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ExplorOz Newsletter - Issue 212

Edition 212: 6th August, 2010

Hi ExplorOz Reader,

This newsletter comes at a time when we have reached another milestone in Membership numbers. Membership has reached an all time high - now at 2412 active Members. You can see the latest number of Members in the counter, which looks like this....

... you'll see this counter on the Home Page. So welcome to all our new members and thank you to all that continue to renew. You certainly contribute to making ExplorOz more viable.

Why do we do it?

It's a great question and it was discussed in the Forum a few days ago in Thread 80358 and makes great reading.

The nomadic instinct to travel is strong in some of us, but for others the trappings of our modern world have overshadowed these basic instincts. You know the type - they're the ones that shake their heads in utter confusion when you enthusiastically share your most joyous momements - sleeping under a star-lit sky, preparing meals over the campfire, enjoying the challenges of no hot running water, switching off from the media, overcoming obstacles, and getting reacquainted with yourself and your camping companions. They can't think of anything more confronting, you can't think of anything more appealing! That's what makes the ExplorOz community special ... we're that rare breed that get it!

Our current promotion aims to see more people join up or renew Membership in August to help us achieve a target of reaching 2500 Members by end August. You'll feel better when you "act, belong, and commit" to something that holds relevance to you.

Who's a part of it?

ExplorOz site visitation is around 1 million (that's 1 million times someone visits the ExplorOz.com website in a month). Whilst that sounds impressive, it really means nothing unless there is a purpose to it. Our purpose in being the publisher of ExplorOz.com is being viable as a provider of an online community where people engage in the collaboration and sharing of resources to enrich one another's adventures. It also means our No. 1 goal is to make your online experience relevant to your needs as travellers.

How do we do it?

Unlike almost any other community-based website, we encourage people to get off the computer and into the outdoors, so whilst ExplorOz will continue to publish trek notes, technical articles, and more, our future also looks towards providing web-technology to mesh with your mobility. That's why we've focussed our latest developments, on tools that have relevance when you're actually on the road travelling, rather than sitting on the computer at work or at home.

NEW Traveller Services

Our new online tracking service now has 82 subscribers - proof enough that we are heading in the right direction with EOTrackMe. Blogs - another Members only feature, have also taken off in popularity, since adding the facility toblog by email , with many days seeing 10 new entries published. Everyone seems to be reading blogs, with many receving more views than the average Forum post! When viewed in conjunction with the live map showing your position through EOTrackMe in your profile, blogs made during your trip with your photos and stories can be very informative for family & friends that often want to follow your trip live. NEW TODAY: Member Profiles now have "MyMap" - a new area in your Member Profile. All your previous updates to Places will be stored here (ie. your photo/text updates) and when you continue to update Places (either by the new email service or online) you'll find each entry added as a point on the map which you can click and see the photo you took along with your comment. See our profile for a profile with lots of points loaded!

Join the ExplorOz Community

August Membership Challenge Let's aim to reach 2500 active Members before the 1st September. To encourage you to help us reach this goal, we are waiving the $20 joining fee immediately for all new Memberships making the fee just $40 to become a Member if you sign up in the remainder of August. And because renewals are just as important, we are offering anyone that pays their $40 renewal in the remainder of August a $10 gift voucher in your Member Money account upon renewal. There's never been a better time to JOIN !

Poll
Make your vote count

Our current poll is bringing in surprising results. We've put out the option for you to consider offering visitors the opportunity to enter comments into blogs. It would enable Member's family and friends to freely register to chat in their blogs, and for those Members that are seeking more opportunities to discuss topics that are considered OffTopic in the Forum, this brings an opportunity for you to open up the discussions through your blogs to a wider audience. As with all Member tools, you would have the option on each blog you submit to choose which ones you want to receive comments in, and from which user-group. Voting is open to everyone so don't miss your chance to vote on this. To vote, go to the Forum and click on the Poll tab.

Can you help?
Looking for volunteers

Whilst the ExplorOz site might appear to be run by a massive media publisher, our office is just a small team of 4 with a few part-time contractors and volunteers. Whilst we have always managed with a few hard workers, we are certainly restricted in what we can accomplish. If you have some spare time and a passion to see ExplorOz move forward (and even fix up some redundancies), think about becoming an ExplorOz volunteer !!

Some of the available tasks that can be done by people using their home computers are: Places (basic database text entry); Road Conditions data management (good for people that know names of roads/tracks and have confidence using digital mapping); and Forum Moderation. In each of these areas you would be given "administrator" level access to the site and expected to contribute regularly to your task area. Contact us direct if you're interested.