Newsletter #7 has the Featured Thread as well as a message on inactivity.  There is also a secret inside that is only available to those who have subscribed.  I will occasionally talk about things in the newsletter before I mention them on the blog or on the forum.  This is an incentive for you to subscribe to the newsletter, and you can do so here.

Inactivity

As I have mentioned in the newsletter, there has been some inactivity on the forum during the last few days.  If you are reading this and have a forum account, please post some more so that we can break this trend.  If you do not have a forum account, I encourage you to register, as we may be able to help if you if you have having a problem with Windows, Mac OS, or Linux.  If you don’t need help but have an interest in operating systems, then we are the place for you too!

That’s it for this post.  I will now try to make blog posts at least once a week, but I can’t post if there’s nothing new, and that’s where you come in.  Until next time.

Subscribers to the Forum Newsletter (as of September 13, 2008): 20

Newsletter

If you have signed up for the forum newsletter, you should have received #5 by now.  If you haven’t subscribed yet, do so here.  The newsletter covers our referral competition as well as our featured thread, along with some additional information.

Referral Competition

Flyer and I have recently started our second contest, our Referral Competition.  You will have until midnight GMT on October 31st, 2008 to bring in as many active referrals as possible.  Your referrals must make at least 10 posts to count.

So far we have had one referral from Akira, so Akira will be the one to win first prize if no one steps up to challenge him.  You can see the rules and prizes of the referral competition in this thread.

The reason that we’re having this contest/competition is to bring more activity to Using Your OS.  We do have more activity then we had a year ago, but we’re still behind where we need to be, so try your hardest, and we hope the prizes will motivate to you refer as many active members as possible.

For over 21 months, we have barely made it on free hosting.  We have endured weeks of downtime, and have finally broken through the barrier.  You should now notice that things are more reliable and faster, and I have more space and bandwidth.  Now, I can focus on bringing more activity to the forum and elsewhere.

I am also considering getting a new theme for the blog.  There’s nothing wrong with the old theme, but I just want a new theme to keep things fresh.  The old saying is, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” and that may or may not apply here.  Either way, voice, er type, your opinions in this thread.

Another new big change that I have made is to make the posts in the General Discussion forum count towards your post count.  You will notice that if you have made any posts in that forum, your post count will go up.  I now have over 1,200 posts because of this change!  Initially suggested by a user, I applied this change because the posts in this forum brought great discussion, and I wanted to credit the user for this.

Also be sure to visit the Arcade, as I have recently made it open to all active accounts (meaning you have an account and can make posts).  I am accepting ideas for tournaments, and I have to accept that eventually someone will take my high scores… *sigh*

I would like to take time to encourage you to refer as many people as you can.  If you have a forum account, you can give your referral link (found in your User CP) to someone who you think might enjoy the forum.  Word of mouth is also a good suggestion, in that case tell them your username and they will be able to type in your username when they are registering to count you as their referrer.

Also there are threads that don’t even have replies, or threads that have had their last reply from me.  Those are incentives for you to reply to those threads.  Was the thread covering something that happened a year ago?  Talk about the impact that thing has had!

I think the updates that I have made in the last few weeks have really made an improvement to Using Your OS as a whole, so I would like to call this period “Using Your OS 2.0″ from now on.  Just like how Web 2.0 made drastic changes to the way the Web was coded, Using Your OS 2.0 is a drastic change to Using Your OS, in the positive direction of course.

All we need to do is promote, promote, promote.  We have the content, we have the spiders (the Internet spiders, not the actual spiders!), we have an exciting niche, and we have a mission, and this mission is that from the “newbie” to the expert, we will providing exciting discussion for you.  Sure, the “newbie” may just want help with a problem he/she is experiencing, but this is still considered “discussion”, and will help others in the future who have that same problem.  We have a forum for operating system discussion where casuals and experts alike can talk about operating systems.  My intent was not to have the majority of the threads contain “geek speak”, but to be readable to all and be helpful to all.

Anyways, I’ll have to cover more in a future blog post.  For now, enjoy the new features and be aware that there will be new features in the future.  Keep your browser here, because soon we’ll be moving so fast you won’t be able to catch up!