To further integrate the forums into the BusyThumbs experience, we have placed a block on the homepage that lists some of the hottest topics currently discussed. This block is also available to put on your blogs, via the

Hot Topics

Google Earth - Improved 3D! by moblog on 25 Sep 2006 Welcome To BusyThumbs! by tripleox on 14 Sep 2006 Edit Pictures In Your Browser by tripleox on 14 Sep 2006 Mobile Phone Safety by tripleox on 13 Sep 2006 Video Blogging by tripleox on 08 Sep 2006 Busythumbs Feedback by tripleox on 06 Sep 2006 BusyTagging by tripleox on 24 Mar 2005

tag. If you want to add it, go to Advanced Customisation on your Control Panel, and add it anywhere you like in the main template (below

My Links

silk wedding flowers

is a good place, for example). This tag is already built into the skins from now on, so if you create a new blog or reset your skin, you'll get the functionality automatically.

Congratulations to the winner of the January Refer-A-Friend league: Musings. The 1GB pendrive is on its way! The prize for February's league is a tiny 3 megapixel digital camera. More details here.

BusyThumbs has experienced a downtime this morning after a technical glitch. Having learned lessons from the past the hard way, there was only a minimal loss of data, limited to a small period of time in the morning. If you're one of the very few who's missing a picture after the incident we ask you please to send it in again. Apologies for the inconvenience. Please direct any support requests here.

The blog feeds BusyThumbs produces were due for an upgrade. Rather than simply dishing out plain text, the feed now contains your pictures, all links, and a count of your comments or trackbacks with links straight back to the entry. Also, if you have a profile picture or avatar set in the forum, the feed will use that as the identifying picture, or failing that, the latest entry. This should make reading BusyThumbs feeds much easier on external programs or sites (like Bloglines).

The editor's picks showcase some of the best pictures spotted on BusyThumbs. Instead of just displaying them in the corner of the page, they now start right at the top, and continue in the usual space under the stats. A growing increase in quality pictures has created the need to show more of them at once, so here you go. :)