It has come to my attention that our classifieds board was somehow open for new members to make posts without meeting the intended membership requirements. I do apologise for this oversight which has now been corrected. I will let the ads that have been posted stand for now, but obviously from now on the requirements must be met before any member is able to make a "For Sale" post there.

The requirements are as follows:

1. Only the following member groups may post and view ads: Concession, Member, Supporter, Junior, Senior, Elder, Silver, Gold, Club 250/500/1000 and of course Life members.

2. Guests will be able to see the index of the Classified Ads board, but will not be able to view the actual ads. To do so they would have to register and meet the requirements (make the required number of posts - 100 - or purchase a paid membership).

These requirements are in place to benefit both the site and its members (who I am certain do not wish to be plagued by scammers masquerading as interested buyers). It is always better to deal with people who you have built up a rapport with online, rather than complete strangers. We also have the Trader Feedback system in place so that members can make comment on deals they have concluded with other members. This is visible in the member profile under Trade Count.

Bear in mind that whilst Nikongear provides this service to its members, there are no guarantees when it comes to doing online trades. Nikongear cannot assume responsibility for any loss that may occur as a result of a member using the Classifieds board.

Those of you who have used the Carl Zeiss ZF lenses on your Nikon bodies now have a place to share your experiences with other members, as well as rate the lenses. I have added the entire range to the Gear Experiences board, so please avail yourself of a few minutes and let others know how you rate the items.

Please feel free to post sample images, but if I could ask you to kindly use the attachments feature rather than hotlink your images that would be great. The reason for this is that often members may remove their images from their host and that then makes them unavailable to us here if they have been hotlinked. The knock on effect is that your post may become redundant if your discussion is centered around the images.

In days to come I will be adding more items to this board, specifically the more popular third party lenses. If anyone has any suggestions, please just shoot me a PM or email.

Enjoy!

By now most members will have received the January Newsletter and we'd just like to get a little feedback on what you thought of it. Was it informative? What parts did you like/dislike? Did the HTML format make it through to you okay (I notice that GMail screwed it up)?

If you didn't receive it and haven't unchecked the "Receive forum notifications" box in your profile, make sure that you have white-listed Nikongear.com with your ISP otherwise it might get stuck in a spam bin.

For now you can read it here.

Normally I am a bit of a sour puss at New Year's, but a lot of you have brought a lot of cheer and optimism to me this year, so I would just like to thank you all for your tremendous support in 2008 and let you know that I am really happy to be at the helm of such a wonderful community. From diversity we draw unity.

If you are embarking on a personal mission of achievement in 2009 I hope that your aim is true and that you will find your mark. If your footfalls are unsure, I hope that you find steady ground. If you are faced with adversity I hope that you will find strength to overcome all obstacles that life sends your way in 2009. I hope that you are blessed with good health and good fortune too. 

Above all I hope that you all come back to us safe and sound in 2009.

Happy New Year Everybody!

Seasons Greetings!

I'd just like to take a moment to wish all those members who celebrate Christmas (and also those of you who don't) a very peaceful and joyous time over the next few days. I truly hope that your holidays are blessed with happiness and that Santa spoils you all rotten!

I know that my Christmas has been made especially brighter this year by many of you who have so generously donated money to the site, given us your time and helped to make this a very special community. I thank you all from the bottom of my heart!! 

If you are travelling on the roads to be with family this year PLEASE do take extra special care out there - lot's of morons behind steering wheels this time of the year - and if you are flying or travelling by rail try not to get too stressed out. Eat lots of turkey, drink lots of eggnog and kiss lots of sweethearts!

Merry Christmas!!!

from Dallas

A few members have written to me to say that they cannot access the website. I have also been experiencing problems today and a support ticket with the hosting company reveals that they are experiencing some problems with their DNS servers. They expect this to have worked itself out within 24 hours.

Unfortunately this has also affected my email on various domains, so if you have not received a reply to any mail sent to me in the last 18 hours I probably haven't received it yet.