Roadmap

Roadmap

The new Buddhist Centre Online beta has been running well for some months - and we've now turned it on for all users, whether you are signed in or not. We still have a long to do list! This second-stage 'beta' preview version should be stable on all devices, and offer a much better experience for most users most of the time. We're still working on some key features (see below), and some edge case uses might not yet have made the transition from the old site. If this affects your own use, please bear with us while we work to finish the first full release

If you are having technical issues using the site, please email us here and we’ll do our best to support you and resolve things. While we're in this preview phase some issues can likely be resolved by switching back to the old site via your user menu (top right of any screen), but do feel free to let us know anyway. It’s useful if you can send us a note of what device and web browser you are using. 

If youʼve any feedback on the new site – or suggestions for content – we'd be glad to hear your thoughts.

PLEASE FIRST READ THE RELEASE NOTES BELOW FOR SOME MAJOR KNOWN ISSUES WITH THIS BETA PREVIEW. We won’t be able to respond to all feedback but we are always grateful for it and promise to give it our attention. We may be in touch for more information. 🙏

To Do (March-April 2024)

Here are some of the larger issues we're still working on as we build out the new platform towards the full launch. There are also smaller bugs and features to address. But these are the big ones...

    • DISCOVER BUDDHISM. We're excited about our new extensive pages on Buddhism, Meditation and Triratna. This area of the site is stable and there's a lot of good content already, so you should get a sense of where we're going with it. And, as you’ll see in places, it's still very much a work in progress. We'll be iterating the content on an ongoing basis, supplementing and tweaking the text and adding media between now and the full launch. We'd love to hear what you think so far. 
    • CONTENT CREATORS (CHANNELS AND GROUPS). If you contribute content to a channel or group on the platform, for now you'll be (gently!) pushed back to the old site's forms when adding posts. This isn't great on phones - sorry about that! - but should work fine on desktop or tablet. After publishing you should be returned to the new site and your content will display beautifully within the new system. We'll be introducing an all-new block editor for the full launch, which will enable you to make much fancier, multimedia posts on your space, including with your phone. We're building the 'Discover Buddhism' feature (see above) with this tool if you want a sense of what's possible. 
    • SEARCH. We've made some headway with improving what before was just a basic version of our new search engine. You can now filter and re-organise your view of the results, chronologically or by relevance. For the latter, we're pulling in a lot more of the huge range of content across the platform but this feature is still very much in development. It works well with some useful filtering options already but you may find other holes in the data set at present. There are some other known minor issues. If you encounter any issues with the range of results returned, try switching to the old site and redo your search. 
    • FIND A TRIRATNA CENTRE: We're in the process of building into the site and the search engine a completely new data set for all Triratna Centres worldwide. At present in some places we still link to a temporary new rendering of the old page listing Triratna Centres and groups around the world. You can also access a new dedicated sub-menu called 'Triratna Around the World' under the 'EXPLORE TRIRATNA' menu. As part of a new search engine (see above) we'll be introducing a new system to find key information about any Triratna Centre quickly and easily. Watch this space.
    • MENUS. We're bringing into alignment a lot of very diverse websites that make up the platform. This involves gradually integrating the site menus to honour the different needs of each space while still aiming for simplicity of use for the visitor. It's a journey! Expect more iteration in this area going forward.
    • COMMENTING AND USER FORMS/PAGES. As above with contributing content, when you go to comment on a post or update your user details you'll be bumped gently back to the old site and system. After you publish a comment you should land back safely on the new site and your comment will display as expected. 

      Known Issues (March-April 2024)

      • SIGNING IN. We're regularly deploying updated iterations of the new platform. Sometimes this means you'll be signed out automatically between sessions and will have to sign back in next time you use the site. Sorry about this - it's unavoidable but still a bit of a pain... 😬
      • CAROUSELS/SLIDERS WITH QUOTES appear too small in some computer browsers at some screen resolutions (eg. Safari for Mac). 
      • CONTENT FEEDS. We've initiated a new Magazine View for people who prefer that to a long scroll in list view. It's in its first iteration and will get more nuanced in time in response to context and the kind of post it's trying to display. To the right of most sub-menus on channel for groups you'll now see a choice of views indicated by icons - list or magazine view.
      • TABLET STYLING is a bit erratic on some areas of the site, particularly around the posting bar on channels and groups on smaller tablets.
      • THE NEW FREE BUDDHIST AUDIO EMBED PLAYERS have issues on phones when the talk title is very long.
      • FREE BUDDHIST AUDIO LATEST TALKS SLIDERS include talks in all languages uploaded. This is not really a bug in an international community! But we do recognize it has an odd effect on an English language home page and the main Triratna page. We're mulling this in relation to eventual language translations of the site or parts of it.
      • YOUTUBE. Styling issues on the home page YouTube carousel on some phones.
      • INSTAGRAM. Some issues with some video playback from reels.