OK, I don't think I've done one of these posts in years, and in many ways they are overdue. I think it's time to let you readers know what's going on with Messenger Stuff and the updates that have been going on around the website.

Messenger Stuff receives a major annual release at the end of August/ start of September. This year the update came in a beta wave, before the full release being uploaded a couple of weeks ago. This time we hit the major milestone of 2.0, which took over four years to arrive. Below is a breakdown of the history of releases:

• 1.0 (1st July 2005): The initial release of Messenger Stuff.


• 1.1, 1.2: Were piecemeal updates leading up to 1.3 as 1.0 contained very little content.


• 1.3 (19th February 2006) - Brought about the basics of this news system and created the very first admin panel along with mod_rewrite links. Basically this was the start of the engine used today.


• 1.5 (23rd April 2006): One of the biggest updates to the website. The downloads database was re-coded, admins had a new dashboard to work from.

The first year was the slowest year by far. A lot was done and achieved, and Messenger Stuff was rather popular even in its early days. Soon we were recording podcasts. adding constant design updates and lots of content. This occurred in the days when I had a significant amount of free time and passion. In many ways the following years have flown on by.

• 1.6 (26th August 2006): An entire re-code of the website resulted in a more polished engine and design for users to enjoy. The update added a complete news system, while molding several new features into place. 1.6.1 - 1.6.5 soon followed over the year.


• 1.7 (10th September 2007): Many of the features you see on the website today have been nearly untouched since this major release. Granted a few tweaks have been added here and there, but the bulk of the MsgStuff engine that runs today was built on 1.7.


• 1.8 (8th September 2008): A major design shift, moving away from the deep blues and larger header we used for years. A comments spam system, among SEO urls and a general sense of organisation throughout the website were probably among the biggest improvements in this milestone.

Changes in Messenger Stuff 2.0

Asides from the new design with a darker blue background and new textures, much of the changes have been "under the hood" so to speak. Most changes are within the admin panel and the news system. I feel I have reached the point where Messenger Stuff doesn't need much more, aside from content being regularly delivered and maybe a face-lift from time to time. This brief history has, in many ways been a post for myself, as I've had the chance to look over all of our old admin posts and change logs to see how Messenger Stuff has developed over the years.

I would like to thank you, the users for your support and feedback, and my admins who have contributed throughout the years. None of this would have been possible without you. Now, let me find some real news to post about ...

Twitter has taken the world by storm, with recent reports suggesting its traffic has increased nearly 10-fold in the past year alone. All the RSS feeds, blogging advice emails, and now many of developers within the Messenger community are now using Twitter and suggesting websites to adopt its platform to take social networking to a new level. I thought we best give it shot.

The great thing about Twitter is it's personal. I can't really justify giving a post on all the small finds I find throughout the Messenger world, or the constant of construction undergoing with the website. Twitter gives you every inside scoop we find, as well as allowing us to follow those who are related fields. This has not only proved to be useful from our prospective, but fun too.

So are you a Twitter user? Do you want to start using twitter? Do you want to start following Messenger Stuff updates?

View our Twitter page

As announced in my welcome post, we've been working on a new version of the website behind the scenes here at Messenger Stuff. We're finally ready to release the design, site-wide. We've made many changes, and we're always looking for ways to improve our design. absorbation has worked very hard on our new website, kudos to him! Expect some other major updates to the site in the coming days as we move to the new version.

Any comments, suggestions, bugs, browser problems, or things you'd like us to feature on our website are very much welcomed. Feel free to e-mail us via our contact page. We're looking forward to everyone's thoughts & suggestions.

Comment by absorbation:

Phew, it has been a whole year since the last release of msgstuff.com with 1.6 hitting your screens. Today you can experience 1.7, a more user friendly and an entire re-code of the website. The design may not have changed but you will notice a new layout, if you have any suggestions for it contact us and I will try and implement your suggestion.

I have divided the website up into two sections based on the type of users who visit the msgstuff. One is for those seeking Messenger custom content and downloads and those after Messenger based news. The news system has a lot of new features, and contributing to the website is even easier. If you have any news tell us about it!

I will be updating the website a lot over the next couple of days, applying feedback as I receive it. I also have some new features to add soon, something which will make things easier for all our visitors.

If you can, please leave a comment with your opinions.

You may have noticed news has been slow recently. Not only has Messenger been a big bore over the past couple of months, I myself have been very busy with exams. With three regular posters at Messenger Stuff I've realised I need some help. I need some new news posters.

If you are keen to write news regularly for the website and have a passion for Messenger, contact me at admin[at]msgstuff[dot]com. Give as much information about yourself as you can, tell me of any experience you have and why you want to write for msgstuff. You will even be paid to do so!

Every email sent will receive a reply. I'll consider all applications equally, and I'm not limiting on the numbers I take up. It can't hurt to try. I look forward to your emails guys, thanks for reading.

Just a quick note to apologise for the downtime that we suffered today.

The main site and forums were down for about 7 hours today (from about 1PM BST) which we believe was due to an error with our host's DNS configuration. Everything appears to be back to normal now (thanks to the great DreamHost support service) so we can continue to bring you the latest Messenger news and views.

Hope you missed us

I think a 'whoo-hoo' is in order here. I have added the big list of skins that I had on the liveskins page of this website into the downloads database. This means you won't find any broken URL's, and you can browse a large variety of skins ready to customise Windows Live Messenger.

I have also been searching hard for new skins, and the database is now up-to-date. There are also some very goods skins out at the moment. Enjoy!

View skins for Windows Live Messenger 8.0
View skins for Windows Live Messenger 8.1
View our skinning tutorial

Those who have subscribed to our RSS feed (there are a few), to continue receiving benefits of our feed, I highly recommend switching to the feedburner link. Benefits include more customisation, better feed statistics for us and knowing you are using the correct feed link. The old RSS link is still active mind you. Thank you.

So any of you who are subscribed, simply change the feed url to:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/messengerstuff

I told you there was an update just around the corner and now the finishing touches have been applied I have uploaded the updated version of msgstuff.com.

There has been a lot of work pumped into this version, it has took time and effort but I'm sure the majority of you think the change is for the better. First the new design, it's not much change, new content boxes, a few tweaks and a change to the banner is just it, but it makes a huge difference all together. The people who really helped get everything looking how it is are h-master who designed most of it including the new menu, shrbr who changed the banner, and the andyman who helped with the final tweaks.

The source code is a lot cleaner now as well. The website is running PHP 5 and has never run so smoothly before. I still have some tweaks for the html using PHP's tidy function, but I'm having trouble getting it to work for me at the moment.

All features have been updated in some way. The news system and downloads database have had the most changes applied, other small features have been added to the website, but bug fixes and improvements on old features was where I was mainly focusing.

I hope you prefer the update. There is a surprise coming along with it, hopefully I can show you within the next few weeks, but until then here is a better msgstuff for you to browse. I would like to thank all my admins and everyone else that helped. Enjoy!

Discuss the update and report bugs

I used to regularly post about development on this website, the ins and outs of what is going on with msgstuff.com. Well now a new version of the website is coming (version 1.6) and with no news about MSN or Windows Live Messenger, I thought I would tell you what you can expect from here very soon.

Messenger Stuff basically uses PHP as it's scripting engine, like most modern websites. Each script here is coded by me and is designed to meet my exact specification, everything here is how I want it. Well the msgstuff.com code, the one your viewing, is a little sloppy, the design needs a face lift and new features need to be added. Well that's what version 1.6 will bring.

The code has been updated, my admins have a new shiny admin panel on the way, making it easier than ever to help out with the website, and there has been a new menu and news content boxes thanks to hmaster. Already I am planning a new design, a total change from this one which will appear within the next few months in version 1.7. But the small changes hmaster done have made a huge difference, the website is much easier to navigate and you will be able to read news posts like this one much easier.

A lot of work is behind the scenes, yet again, and yes it may seem small changes to you, but in my eyes the upcoming version is big. I have a high quality control when it comes to this website and I try and make everything to suit around you. Version 1.6 will come out in about a week along with a nice surprise that should make you news fanatics happy.

Of course my admins have really helped with all this, they do work very hard and are not just there for no reason. Each one contributes to this website, so I am very thankful I have them. However, this website would be useless without you. Me and the andyman write news to keep you happy and updated and I would like to thank you for reading. Anyway I think this is enough for this post, I hope some actual news comes along soon because there is nothing to post about at the moment.