What's new at The Code Project

There have been a number of new features added to the Code Project in recent weeks: New .NET sections, New membership features and lists, and new features in the discussion boards. Companies and industry also get new quick links to help keep track of discussions about them and their products.

New Sections

The section hierachy has been adjusted a little to make room for the flood of .NET articles coming in. It's great to see so many getting into the new languages and technologies. The MFC sections have also been rearranged to make it easier to find that elusive bit of code.

The Newsletter

We got bored with the text-only version so we now offer a HTML version as well. The colours! The pretty pictures! The cute little alien! Yes, the weekly newsletter is now looking a little bit more special. To see the difference make sure you are signed up, signed in, then update your settings to specify 'HTML' as your newsletter format. An example of the new format can be seen here. The email contains a minimum of formatting, a small style sheet, a couple of embedded images (so it can be viewed offline) and no scripting. Note that the text version of the newsletter will still be offered. The HTML version is offered as a convenient and attractive alternative.

CodeProject Membership

You don't need to sign up to use The Code Project, but doing so gives you a ton of benifits, including

• Use of that hot bed of gossip, The Lounge
• Subscription to the newsletter.
• Your biography added at the end of each article you submit
• Your signature and name filled in automatically when posting messages on the discussion boards.
• You can vote for others, and be voted for in turn as a Helpful Person on the discussion boards.
• A link to your profile page so others can learn about you and your interests
• Your name on the birthday list

  And last but not least:
  

• You get to reserve your name before someone else grabs it!

We've added new features to CodeProject membership including the ability to list your occupation, interests, skills, where you live and, coming soon, your time zone! When we've finished adding the code you will be able to view the timestamps on the discussion boards relative to your own local time. As mentioned we've also added

• A demographics page so you can get a feel for who your fellow Code Project readers are,
• A list of those Most Helpful,
• A list of those Most Active,
• A birthday list, and
• A newsletter archive

The Discussion Boards

We've also upgraded the discussion boards a little to make things easier.

• Keyword searches in the forums now highlight the keywords you searched for to make scanning the messages even easier.
• There is a new view option 'Thread View' that shows only the top level messages, plus the number of messages in each thread. Just select 'Thread View' from the View dropdown in the message boards.
• A new 'This helped!' button in each message. If you read a message that was helpful to you then click this button! That adds a vote for that person and moves them up the list of the Most Helpful.

There have also been a number of minor improvements to help make the boards more enjoyable.

Industry Contacts

We have introduced a new free