I'd like to take the time to write a little round up of recent changes and future development.

Some months ago we realized, that, for the site to grow, a better hosting solution would be indispensable. We left goneo, cause we just couldn't raise the php memory limit above 54MB and support was not impressively helpful. The attempt to run our own server failed because we coudn't get a decent and free hosting control panel to run. After a week of reading, comparing and testing dtc (domain technology control http://www.gplhost.com/software-dtc.html ) was selected as the only possible solution but we didnt managed to install the software properly and after the third fruitless installation attempt we moved the site to greengeeks, thinking that, not caring for the whole server setup is probably the safest way.
At greengeeks, php memory limit was not a problem (256MB), but after they blocked the site about a month ago, because it was apparently using to much resources the only way was to move to our own server at vcserver. This time we got dtc properly install and are very happy with it.

Now with the new system in place, the site can grow again.
One month ago i published a little list of features that would enhance the site in one way or another.
http://www.lgdb.org/forum_topic/roadmap
Implementing them will take a lot of time and for every feature one or two problems need to be resolved. So we will work on them one at a time.

In this post i want to talk about the chat feature. It is the key to a fast communication but choosing a solution is not trivial. We narrowed the possibilities down to three options irc-chat, jabber-chat or php-chat. irc chat uses only the recourses of the chat server but can not be integrated into the site, php-chat can be integrated but has the biggest performance impact. jabber-chat would have both advantages but the implementation was a pain. Because of the expected little usage we decided a php-chat would be enough for the time beeing. So now the site has a chat feature that is more like a shoutbox, but gives the users a fast and easy way to communicate.
Go here to test the new chat feature http://www.lgdb.org/tribune and feel free to comment on the other things on the Roadmap as well.

Cheers,
pheonton