Release Notes for May 1, 2012

[Mike]

A link to Windows 8 Forums has been added to the menu of Windows 7 Forums and vice versa.

The Facebook-integrated versions of both forums are fully functional and back online. True Facebook fanatics and loyalists should be happy, as you can use the entire Windows 7 Forums/Windows 8 Forums websites without ever leaving Facebook.com.

The code that shows the OS and browser information on the top right of every post has been further lightly optimized.

We have updated our image resize Javascript to function better. The yellow bar that accompanied images that were over 800 pixels in width has been removed.

Location awareness has been added for forum team members to protect website security.

The structure of Windows 8 Forums has been updated significantly.

We have reached new affiliate agreements with Piriform; makers of CCleaner, ReviverSoft; makers of DriverReviver, and expanded our partnership with Auslogics.

Thanks to cooperation from Paragon, we have released a new video detailing and reviewing Paragon Hard Disk Manager Suite 12.

Many forums on Windows 8 Forums have been consolidated, as we move towards a goal of a more unique and user-centric approach to the website.

[davehc]

I wonder, before the release of Windows 8, if it would not be a good idea to make the "news" items a little more discrete?
Like most Windows 8 forums at the moment, there is not a great deal of positive activity, apart from gossip and speculation but, it is a little bewildering to open up "new posts "on this site, after an absence of several hours, and be met with a full page (sometimes more!) of news items, but no actual posts. News, for those who are interested, is available from other sources, such as a mailbox item, for example. Whilst it may be a good front page item, for anyone to read, imho, it is not a "new posts" object.

[Mike]

News can be found in off-topic search, so I am not sure how much news you want us to eliminate. Since there may be nothing but news to look up or discuss, one of our long-term goals is to catalog information before the OS is even released to look back on. We can then see atmosphere and expectation vs. reality. The news forum does not appear in What's New and only in an off-topic search link.