SNOW JAPAN 2006/2007 - MAJOR SITE UPDATES

[SnowJapan.Com#3 0]

Welcome to Snow Japan 06/07!

 

This season sees by far the biggest update to the Snow Japan website ever. A few completely new sections, a completely revamped section, more daily reports, RSS feeds, mobile site. There's a lot of new stuff to play with. Site traffic for September 06 was 260% what it was in the same period last year, and with all of the new fun content we are expecting it to be an extremely busy season.

 

Before we go into details, we'd just like to say a sincere thank you to the people who helped us out with ideas, suggestions and testing, particularly over the last 4 or 5 months. We really do appreciate it. Many of the new content ideas initially came from comments that were submitted by readers. We do not make decisions to go ahead with new content based on commercial reasons. Instead, we develop content purely based on what we think Snow Japan readers want to see. So if you have ideas on what you would like to see on Snow Japan in future, lets us know... it might end up being what we do next year.

 

Anyway. Below are the main updates that have been made to Snow Japan and new content. Click on the links to go to more detailed threads in the News section.

 

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SNOW JAPAN MAPS:

Brand new 600+ page Maps section to Snow Japan, featuring original maps and over 500 interactive maps:

http://www.snowjapanforums.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/7027.html

 

 

SNOW JAPAN PHOTOS:

Brand new version of Snow Japan Photos - with heaps of new functionality:

http://www.snowjapanforums.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/7028.html

 

 

NEW NOW! DAILY REPORTING:

Three new Now! daily reports for the coming season coming to you from Furano (Hokkaido), Naeba (Niigata) and Minakami (Gunma):

http://www.snowjapanforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/1/7026.html?

 

 

GEAR REVIEWS SECTION:

Reader reviews of ski and snowboard gear:

http://www.snowjapanforums.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi/topic/1/7023.html

 

 

SNOW JAPAN RSS FEEDS:

RSS Feeds of all our daily reporting:

http://www.snowjapanforums.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/7025.html

 

 

SNOW JAPAN MOBILE:

Mobile site so you can read our daily reports from your keitai cell phone:

http://www.snowjapanforums.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/7024.html

 

 

YUZAWA WEBCAMS:

We have installed a webcam looking out from the Snow Japan office as well introducing a video webcam live from Yuzawa Kogen:

http://www.snowjapanforums.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/7022.html

 

 

SNOW JAPAN GIVEAWAYS:

The first Giveaway for the season is now online - a 2 day 3 night holiday for two up at Club Med in Sahoro. Look out for fantastic Giveaways on Snow Japan throughout the season:

http://www.snowjapan.com/e/insider/special.php

 

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PLEASE NOTE:

There will be some more changes coming to the site including:

- a new look Index page for Snow Japan;

- updated resort data for the new season;

- links from resort listings to the relevant new maps in the Snow Japan Maps section;

- more links to the new functionality within the site.

 

Those things will be coming in the coming weeks. (For now though, we need a bit of a rest!)

 

If you find any mistakes in the new information, please let us know directly by email. The usual editor@snowjapan.com will get our attention.

 

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Some of the new functionality is quite complex, meaning that there is a chance of some remaining bugs now that it has gone live and been integrated with the previous data. Over the next few days we will be checking the new systems and fixing any problems that are found. If you find any errors, please let us know by contacting us directly at editor@snowjapan.com. Thank you.

 

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We hope you enjoy using all the new content and find it to be really useful.

 

One last thing, if you feel like helping spread the word about Snow Japan we've put together a few things that you might be able to do. Click here to read more . Thank you

 

Here's to the best snow season ever!

[SnowJapan#Andrew 6]

The new index page of Snow Japan is now online. You can see it here:

 

http://www.snowjapan.com/e/index.php

 

[SerreChe 2]

That is a wicked page, well done.

By the way, where have you guys hidden those 3-day snow forecast links?

[Yuki's Passion 1]

When is the chat function gonna be up and running? That in the works?

[SnowJapan#Andrew 6]

The Chat functionality never really seemed to be used much at all. Compared to other areas of the site anyway. We also saw quite an increase in "spam posters" on there, so we decided to not put that online for the moment. If there is a demand, we may consider putting it back up....

 

(Anyway, I thought the Snow in Japan thread was the new chat? )

[Yuki's Passion 1]

something like that

that thing is a monster

[SnowJapan#Andrew 6]

The speed the posts are going up on the Forums these days it's almost like chat. Let us know if lots of you want to use Chat again and we can look into it once more.