Welcome to the DNA Announcements page, where we announce important DNA-related news, such as new versions of the DNA engine, details of new DNA sites and site downtimes.

If you'd like to stay informed of all announcements, then please subscribe to this page. Whenever anything is announced relating to DNA the Editors will post a new Conversation to the Forum below, and it will then pop up on your Personal Space.

Please don't start new conversations here, or it will clog up the announcements system, but do feel free to post to existing conversations created by the Editors. If you have a query about DNA, please visit DNA Feedback - thanks!

Latest Announcements

20 May 2004: DNA Downtime Advance Warning - 21 May 2004 0000hrs-0300hrs BST

We are planning to upload a new verson of 'Single Sign On' (SSO v1.3) overnight tonight.

All DNA services will be temporarily unavailable during the uploading - this is planned take no more than three hours (between midnight and 3am Friday morning). You will not be able to register with, or post to, any of the DNA communities during this time.

We apologise for the short notice, but we could only confirm the specific timings today.

5 November 2003: Launch of iCan

We'd like to announce the launch of iCan. iCan is a new BBC website to help you do something about issues that matter to you. You can find information and advice, see what's going on in your area, get in touch with people who share your views and even start a campaign online.

iCan enables you to find information on issues that concern you, and helps to enable you to take action yourself using iCan's advice, guides and contact information.

iCan has a set of unique tools to help you start a campaign and gather supporters. The tools enable you to get support for your idea, arrange a local meeting, find or offer skills, start a campaign and find information on issues that concern you. All the information on iCan, including campaigns, articles and details of useful organisations, is sorted into around 2,000 issues, to make it easier for you to find the help you need.

13 October, 2003: Single Sign-on Registration System Launched

The new registration system has now been launched, so next time you log in you will need to migrate your account to the new system.

When you try to access DNA following the upgrade you will have to log in using the new system. You should use your existing login details - it will migrate your details, asking for some extra information, and you'll then be logged in with your existing DNA identity and U-number.

If you have any questions, or would like more information about the new registration system please read the Single Sign-On Registration page where there will be experts waiting for your questions.

8 October, 2003: DNA Downtime Advance Notice

On Monday 13 October the DNA servers will be down for approximately 4 hours, possibly longer. The downtime is planned to start at approximately 1300hrs GMT.

We're still in testing, so if serious bugs are found between now and Monday which would prevent us upgrading, we will postpone for two days, until Wednesday 15th. We'll make an announcement on Monday morning if this is what is going to happen.

The downtime is so that a new registration system can be implemented on DNA, which we've called Single Sign-On (SSO). Eventually the same registration system will be used across the entire BBC, which means that you will be able to use the same login and identity on connector, messageboards, chat and so on.

When you try to log in following the upgrade you will have to login using the new system. You should use your existing login details - it will migrate your details, asking for some extra information, and you'll then be logged in with your existing DNA identity and U number.

If you have any questions, or would like more information about the new registration system please read the Single Sign-On Registration page.

12 September, 2003: Launch of Get Writing Community

We're pleased to announce the launch of a new DNA community, Get Writing.

Get Writing is a project which aims to use the BBC's drama and entertainment programmes to inspire people from all walks of life to discover and develop their creative writing skills. The first phase of the project, which includes this new DNA community site, sits alongside BBC's Drama's modern retellings of the Canterbury Tales which started on BBC One last night.

After the six Canterbury Tales programmes audiences will be invited to write a short story inspired by the Tales and submit it to the Get Writing competition. Five winning stories will be chosen to be developed and produced for the Radio 4 Afternoon readings slot, these will be read out on air by five actors from the TV series.

People will be able to use the Get Writing website to help them develop their creative writing skills generally, through a number of online events, features and learning modules. The Craft is the place where you can refresh your knowledge or pick up some great tips from professional writers on how to improve your work.

Members of the community will also be invited to attend one of 12 events being held during September and October that are being run across the country, offering the chance to meet writers from The Canterbury Tales, members of the BBC production team and successful local writers to get hints, tips and inspiration.

12 September, 2003: News - DNA Server upgrade

The DNA Communities are now running on a set of new servers. Four new web servers have been added to the pool of DNA servers, which means that we now have eight in total.

We've also changed the way the servers are load-balanced. Until now, our servers were balanced in quite a simple fashion. The BBC has a large pool of web servers - these are what serve up most of the pages on www.bbc.co.uk. When you first ask for a page from bbc.co.uk, the response will come from one of these servers, selected mostly randomly, but also based on where you are (we have servers in New York as well as London). But for applications like DNA, which need a bit more processing power than just flat HTML, we pass the request on to a dedicated server.

Until now, each front-end BBC server has been linked directly to one of the DNA servers. This means that if one of the BBC servers gets a large spike in traffic, that spike is passed directly to the DNA server behind it, meaning that the server will struggle and occasionally fail.

Now, however, we have switched to selecting DNA servers at random. This means that each time you request a page, you might get the response from a different server to the one you talked to last time.

The reason for doing this is to try and smooth out load spikes. In situations where one server would get hammered, now that load will be spread over eight servers, which means that, in theory at least, the service should be more predictable and reliable.

5 June, 2003: Launch of WW2 People's War Community

We're pleased to announce the launch of a new DNA community, WW2 People's War.

Through a combination of the BBC, historical experts and, most importantly, the public, this website enables people to write about, reunite with and research the war generation. Their stories will then take their place in the historical context.

The People's war community site presents an opportunity to tell the untold stories; to discover and write history; to honour heroes in a new national record.

15 May, 2003: Launch of Talk London Community

We'd like to announce the launch of the new Talk London community site. Talk London is the place to find out about the latest up and coming bands, theatre, local issues and history. If you live in London now, or know the city well, they'd be interested in finding out more about your local area.

We'd also like to thank the BBCiTesters for their help in bug testing the new design on the test server - thanks for your help!

24 April, 2003: Discussion of the Iraq crisis resumed on DNA communities

During the recent weeks of intense military action in Iraq, we asked our DNA Community members to discuss the crisis on certain messages boards only. This was for reasons of sensitivity explained at the time.

We'd like to stress that the above boards are still the ideal place for informed debate on the continuing situation in Iraq, but now that the frequency and intensity of military exchanges have diminished in the Gulf, DNA communities may, if they wish, resume discussion of the issue in their preferred communities. However, we'd like to point out that we may return to the focussed moderating/hosting model should the need arise.

In order to focus discussions we'd like to ask community members to centre their discussions within specified areas of the community - the local Editors of each DNA site will direct you to their individual Iraq discussion area. Existing conversations will be moved to this page both in order to help the individual Editorial teams to review war related postings and to enable community members to find and join currently active discussions.

Thank you all for your co-operation in discussing the crisis in the areas specified - and many thanks for your understanding during the recent sensitive period.

17 March, 2003: Iraq Conflict Policy Implemented

The Conflict in Iraq Policy has now been implemented. All new postings and articles relating to the conflict in Iraq posted to any DNA community site will be failed, and members of the community are now asked to discuss the conflict only on The Great Debate message board. Pre-existing conversations and postings will not be removed from DNA sites, unless it is thought that they may place anyone in danger.

As before, The Iraq Conflict Guidelines will help to explain the moderation policy that is likely to be implemented shortly. They should be read in conjunction with the House Rules.

17 March 2003: BBCi Guidelines for Discussions During the Iraq Conflict

BBCi are hosting a number of debates about the conflict in Iraq. It is essential to the continuation of these discussions that they are conducted responsibly and with the sensitivities of all parties in mind. In order to ensure that the debate remains balanced and informed BBCi have started a dedicated discussion area on The Great Debate message board which is being hosted by BBC News for the duration of the conflict.

Once the war is announced, or the conflict develops to such an extent that the BBC decide to implement the Conflict in Iraq Policy, all new postings and articles relating to the conflict in Iraq posted to any DNA community site will be failed, and the community will be asked to discuss the conflict on The Great Debate message board. Pre-existing conversations and postings will not be removed, unless it is thought that they may place anyone in danger.

The reason that discussions will be directed to the Great Debate message board is to enable BBCi to concentrate its moderation and hosting resources, thereby ensuring that conversations can be carefully monitored and editorially balanced. It will also ensure that the BBCi audience can easily find other people interested in debating the same subject.

During the crisis we do ask for your co-operation. The moderators have been asked to err on the side of caution, as this is a very sensitive time; this means that some decisions will have to be made during the conflict that would not be made in other circumstances.

The Iraq Conflict Guidelines explains the moderation policy that is likely to be implemented shortly. They should be read in conjunction with the House Rules.

28 November 2002: DNA Server Downtime Scheduled

The DNA servers are scheduled to be moved at 9am on Thursday 28 November 2002 to a new location. This will mean that the servers will be down for a short period of time.

We hope to keep the outage to a minimum. 11.30am is the aimed-for end time, although there is a possibility that the servers could be unavailable for a longer period of time.

14 November 2002: DNA 1.2 Released

We're pleased to announce the release of Version 1.2 of DNA of DNA.

This release implements the following changes:

A system of reactive moderation has been introduced. This didn't require a lot of work technically, but we did need to add the ability to switch the moderation on or off on a site by site basis in order to enable it. The moderation of content on h2g2 and The Hub has now been switched off, allowing these sites to run under a system of Peer Moderation.

The legacy queue - all the old forum postings that have been hidden since we joined the BBC - has been cleared, and all those old conversations should now be visible. If you see any content amongst this content that breaks the House Rules please use the complaints button.

The addition of a friends list is the most significant new feature, currently only available within the h2g2. On your personal space you'll find a new section called 'My friends'. This is simply a list of journals to which you've subscribed, but presented in a different way.

There have been a few other changes, mainly to add some internal features which are to be used by some of the new DNA sites launched recently. Please read the Version 1.2 of DNA article for full details of the upgrade.

11 November 2002: New Volunteer Scheme Launched - BBCiTesters

We're pleased to announce the launch of a new DNA volunteer scheme, the BBCiTesters.

BBCiTesters are volunteers from any DNA community who have offered to help the DNA Team try out new communities and applications on the test server, report any bugs and give general feedback on proposed developments.

From time to time the BBCiTesters may be invited to help write seed content for new communities, so that when the site goes live there's some initial content to open discussions. They'll also be invited to test new BBCi tools or applications.

BBCiTesters can specialise, so one BBCiTester might prefer to answer technical questions, while another might find that they are happier giving feedback on the concept and functionality of a site or product.

If you'd be interesting in joining the BBCiTesters group, please visit the BBCiTesters-Recruit page to learn more about the scheme. If you'd like to join the group please leave a message in the converation forums at the bottom of the BBCiTesters-Recruitment page, we'll be recruiting soon!

Thanks!

11 November 2002: DNA 1.2 Upgrade Scheduled.

The DNA 1.2 upgrade has been scheduled for for 10:00am on Thursday 14 November.

All DNA sites will be unavailable during this upgrade, which might take up to 2 hours, but will probably be completed much more quickly. (The last such upgrade was completed in less than 30 minutes.)

1 November 2002: Peer Moderation Pilot Project

We have fantastic news!

BBC Editorial Policy have decided to allow us to stop actively moderating h2g2 and the Hub and switch to a system of reactive moderation. This system of moderation will be implemented within the next couple of weeks when the new version of DNA goes live.

Reactive moderation means that the moderators will not read all of the content on h2g2 and the Hub, instead the community are being trusted to alert us to any content that breaks the House Rules.

The moderators will only read complaints from the community. This differs from the current post-moderation system, where everything is read within one hour of posting.

This is the first time that BBCi have allowed this to happen on any of their community services, so it's a real tribute to the h2g2 community that they're the ones to be involved in the pilot. Hopefully this form of moderation will eventually be extended across other DNA communities in time.

If you'd like to give us your thoughts on the pilot project please wing your way over to the Peer Moderation Pilot Project Discussion page. We're interested in your views on how this new system might work and in your feedback on possible problems or benefits.

We'd also like to make sure that everyone fully understands how this works before we actually introduce the new system!

1 November 2002: Launch of a new DNA community - Talk Buffy

We're very pleased to announce the launch of a new DNA community - Talk Buffy.

To celebrate Buffy's season six launch on the BBC, the Cult team have developed a new Buffy site on DNA. If you're a Buffy fan join in the conversations!

28 October 2002: Launch of a new DNA Community - Parent to Parent at The Parents' Music Room

It can be hard to find out reliable advice and information about music education. Often people learn most by word of mouth, from other parents, or teachers. This is what Parent-To-Parent is all about.

Parent to Parent will help you to find answers to your questions about music education for children, and give you an opportunity to share what you have learned. You put a question and benefit from the hard-won experience of other parents, and the Parent to Parent team of expert advisers.

19 September 2002: Amendment to Hub House Rules - No spamming or flooding.

We've just updated the House Rules on the Hub to include a section advising that flooding a conversation with repeat messages is regarded as a form of spam. Deliberate posting of the same message to one conversation, or to multiple forums, will be removed.

The rule now reads:.

No spamming or flooding. On the DNA Hub, spamming is the posting of the same (or very similar) messages to lots of forums. Flooding is when the same (or very similar) message is posted over and over again to the same conversation. It's especially antisocial if it's off-topic for those forums. So please don't deliberately send the same message, or very similar messages, to loads of different Conversation Forums, or post the same message to one Conversation multiple times. We'll simply remove your Postings, and possibly your account.

18 September 2002: launch of a new DNA community - Collective

We're pleased to announce the launch of a new DNA community - collective.

If you're interested in new albums, films, events, books and would like to make a recommendation of your own or join in the discussions, the collective Editors welcome your contribution.

19 August 2002: DNA 1.10 Released

We're delighted to announce the release of version 1.10 of DNA. The most important new feature is the addition of a new skin for h2g2, Brunel. You can try out the new skin by changing the Skin setting in your h2g2 preferences; we hope you like it.

Brunel will become the default skin for h2g2, but we're going to leave it for a while before switching it over from Alabaster... just to make sure it all works OK.

If you spot any bugs in the new release, please post them to h2g2's Bugs Feedback Forum and we'll see what we can do.

12 August 2002: DNA 1.10 Scheduled for Release on Monday, 19th August

We're delighted to announce the planned release of DNA 1.10 on Monday, 19th August. The bulk of the upgrade consists of a completely new skin for h2g2, which will sit alongside Alabaster and Classic Goo. The new skin is called Brunel.

The upgrade does not require the servers to be switched off, but it's entirely possible that things might go a little weird as the new skin is uploaded on Monday morning (UK time). Nothing new round here, then, but we thought you might like to know.

5 August 2002: DNA Hub Launches

Today the DNA Hub launched. Welcome everyone!