Note - a couple of quick template edits are being finished in the next few minutes. They required the site going live in order to do it.

A few new features have been added, lots of fixes applied, and the profile templates have been changed to the intended version. Not much has changed in the background other than a couple of code fixes to speed things up a tad.

The site is now much cleaner and easier to navigate. While things like the profiles have been in development for a long time now, many suggestions were taken into account with regard to the navigation of the profiles on the site. The most important issue was making sure that you had the same link format on every single page, rather than the user boxes jumping around depending on the section you were in.

Please note that the only real aesthetic changes have occurred to the profiles and the user control panels, along with the user navigation panels. The front page of the site is next to get ripped apart and sewn back together.

Browsing the latest photo galleries and costumes have not changed.

Here's a quick rundown of the new changes:

Photoshoots are now open.
There are some amazing photographers showcasing their work at http://www.cosplay.com/shoots/

Real profiles are now open (finally).
The old profile was just a placeholder (and a really ugly one at that) for the newer, more organized profiles now available. They are around one month late and I apologize.

Choose your 5 main photos from your photo pages. Move them around from the Photos section in the control panel. There is a quick example in the Site HQ forum under "Profile Preview" on how to do this, but I will put up more information in a bit.

You can PM someone from within their profile.

Change the middle section from your options. You can either show your About Me entry (now a field in your profile), your Q&A section, or journal entries. The default is the Q&A since most people have one filled out.

We'll have more customization available in the future. I'll get this out of the way now - no, we are not adding "top friends" lists or ways to add wallpaper backgrounds to profiles via CSS. There are many other sites to do that on. Your profile is a simple, streamlined format set up so that when you go to every profile, the layout is the same and the links are all in the same places.

If you want to allow people to leave you public comments, you can enable this in your options. It will create a separate page for comments on your profile. This is disabled for everyone by default, so you will have to manually open this feature if you actually want it.

All Items are now fully integrated.
Now your profile page is actually worth linking to. Everything you have added on Cosplay.com is now linked from the organized panel to the right.

Galleries and Photos are now separated properly.
The front page of your Photos link shows all of your latest photos.
The front page of your Galleries link shows all of your latest galleries.

When you view a photo, the user panel on the right shows the associated costume, gallery and event.

Journals are almost open.
If you would prefer to not use the journal and would not like it to appear on your profile as a link, you can shut it off completely by editing your options here: http://www.cosplay.com/profile.php?do=editoptions

Purposely start drama in them and we'll ban you. Seriously.
Associate your entry with a costume and it will appear in your costume's page too, allowing you to have a costume journal if you'd like.

Full rules/instructions posted soon.

The user control panel version 2 is now open.
Access is from the bluish-purplish control bar. Everything you do to your account can now be controlled from the same control bar.

Comments Expanded
Comment on more than just photos. Or don't.

Note: Comment email notifications are only working with photos for now. Everything else will appear in the comment viewer (next entry below . . .) We'll expand this to include the choice to receive emails on more items shortly.

You can turn on/off commenting on your costumes and photos from the options page here: http://www.cosplay.com/profile.php?do=editoptions

The comment viewer is now open.
You can view all comments left on your items by visiting the comment page at http://www.cosplay.com/user_messages.php. It is very basic for now. There will be much more functionality soon, including the ability to mark comments as "read" so they don't show up in the list anymore. Hopefully this will help some people who aren't getting email notifications until we get the email issue fixed.

Message Center is now open.
All of your messaging is tied into one section, which will be expanding over time. System messages and journal update messages will be available in early May. System messages contain important updates from Cosplay.com, such as if you have a photo moderated or you have received a showcase notification.

Favorites page is now open.
It includes the costumes now. You can view all of your favorites on one page, or browse through costumes and photos separately. You can also check your buddy list from this page. (Still has a few quick fixes coming for the costumes part).

CosWorx Rocks
10% off of wigs the rest of today, just for the hell of it. Coupon Code COSPLAY99

Have fun.
Thanks for being patient, everyone. Please take a couple of days to get used to where everything has moved to and I'm sure you'll like the more intuitive interface. And thank you everyone for emailing/PM'ing suggestions.

Updates Phase 3: May 15. No real changes to the layout, just tons of new features I'm sure everyone will get a kick out of, and some expanded international functions to help out the 51% of our active members who aren't based in the USA.

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(CNN) -- U.S. gasoline prices topped out Monday at $3.50 per gallon for self-serve regular, according to AAA -- the highest average price the national auto club has ever recorded.
art.gas.prices.ap.jpg

California is reported as having the highest average price, $3.86 per gallon. Wyoming had the lowest, $3.39.

The cost inched up from Sunday's $3.49. A month ago the reading was $3.26 a gallon, and a year ago it was $2.85.

California had the highest average price -- $3.86 per gallon -- and Wyoming had the lowest -- $3.39.

AAA's data is obtained from the average of the last credit card swipe at about 85,000 gas stations on the previous day. Another survey, the Lundberg Survey, is carried out every two weeks at about 5,000 gas stations, and it, too, hit a record high.

The latest survey, conducted Friday, put self-service regular gasoline at $3.47 per gallon, 15 cents higher than the previous record set in the survey two weeks earlier.

Publisher Trilby Lundberg blamed the increased prices on higher crude oil and ethanol prices. She said she does not expect the prices to go down anytime soon, especially as gasoline demand goes up in the spring and summer.

The cheapest gas on the Lundberg Survey could be found in Newark, New Jersey, which had an average price of $3.21. Drivers in San Francisco, California, where the average price was $3.88, paid the most.

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