You will no doubt have noticed that a number of changes have been made to the site, and more are to follow. The main objectives of these changes are:

• To respond to members' concerns, feedback, and suggestions for improvements
• To encourage more people to join us and learn about our music
• To discourage the small minority of people who attempt to spoil the site for everyone else

Most of the changes will be apparent, and easy to understand. This announcement will only deal with those which need a little more explanation.

Note that not all of these changes are being made immediately, some will be implemented in the coming weeks.

You will already have noticed that the only identification you now need to add when submitting reviews is your e-mail address. This is the first step towards making it mandatory that you have a forum profile before you can submit a review. The e-mail address is the link between your reviews and your forum profile. It is therefore important that :

• You ensure that you add an e-mail address to the "E-mail address" section of your forum profile. (*see below for how to do this)
• You always use the exact e-mail address you have registered with the forum when submitting reviews.
• Any reviewers who have not yet registered with the forum should do so now. The changes to make this mandatory will be implemented soon.

Note that it is not normally necessary to update your e-mail address with the site if it changes in the future, as any correspondence with you will be by PM (private message). You should therefore continue to use the same e-mail address when submitting reviews, even if it is no longer a valid one.

One of the many benefits to members of this change is that all reviewers will be able to see all the reviews they have submitted, simply by clicking on their name in any review they have submitted. The facility to edit reviews will continue to be restricted to Prog Reviewers and Special Collaborators.

* To check or amend the e-mail address in your forum profile, click on "Settings" towards the top right of the forum pages, and click on "Edit profile". You will then see the "Email address" field, which can be amended as required. If you do not wish your e-mail address to be made public, there is an option to this effect at the foot of the screen.

A change will shortly be implemented for new forum members which requires them to "activate" their membership. This will be done by sending an e-mail to the address they have provided, which requires a response. Until that response has been received, they will not be able to post in the forum.

This change will not directly affect existing members.

The site owners and the admin team have discussed at length how best to address this issue, which is raised regularly in the forum. We have sought to find a balance between recognising the efforts of those who have gone to the trouble of supporting their ratings with a carefully considered review, while allowing the remaining as inclusive as possible. It was also our wish to recognise the important contribution made to the site by our Prog Reviewers and Special Collaborators.

The site will therefore implement the following policies:

• All existing ratings without reviews will be retained in the database
• Ratings without reviews will continue to be accepted (subject to compulsory registration with the forum as described above)
• Ratings with reviews (of over 200 characters - note this is characters, not words) will have a value of double those without a review.
• Ratings with reviews by Prog Reviewers and Special Collaborators will have a value of three times the value of a rating without review

These values will be applied to all average rating calculations.

Note - For information on how to become a Prog Reviewer, see the FAQ's thread at the top of every forum section.

While discussions about the acceptance of ratings without reviews will no doubt continue, we feel this is a fair and balanced solution.

As this announcement covers a number of topics, it would be impractical to leave it open for discussion. Please however feel free to raise new topics in the "Forum website and general" section of the forum relating to any specific aspect you would like clarified, or simply wish to voice your opinions about.