Some of you may have noticed a certain “slow down” of Moovida 1.0, with less Launchpad activity and no new plugins. A few of Moovida’s most active community members have been recently informed that there are many changes in the works for the next release, which will radically change the product (for the better, IMHO). Indeed some questions have been popping up, so let me try to clarify some of your concerns:

• Our current focus is on our next version, which is a complete overhaul of Moovida as you know it (different architecture and development language, UI revamp)
• Because of this, we currently have very little time to review requests, bug fixes and the like on Launchpad for 1.0, and we won’t  be able to merge any changes in the short term, so please bare with us in the meantime
• The next release will remain open, but not to the same extent as Moovida 1.0. We understand this may be upsetting to some of you who vow allegiance to 100% open source solutions, but we have followed this direction for specific reasons. We wanted to keep developing a great media center that could prosper in a highly competitive and evolving industry, and this is what made most sense given our objectives.
• Moovida will remain free, but will also offer premium content on demand
• Please be patient for another 1-2 months before experiencing our next release, after which we hope to blow your socks off (make sure to be wearing socks, otherwise your toes could suffer)

We’ll keep you posted as new info becomes available. Hang in there and please keep the feedback coming in the comments section and in our Forum, we’re doing our best to incorporate your valuable suggestions.

My name is Michał Sawicz, you can find me on Moovida’s IRC, Forums, etc., where I come by the nickname of Saviq. I live in Wroclaw, Poland and I’ve been a Linux admin / user for about ten years now (almost half of my life ). I have since become an eager FOSS enthusiast and evangelist. I’ve done my share in translations at first and then started to properly contribute as much I can to many different open projects I’m fond of. Moovida is the first big project I get my hands on. Coming from translation, my initial focus was to get Moovida properly internationalized. The project is also my training background in Python, as most of my knowledge of it came from working with Elisa and Moovida. I really like the project and will try and keep ‘em  [plugins] coming

Michal is Moovida’s most active and prolific Forum member and moderator, and is responsible for the Vimeo, CNN and We Are Hunted plugins on Moovida.

Moovida’s first dev contest was a great success. Four new plugins were developed, giving Moovida users access to some great new content. Here are the winners:

• 1st place prize goes to Guillaume Desmottes from Belgium for developing Arte
• 2nd and 3rd place prizes go to Michal Sawicz from Poland, Moovida’s steadfast community member and most active Forum moderator, for his Vimeo and CNN plugins

Although We Are Hunted trailed behind, that plugin got my vote…

I will let the guys introduce themselves in an upcoming post. On behalf of the whole Moovida community, let me just say a big thank you to both for all your great contributions, and keep the great plugins coming!

Is it because Christmas is around the corner that people have been in the giving mood? We’ve been asked many times how to donate to Moovida. Who knew free software users would be so generous?

As we’re not the type to refuse special requests of this kind (who would?), we’ve put in place a PayPal account to facilitate your eagerness to shower us with cash, so we can spend it on lavish dinners and Champaign filled limo rides. Seriously though, all the money that you donate to Moovida will go towards providing cool contest prizes. This will spur more motivation amongst our community  to create more plugins, a win for all Moovida users.

If you’re not into donating and more into “collaborating” (as our business guys put so articulately), make sure to contact business development.

Moovida hearts community, which is why we’ve revamped our Forum to make it clearer, friendlier and more dynamic.

How so?

• Less Forum categories. Get posting faster,  avoiding the “where the hell am I supposed to post this comment?” moments
• More functionality. The user control panel lets you manage subscriptions, bookmarks and drafts, and gives you access to stats and member listing info
• User post ratings. Rate a post on 5 stars (1=not useful, 5=this member knows their shit) and make it easier for others to find useful posts
• More user profile info at first glance. To the right of each post, you will get more info on the post’s author
  • Ranking (coming soon). Instead of specifying the questionable distinction between ‘New Member’ and ‘Member’, a Jedi rank will be attributed  to that user’s level of contribution (see recognition program below)
  • Posts. Needless to say, someone who has posted 150 times is more likely to be a good Moovida reference vs. a user with 5 posts
  • Joined. With this field you can instantly find out if the post’s author is a newbie or a seasoned member
  • Operating System & Moovida Version: Edit this in your profile so members can answer your questions without asking the same old “I need your specs to help you.”
  • Total user rating: The total nbr. of stars accumulated  paired with the qty of posts that have been rated are useful hints to whether the member generally makes good comments. We are working on the “avg. post rating” field so slower minds don’t have to bother with the math.
• Recognition Program. We’ve decided to attribute Jedi ranks to our superstar posters so users can gage member credibility (coming soon).
  • Every 50 posts = 1 lightsaber
  • 1 lightsaber  = Jedi Apprentice
  • 4 lightsabers = Jedi Knight
  • > 4 lightsabers + good user rating = Jedi Master (can become Forum moderator)

So why Jedi? Ya we know it’s geeky, but it’s something we all thrive to become in one way or another (I’d like to be a Jedi Master at Guitar Hero). Besides, who reading this post has never wanted to own a lightsaber, or has not once imitated playing with one? Speaking of, how would you write the sound a lightsaber makes… bzjiou? Really, I’m curious to know.

This one never gets old:

Love or hate the new Forum? We want to hear what you have to say, including lightsaber stories and videos.