It should now be January 1st in every country so welcome to 2009, happy new year and all that stuff In 2008 MAP went through a fairly busy year. In March the site almost died only to be reborn over a week of hard work (I wont repeat what I said when I heard that the database was knackered) and is slowly starting to recover again. Over the summer we had the mayhem of a MAP Meet that got us into the local press (for the right reasons!). The autumn saw the Moderator team grow even more and we kicked off the MAP Awards before we remembered Medi (RIP) and announced Martial Dad and koyo as our Best MAPers of 2008 in December. Oh, and some idiots asked me to join the Admin team So, where do we go after a year like 2008? The only answer is up! Here's a brief taster of what we have in store for you in 2009. The Gallery is Returning! Our popular MAP Gallery will be making a return at some point along with all of the classic photos. That will include all of the old edited photos (some of which are absolutely hilarious!) and hopefully all of the comments. I intend on making the gallery better integrated with the rest of the site than it used to be too. I wont put a firm date on it, but getting the gallery back is my first project of the year and you know how I work Even More Affiliates We're always on the look out for new affiliates and I'm sure Aegis will have found loads more to add. If you have any suggestions for new affiliates drop Aegis a private message or email. Please don't suggest Woolworths or Zavvi though! MAP 3.8 "Oh no! Not another upgrade!" is what you're probably thinking. The newest version of our forum software has loads of new goodies (including some that are posted in the Development Journal) but I'm getting vague ideas to make it even better than it should be... New Supporting Member Benefits Remember our Supporting Membership scheme? Well we've started adding other random bits to help you avoid work or school including a Tic-Tac-Toe/Noughts and Crosses game and I might just add the ability to play Chess against fellow MAPers later today. We'll be adding other bits as we think of them or they're suggested so what are you waiting for? Click the link! A MAP Newsletter! Melanie has been trying to get us to agree to a newsletter for years so we've eventually said "yes" to it. No idea what's going to be in it, when it will be out or what it's going to be called but if Mel's MAP Meets are anything to go by then it will be awesome Clubs Directory Something we've been without since March 08 is the clubs directory where you could post your club details. Aegis and I are putting our brains in gear with this one and I can tell you that the old directory has nothing on even the basic ideas for the new one! No time frame on this, but it will be ready at some point this year. And finally... MAP Glossary Every style has it's own lingo. Even very similar styles have different names for techniques so it can be difficult to understand the topic if you're new to a style forum. Its because of this that we're going to be resurrecting a very old area of MAP - the glossary. It's nowhere near the design stage at the moment but I intend on asking people from across the site to help out with adding terms and the like so it will be your project as much as mine We have loads of other things lined up for the year too, including at least two big ideas that we're going to be working on behind the scenes for a while. The above doesn't include the dozen or so random ideas floating around in the vacuum of my skull neither! It promises to be a big year for the site, so why don't you invite your friends to join the fun too? (yep, I just added that bit) Happy new year MAPers! Anth.
I'm sure I didn't even know about some of that! All still sounds good, and there will be a few more bits and pieces surfacing as and when I have time to organise them. The 2009 MAP Meet now needs to be planned, so anyone interested in getting involved this year in any capacity is more than welcome to get in touch with me. Last year I changed jobs completely, making for a somewhat chaotic situation for planning the Meet, but this year ought to be slightly less so. All other suggestions are still welcome! Happy New Year, forumites. Please keep this place as good as it is into the new year and beyond!
As long as I can continue to be sarcastic, helpful at times, a calming voice, I think any changes that you all do will be just fine. I'd just like to say that it's always great to come on here and keep track of familiar faces. Thanks to all the Mods and Admins for their work behind the scenes. You all have my gratitude and respect...
Such a shame that this was posted on the day we found out about Nordic. It just didn't feel right for a thread like this to remain with that news so I've held it back for a week. We have a couple of ideas for a memorial to Nordic that are still in serious concept stage but rest assured they won't be little things hidden away
Supporting Members stuff is increasing - loads of extra games are being added! Check out our Supporting Memberships now!
