[Sticky] Welcome Back to the Forum

Welcome Back!

I hope that everyone had an enjoyable holiday. 

The forum updates and web server move is complete, here is the current status:

• I had an issue with the database upgrade and decided to abandon it for now. I have a "cloned" copy of the forum and website on an identical server and will use that as a "practice server" so that I can get the procedure perfected. Once that happens I'll be taking down the website and forum again, although this time it should only be for less than an hour.
• The forum updates are complete, but I still have changes to make on the website.  So you may still find the website "off the air" when you go there. I expect to have this finished by December 27th at the latest, hopefully, sooner.

Many of the changes I've made are in the background, however, two will be visible to most of you:

1. Polls. You'll notice a new section for Polls and Surveys. I've moved the surveys I used to take from my email subscribers to the forum so that everyone can use them and view the results.  The primary purpose of creating these surveys is to find out what content you'd like me to make for you and also to see how I can improve. You can answer any poll or survey once, and some of them will be time-limited.
2. Private Messages. We now have the much-requested Private Messages. This is like an email system that allows you to directly message other forum members. Your own email address and other information is not exposed, and you'll get an email if someone messages you (but you need to answer them within the forum).  Currently, I have set some limitations on how many messages you can send per day and to how many people, these parameters can be adjusted as we start using the system. Private Messages are available to all forum members who have more than 10 posts.

I started recording some videos this morning explaining how all of the forum features work, when they are done you'll see a Help item on the menu bar, but it may take a few days to get it all ready. In the meantime, I'll post some instructions for using the Private Messages later today so that you can get started.

Welcome back to the forum!

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Bill