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Please note that this site is
undergoing extensive changes. For now, just use one of the two links
above to progress further |
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Please note that this site is
undergoing extensive changes. For now, just use one of the two links
above to progress further |
Yes, it's here at last! The new macTALK. And I really hope you think it's been worth the wait!
And the first thing you should notice is that it's no longer "MacTalk" - it's now "macTALK"!
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| Just have a look at |
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| macTALK
List |
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• WEBMAIL • • FILE LIBRARY • • EMAILS & DIGESTS• • MEMBER PROFILES • • USER-DEFINED OPTIONS • Oh, and don't forget... • NO ADS!• |
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| macTALK
Central |
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• FEEDBACK
• • WHAT'S
NEW? • |
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| macTALK
Exchange |
• MEMBER
ADS • • MEMBERS'
FOR SALE ADS • •
USEFUL LINKS • • SIGS
• • MEMBERS'
WANTED ADS • • SWAP-SHOP
• •
TIPS
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| macTALK Chatroom |
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iCHAT •
SKYPE • • COMING SOON! • |
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| macTALK Galleries |
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MEMBERS' GALLERIES• • COMING SOON! • |
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| macTALK Special |
| • SPECIAL FEATURES • macTALK is evolving all the |
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| Remember!
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Why a new macTALK? What's wrong with the old one?
Well, since macTALK was created (on the 10th November 2001) it has been hosted by www.topica.com and although it has largely worked very well, there have also been some troubled times with many very frustrating problems. Who can forget the months when Topica fell foul of the spam-blocking systems employed by many ISPs, when literally scores of macTALK members found themselves without their daily fix of macTALKing? It was a real task to get each ISP to remove topica from their blacklists and convince them that we did want their traffic and that not all topica clients were peddling viagra and fake rolex watches!
And many of you won't be aware at just how difficult some of our members have found it to simply subscribe to macTALK in the first place. We have had 'wannabe' members trying for weeks to get on board without success and several have just given up trying to battle their way through topica's subscribe process, only to return months later and find things no easier.
And latterly - the dreaded adverts! Topica, in an attempt to maintain a free service has gone down the path of eternal advertising! Our list emails now have adverts at the top and adverts at the bottom - and what a pain it is having to scroll down just to read our own messages.
Enough was enough! For me at least. And it was time for a change. Time to regain control of our own list.
From now on, we won't have to put up with the advertisements above and below all our list emails, and hopefully the subscription process will work a little more smoothly.
Is that all?!
Well no. This has been a great opportunity, not only to improve the macTALK list, but also to add new features, and I can now tell you that all members can do dozens of useful things via macTALK that they couldn't do before! I saw this as the chance to truly make macTALK what it was always intended to be - the official YMUG communication channel for all macTALK members!
I sincerely hope that this will give macTALK added usefulness and enjoyment, and that not only will existing members get much more out of macTALK, but we can also tempt more YMUG members to sign up (it might surprise you that at the time of relaunch less than one-third of YMUG members are also macTALK members).
The intention is not to step on the toes of YMUG's other superb services - the monthly YMUG Meeting, the weekly Newsletter, or the excellent magazine Enigma, but to offer to YMUG members an enhanced and interactive macTALK service embracing many of the features members have requested or hinted at over the last few years.
Enough from me for now...
Enjoy macTALK!
JUST A FEW NOTES... Please feel secure in the knowledge that many areas of macTALK are secure (you need to log in with your macTALK password). Please do not divulge your email address and password to anyone else. You will also notice that all email addresses on the website are altered in order to foil would-be spammers. You should be aware that macTALK is, and always will be, a FREE service to YMUG members. However, running macTALK is not cheap and because not a penny of your YMUG subscription money is used to fund macTALK, you may notice a few unobtrusive advertisements here and there throughout the site, and also gathered together on the 'sponsors' page. I want to stress that these ads are specially selected to be of use to Mac users, and are what is called "referral ads". That means that the advertisers do not pay to advertise with macTALK, but rely on you clicking the links and following up anything that interests you. Should you ever make a purchase after following up one of these adverts, then macTALK will benefit by receiving a small amount from the advertisers. Furthermore, I have designed the website in such a way that these ads disappear completely after just one click as you navigate to where you want to be. I must ask you please to try to follow up these links when you can, as ironically, the more we use macTALK, the more expensive it become to run! There is, however, no obligation on you to do so, as macTALK will always remain free of charge. An example of how you can help me afford to run macTALK would be: Say you intend to make a purchase from the Apple Store. If you could simply go to the Apple Store via macTALK and then make your purchase, we would get a few pennies from Apple, and it would cost you nothing extra! The macTALK website is the first website I have ever constructed, and has been a labour of love for many months. In the process I have to grapple with strange new and complex languages (html, php, javascript, dhtml, MySQL, etc) and also balance the use of DreamWeaver, FreeHand, PhotoShop, etc. I am sure there WILL BE teething problems arising from my naivity and inexperience. There will, I know, be better ways to do some of the things that I have had to adlib after wading through and trying to make sense of several large and complicated textbooks I had to acquire! What I am asking is for you to please bear with me and tell me of ways things can be improved and what is not working correctly. macTALK will be a development process and I crave your patience while I get it right! Please! All existing members of macTALK should please retain your subscription to the old macTALK as well, whilst the transition is completed. You should also be aware that I do not intend to copy old messages from the Topica website to the macTALK archives, so the only way to browse messages from before the relaunch date will be via the topica website. Once macTALK is working smoothly, then you may decide to unsubscribe from the old macTALK - it's completely up to you when, or whether, to do so. Probably the most difficult - nay, impossible - things to do when making a website, is to make it look the same when viewed in all browsers. With this in mind, I make no apology for optimising the website for viewing on AppleMac computers using Apple Safari browser software (we are, after all, supposed to be a Mac user group!) Hopefully this will not affect how it looks in other Mac browsers, EXCEPT the dreaded Micro$haft Internet Explorer, which has been almost totally ignored in the creation of the macTALK website - as it surely should be! |
