That is right - in early December the new Osprey website will arrive! An upgrade on our current, somewhat well preserved website - we can't wait for it to arrive. Some of you will have already spotted some evidence of the impending arrival in the switch-over to our new email newsletter system (which we hope you like).

So as we prepare to say farewell to a trusted site that has guided us through the last 7 years (and leave with one final big celebratory event) there are a few things that we need to make you aware of.

1) Downtime

The website will be going down temporarily whilst we move across to the new site - this could take up to a couple of days. During that time you can stay up to do with our progress by popping across and having a look at our Twitter feed, or checking out the latest news on our Facebook page.

2) User Details

Your user details and account information have been retained - which will mean that you will continue to have access to the user name that you use on the current site. However, as your password details are encrypted, you will have to reset your password the first time you log in to the new site. If you have any problems doing this, please let us know.

3) Payment details

For security reasons we are not able to take payment / card details from the current site to our new site. So, you will need to re-enter your card details prior to placing an order. You will also see a new payment gateway during the order process which is used to securely tokenize (is that a real word?) your card details. You may notice a charge of £0.01 in this gateway - this is not taken from your accounts, it is used by the payment gateway to confirm the card details are correct and that funds are available.

4) Order History, previously purchased ebooks

This data will also be ported across to the new website, however there will temporarily be gaps in this history. So for example, if you have made purchases in the last month it will take a few days for the order to fully populate in your order history. The same goes for ebook purchases made recently - they will appear on your account, but this will take a couple of days. So, if you have recently purchased any titles that you may want to read in the first few weeks of December you might want to download it before the new site goes live, to avoid having to wait for those books to appear in your new ebook library.

5) Membership

If you have an active membership, this will remain active on the new website. However, when your next payment is due we won't be able to automatically renew - so you will need to repurchase your membership. Users will also be able to sign up for a 24-hour trial membership to have a look at what our members archive looks like - though you won't be able to take advantage of the membership discounts whilst using a trial membership.

6) Commenting on blogs and forums

As we have mentioned in the past, the issues with trolling on our forum and blog has forced us to take steps to tighten up the comments process. To this end we have introduced a new Bronze Membership payment level. A payment of £1/$1 will allow the user to post on our blog or forum. Whilst we are disappointed to have to do this, Osprey will make no profit from this payment - with all the proceeds from Bronze Membership being donated to selected military charities throughout the year. Gold and Silver members will be able to post comments without purchasing an additional membership.

7) New Sections

You will soon spot that we have dedicated pages, blogs and forums for Osprey Games and Osprey Adventures - places where you can get the latest news about our new wargaming sets and the great publishing plans for Osprey Adventures. In particular, this provides a new home for FAQ sheets and debates about our wargames titles.

8) Future developments

This is just the first stage in a planned two-year development cycle on the Osprey site. We have worked flat out to ensure the site is ready to launch, but we are prepared for any potential issues and bugs that may appear post-launch. Once those have been ironed out we will be continuing the development of a range of new features and options for the site - we will of course keep you up-to-date about all the ongoing developments on the blog.

 

In the meantime - I would like to bid a fond farewell to this site, and thank the customer service teams and web developers that have looked after her for the last seven years. Onwards and upwards - see you all on the other side!

 

Mike @ Osprey