BIG MOVE UPDATE - 10-31-06 (ALL READ PLEASE)

[beemaster]

All Members:

Hi Everyone. Within a few days you should seamlessly see the change from our current PHPBB forum software to the NEW software after a short outage (one or two hours) for all the file transfer(migration of posts, users, etc.) to the new forum.

THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW....

The only thing you will need to do is log-in with your existing username and password. If you have any doubts of your password, this may be a good time to have the forum electronically email it to you. You will also have the option in the new forum to have your password emailed to you too.

Also, no links to the forum will change, an automatic (and again seamless) redirect will take you to all posts both past and current within the new forum theme layout.

A wonderful new feature will be an INTREGRATED IMAGESHACK PHOTO STORAGE SITE - complete details will follow with a detailed tutorial, but to say it simply, you will have total access to upload your images to our forum's imageshack folder where you can then copy the link and post the images into your posts and replies. This wonderful feature will allow many members who currently are shy or reluctant to upload images to third party sites an easy and fast way to share their photos. The new forum also helps greatly in laying out the code needed to post the images, so you don't have the complex structure that we currently have which intimidates many members from sharing images.

You will also have the ability to easily report and abusive activity to the admin and moderators with a link embedded at the bottom right of EVERY post - this process allows YOU the ability to help police the forums for any purposeful spammers or anyone who is abusive to other members, etc..

There will also be many new options in your posting screen. simple icons will post the needed code for posting images, changing font styles and even marque'ing of your posts. You will find that you have many new features available for searching, sharing and messaging other users.

Administratively, we will have the ability to block all computer-bot spammers and then only deal with REAL PEOPLE who choose to come aboard and spam their pharmacy, adult and gambling type sites - and again, this is where you have an ability to help stop these troublemakers in their tracks.

Please remember, not everything that may fall into tasteless or crude and surely we need to be aware of language differences in our Internation Membership - so use the report feature when you are sure that trouble is brewing and remember there IS a comment box attached to the report abuse option, so your reason for reporting SHOULD be included when/if you report someone for abuse.

Navagation is a little different and may take a short time to get your bearing, but it isn't so different that you will have any proble navagating right away.

The first thing you will notice is the new High-Tech looking Beemaster Forum Logo and the blue tone color scheme. There will some color changes that you can make, but templete changes will not be allowed since many features are template based.

To return to the main forum screen you will see a HOME button below your avatar at the top left of the screen. Your avatar will appear on every page, showing you that you are logged in and again, click the HOME TAB to return to the main forum page.

Otherwise, most of the seemingly endless features are administrative in nature - except that you the ability to browse other users profiles (certain info may be restricted by the member in their profile settings, such as email address, etc..) but there are interest stat screens launched using links at the bottom of the profile screen which shows when users have posted (which hours of the day most commomly posted, also how many posts in each forum - and you can click and see the other members posts/replies by topic) features like this allow you to better know the other members and compare interests, there is no invasion of privacy here, you could just as well search and find out the same information in this forum, but it is sorted better in the new software.

There are also calendar features, allowing you to post local club meetings, special dates of interest to other members and also we will be welcoming BEEKEEPING CLUBS and ORGANIZATIONS to join our membership and use the advance MEMBER-GROUP functions to communicate between their members privately as well as post information of interest to the rest of us.

That's it for now - In the coming days you may see a follow up post announcing that the forum will be down for a few hours, but no mass mailings will be going out. The downtime will be short and when we come back up, you will be witness to the NEXT GENERATION of secure, safe, family friendly and more interactive forum communities. Thank you for taking the time to read this.