In December 2010, site owner, Dennis Steele decided it was time to add some new features to the site ChessManiac.com. The first fundraiser was for Vote Chess. After checking with a programmer the fee was going to be $1000.00. Dennis turned to the community, as he did in 2008, when the community needed a new server(see quote below). The community came through and donated $6000.00 for the new server. This time donations came in rather quickly for the Vote Chess feature. The goal of $1000.00 was achieved and work began on the development of Vote Chess. In addition to this, one community member, Donn Parsley, decided to add $1000 to help with a new Chess960 feature. Chess960 was finished first and is now active on the site. As of this date, Vote Chess is now in beta testing on the site. After working on the development for almost 2 months it was determined that adding new features to the site was cumbersome and the code was in need of an overhaul. Dennis turned to the community one more time with the following request to raise $6000.00 for the overhaul. Within 30 days the money was donated by 95 donors. ChessManiac.com is a community of chess players that was born on 2003.

Hello,
I am writing to inform our community that since we have been working on the recent upgrades of chess960 and Vote Chess (soon to be released) that we must come to terms with where the site is at developmentally speaking. Software development is something that over time, as more and more features are added, begins to become difficult to program new features. After a long discussion with two programming experts, one from Google.com and one from Github.com, I have come to the realization that in order to add all of the features that you, the users, are asking for and rightly deserve we need to completely redesign the backend of the site. By doing this we would end up with a faster, more streamlined system that would make adding new features a snap. The important thing to realize is that we are a community that has been together for almost ten years (2013 will mark our tenth year) and if we wish to continue with our community and make it a more enjoyable place for all, we are going to have to make this upgrade happen. I have received a quote in order to bring the site to this new level. It is not cheap… but if we can get the backend changed we will be able to add so many great features to the site and as a result we will remain a wonderful community for years to come. This new redesign will allow us to add mobile apps with ease as well as many other integrations with upcoming new technologies. In 2008, we raised $6000.00 for a new server. I am hoping that the community will rise to the occasion once again and help us with this new backend design. The quote we received to make this happen is between $7000 and $9000. What I am asking is that the community contribute $6000 of this expense. If 200 people give $30.00 each we can reach this goal very quickly and can get started right after we finish adding the Vote Chess feature to the site.

Let’s dream about the new features that we will be able to add as a result of this upgrade.

Sincerely,
Dennis Steele
Site Admin

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