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Forum Migration & Site Redesign Complete! Welcome to the Enhanced CruiseCrazies!

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Jason

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Members and Guests,

It's with great excitement that I announce our forum migration and site re-design, one of our most extensive enhancement projects to date, is now complete! biggrin.gif

We have accomplished so much in under 2 months - We migrated back to our previously used forum software, while also redesigning virtually all other components of the site within the single platform for maximum consistency, system stability, and ease of use. The entire site has a completely new look and feel, new navigation, and is much more user friendly, and extremely stable. Also...It's official - The login issues previously experienced by a small percentage of our users are now a thing of the past! So if you haven't yet, please log in today to our account and begin customizing your CruiseCrazies experience!

Why the forum migration? Read here. (Article Title: We're Goin' Back to our Roots! CruiseCrazies 2.0, the NEW & IMPROVED CruiseCrazies)

Over the last 1.5 years, we've put a great deal of emphasis on social networking components. They're cool...Yes...But do we want to be like another Facebook? No! We are much different...We are "The Friendliest Cruise Community on the Net!" For that reason we have decided to shift our emphasis back to why our community was originally founded - Cruise discussions and information! We'll still have profiles, friends lists, wall comments, and the like, however these features will have a different look and feel from our current setup.

As you'll notice upon browsing around, every single page on CruiseCrazies (not just the forums) has the exact same navigation menu and design, so you can now access all of your account information from anywhere - Not just certain parts of the site. All features are now operating on a single platform - Something we've never had before. We've very excited about this, and it will allow us to continue growing and developing the community better than ever! Of course there are many new features and updates to our site as well, which are outlined below. Even though this message marks the official end of the forum migration and site redesign, additional work continues behind the scenes (and upcoming features are already on the drawing board for the near future!!). The following list of updated features is lengthy, however I felt it to be necessary that all the available bells and whistles are available in one location. So, here we go!....

Forums - Our Forums are now built on the original Forum software we have always used in the past! Not only have we reverted back to this familiar, more stable platform, but the latest version now provides many more features and functionality than ever before! Check out the enhancements (and note that additional features are coming soon!)…

  • Facebook/Twitter Integration - You can now login to CruiseCrazies using your Facebook and/or Twitter accounts, and your CruiseCrazies status updates can be synched and auto-published to Facebook and Twitter (If you allow)

  • Status and Comment Updates - You can now comment directly to others' status updates! As part of the extensive notification options (more details below), you can receive email notifications when a reply is made to your status, or a reply is made to a status you have commented on.

  • Social Networking Features - Profile Comments, Friends List, Activity Wall are all part of your redesigned CruiseCrazies Profile.

  • Reputation - A member's reputation is based on the number of points that they have. It's displayed on their profile and below their photo when viewing a topic. A member receives points when others vote on the content they have submitted to the community. Forum posts and photos all have green + buttons that members can click to vote on specific content. The idea behind member reputations is simple...The higher someone's reputation, the more recommended/reliable/appreciated their content is.

  • Global Search - Search every area of the community using a central, unified interface located at the top of the page within the navigation menu. More filter, sort, and search options than ever before!

  • Simple, Rich Text Format Message Editor - The familiar, popular editor we have previously used. It's now very easy to format your messages!

  • Sharing Links - As most Facebook and Twitter users have discovered, sometimes you see a link to a great article or topic and want to share it with your friends and followers. This new feature makes this very easy to do. You don't even have to leave the page to do it! To share a page with friends, click on the"Share Link" icon for Facebook, Twitter, Email, or any of the other service icons available. These sharing options are typically located below the content on each page, such as the bottom of the forum topic, photo, etc. Once clicked, a pop-up menu will enable you to tailor your message before sending.

  • Notifications: Email, Private Message, and Inline Notifications - New configuration options are available to control your notification preferences from a single page within your Control Panel. You can select whether you want to receive email, private message, or inline notifications (or a combination of the above, or none of the above) for each notification event throughout the site.

  • Inline Notifications - Essentially, this is a notification within the forums, without a private message or email being issued. There are many instances where you may want to be notified of an action, but might not want an email to be sent to your email address, or you might not want a private message for such notifications. A new option has been added to the profile dropdown at the top of any page, allowing you to quickly access your inline notifications. A "Mark Read" button has been added to the popup so that, in addition to closing or viewing the notification, you can mark it as being acknowledged without having to leave the page.

  • Enhanced Member List - Searching for members with similar cruising preferences and interests is much more user friendly!

Cruise Reviews - Completely rewritten from scratch with a completely new look and design! You can drill down and browse by Cruise Line, Ship, and then specific reviews for each ship. Search, sort, and watch specific cruise lines for updated reviews. Simply click the "Watch" button and you'll be notified of new or modified reviews within that category. Go Now!

  • From the left column, you can Submit a Review, or view the top reviews by hits, ratings, the most recently submitted reviews, as well as a random review.

  • While viewing a review, all members have the ability to submit comments and share the review across popular networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Digg, Buzz, and more.

  • The options to Print, Email and even Download reviews are also available!

  • While viewing a cruise review, you have the ability to "Watch" it for changes.

  • As a review owner, you can edit your review by selecting the appropriate buttons directly from the review page.

Who's Cruising Database - The perfect way to meet your shipmates before setting sail! The newly improved database now boasts a much more simple look and feel....In fact, it will look very familiar - We have gone back to the more user friendly design, which we had used for several years in the past. The updated design couldn't be more simple. All upcoming member cruises are sorted in order of sail date. As each sailing date expires, those listings are removed from the list. Each listing displays the sail date, ship name, and member who is sailing on the cruise. Once you identify your shipmate(s), you can simply click their member name and you'll be able to view their profile and connect with them. Go Now!

Cruise News - Completely rebuilt and seamlessly integrated with the rest of the site, the Cruise News portal is updated several times each week and provides you with the latest cruise happenings within the industry. You can now comment, rate, share, and Facebook "Like" all of your favorite cruise news articles! Go Now!

CruiseCrazies Packing List - Completely rebuilt from scratch! The enhanced packing list is no longer web-based....it's now available as a downloadable .pdf (Adobe Reader) format file. The formatting of the packing list itself couldn't be any simpler, and is so easy to use! Simply download and print - It's that simple! The packing list is print-ready, so there's no resizing/adjustments needed! All items in the packing list have been re-categorized, and there are tickmarks next to each item so you can either check each packed item off, or indicate the quantity of that item... It's up to you! Go Now!

Packing Tips - Now separate from the Packing List, and are now located on their own page for simple access. These packing tips have been contributed by experienced cruisers and will help you be a very well prepared cruiser, used in conjunction with our new and improved Packing List. Go Now!

New Forum: New Member Introductions - This new forum was created in order to provide our new members with the perfect place to introduce themselves, as they begin to post within the forums. All new members are encouraged to stop by this forum and post a hello message, their cruising history, or anything else which will help us become more acquainted. To all members who help welcome our newest members, thank you. Once new members post their introductions in the new forum, let's use it as an additional way of showing everyone why CruiseCrazies is known as the Friendliest Cruise Community on the Net! Go Now!

Photos - When you decide to add photo hosting to your account, you'll notice an abundance of enhanced features in addition to the completely new design - Category Albums/Covers, Sub-Albums, Profile Picture Album, Photo Notes, Photo Rotation, Improved Slideshow, and more. Details here.

Our Homepage - The updated design is the result of user suggestions and input, and was designed for maximum ease of use and navigation. The new layout makes it extremely simple to browse and access the variety of features available throughout the site, while identifying and providing recent, relevant content automatically retrieved from the most popular and frequented portions of the site. Go Now!

Private Messaging - Private messages are now called "Conversations." Include numerous recipients within the same message for simple group discussions. You now have the ability to download/print those important and helpful conversations. Create/organize your own inbox folders, save drafts, and more! Details here.

Site Sponsor Benefits - Have been updated to reflect the new system functionalities. Details here.

FAQ Help Guide - Learn how to use the many enhanced features throughout the site with our step-by-step instructions for the most commonly used features! Go Now! Here are some of the most popular FAQ items:

  • Personal Messaging - How to send personal messages, track them, edit your messenger folders and archive stored messages. Go!

  • Your Account Settings - Editing contact info, personal info, avatars, signatures, board settings, privacy options, and more. Go!

  • Posting - A guide to the features available when posting or sending messages. Including the post editor, polls and attachments. Go!

As always, I'd like to thank all of you for the feedback and suggestions which helped in making the ultimate decision to migrate back to our previously used forums....And also for supporting us while we have made extensive changes. Your input is greatly appreciated, thanks for your support, and I look forward to bringing even more features to CruiseCrazies as our community continues to grow each day! cool.gif

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