Members will need to re-enter their password

[Michael Wechsler]

Hello everyone -

It's an exciting week and many addition items are coming down the pipeline over the next week, including the release of some new mobile applications! In order to integrate our entire site with one single user name and password, we will have a new registration system.

(1) EXISTING MEMBER PASSWORDS WILL NOT WORK. So what do you do?

• A new temporary password will be mailed to you. Check your spam/junk mail if you don't receive it
• If you don't get your new password, just generate another one by clicking on the "recover password" link which is the same as the registration link. A new password will be mailed to you. In the new control panel, you will be able to change your temporary password to your new one and it should now allow you access to ALL new areas of the site.
• You can manage all of your essential items - your user name (changed only by request), your password, email address and user classification (you'll be able to state whether you're a lawyer, advice seeker, paralegal, etc.)

(2) NEW MEMBERS - JUST USE THE NEW LOGIN SYSTEM

 

[jacksgal]

Its 7PM my time and I havent had to relogin yet

 

[Michael Wechsler]

I'm taking a little extra time to work it out to make sure it seems to work. Tomorrow morning it may be operational. When your password doesn't work, you'll know it's time, lol. You should receive an email first and I will be changing the alert message to give everyone notice. Also we'll be releasing the new iphone and Android mobile apps, the best legal apps around... and they will be free.

 

[Patricia_Young]

What if I never ever log off?

 

[BirdOPrey5]

Is the forum software changing or just a login system?

 

[Michael Wechsler]

What if I never ever log off?

LOL. The continued login (remember) should be automatically enabled.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

Is the forum software changing or just a login system?

Just a new login system. There are significant changes taking place this month and the integrated login is one of the big pieces to the puzzle. It will allow you to register and login in one place and access all these goodies, more of which will come shortly.

1) The forums (reorganization coming tomorrow with more subforums, easier to categorize although more items.)

2) Legal Forums (upload, download, many forms being uploaded in 10 days)

3) Law Outlines (going back online, there are hundreds more going up)

4) Law Jobs / Resumes - This is already up although job and resume posting will be turned on tomorrow when the new login system comes into play

5) Support Desk - See all your support requests

6) Payments/Services - for premium services or payments, it's all tied in (translation services, premium forms, etc.)

7) Lawyer Directory - Just about done, expert directory coming next. It has been repopulated, redesigned and fully optimized. Payment system for premium placement also integrated to the login.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

So you're probably wondering... what is going on with the password changes already? It has been around 10 days and still no new system!!!

There is more to this than a login system - I've been working hard to combine all areas of the site into one consolidated area. The problem has gone beyond just registration and also into the use of special characters here, which has caused quite a problem. When the forum was set up it was not considered that we'd be switching to this system. As a result, there are many special characters in the user names for our forum - !!! @@@ >><< and @@ and ** to say the least. I've had to clean these out and make sure there is minimal disruption. Fortunately, our most popular users did not use those symbols.

I am working on a system where your user profiles will also be able to be accessed by thelaw.com/member/username which is a rather nice vanity web address. I'm trying to figure out what to do with the rest of you who have spaces in your names. But that may be workable based upon what I'm doing with dashes and hopefully that will work out just fine, perhaps by using dashes since there aren't that many users.

The need to do much of this work manually has been draining. Suffice it to say you can't just do a "search and replace" for what I'm doing... but we're right at the tail end. Fortunately, I think that tonight our system will be a go.

If you want to see an example of how nice the new look of the site is, just go to the Lawyer's Directory -- http://www.thelaw.com/lawyers/ -- I think you'll agree, the facelift is doing the site very well and, I'm glad to say, the traffic buildup here has been rather noticeable once again.

Thank you all for your support and look forward to hitting this next stage right before the Thanksgiving holiday!