AOP: The New Beginning

The title sounds like an Atlantica's major patch, and defines quite well the future of AOP.

Indeed, I'm going to develop another website about Atlantica Online.

Since its beginning, AOP is an amateur fansite.
It was built -and grew up- with free time (about 1.000 hours), good will, and contributions from various contributors (mostly monster info, quests, guides and forum topics).
Despite of that, many people said that AOP looked like a "pro" site, thanks to the quality, the quantity and the usability of its information (validated and updated).
The daily traffic regularly increased (presently more than 4.500 visits and 26.000 pages viewed), what demonstrate that players trust and enjoy this fansite.

But it has some flaws too:

• Unable to manage handle several versions of Atlantica Online. AOP couldn't handle the upcoming German version (except with heavy additionnal code).
• It isn't adapted to the frequent changes with translations (mainly item names)
• Accessibility to sorted data (item by type, monster by level, etc), and the search feature, are functionnal but "classic". It's possible to be more efficient.
• Forum activity was pretty low before this summer (but friendly & moderated). Some users are baffled when forums don't look like usual bulletin boards.
• Some features are not used -even if players asked for them- as the Guilds (some players register their guild and that's about all).
• Technical difficulties to code or update some features. Basically AOP is a Drupal CMS, with tons of code added.

The next site will be more ambitious, with these main objectives (I won't detail much at the moment):

• More info, easier and faster to browse
• More media (i.e. pictures & videos)
• More user activity, with a better profile integration (characters, formations...) and a classic phpBB forum
• Easier to correct, and to report errors or additions from users
• Separate sections for other Atlantica version (i.e. the German version will have its own database/forum in german language ; at least if someone is ready to help me)

Let's come with the obious questions:

When?
When it's done.
I'm unemployed so I have time - but other activities too.
I think that I'll need about 3 weeks to think/design the project, 4-5 weeks to code and merge the AOP data to the new site, 1-2 weeks to correct bugs + final improvements.
Other features and tools will come later, the site itself will be available to the public when the "Game Information" section is finished.

Will AOP die?
First of all, AOP will continue to be updated until the data are merged to the new site. So if there is a new patch soon, AOP will be updated as before.
In the future, I think that AOP will stay online, but its database shouldn't be updated anymore.
Maybe it will evolve to another kind of fansite, it will also depends on users.
So the true answer is: I don't know.

Will the data be lost?
All "game" data will be used into this new site. That means all the work (from contributors too) with monster loots, the quests, etc, will be used. The guides too, except if their author disagrees (it's their right).
But the account-related data won't be transfered: that includes your titles, characters and formations, private messages and forums posts. However, they will stay on AOP.

Will you need help?
Oh yes!
The most important are solid collaborators, one for each Atlantica version (International version, upcoming German one), so as to help me with the localization. I'll give more details soon.
By the way I suck with graphics, so if someone could create a phpBB style or some banners, it would help a lot!

Don't hesitate to give your feelings about his new project, maybe some suggestions too.
I'll read all your comments, and they may help me -us- to realize the best site about Atlantica Online!