[Doug Nelson]

As promised, several Challenges have been posted since the last update.

Check out the new Art Tag game over in the Gallery forum.

Sometime in the upcoming week or so we'll be moving to a new server, so don't be surprised if you can't access the forums for a couple of days.

Either during the move, or shortly thereafter, I'll be upgrading almost all of the software we use so there will be a lot of new features to play with.

[Doug Nelson]

Ok, new Challenges, new Gallery software version, yadda yadda...

But none of that matters this week because:

The big tease is over! The "secret project" I've been promising and stalling about is now here!

What is it, you ask? Just this: our new Tutorial Publishing System.

What is it, you ask? From now on, any registered member can publish and maintain their own tutorials, instantly, with a WYSIWYG editor. No more waiting for me. No more wondering how it will turn out.

"Yawn", you say? This is huge! It means you can now be a published author, here on RetouchPRO, in just a few minutes. And it means that, with your cooperation, we will soon have the largest, most comprehensive set of retouching and restoration tutorials anywhere!

Go check it out and see. Just click on Tutorials on the navbar and you're there.

Was it worth the wait? You betcha!

[Doug Nelson]

Well, the "big secret project" was a bomb (and not in the good way). We have a grand total of one new tutorial submitted (not counting mine, since they essentially defeat the purpose). The last big project, the Reviews Database, isn't doing much better, with only a handful of reviews added since my last update.

It seems that everyone is enthused about new site features as long as someone else does the work.

Have I guilt-tripped you into submitting, yet? Good
We need your tutorials, however modest, and product reviews. Soon. Please.

On the plus side, we have several new Challenges of all types. They're still up and waiting for you. We've also had 3 games of Art Tag. Plus about 1000 new registered members.

Oh, and I'm almost out of Challenge material, especially Retouching Challenges, so send me thumbnails of stuff you think might make good Challenges.

[Doug Nelson]

Consider this fair warning:

Things are going to break around here. I'm going to upgrade almost all the software, and there are bound to be a zillion problems. But we'll also get a zillion new features.

I'm actually stalling, since it's going to be very labor intensive, and I haven't decided whether to start right away or wait a week or so. But, if you show up one day and it looks like we've been invaded by Martians or something, you'll know it's actually progress.

The primary upgrade will be to the forums, and it will be mind-blowing. Nothing will be the same as it is now. And, due to everything else on the site working off the forums, I'll have to upgrade them as well. In the transition period, some stuff will not work, other stuff will appear generic (with software author's logo instead of ours), and some stuff will have to be temporarily deleted (just temporary, I promise).

And, of course, some stuff just will refuse to work. So be patient, it will all be worth it.

[Doug Nelson]

I guess there's enough new stuff to warrant an update.

• New version of forum software
• Challenges and Gallery now separated
• Archives now use same software as Challenges and Gallery, allowing direct uploads
• Challenge submissions now have their own upload area (oddly, it's in the Archives area)
• Forums navbar will slowly (very slowly) be replacing the flyout navbar throughout the site

The forums have a ton of new features, many of which I haven't even turned on yet. I figured I'd dole them out slowly, rather than overwhelm everyone at once.

I predicted (promised?) some stuff would break:

• Tutorial publishing and editing is temporarily disabled
• Review posting is temporarily disabled

[Doug Nelson]

It's been awhile, and I have a little news, so here goes:

The Reviews section is all repaired, and you can post reviews to your hearts content now (and suggest items for others to review).

The tutorials section is as fixed as its gonna get (the publishing software requires you to be using Internet Explorer or any Gecko-based brower such as Firefox, Safari will not work).

Lots of new Challenges posted since last time, and a lot of new friends joining to participate, so go over and give them your opinions.

We've added two moderators, Leah and Flora. Offer them your sympathies, and maybe a hug.

OK, here's the real news (ok, that was all news, but here's what got me motivated enough to post this): in about 45 minutes the site should go down for anywhere from 5 minutes to several hours as they move us over to a new semi-dedicated server. This means we won't be sharing the server with quite as many neighbors, but nothing should change as far as day to day operations go (so they say).

So, if you're reading this, it's probably either underway or has already happened

[Doug Nelson]

I'm considering a new feature aimed at those who make (or hope to make) money via retouching and restoring. Please read this description and leave your feedback.

Critiques have been dropping off over in the Challenges area, even though actual participation is way up. Please visit there regularly and show your support by telling them what you think of their efforts.

[Doug Nelson]

A resounding yawn for my new revenue-generation idea means we'll need some donations in the next month to pay the server and licensing bills. A little over $200 has already been donated (thanks for that!), which means we'll need at least another $300. Click here to help.

Lots of new Challenges, and lots of new Challenge submissions to enjoy and give feedback on (so please go tell them what you think of their work).

I'm completely out of Retouching Challenge material, so email me a thumbnail if you have potential submissions (interesting images that need color correction or studio portraits that could use a little retouching help).

A new round of Art Tag is starting up, but I honestly don't think very many people know it exists. Please go check it out, T Paul puts a lot of work into it and it's a great project. Maybe play one round to see what it's like!

[Doug Nelson]

Plenty of new Challenges, and a LOT of new Challengers. Make sure you give them your feedback.

We've gotten a few donations since my last update, but we're still considerably short of the necessary fundage. And that's just to keep the lights on, and doesn't include improvements.

A new round of Art Tag starts Friday, so don't miss that.

I started a new forum for Official Vendor Support. If you work for a manufacturer, publisher, developer, or if you're an author or developer yourself, please check it out. Or if you know of a company that could use a support forum, let them know.

Please check if your email address here is current, you have no idea how many bounces I get in my mailbox every day. Every thread subscription with a bad email address sends me an email everytime someone posts to that thread.

[Doug Nelson]

I am completely out of challenge material. I have one Restoration challenge lined up, but after that I'm dry. Please email thumbnails to me.

The 4 most common reasons I don't use most photos that are submitted:

I try to encourage a wide range of techniques to be used, so even if it's a marvelous photo I won't use it if we've already beaten a particular technique to death in other Challenges

or

It's definitely a challenging photo, but even if perfectly restored/retouched/manipulated it's not particularly interesting

or

The image is so far gone the only solution is to paint in a new image (or conversely, it barely needs any work at all)

or

There are obvious copyright/permission issues

[Doug Nelson]

I still need retouching challenge images (color shifts, unflattering color studio portraits, etc.). I'm fine on old/damaged photos, but desperate for the preceding.

New RetouchPRO feature:
RetouchPRO Resources
Where you can upload and download actions, brush sets, etc. for all the various programs. It's still in beta, but works if you're patient. Feel free to suggest categories.

[Doug Nelson]

Several new tutorials. I need studio portraits for Challenges. The usual.

What is unusual is that we now have a RetouchPRO Contest. That's right, a real contest, with real rules, a real winner, and a real prize. And while we'll have more contests in the future, the only way we'll have more prizes is if lots of people enter this time, so tell everyone you know to enter. And be sure to click on the sponsor link lots of times

[Doug Nelson]

The March contest is a great success! Voting is going on right now (you can't vote if you didn't enter, but you can do like I did and write your votes down on a post-it and compare to the official winner).

Another contest will start on April 1, with another great prize for the winner. Don't be shy about inviting other forums and email lists to join in!

Perhaps you've noticed a lack of new Challenges. I plead poverty (of good source material). Email me thumbnails, particularly of bad color problems and particularly particularly of color studio portraits.

Speaking of poverty, donations have virtually disappeared, running at about 10% of overhead.

[Doug Nelson]

It's been awhile since I posted anything here, though plenty of stuff has been happening all along (just nothing totally "new").

We do have a new Contest starting up in a few days. These have gotten some terrific entries, and you should really check them out over in the Studio forum. They're all winners! And a special thanks to T Paul for all her effort at running the contests.

Plus I just posted 2 new Challenges. And, of course, I'm still looking for good retouching material for future contests. (Don't forget you can still work on even the oldest Challenges)

A distant warning: some time in the next month or so I'll be upgrading to the new version of this forum software. It offers a lot of great new features, but of course it also means stuff will break, the site might go down awhile during the transition, etc. So don't panic when it happens.

[Doug Nelson]

I've changed the method of posting site updates, so nav up one level to see the current update.