In order for a website to be successful, particularly a community based website, it must be an ever-evolving process. We have worked hard over the past few months to bring our members and readers a new “foundation” from which we can continue to support our growing community of nature photographers. Now that the foundation is completed, the “building” process will continue on . . .
In the meantime, we hope that you enjoy the new features and enhancements and, as always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions as we continue to build upon this new foundation. We are also here to answer questions and to provide support along the way. Simpy This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it us or click the contact form at the bottom of the page.
Thanks to the many friends who have helped with this monumental project! You know who you are!
Following is a summary of some of the new features you will find while surfing the new NSN. There are also many hidden treasures not mentioned herein . . .
New Home Page (your “portal” to NSN):
Completely new and fresh home page with dynamic site-wide content which will be constantly updated --
- Navigation bar for easy access to the main sections of the site; appears on every page for ease of navigation and continuity of design
- Latest, news, articles, and forum topics are refreshed continuously
- Featured articles; a rotation of articles featured by the editors
- Monthly “cover” image; dynamic loading and access to cover archives and slide show
- Image of the week slide show; a slide show of the latest images of the week from images posted in the forum galleries
- Hot Forum Topics; to be updated periodically by the editors
- Direct access to article categories and archives as well as articles search
- Targeted advertising and sponsored links
- New features and components to be added
News:
Entirely new section to feature the latest news and info pertaining to all aspects of nature photography --
- Features to include major firmware and software updates, equipment and technical notes of interest
- RSS feed coming soon
Articles:
All new streamlined system for featuring editorial content --
- Easy access to article categories and advanced keyword search functions
- Easily print articles with the push of a button
- E-mail articles to friends
- New image zoom function to be used in upcoming articles
- New features to be added such as tagging and authors' links
- RSS feed coming soon
- Many existing articles have been moved over to the new system - the remaining will be moved over in the coming weeks and are archived in the meantime
Forums:
Totally upgraded to new version of PHPBB – many changes and enhancements to various functions including but not limited to --
- Improved user control panel (previously, “profile”)
- Drafts management; save posts as drafts, even with images, and manage them in your user control panel
- Watched topics management
- Friends and Foes
- Subscription and Bookmark management
- Enhanced signature management
- Enhanced Private Messages
- Send messages to more than one person at a time
- Save and manage drafts
- Archive or export messages
- Ability to “report” posts to mods
- Many enhanced moderator controls (making our job easier)
- Enhanced search (to access advanced search, click the link next to FAQ under the navigation bar)
- 3-letter word searches are back
- "View your posts" show a list of all topics you have posted on
- To show your individual posts in a list go to your user control panel and click “show your posts"
- Some changes to the PHPBB3 search are not ideal and we will be working to improve them over time now that we are on a new system
- Other changes and enhancements
- Enhanced display options (sorting, etc.)
- Cookies can now be deleted for the board via a link at the bottom of the forums pages
Other forum notes:
- Some changes to the PHPBB3 search are not ideal and we will be working to improve them over time now that we are on a new system
- Thumbnails can only be viewed in columns – we found that a very low percentage of users used the grid options – something we may consider again in the future
Coming soon:
- Completely new store (estimated June 1)
- Updates to the user login procedures
- Many more goodies . . .
Again, we hope that you enjoy the new features and enhancements and, as always, welcome your feedback and suggestions as we continue to build upon them. We are also here to answer questions and to provide support along the way. Simpy This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it us or click the contact form at the bottom of the page.
Enjoy your new NSN!
