Some time ago, we began discussing plans to change our name from Radio Paragon to Radio4Gamers. At that time, I grabbed the domain name with plans to eventually make that change. The time has come for that change to begin. The vision for what Radio4Gamers will be has changed since that original vision though. The original idea was to simply change the name, slap up some new logos, change how we market ourselves, and that's it. The plan now goes far beyond that.
Radio4Gamers will be a relaunching of the station. We will be redoubling our efforts to bring you content that is of interest to gamers. We're also going to be trying to bring more DJs, writers, and others onto our staff. We are currently seeking people who are energetic and enthusiastic about gaming. Whether your enthusiasm is geared towards a particular game or gaming system or whether you love all aspects of the gaming culture, you're what we're looking for, and I hope you will consider joining us on this move forward.
As the move from Radio Paragon is more of a change than we originally envisioned, it will not be a simple flip of a switch. There will be three phases to the change. The first phase is the launch of the new website on June 1st. At that time, we will begin referring to ourselves as "Radio4Gamers.Com" instead of "Radio Paragon". The existing site will continue to operate as-is along with the new site, though most new content will be on the new site.
On July 15th, new user registrations will be permanently disabled on the existing site. Anyone who is already registered can continue to access the site as they do now. Anyone who is not registered will be able to access the site as a guest.
Finally, on September 1st, the existing site will shutdown and the domain name will be redirected to the new site.
With the move, we are changing our web platform from Joomla to Wordpress. Some features which have been under utilized, such as personal blogs, Paragon Groups, etc, will be retired when the existing site shuts down. While I personally thought these would be of interest to more people, it doesn't appear that our followers are as interested in them as I had hoped. Since the idea is to bring you what you want, and not what I want, these features are going away so the site can be streamlined and easier to navigate and our efforts, energy, and budget can be focused in other directions, which will hopefully be of more interest to all of you.
One feature that will be making the move with us is our beloved DJ Autoplayer. I designed a whole new request system, completely integrated with Wordpress, from the ground up. As this new system is a true integrated feature, not only will it look better, but it will provide the possibility for some interesting new features in the future. The most obvious of these is, of course, the ability to add tracks to a favorites list.
I sincerely hope you will join as and continue to follow us during this move and long into the future.
