EOLv2 beta - Points of Interest

Here are a few pointers to get you started.

To browse the EOLv2 beta site, you do not have to be registered as a user.

To contribute to the EOLv2 beta site, which includes making comments and playing with the new “collections” feature, you need to be registered as a user.  It should be pretty intuitive how to accomplish this.

Please note - any data you create as a beta user will not persist to the site when it is launched.  So please, do not spend hours and hours building the perfect collection, as it will Go Away in a week.  It is a beta site, after all.  If you’re really keen to add new content to EOL, or to curate something, please do it on the main site http://www.eol.org - that data will come over to the new site.

As you’ll probably figure out pretty quickly, not all functionality has been implemented in the EOLv2 beta.  Not all links to static content are implemented.  And not all of the tabs on the taxon pages are currently enabled.

While EOLv2 will support languages other than English, no languages other than English are supported in the beta.

A beta version of the EOLv2 mobile CSS is currently also in beta, so try visiting the beta from your favorite mobile device too.

How do I learn about the EOLv2 beta?

Please visit http://www.eol.org/content/page/v2beta and read the entire page.  Yes, every word, they’re all important.

All done?

That’s it.  Just go to the URL for the beta site found on the page above, and have at it.

We would very much appreciate it if you would complete the EOLv2 Beta Survey, which will be posted to the page above when it is ready - I will also share links to it here.

The EOLv2 beta begins today.

Beta is an odd time for a product manager.  You want to invite people to come look at your product and use it “for real”, and you have to balance that urge with the realization that is is not fully polished or ready for launch… yet.  That’s life.

That said, I’m happy with where it is today, and I’m looking forward to the results.  I’ll be blogging about the beta throughout the week - if you are a tester, stop by and let us know what you think.  If you have questions, we’ll do our best to answer them in a timely manner.

And Please Complete Your Beta Survey.  Thank you.