After many weeks of hard work, your UWOL team is happy to announce that our new website has gone live, just in time for our sign-up session, which will begin January 24. You will still sign-up here, but our new website will include some cool new features, intended to keep things rockin' even between Challenge rounds. Check it out at www.uwolchallenge.com

New features include:

- Beautiful new design and lay-out which will let new players and browsers understand exactly what UWOL is all about!

- Better visibility for our sponsors...they now get front-row seats at our party, with a banner on the front page. Remember if you click-through the sponsor's banner on our webpage and make a purchase at the sponsor's site, you will be supporting UWOL, who will get a "finder's fee" for the purchase. So get out there, people, and start purchasing Gates Housings (or Ewa-Marine splash bags, if you need to go cheap...) from Joe Holley at Marine Visions. He is a great resource and is always available to answer your questions, if you want to get started dunking your camera.

- our spanky new uploader, which will eliminate the hassle of FTP. When you're ready to upload, you will just click on the "Upload my entry" link on the Home page, push a few buttons, and voila!

- an interactive news section on the Home page--this will allow us to post news announcements, featured production diaries, guest editorials by professional shooters, and all kinds of new features, in addition to our usual DVinfo chatterings and natterings.

- Featured filmmaker profiles
Anyone who completes 3 or more UWOL films is invited to participate in our featured filmmaker forum. Every time you click on this page, you will see a new face and brief bio. We are still waiting for some of our "featured filmmakers" to submit info and hope that now you will be inspired to send that stuff in!

- Enhanced Winner's Circle
Now you can get a little bit of backstory directly from the award-winning producers--and leave your comments

- Complete Interactivity!
Every section of our new website has places for you to leave comments, so if you want to comment on Kevin's snappy white balaclava look, here is your chance!

We hope that the new site will help attract new players to our game, enhance the ease-of-use for our existing players, and help solidify our presence on the web as the planet's most active nature and outdoors shooting contest. And give the best interactive community on the planet yet another place to play!

Thanks to Mat for his amazing persistence, hard work, and great design eye. And to Kevin for backing him up--those guys fell out of the sky to make this contest better than I ever could have alone. I could not have anticipated such an awesome, collaborative set of teammates (and good friends!) in advance. They make the hard work into so much fun.

Also, big thanks to Chris Hurd...we're no longer squatting here at DVinfo, we are home here at last. Our new website is now officially migrated to the DVinfo servers, so he is supplying the web hosting and bandwidth for our contest.

And to the players, dust off your wetsuits, dig out your balaclavas, and start charging those batteries! Check out the new website, and get ready to rumble!

Sign-ups commence January 24. Theme announcement is February 1.

And I promise an easy, fun one for all! I can tighten the screws later!

A quick note on "signing up" at the new site to...basically as people leave their first comment they will create a profile on our system, and you're in. Easy!

Hi Meryem.
What a great web page - It's fabulous!
Another great job done by some fantastic clever uwol people :)

Geir Inge

Two Thumbs Up -- looking good, Meryem!

You are an exceptionally talented team of people. Well done - this is a web site to be proud of! just love it.

Wow, what a good looking site! I'm totally speechless about the great job you're done.

Fantastic work, looking forward to the upcoming challenge too :-)

The new website is looking really good!
Great job!

Meryen, I sent in my profile and picture. Did it ever get to you guys> Bob

hi bob: i have not seen it, but my original e-mail requested that you send your info on directly to mat, so that he could post it...the fastest way to post it would be for you to re-send it to his e-mail address. he's pretty speedy at getting these things online.

mat, any chance you have a look and see if bob's bio got overlooked in the shuffle?

we have been passing around a ton of info in the past 2 months, it has been a challenge to stay on top of it all.

we were hoping to wow you guys a bit, thanks for the feedback, send us some comments so that we can get you all activated.

also...if any of you players have ideas for front-page stuff, shoot me an e-mail and we'll hook you up as guest editor. we're thinking of things like product reviews, production diaries, other contests that may be related to the kind of shoooting we do...any ideas that you think might serve our community.

Awesome absolutely awesome...what a team you guys make.

Brian

mat, any chance you have a look and see if bob's bio got overlooked in the shuffle?

Same here, I sent my profile info to Mat last week of December, but I can't see it on the website.

Awsome!
You know, when you read the many posts here, & the "featured filmakers" inspirations & blogs on the new website, i would have to say that all the members here are earthy, genuine, wonderful people with a passion for nature & wildlife. The design of the new website in my opinion reflects that perfectly!
Well done to all involved with the design.

Bryce

AWESOME!!!! good job! I can't wait for sign up...
I'm packing my bags and head out for a short dive... need to trim my skills for UC7.

The profiles are totally random so you may see the same profile pop up several times or you may see a different one every time.

You can always relaod the page to see the different ones.

For some reason yesterday Cat's profile was coming up almost every time. :)

If it's not up it might have gotten misplaced in the mad dash to get all the scripts up and running flawlessly. Might not hurt to send it to Mat again just incase.

I think Mat outdid himself on this project!

He put in allot of sweat to get it just right!

The profiles are totally random so you may see the same profile pop up several times or you may see a different one every time.

You can always relaod the page to see the different ones.

For some reason yesterday Cat's profile was coming up almost every time. :)

True, I checked this morning, and Cat's, Geir Inge's and Meryem's profiles came up almost all the time.
But after reloading the page constantly for about 5 minutes, I gave up, so I guess mine is hiding somewhere in the big cyberworld.

Hi Trond

Your profile didn't get posted fella because it was incomplete (section missing), I just haven't had time to chase things up so I went with all that were complete for the first batch. If you would like to send your profile to me again I'll get you posted asap.

The script generates a completely random order to what shows up, but it will visit every profile.....eventually, hey thats the fun of it...you never know who will be up next ;-) !

Hi Trond

Your profile didn't get posted fella because it was incomplete (section missing), I just haven't had time to chase things up so I went with all that were complete for the first batch. If you would like to send your profile to me again I'll get you posted asap.

Thanks Mat! I'll try to dig it up again, and send it to you asap.
Maybe it was because I didn't write anything in the "blog" section?
Anyway, you have done a very good job with the new site!!

Good Morning,

I like the new layout of of the page!!! Easy to navigate!!

Great idea with the profiles and even a better idea having them randomly pop up!!!


First class!!!

Wow.

It's amazing the difference a refresh will make. I still had the old page pulled up when I saw this message, looked over at it, and it was completely different! =D

I guess when I restarted firefox (I intentionally crash it to save my open pages, works like a charm =D) it loaded the new page and I didn't notice. ;)

I love the look of the new site! Very pretty, and I like the use of the very natural colors. Easy to navigate, too, and I'm as of yet still uncaffeinated! =D I'm really hoping I manage to join you guys for the next challenge. It's probably going to fall right around when I get really busy again, so my fingers are crossed!

Carl

Brilliant site guys - really good ;-)

Meryem the site looks great but when I tried to leave a comment I got this.

Sorry but only registered users can post comments, and 'Dave Robinson' is not recognized as valid member.

bugs already??? we're on it...hang on a sec...

Well as the fat yellow bald one says.........DOH !!! Guess what Mat forgot to put on the website! A link to sign up...lol !

Dave- You can register by following this link and signing up. Then you'll be able to post comments. Sorry about that.

http://www.uwolchallenge.com/cutenews/register.php



A link on the site is on the way !

while mat feverishly fixes, bob--if you send me your info via e-mail, i'll plug it into the template and we'll get it online.

brian, while you are freezing off your body parts and watching your brain melt into toddler-induced mush, you should work up your profile and send it in...

other qualifying producers from whom we would like to hear...these are all folks who completed 3 or more UWOL Challenges and are invited to our featured filmmaker forum...if you're having trouble with the template, just e-mail me the info and a head and shoulders shot, and i will help you out. just be advised that mat the taskmaster expects all templates to be filled out in full, no blank spaces, and we want to see your faces, (white balaclavas and full facial armor are acceptable in lieu of actual faces, apparently...)

Gabe Yeager
steve siegel
Grant Sherman
bob safay
Trond Saetre;
john robertson
rick phillips;
Brian McKay
gordon hoffman
Ruth Happel
Dale Guthormsen
steven gotz
David Gemmell
Bruce Foreman
Ken Diewert
chris barcellos

one last note, as soon as you finish 3 Challenges, shoot me an e-mail at uwol@comcast.net, and i'll shoot you the template and instructions on filling it out...

Ok guys you can now register from the homepage of the site. Just go to www.uwolchallenge.com and get commenting !!


Trond - you're now in the featured filmmaker listings!

Ok guys you can now register from the homepage of the site. Just go to www.uwolchallenge,com and get commenting !!


Trond - you're now in the featured filmmaker listings!

You're doing a great job Mat and maybe you're in a hurry :)

It's like this - the link: www.uwolchallenge.com

Geir Inge

Meryem:

I promise I will but I'd like to wait to supply a picture..... once my hair grows back I'll do it...I've pulled it all out.

Brian

Trond - you're now in the featured filmmaker listings!
Thanks Mat!

Meryem:

I promise I will but I'd like to wait to supply a picture..... once my hair grows back I'll do it...I've pulled it all out.

Brian

i want that one of your granddaughter flicking her oatmeal onto the side of your head....

Tomorrow at breakfast I'll make it a point to take that one for you.

The forecast is showing a clearing trend for late tomorrow morning on into the evening then back to blizzard on Thursday.....thank God not because of the granddaughter ( Alyson) and all the fun I've been making for the last few posts but because the town is out of fresh food. I think I told you guys before no way in and no way out unless you fly...well that included things like milk, bread, meat and produce. People have been calling telling us that the two stores have nothing but empty shelves, we're fine loads of food a freezer full to be honest but we do know for sure that many people in town will soon be in trouble if we don't get a flight or two.

We made it to the national news (CBC) tonight....longest blizzard ever to hit northern Canada....I'm so proud.

Brian

that is a bruising situation. hope the weather breaks soon. before the people do...

i was never this aware of weather around the world before UWOL came along...freakish weather patterns (rain, blizzards) around the world now have a familiar face behind them....

The blizzard dropped away yesterday, the sun came out, planes arrived and Alyson went home, all in all a very good day. Over night last night the temperature went up, way up from -38 to -16 which in this part of the world means more snow. The blizzard will return tonight but should be short lived.

The picture attached will give you some idea of what Mother Nature brought us.

Brian

Would you mind share some of that snow, Brian?
We only have tons of rain here, and a storm is supposed to arrive the next few days. Even when we had -2C the other day, it was raining! Crazy.