born. While it will totally change your life it is worth ever minute. Congratulations to you and the misses.

Really like your ideas for changing the site also.

Alan

[txTarHeel]

A little late to this party, but let me add my heart-felt congratulations Mark. The birth of a child is an incredible time... soak it in and enjoy the experience.

[AZWilly]

Congratulations to you and your wife Mark. Well Done!

[Modman1]

Back to some of the changes that have been submitted I would like to see classic be more then just the ms courses. Get tired of playing same courses. Maybe classic could include "CLASSIC COURSES", like Muirfield, Augusta and I am sure you can think of many others.

[Hawkeye]

Maybe we can get an anonymous source to give us some inside scoop on what may be in the works and if there is a possible date to look forward too. Just a bread crumb or two.....Anyone in the know?

Shawn

[lstouradmin]

First off, I would like to apologize to all of the membership for the very minor updates made to the site and lack of communication to this thread. I wasn't trying to ignore you I just wanted to come up with a game plan before posting.

I would have liked to have much more done by this point. Things haven't moved as quickly for a few reasons - I know excuses, excuses. There were two golf game projects in the works over the past two years which would have made fine Links replacements and the LSPN membership was going to be part of them. So I was working on those in hopes of introducing a new game and tournament site to everyone and saw no need to update the old site if something newer and better was coming. However, both projects fell through. So valuable time that I could have spent improving the site was lost to those failed projects. I plan to use some of what I learned on those projects for upcoming changes - not on the list below because I still need to investigate how the tech might work.

So here's the game plan (Schedule for these changes will be available on May 2nd)

Changes in the short term

1. Site Refresh
- Make the site easier to navigate
- Make it easier to view and compare stats
- Make it easier to find and view other players and their stats
- An overall better look and feel

2. Tournaments
- Trim down the number of official events to increase participation in the popular events

3. Need volunteers to run leagues for tours that won't be on the official list any more (TBD). Volunteers will receive free Tour Director memberships. Volunteers need to be experienced at creating events and must understand proper pin placement. I'll investigate tournament history and will get feedback from other players before choosing the right people. Please email at helpme@lspn.net if interested.

4. Game Play, Missing Features & Rankings

5. League Tools
- Will improve upon the current League Administration tools

Finally, starting the end of May 2011, any new yearly memberships will be prorated through May 1st of 2012. As of April 1st 2012 I'm going to cancel all monthly PayPal subscriptions. Starting May 1st 2012 I'll introduce a new (lower) pricing structure and will only offer yearly memberships.

Also, there is a rumor of a new patch. It's true but do not get excited just yet. It's still a ways off. AJ has done tremendous work and I plan to implement my side of things after the first 3 steps above have been completed.

And lastly, I'd like to try and find a skilled PHP/MySQL programmer out there who likes to work on the cheap and could start doing a few small projects starting in June. Email me at helpme@lspn.net if you are interested and please have programming and web site examples.

Mark

[rwoodworkr]

Change is good (smart change). This all sounds great.

[Modman1]

Really appreciate the response Mark. Too bad about the other projects. Golf being such a popular sport I just can't understand why no one has tried to compete with TW. Links is soooooooo much better and shows what can be done. You would think, 9 years later, the tools for enhancing a golf sim would be greatly improved. Feel like I still have a good 20 years of Links left in me. Hopefully by then we will see a new product.

[lstouradmin]

This is where the new site will be available for preview as I implement changes. The current schedule is listed there as well.

http://preview.lspn.net/

Mark