Windows Live Groups

EDIT:
I jumped the gun when I first made this post! Microsoft has ALREADY started their new Live Groups.
I really need to know where everyone would prefer to be!! I feel like I'm running around like a chicken with its head cut off! I figured it couldn't hurt, so I recreated our group on the new Windows Live Santamakers Group. You can log in and join the group using your Windows Live ID from the old MSN Group.

If anything else, it will give us added exposure & members can let me know which format they prefer, THIS message forum or the new Windows Live Groups. We don't need to spread ourselves too thin or neither group will do well! A disadvantage to the Windows Live Group is that I cannot link to any content from the santamakersguild.com website. Where as with this forum everything is linked and customers do not need to be a member here to view our content. One advantage to creating the Group is that people browsing the Windows Live Groups will eventually be led to here which couldn't hurt & could give our members more exposure.

Oy! Sorry for the edit! I quoted my original post below.

Good grief, MSN is going to create new groups in the fall. (Thanks to saddiejane for the info)
The only downfall to the forum we have now that I can see, is the lack of receiving the messages by email. If this is a big deal for members please speak up now! I would like to know what everyone would like to do. I had planned on cleaning this forum up a bit by reducing some of the icons, making the forum a little less "cute" & a little more professional. I don't want to go to a whole lot of trouble if everyone would like to wait & see what the new Windows Live Groups has to offer. The creation of "Windows Live Groups" is still almost a year away though & many members had trouble logging on & posting to the old MSN Group. Do we trust them? Do we plant our roots here?

You may have received the Final Notice email that I sent out via MSN about an email that I received with an offer from http://www.lefora.com to migrate our forum there before the end of Feb. At first I thought they would migrate photos too, but after I sent that email I discovered that Lefora only migrates the messages so I decided against migrating. We don't need yet another Santamakers group floating around!

I'm so glad that I created santamakersguild.com now. At least I feel that everyone can find us & we are already in the search engines and I haven't even submitted us yet! I was sort of waiting until I completed the website & logo with santa photos first.
Google has already picked us up.

I'm really hoping to get members to throw out some ideas here. I would love to know what you dislike about the new forum & be honest!! I can take it! Actually, I live for criticism. It's the best way to get this place in shape & make it enjoyable for everyone.

Heck, I created the forum & I have complaints myself.

It would be nice to be able to receive messages by email but unfortunately I have no control over this. The only option we have is to go to Profile preferences and check "Always notify me of replies" At least you can receive an email when someone posts in a forum that you have posted in, but you still have to visit the forum to read it.

I'm not happy with the forum, website & photo gallery looking disconnected. I would like to make it look like everything is more "joined together".

I'm not thrilled with the cutsie look of the forum. I made it around Christmas & I think I got a little carried away. I think the header should be photos of santamakers creations and maybe remove some of the forum notification icons for read & unread topics (santa, tree, candy cane) and replace them with simple little dots or something. Maybe even switch the red to green to match the website.

I'm also starting to wonder if I have the forum divided into too many categories. We had categories on MSN (not as many as here) but everyone always posted in General.

I'm sure I could come up with a few other things that I don't like but I'm getting tired!

.

I needed to edit the above post.

I think Joining the windows live group was a good idea..If nothing else it should help People find us .I'm afraid we will lose a few along the way...
Sarah

Yeah I agree about it looking kinda cutesy. But what can you say it was Christmas! To me it doesn't look professional. The format I like however. It doesn't look busy to me at all, just looks empty. May have a few migrations from my OG forum, I did put the word out. Is their any way that you can post some picks from the members galleries, say in the header and the footer? or would this violate copyrights?

Darn! I missed another one of your posts! Santa SHOULD stay red until I read everything, I guess there is a glitch somewhere (in my brain). I keep forgetting that I can click the link View posts since last visit so I don't miss any posts!

I'm trying to get caught up on a lot of stuff right now and I'm doing a clean sweep and listing on eBay. No santa stuff right now though.

I have been busy editing photos (from everyone that has given me permission to use their photos) to use at the top of the Guild web site. I feel that getting the website looking better is the most important thing right now. The "photos coming soon" placeholders is not going to cut it much longer!

Later, I want to change the header of this forum using members photos too. I think just adding photos from members will make things look so much better! I do like the navigation buttons plus they match the website.

I'm still up in the air as whether to keep the cutsie icons for read, unread topics etc.. I thought about changing them to plain circles or something so it's not so cutsie.

Maybe something like this >>> and this >>>

I think just these simple changes might help reduce the cutsie a little anyway!

I haven't submitted us to the search engines yet, at least until I smooth out the rough edges. I found us on Google which is pretty good since I haven't submitted anything yet!

Another thing on my to do list is to make a few banners that members can choose from to place on their websites.

So much to do and so little time!!!


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Talk about busy,,, I haven't been on the internet all week,, been trying to get my house painted! Whoa I am so wiped out but it got finished. I kinda like the green buttons myself. Yeah I found us on google too, thought it was really cool.Just keep doing what you think is best for the forum cause I am an udder idiot when it comes to starting a new one, and you have all the expertise and know how. Right now I'm just a tag-a-long watching what you do. This is a learning experience for me. Huggs