So, you’ve found the way to our new website.  This site has been under development for a while now, and is still far from finished.  As you can doubtlessly see, the site has been given a much needed facelift and now takes advantage of some of the latest technologies on the web despite sticking with the same feel that old site gave.

Despite my protests, as I wanted this site finished pre-launch, links have been thrown around and now this development site has more traffic than our old one.  If you find any major issues please don’t be afraid to shout, just leave a comment below and I’ll get the issue fixed as soon as I can.

In the meantime here’s a rundown of the latest features that are available:

• Responsive design
• Cleaner look and feel
• Forums
• Proper error handling
• Faster
• Code optimisations

So, what does all of this mean for you?  Firstly, just try resizing your browser.  You should notice the website automatically adjusts itself to an new layout that best suites your screen.  This also works on tablets such as the iPad, and phones such as the iPhone in order to ensure you get the best possible experience from your device.  The cleaner look at feel should make the site easier on the eyes and more pleasant for you to use.  The forums are a space for you.  Simply register for an account and then you should be able to proceed to discuss everything orchid related, ask questions and hopefully get support where it’s needed.

The error handling means that should you stray off course into the unknown land of missing, moved or non-existent content you will be notified with an on screen message.  This shouldn’t happen often, but at least you will be presented with something more than a blank page! The new server, mixed with a lot of code optimisations, should now mean he site responds faster than ever before.

Note for Internet Explorer users: This site will currently be neigh-on unusable in IE8 and below. I’m not sure what the situation is in IE9+ yet, but I will issue fixes as soon as reasonably possible. This may take a while though as I work 9-5:30.

In order to get the most from this new site I would recommend using a web browser such as Apple Safari, Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, as the support for these new features is somewhat limited in Internet Explorer.