The rebirth of something great.

Posted on November 10, 2006 by Sean Malone (myfamily.com)

After nearly 8 years, myfamily.com is about to go through a complete overhaul.Very soon, we’ll be launching the first of many releases. An all new myfamily.com service — which we’re calling (if you can believe it) myfamily.com 2.0 beta. I know, original.
by the way, we’re calling the current site “original myfamily.com” or ”myfamily.com 1.0″    

What does beta mean? The word beta, in software development terms, means all the features are there, but they are likely to have some rough edges known as bugs (which means stuff might not work exactly as intended). The point of launching a beta is to get feedback from other people, especially people who are or intend to use the service, so those rough edges can be fixed.So, what exactly do we mean by “beta”? Well, we’re not exactly following the true meaning of the word because our re-launch won’t be feature complete. The team who built myfamily.com 1.0 created a very full-featured site. So, rather than waiting to launch until we can re-create all those same features in the new site, we decided to launch with the most frequently used features, then roll them out over the coming months feature by feature.In essence, as long as we are calling it beta, you will know that we have features to add from the original myfamily.com site and/or bugs to fix.

What will happen with the original myfamily.com site? If you’re a myfamily.com member, it will go away when you tell us it’s time. We’ll get your emails and your feedback form submissions and your comments on this blog. And when you just stop using the original site, we’ll know it’s time to retire it. So, we are not putting a date on it just yet — though no doubt it will happen before the end of next year. And we’ll let you know well in advance when we do.

What happens to all my stuff (photos, documents, news, etc.) from the original site? Not to worry, you will be able to bring it over to the new site. More on that later.

So, why a new site? Simply put, it’s time. A lot about the internet has changed since 1998, when the current site was built. New techniques and technology being used in today’s modern websites make for an easier, faster, more convenience and much more fun and meaningful experience than when myfamily.com was first built. I’ll discuss this and more in coming posts.

 

Filed under: Planning, migration

The beginning: Release 1 »

13 Responses

  1. Writing, Sharing And Protecting Your Life’s Story, on September 10th, 2007 at 8:15 am Said:

    [...] Family is the largest and oldest of the three, although it went through a complete redesign in 2006. It’s focused on the family before the individual. Even though it’s the largest, it [...]

    Reply
  2. Scrivere, Condividere e Proteggere la Storia della tua Vita : davidetoffa.it, on September 10th, 2007 at 11:41 am Said:

    [...] Family is the largest and oldest of the three, although it went through a complete redesign in 2006. It’s focused on the family before the individual. Even though it’s the largest, it lacks the [...]

    Reply
  3. Writing, Sharing And Protecting Your Life’s Story « iBrian, on September 10th, 2007 at 6:59 pm Said:

    [...] of the four and affiliated with genealogy giant Ancestry.com. The site had an extensive redesign in 2006. It’s focused on the family before the individual. Even though it’s the largest, it [...]

    Reply
  4. Idetrorce, on December 15th, 2007 at 3:36 am Said:

    very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
    Idetrorce

    Reply
  5. Marsha Derby, on April 4th, 2008 at 5:09 pm Said:

    Bottom Line is this going to cost money.

    Reply
  6. Marsha Derby, on April 4th, 2008 at 5:09 pm Said:

    Bottom line, is this going to cost us more money.

    Reply
  7. Mila Ramirez, on April 4th, 2008 at 8:24 pm Said:

    Even the free subscription has unlimited storage. I am a paying subsciber ( premium site )and yet I have a limited storage. In fairness can I cancel my premium subscription and subscribe to the free site?

    Reply
  8. Paul "DOC" Tobin, on April 5th, 2008 at 6:40 am Said:

    I’ve seen the invitation to something new and I just think that something old works for me .

    Thanks
    “HighPlainsRider”
    Paul

    Reply
  9. Gwen Hindsman, on April 5th, 2008 at 7:24 am Said:

    I am the administer of our present site and have a really hard time finding the way to change and correct things on it and now you want me to learn to use a new and more difficult site? No thank you

    Reply
  10. Daneille Grimes, on April 5th, 2008 at 9:00 am Said:

    Gwen,
    We have the option of using 1.0 or the new 2.0. Have you visited the most recent blog announcement for April 4? http://blog.myfamily.com/

    Reply
  11. Janet Spear, on April 7th, 2008 at 3:49 pm Said:

    I am the administrator and love the new site and I will keep it if I can be assured that it will not be so slow after a while. I love the looks of it and love making our own page. More of my younger family love and have been contributing since we started the migrating site. But some of course like the old.

    Reply
  12. Mila Ramirez, on April 18th, 2008 at 7:29 am Said:

    I like the unlimited storage on myfamily 2.0. Will that be the same with the bandwith?

    I requested to migrate a few times. Will I be able to do the migration myself ?

    Reply
  13. Cynthia, on April 18th, 2008 at 11:50 am Said:

    MyFamily does the migration, you do not do it. They have stopped the migration for the time being. I don’t know when they will start again.

    Reply

Leave a Reply