Welcome to the new SnowJapanForums

[SnowJapan 178]

Welcome to the new Forums! Sorry it took as long as it did to get everything sorted.

 

Our regular members will already have noticed a big difference in the way everything looks. It's not just a big change in the way things look either - the Forums have had complete overhaul, starting from the basic code up. The only thing that is the "same" as before really is the member information, threads (which we'll now called Topics) and Posts. Of course they are the all-important content of the Forums, but the backbone on which they now exist is completely new.

 

If you already have a username and password, you should be able to login using that same username/password.

Once you are logged in you might want to also adjust your Time Zone information in My Settings.

 

The only things that have been inpossible to convert properly into the new setup are:

- quotes within a thread;

- polls; and

- a bit of strangeness over in PMs where for some people they may look like you have sent them to yourself -- but the PM itself should be ok.

Sorry about those things, but it was simply not possible to bring them over 100%. Any new quotes, polls and PMs from now on will work and display just fine.

 

We actually started work updating the Forums about a year ago and have spent the last four months or so fine-tuning this new setup. The complex nature of these things means that once they are out in the open for hundreds of people to use, issues and problems may arise. We have done our best to minimise any potential big problems, but nevertheless I am sure that the next few weeks is going to be a busy time for us, troubleshooting any issues and explaining things. Please bear with us while we get things all cleared up as quickly as possible and do let us know if you find anything strange going on.

 

It's almost impossible to come up with a list of the changes, purely because pretty much everything is new. But in terms of major sections and new stuff you can do, here's a quick list that you can explore:

 

Tags and Topic Prefixes - add tags and prefixes to topics

Photo multi-upload - over in the Gallery upload multiple photos easily

Embed photos or galleries and video - easily embed photos and galleries as well as video into posts

Blogs - start your own blog over in this new section

Photo Galleries - easily upload photos and galleries

Chat Box - a new fully functional Chat Box that can be used as a popup while you use other parts of the Forums

Member Map - show us where you are located!

New content - follow new content in all the areas of the Forums in real-time

Vid - a new Video section where you can easily embed videos from various sources, including snowjapan.tv

Ability to change the look of the Forums

Mobile versions - made just for mobile devices including iPhone, iPod and Android devices.

 

I don't want to sound like some cliche marketing term, but in this case it really is true, so here goes - "....and much much more!"

 

We will be posting more Help-related topics over the coming few weeks but a few are already online, including some video clips that explain some of the new stuff:

http://www.snowjapan...um/28-help-faq/

If you have any specific requests about topics that you think would be good to have a Help page and/or video for, please let us know.

 

-------------

 

These Forums represent a very big change and we realise that not everyone will like such big changes. It is definitely going to take a while to get used to the new setup... I have been using this online for three months now and I am still finding new cool things that our programmer put in that I did not know about!

 

But to move forward, change was necessary. And we believe that this new platform is a huge step forward.

 

We are keen to hear feedback about the new setup - feel free to comment in this thread.

 

Thanks and have fun!

 

 

>>>

 

This topic is closed, but if you wish to make any comments please do so here:

http://www.snowapanf...nowjapanforums/