Using the New Swag

Hello Swaggers! I sent out a huge mass email earlier today, and I hope to see many familiar faces from this point forward. Not too many undeliverables from that thus far so that's good, means word has actually gotten out. With that said I want to make you all aware of some new features, some old features and some general changes in this version of swag. New Features: Private Messages Yup, there's a whole private message system in the site now. Only Guild members can send messages but anyone should be able to receive them. You'll note you have a "My inbox" to the right now. It works almost exactly like an email client would, but it's right here, and it only sends to and receives from people on swag. Guild Member Application This has been streamlined as well... If you're interested in becoming a Guild Member, then under "Create Content" you'll find you have a "Guild Submission"... use that and we'll consider your application. BLOGS! There's just something about having your own soap box isn't there? Guild Members now have their own blogs, these function not only as a "blog" but also as a great place to put up some work in progress shots. You can see it being used as such in a number of different blogs already. Blogs are located under the community link, and the ten most recent blogs have a little space on the home page of swag. IMAGES! Obviously Images are the thing that really makes SWAG go 'round. This hasn't changed, but the process involved is MUCH less intense now. This means that even though I'm the only admin for swag these days, the new 100-some-odd images that have been uploaded since the beta went up have been no problem to maintain for me. It also means that when/if I need help with this, it'll be easier for people to do it, and won't require much of their time. Old Features: Community Galleries... Sorry to say it folks, but in keeping with making swag easier to keep up with, images from the community at large are no longer going to be taken. Essentially this just means that if you want to contribute art to the site, you'll need to go through the process to become a guild member. This has the happy side-effects of requiring less work from the administration, and increasing our quality of images. So, if you were a community member who submitted art, I apologize, but it just had to be. Requests... Requests are getting a much needed looking at... there are a lot of things that could be streamlined about the process, and with that in mind, SWAG's not officially taking requests again yet. This doesn't mean you can't try to con some guild member into doing one for you... :-) it just means the facility for doing it doesn't exist on the site again yet. I'm committed to getting this working though so, no fear. This is a REALLY shallow example of what all has changed in this version of SWAG, and there are more changes on the way. In a site of this size it can be difficult to build a UI that everyone can navigate easily. I tried to keep this one similar to the old swag, but ultimately, we have to do what's right for the site, which probably means more changes eventually. So stay on your toes, and post questions if you have any. Eclipse