Welcome to the new incarnation of the Large Format Photography Forum.

Although we all liked the simplicity of the interface provided by the old software, it was due for a major re-write in order to provide both additional user and administrative features we needed. As a re-write wasn't possible, we elected to use a popular and commercially-supported forum package, vBulletin, which would allow us to import the valuable archives from the old forum.

The "new" forum is organized into various topic-related sub-forums, similar to the "categories" under the old forum. You can view threads through the sub-forum interface, or you can choose to use the "unified" view, which displays the posts of the last 30-days in the most-recently modified sequence (similar to the "recent responses" view on the old forum).

The new software provides a number of features, including:

1. the categories of the old forum have been condensed and are now more apparent as sections or sub-forums under the main forum index page. The sub-forum structure also allows you to ignore areas in which you have no personal interest. Classification of topics still depends on the original poster choosing the appropriate sub-forum, but we can now more easily move
topics at the admin level.

The sub-forum structure also allows us to be slightly more tolerant of posts in certain sections that might be considered "commercial" in nature, without subjecting everyone to those posts. The same non-commercial philosophy still holds true in most sections, however. (Note: if you use the "unified" view, you'll see all posts, regardless of the sub-forum.)

2. the new software does a better job of tracking what you have read. If you want to view topics posted since your last visit, for example, just click on the "New Posts" item in the menu bar near the top of the page. Recently modified topics still float to the top of the display, as they did with the "New Responses" link on the old forum.

3. Your individual view of the forum topics can be tailored to your individual preferences through your user profile. Click on "Quick Links" in the menu bar to access those features. In addition to telling other members about yourself, you can, for example, put other individuals on your "Ignore List", so you don't see their posts.

E-mail notifications of new posts are substantially different for the new forum. Essentially, one subscribes to individual threads or individual sub-forums. Notices are only sent for the first update after a user's last visit to the forum. Please see the FAQ for details, if interested.

4. formatting within posts is now more convenient, as is including links, inserting images, etc. HTML is not allowed, but the posting interface includes various formatting options, along with the ability to manage attachments. These features work in much the same way as most word processing software.

5. the new software allows individual sections or sub-forums to be "moderated" (in the sense of the old Usenet forums) - that is, posts to some sections need to be approved by a moderator or admin before they will appear.

While we are anticipating we'll have a "learning curve" with the new software, and will need to fine tune some of the configuration parameters, the admins are enthusiastic about the capabilities the new software provides. Obviously, we're hoping you'll be enthusiastic, too, once you've used it a bit. The core philosophies of the forum remain the same and true to Tuan's original vision for the forum.