A SquidFlicks Super Holiday Announcement
Even though we are sorry to say that HorrorHut won’t be your Christmas present this year (but it will be a great way to celebrate the new year!), I have some of the real gifts that you will be receiving – new features and updates to SquidFlicks! *roar from audience*
I have been working pretty hard this past few days, and I am pleased to announce some of the features and updates that are already in place or are going to be put into place by January 1, 2008!
Warning: Some of these announced updates may shock you and/or result in a serious addiction to the improved SquidFlicks.com! =P
The List
New Advertisements!These help to support OSS and all of its free services. I am working on making them as relevant as possible so that you might find some great deals on movie related stuff.- New Categories! As you saw from the ‘I am Legend Breaks the December Bank’ post, I have created two new categories under Feature Films – Box Office Hits and Box Office Blunders. We look at some of the best and worst performances of movies in the box office, and then reflect on how accurate our previews & reviews (if made by then) are to the general publics reaction.
- Printable Pages! Coming soon are printable pages for our reviews! These allow you to print out the information in a stripped and printer friendly format, e.g. no ads or huge graphics to waste ink. This will be implemented before January 1, 2008 provided I don’t run into any problems with the modification…
- Post Ratings! Finally! I have found a way to allow you to rate us and our reviews on the comprehensive 5-star (or reel) rating system here at SquidFlicks. I hope to have this up by December 22!
- Polls! I have also found a way to offer polls on various movie and film-related topics to find out how you feel about a certain topic. Look for them very soon!
- Mobile Browser Compatible! Now you can easily catch up on all the latest movie news with your phone with internet access! This new feature makes the site easier to navigate and read on the small screens and controls of mobile devices. I for one often browse the internet with my blackberry whenever a computer is out of reach, and this is becoming fairly common for other sites too. Mobile is the future of the internet.
- IP Banishment for spammers! You have not seen the spam comments placed on the site due to an excellent spam filter we have set up. However, now I have to ability to ban this certain individual from the site, and end their pestering forever from this site! Yay!
- New Contact form! You will soon be able to contact us by simply filling out a form with all of your details – no more email hyperlink!
- Improved Site Map – I have fixed the site map so that it updates regularly and allows you lost visitors to find your way around the site. This will also help the site rank higher in Google and other web searches!
- Movie Showtimes! NEW! Click on the ‘Movie Showtimes’ link in the navigation bar to find theaters and movies currently playing in the vicinity of your Zip Code. Search is provided by Google Movies, and is currently a SquidFlicks beta. (I plan to better integrate this into the site ASAP!)
- Other small improvements! Sticky posts and more are coming to SquidFlicks, but our goal remains the same – being your guide to great movies!
And finally, there is one last and HUGE surprise:
The Omega Squid Forum!
I have set up the forum, and currently adding categories and working on its design. It will be a place where all users and members of all Omega Squid Network sites and services can communicate, learn, share, and get support from OSS staff and the community alike. This will take some time to set up, and I have a busy schedule coming up this next few months; I hope to release the OSF to the public by March 2008!
You can get a sneak peek at http://osquid.com/forum
Note: The forum is currently closed to non-admin, so don’t be alarmed about the error message!
