Dear members and friends of ipernity,

1) Is a group active?
In order to support the current efforts by our members to improve the perception of groups, especially to visitors, a new feature has been added to assist them.
On a group's homepage, the blue (?) icon beside 'Latest contributions' shows how long ago the most recent image was added to the group. Additionally, this is available via the [ i ] under each image. This is the date that a user agrees to a suggestion, or when a group admin reviews moderated content.

Furthermore, the number of contributions in a group is now shown on the group's homepage as well. This number count has always been available on the page of the groups you belong to, but for new members checking out a group's homepage, the count wasn't listed.

2) The Group guidelines page.
Wording has been modified under section 'Group administration', item 'Public groups are not your property', to make it clear that to merge a group one contacts the team: "...ask the ima team to merge it with another group with a matching theme."

Because groups are not owned by the administrators, the ima team has always had the discretion to delete groups. Therefore a new subsection has been added that explicitly states this fact: "You [administrator] may delete a group at any time. Abandoned groups may be deleted by the ima team without notice."

3) Recipient lists for ipermails.
When viewing a 'Sent' message that has many recipients, there is the option to '(see more)' after only listing the first 5 users. The absence of this feature from messages viewed in the Inbox has been rectified. The benefit of this is to have removed the occasional need for a tiresome long scroll to be able to read the message.

4) And now for something fun!

If you are taking a photograph, you are looking through something such as a glass lens, viewfinder, screen or even just a hole in some cardboard (think pinhole camera), in order to see your subject. For a twist, why not try adding an additional "lens" to view your subject in a new light.

Can you put a glass of water in front of you and look from the camera through the water as a way to distort the image? What about using a magnifying glass for a new way to take a macro photo? Or perhaps you might find a hole in a fence that frames a subject in a new way? Perhaps sunglasses for a tint? Some people are brave enough to put goo on their lens, but what would happen to your subject if you put the goo on some plastic wrap instead?

Add your own tricks for changing how you view the world with your camera in the comments below.

Happy Holiday Season!
Your ima team.