Greetings Slingers!

Today I come to you with great news, and though some of you saw my brief post yesterday about it, I wanted to end the week with a look ahead at things to come here at the SlingCommunity.

It's been a while since I've gotten to talk about anything other than Sling Media happenings. So it's with great excitment I get to tell everyone that in the next few weeks, SlingCommunity.com is getting a complete overhaul and fresh new look. We've been working on our newer community platform for well over a year, and though its still a work in progress, the new version offers far better features, performance, and user-friendly options.

I'll be up front with you. The update to the new platform will bring a ton of changes, and it may take a day or two of using it before you start to feel at home. So, those who don't like change probably won't be too happy... that is until they start to see some of the great improvements being made.

What's New? 

I keep mentioning improvements, so let me take a few minutes to highlight some of the great things coming to SlingCommunity:

Better performance - Tired of the forum index page to take a year to load? I know I am. The new platform is much, much faster than the current one.

Real private messaging - This one I'm super excited about. Private messaging has been completely overhauled. Soon you'll have a PM inbox here on the site instead of a relay e-mail from SlingCommunity. You'll get to carry on a private conversation (like your own private thread) with another member without ever having to leave.

Improved search - Honestly, you type something in the box, and get results that make much more sense. Plus, the advanced searching capabilities are out of this world. Finding stuff is getting a whole lot easier.

Member "Scorecard" - It's what we call the new member area on the right part of the screen. It's your one simple stop for all your account needs (history, login/out, profile and account settings, new private messages indicator) in one convenient place that stays with you on every page! No more goofy nav bar with drop downs. Yayyyy!

Flickr Integration - Tie your Flickr account with your SlingCommunity profile and share images and pics with the Community.

Member Center - A new members area for helping you find new friends, featured members, and more. This is one of the newer and growing areas we're working on, and should end up being a popular feature in the months to come.

Better layout - Did you know Brandon C. has a blog here on Sports and other topics? Have any idea where to find the Sling News? Heck, do you even know where the new articles box is? There's a lot of great content on SlingCommunity that's just buried down the page or hard to find. The new layout makes finding new and interesting content much, much easier.

Multi-Dimensional Forums - This one's a little harder to explain, but I'll give it a go. Say you want to post a question on how to connect a Slingbox PRO to your router and DirecTV satellite box. Where does it go? Do you post in the Slingbox PRO Forum, the networking forum, or the Cable, Satellite, and DVRs forum? With our new forum/discussion system, you don't have to choose or break the rules by posting your question three times. Discussions are created and tagged to the appropriate categories, making it easier to find and create discussions that interest you.

Other forum improvements - Quoting, replying, and adding comments to forum discussions have gotten several improvements. The simple/advanced editing control is still present, but has gotten some upgrades to load faster and be easier to use.

Better YouTube support - You can do this now, but it's kind of a pain. Click the YouTube button and drop in the full video URL, and you're sharing video with other members in seconds.

Member Browse - You can now browse the member list and find a new friend.

Comment Browse - Posted a comment a while back but can't remember where? You can now search and browse all community contributions (comments, threads, articles, blogs, etc.) for any member... inlcuding yourself!

Community Answers - Thread owners and moderators can now mark a comment as an answer to a question... useful for the newbs trying to find helpful or useful information without having to read through a ton of comments.

Easier Rating - Members that rate articles and blog entries help others find new and interesting things. But did you know that you could even rate? Probably not. Now rating is easy and simple.

Take it for a spin! 

That's really just the tip of the iceberg. There's plenty more in store for everyone, and more coming all the time. We're feverishly building new cool features and adding improvements left and right on this new platform, and once the conversion is done SlingCommunity will get all the latest features as they happen. I don't have a final date yet when it's going to take place, but as soon as I know, you'll know.

Tell you what, head over to one of our other sites already running the new platform like TechLore, DVRplayground, or the all new SansaCommunity, then sign up and give it a whirl. We'd love your feedback and suggestions on how we can continue to improve your experience. And, if you have questions about it, I'll be happy to answer them.

Don't be shy! Post below.