We're going for simplicity and efficiency in DBVTCS21. The bare bones DBVTCS21 Version 1.0 will be followed by updates resulting no doubt in more menu items, more site areas, and more stuff, but we have what we need and little else to get the CS 2.1 party started and are striving to keep things very much like they are in bare bones DBVTCS21 moving forward.
Broad stroke descriptions of DBVTCS21 essentials are
1) Similar look and feel to DBVTCS20. New summertime background image to replace the winter image that marked CS20's time of year release.
2) Titles everywhere, except search results. Post titles to me seem so much more efficient than displaying full posts or excerpts.
3) Basic menu items: Recent Blog Posts, About Me (which doubles as site home page), a Contact Me Form, and the ability to get blog posts by email through FeedBlitz. No delicious favorites, Technorati Profile or that sort of thing.
4) No monthly archives, either in list or dropdown format in the sidebar. Who uses it and who cares? I sure don't.
5) No Atom subscription option, just plain-jane RSS 2.0, and I'm using Community Server's RSS services, not Feedburner or something else. For now, anyway.
6) CAPTCHA. 'nuf said.
7) I won't be resurrecting my CS 2.0 Technorati Tags CSModule for CS 2.1, since the Community Server Tag Formerly known as Category now generates a "rel=tag" hyperlink element, making the Technorati Tag module unnecessary.
8) Substantial modification to my Photo Gallery. I reported in today's [DailyNewsShort] on John Geurts saying that the Community Server Photo Gallery needs some love. I've been feeling that way for a while, but that's a sidebar for another post. I did Flickr for about a month a while back, but quickly realized that I am a CS Photo Gallery Man. Heck, I have over 1400 photos in my CS Photo Gallery. It rocks. So I thought about how I like to use the Image Gallery and the most simple, efficient way for me and others to use it. So I trashed the sidebars (relocating the RSS link and Image View Counts) and added an autopostback Album Dropdown above the photo block. When I personally use the Photo Gallery I want to see recent photos, and then I may want to quickly jump to a particular album. That's all I want to do, and that's what my Photo Gallery does. I'll be adding Slideshow support, but when I put the site online tonight I noticed a bug in it, as it wasn't displaying the correct album. I'll post more about the details on my Photo Gallery changes later.
9) Applied my Aussie pal Geoff Appleby's "Remember Me" fix on comments. I can't say for sure, but I think this got missed and might still be an issue in CS 2.1.
10) Added a hyperlink to the new comment notification email template for one-click return to the post.
Mods Coming
1) I definitely want to get my iTunes library back online, and I like having my Netflix queue listed, too. So they're both coming. I don't plan on bringing my Blogroll back. The Netflix queue is goofy, but I like it. The iTunes mod is pretty involved, with a couple of non-CS apps in the mix to move my iTunes library.xml to SQL and then update the Amazon Web Service Album Urls, but I'll be packaging up the Netflix queue in a separate mod in case someone else wants some goofiness for their blog.
2) Speaking of Mods coming, my CAPTCHA for CS 2.1 mod is in a separate easy-to-install package. I just have to box it up.
3) Some sort of multi-image selection mod is needed that I've added for every previous version of CS. I have to keep high-stylin' the iPod and Dog posts, after all. I don't know if I'll do something in CS for that or build some sort of Live Writer Plugin that talks to CS Photo Galleries.
4) Time to look at the CS 2.1 CSModule Market. There are a LOT of great CSModules out there. I don't want to slip into visual complexity and a busy page, but I'll definitely be looking for DBVT-Worthy CSModules. (That's a Seinfeld reference, as in "sponge-")
5) A File Gallery area. This isn't a mod, of course, but now that the Files source is included in the CS SDK I want to add a DBVT File Gallery!
What a glorious CS future is ours!!! But now I'm going to bed.