Good to be back! I deeply apologize for the extended down time but i did get a lot of work done this past year and 2 months. The time was spent developing the site into more of an open 'media hub' for a community rooted in underground rap music. Some of the topics in this thread will have to be explained out over a period of time. Below discusses a little bit more about OTA3.

1.) OTA3 Beta release:
OTA3 is being released in BETA standing. This means that the site is stable enough to be used but there are still a few bugs that need to be worked out. So in short... some minor things may be out of wack. If you find that you are having problems with the site, whether it be using the site functions or a design flaw, let me know by posting the problem here.

The BETA period is expected to last a month to 3 months but could go even further than that, if needed. Once all bugs and design issues have been fixed, i will re-introduce the site as a stable release. Once stable I will send out a mass email alerting all members about the new sites current standing and begin to network with other sites.

2.) The Goals:
The major goals this time around would be to concentrate more on attracting new members rather than bringing the old ones back! Let's look forward and not back! Another goal is to use OTA as a platform for independent (and eventually even signed artists) to reach out to their fan base and promote their music. A third major goal is to be one of the best known sites to store all of that GOOD, classic and current CHI-TOWN/NWI & MIDWEST music.. the same basis i built this site to initially do. Once we re-conquer the midwest, we can dip into other underground music from the west, south and the east to equally become one of the best underground rap sites around.

There of course are other major goals as well, but they'll make their presence known at a later time.

3.) The "Ya Digg"
For those who are o.g members, you know what the "Ya Digg" is. It was great to be able to keep up to date with the latest music but we won't be doing it that way anymore. That's why I've built a music and mixtape section for users to upload and stream their favorite media across the web. Making this move is out of respect for all the hard work the artist's (we love here) do. It will also help to promote the artist in a cleaner, more efficient manor.

4.) The Staff
At this time, for any who i didn't already tell, there will be no immediate need for a staff. this is only because the site has been offline for too long.. hence there won't be a decent flow of traffic probably for a few weeks, maybe even months. So right now, things are pretty much ran by me. If things start getting hectic though, i will let everyone know.

5.) User group Information
User groups have been reset for EVERYONE! This was done because we had way too many people with tags that weren't really active or active at all. So everyone is getting reset back to normal which will give everyone the fair chance of getting their titles back. Rank isn't given, it's earned!!

6.) Future Releases
Chat: There are a number of future releases i have in store for the site. Once the site reaches a good number of daily, active users again, i plan to introduce a "new shoutbox". Like the old one, we can chat on whatever page it may be, but this one will be portable too, by footer bar and even pop out (talk while on another site). It's half chat/ half instant messenger.

Mobile version and app: I have added a mobile version to the site the will enable a user access to the mobile edition of OTA via any cell phone. The mobile edition includes: profiles, activity feed and messages. Something basic to start out with but shortly after releasing it, i'll add mobile forums as well as mobile music and mixtapes. If i can't get music and mixtapes in the mobile web version then it will be in the app, which will also hold mostly everything the mobile web version has. The app will first be released for the Android platform followed by iPhones iOS.

Pages: This feature is what will be used for artists to reach out to their fans. It's also a way for fans to make favorite pages for their artists. It pretty much works the same way as facebook's "fan pages" but except ours are dedicated soley for music. Artist/fan music pages will consist of ratings, reviews, activity feed, info, music uploads, photo uploads, video uploads and a few more.

Videos: Like the videos section on OTA2, members will be able to upload youtube or vimeo music videos.

*These features are already done but won't be released until we have a good number of daily users.

7.) Forums

We no longer are using vbulletin because it's too hard to get to work properly with the new OTA3. I had to retire it but mind you she did have a good run! So since we no longer use vbulletin, there will be no more props/negs (maybe a new system later), no emoticons (for the time being) and no extended bbcode ([youtube]link[/youtube]). Full HTML is allowed in the forum posts now which is a GOOD thing for some members. so that's why there's really no more use out of [youtube]link[/youtube] when now you can just paste the html embed code.

Just keep in mind that if you post something then go to edit and save it, it might not be in the post anymore. So if that happens, you will need to re-paste the html code in the edit box. I'm gonna see about finding a work around for that. Also notice he old emoticons like :welcome: :dance: :hello: don't/won't work anymore either

Another topic to take note of is that some of the forums are "gone". Forums such as "Game Stop", "Sex, Relationships & Strategies", "Swaggerholism", "Whip Game, No Shame", The whole "Writers Block" and "Graphix" forums and a couple more. You may also see a "Private Page" notice when you click on a thread you've created or replied to from your profile. This is because I have disabled these forums because they were getting inactive back then. So right now, I'm only going to keep the forums that were active in ota2. Maybe when the site picks up again, I will re-introduce those forums and we'll see if they get more exposure.

8.) User's help in "re-building" the site

You all can play a vital role now in helping to attract new members to the site. I've implemented a facebook share button, twitter button and a universal share button on just about every page with important content. That being music, mixtapes, forums & articles. So if you see something you like, share it on facebook. if it's worthy content, it could get a buzz and bring a few new people to the ave.

So... upload music to the music section or mixtapes to the mixtapes sections and share them. Simple

9.) Logging into OTA3 for the first time

If this is your first time signing back into OTA, you will need to click "Forgot Password" and generate a new password. Merging the scripts for OTA corrupted everyone's password.

10.) Browser Compatibility

Since this is a BETA release, I have only been building the site on firefox. I can also confirm that safari displays about 99% of the things correctly as well. So if you are using google chrome, internet explorer or any other web browser, the site might not be entirely ready to use yet for your browser. So it is suggested that you all download firefox for windows or mac (both tested fine) until i get the browser compatibility part of the project. If you continue to use an unsupported browser, you might be waiting a while to really reap the full benefits of the new site.

*** Additional Info ***

You might notice that some of your posts are gone. The thread that you replied to or made is still there but most of your post is gone and replaced by characters like this "ââ". This is because while integrating from vBulletin's forums to the new ota forum, some information didn't survive. I'd like to be able to go back and see if i can redo the process but then that would mean if anybody edits their post before hand, it will be reverted. So in the mean time until I figure out what I'm going to do about it, do not edit any of your old posts. You will just be wasting your time as it's going to be reverted back to the way it was in OTA2

Remember that the site is in BETA. So I will be working on it while it's live. If you come across any problems while I'm working on it, let me know. Otherwise, let me know what you think about the new OTA. I'm also interested in hearing things you don't like. Good seein you all back!!

*UPDATED: 11/17/11 @ 3:44 PM