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                      THE NIKONIAN
          www.nikonians.com Regular Newsletter
                http://www.nikonians.com
                     #1 12-MAY-2000
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In this issue:

1. Editors Note
2. Common Questions & Answers
3. Practical Hints


1. Editors Note
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Thanks for your interest in our community. This newsletter
informs you about Nikonians, the Friendly Nikon Users
Community.

We're in the last phase of the Beta stage, officially
launching 01-Jun-2000.

It's only been twelve days now since we invited more users
to participate in the pre-launch Beta Program and the
response has been overwhelming. 

This has fortified JRP's and my belief that there's a
great, world-wide interest among Nikon users to have their
own, real community on the web.

Both professionals and amateurs have signed up,
contributing with articles, photographs, ideas and hints as
well as participating in the various forums.

We're now working at 120% to include all of the stuff,
having it ready for June 1st :-)

If you have any questions regarding Nikonians, simply drop
by and post a message in the General/About Nikonians forum.
Or, send editorial@nikonians.com an email.

For the next newsletter, we are compiling various news from
the Nikonian realm to be included as well.

Once again, we sincerely thank you for your interest.

Bo Stahlbrandt (bo@nikonians.com) / Germany
Jose Ramon Palacios (jrp@nikonians.com) / Mexico
12-May-2000


2. Common Questions & Answers
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A couple of questions have been raised in the last days
which we want to specifically address. These have been:

Q: Are you a direct competitor to the Nikon Mailing List
(NML)?
A: No, we're not. We have been in touch with Alexander,
the owner and maintainer of the NML, and we all agreed upon
that this is not the case. NML is a very succesful
mailing list whereas Nikonians is a complete community.

We *support* the work Alexander has invested in his list
and we do not intend to set up an email list server.

Q: What is a Beta User?
A: A Nikon user who has registered at Nikonians and who
have sent us an email applying for Beta User Status,
letting us know some about him/herself. A Beta User can
access areas in the community which are not available to
other registered users, such as the Ideas, Bugs and the
Contributors forums.
If you want to apply for Beta User Status, go to the site
at http://www.nikonians.com and follow the procedure as
outlined there.

Q: Can I contribute to the community?
A: Yes, of course. We receive contributions from registered
members, such as product articles as well as images, ideas,
software and hints. Some members have also indicated an
interest to become a Forum Moderator, moderating one of our
several forums.

One of the interesting contributions is Photo Image, a set
of Adobe (R) Photoshop filters by Nikonian Michiel
Kamermans. The Photo Image plugins are available at:
http://www.nikonians.com/html/resources/software/index.html

If you want to be a contributing Nikonian, please send an
email to editorial@nikonians.com letting us know what you
want to do. As a registered Beta User, you can also access
the Editorial/Contributors forum where we discuss various
contributions. The forum is located here:
http://www.nikonians.com/cgi-bin/dcforum/dcboard.cgi?conf=conf_general


3. Practical Hints
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a) By using the "Read New Messages" icon in the lobby (and in
the conferences), you can easily view all new messages
posted since your last "mark" (or if you're not logged in:
Any new messages posted within the last 3 days). You can
use the "Mark all" icon to mark all of them as being read.

The "mark functionality" is not based upon using cookies;
it works even if you don't have cookies enabled. It only
works if your registered and logged in though.

b) To join the current photo contest, see the information
held at:
http://www.nikonians.com/html/contests/index.html

c) To get your own gallery set up, see the information held
at:
http://www.nikonians.com/html/galleries/index.html

d) If you want to participate in the Beta Program, follow the
procedure as outlined at http://www.nikonians.com


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If you have any questions regarding this newsletter, please
send an email to editorial@nikonians.com

You receive THE NIKONIAN because you have requested it.
We hope you find it useful, however, if you'd like your
name to be removed from the newsletter, you can simply do
so at any time from the main page at our community:
http://www.nikonians.com