Last week not only marked the first full week of the 2010 World Series of Poker (WSOP) in Las Vegas, but also the launch of the new and improved PocketFives.com. Behind the development of the fresh version of the site is Nat N 82 50 24Arem, a Las Vegas resident and longtime member of the online poker community. Arem has been hard at work around-the-clock this week ironing out several bugs with the re-launched website, but took time out of his busy schedule to join the PocketFives.com Podcast.
PocketFives.com staffers have spent the last several weeks debugging the new site and submitting feedback to Arem and company. As we write this, we’re still working on mastering the revamped content system and navigating the wealth of added features. On his overall body of work, Arem told the PocketFives.com Podcast, “Overall, we’re happy. We did have an issue with the site caching. Unfortunately, it wasn’t working properly and people had some trouble… There have been little issues here and there, but nothing big enough that I would say it’s a major issue.” PocketFivers who are still experiencing caching issues are encouraged to clear their browsing history and data.
The Online Poker Rankingshave received an overhaul in terms of how they’re displayed and archived scores are easier than ever to view. The Pro Pollis easily accessible and Sortable Rankings have taken center stage. Arem explained his vision for the Rankings: “We have a lot of plans for the Rankings. We’re going to be doing some different buy-in rankings and expanding the Sortable Rankings so they’re a little bit more user friendly. We’ll be doing things like who the best state is, who the best city is, and things like that. I think it’s an awesome tool to make the site a whole lot more interesting for people.”
Also coming in the near future is a customizable home page that will allow users to be able to move consoles around and make the site even easier to navigate. Debuting this week was a floating menu bar that you can access by clicking on the red “Show” icon at the bottom of the screen. Doing this allows you to jump to any forum on PocketFives.com in a heartbeat and access the search function.
Speaking of the all-new search, we’d be amiss if we didn’t talk about it. The search, which is now ordered by date ascending, has been a focal point for Arem and company: “The search feature, to me, isn’t really acceptable right now. We transitioned the search feature from using the default system, which is what we used on the old site, to using a custom system. The advantage of using a custom system is that we can work with it as much as we want to going forward.” The search feature is also faster than ever before.
Finally, Arem has been fielding feedback in a thread in Poker Discussion entitled, “Welcome to the New PocketFives.” Other threads have popped up as well and Arem described how you can submit your own feedback to our developers: “Feedback has to be detailed. I’m concerned if a bunch of people said, ‘I just don’t like it,’ but I can’t act on that information. I really need detailed feedback and appreciate detailed feedback. I need to know about your browser, your operating system, if it’s a display bug, if it’s a problem with your cache, and whatever steps you’ve taken.” You can also PM Arem directly with any questions.
Listen to the rest of this week’s PocketFives.com Podcast. Also, check out our rundown of the all-new PocketFives.com.