Smashing Magazine - we smash you with the information that will make your life easier. really.

The Smashing Magazine Forum is now officially launched. For a while, we have been working on its design, functionality and details, and today we are happy to finally welcome our readers to the new forum. The idea behind it is to provide our community with a place to discuss problems, developments and ideas, ask to questions and provide answers. You can also discuss Smashing Magazine’s articles or just chat with the members of our community about anything you want.

Okay, we know there are plenty of Web forums dedicated to design and Web development; but that didn’t really matter to us. We just wanted to have our own smashing place for our truly smashing readers. After all, in just over two and a half years of its existence, Smashing Magazine has managed to establish itself as a serious and quite popular online magazine.

So what we want to achieve something simple yet extremely important with this forum: to bring the readers of our magazine together and offer them a nice place to exchange ideas. The readers are already there and have been here for a while; now they can talk to each other beyond the borders of our magazine.

We Need Your Support!

The forum is still very young and needs active members who are willing to help and contribute. So, we welcome everybody to check out the forum and browse its threads. Everybody can read most threads, but if you would like to participate in the discussion, you’ll need to register and log in first. It’s really no big deal, registering is easy, and members can customize their profiles however they wish.

Everything is brand new: if you participate from the very beginning, you can have a huge impact on the forum, on the community and on its future.

Comment In The Forum, Win A Book!

And to celebrate the launch of the Smashing Magazine Forum, we are giving away 11 Web design-related books to our forum members. The winners will be selected randomly among all commenters in this thread. The winners will be announced this Friday, 13 February 2009, in the forum.

To participate, just:

1. Register on the forum and log in.
2. go to this forum post,
3. Select the number (below) of the book you are interested in.
4. Write it down in a reply to the post.
5. On the next line, answer the question, “How can the SM Forum help me in future?”
6. And you’re done!

Books You Can Win

#	Cover	Title Author
1		Universal Principles of Design Jill Butler, Hardcover
2		Swiss Graphic Design: The Origins and Growth of an International Style 1920-1965 Richard Hollis, Paperback
3		Don’t Make Me Think!: A Common Sense Approach to Web Usability Steve Krug, Paperback
4		The Design of Everyday Things Don Norman, Paperback
5		Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design Jenifer Tidwell, Paperback
6		The Art of Looking Sideways Alan Fletcher, Hardcover
7		The Principles of Beautiful Web Design Jason Beaird, Paperback
8		Hand Job: A Catalog of Type Michael Perr, Paperback
9		Web Standards Solutions: The Markup and Style Handbook Dan Cederholm, Paperback
10		CSS Mastery: Advanced Web Standards Solutions Andy Budd, Paperback
11		The CSS Anthology: 101 Essential Tips, Tricks and Hacks Rachel Andrew, Paperback

What Advantages Does The Forum Bring Me?

• Communicate and exchange ideas with people like you across the globe.
• Ask questions that would be otherwise overlooked in the comments of posts.
• Help other designers, get a good karma and make your mark in the community.
• Suggest ideas and URLs, gain new insights and work with us on upcoming Smashing posts.
• Get in touch with the authors and founders of Smashing Magazine.

Apart from that,

• We will use forum to ask for your suggestions for design showcases.
• You can help decide which articles get posted next on Smashing Magazine.
• Our authors will use forum to find new article ideas and help other members.
• You can take part in new contests and giveaways, which are on the way!

P.S.

By the way, this post (and only this one) cannot be commented on. If you would like to discuss it, please go straight to the forum!

Cheers and, most importantly, have fun!

(al)