Never Shout Never is Christofer Drew, an 18-year-old singer-songwriter and guitarist from Joplin, Missouri. In 2008, Drew began writing and recordings songs in his basement and self-released an EP that has sold more than 30,000 copies and hundreds of thousands of individual tracks. Never Shout Never quickly built a grassroots following via the internet. What Is Love?, his first full length album, includes 8 tracks plus a download code for 2 bonus live tracks and is produced by Butch Walker.

With an album title that poses a question so deep, we can't help but ask you: What is love? For more info on how to enter, check out the Never Shout Never contest page.


-- The Nex Team

We recently asked what your ideal profile would look like and got some great feedback from the Nexopia community. Most liked how they were, but suggested some improvements. When designing these features our goal was to change as little as possible, only adding features and flexibility, giving you more control over your profile.

Here's some of the stuff we've added:

• Easier and faster to edit your profile
  
• New profile layouts -- including a single column layout
  
• All blocks are movable and removable (except your profile pictures and username block)
  
• Friends list loads 10 times faster on your profile
  
• Multiple friends list styles to choose from...
  
  • Different layouts
    
  • Select the number of friends to display
    
  • Or... completely remove it!

So hop over to your profile and give the new updates a try. We want to know what you think!

-- The Nex Team

We've updated the Nexopia user search & browse to make it bigger and better so it's easier for you to find people you know (or meet someone new!)

• You can use the search in your sidebar to look for specific users by their Nexopia username, email, or even real name.
  
  
• If you'd rather, you can browse through users you don't know by location, school, gender, or multiple interests.
  
  
• If you haven't already, make sure to add your name and school in your account preferences to make youself easier for friends to find in the search! (Note that entering in your name or school in your preferences is for search purposes only -- your name will never be displayed on your profile, and your school will only be displayed if you set it as such on your profile Basics block.)
  
  
• If you decide you don't want people to be able to search for you by your real name or email address, you can also disable the searchable option for that information in your account preferences.

-- The Nex Team

Every year we ask Nexopians to get their cackle on and post pictures of great costumes. We've had some good, great and hilarious entries. Last year we ran "Dress Your Pets" and this year we're bringing the spotlight back to you!

Also, don't forget to get your Hallows' Eve freak on by dressing up your Nex in the new and improved Halloween skin!


WHAT YOU GET

We'll be giving away a Flip Mino Video Camera to the lucky winner, and three runners up will get 6 months of Plus each!


HOW TO ENTER

Do you have the best Halloween costume? Post a picture of you dressed up in the Halloween contest thread in the Contest Forum. We'll be taking a vote here at Nex HQ to pick the best costume.

Note: The picture must be of your costume; fakes will be disqualified.


DEADLINE

The contest ends on November 3, 2009.


QUESTIONS

If you have any questions email contests@nexopia.com
Please use "Halloween Contest" as the subject line.

What better way to show your love for your favorite band and artists than plastering them all over your Nex? Now you can choose from our new site skins of some of your top faves like Billy Talent, Alexisonfire, Against Me and more. Get 'em while they're hot on the Site Skin page!

Looking for more band skin choices? Stay on the look out for even more Nex band skins coming your way soon.

-- The Nex Team

Have more control and stay more up-to-date! We're firing two new features at you today to make your time on Nexopia even better.

• Customizable sidebar!
  We wanted to give you some more control over how your Nex looks and how you use it, so we've given you ability to customize your sidebar so it works better for you. Don't like the way the sidebar is arranged? Reorder different blocks to arrange them to your liking! Never use a certain feature of your sidebar? Turn it off to hide it from view! Now you can have complete control through your new and improved preferences page.
  
  
• Friends activity page!
  Has one of your Nex friends updated their profile? Changed their dating status? Gotten Spotlighted? It's a pain to always have to visit each of your friends' profiles to make sure you know what's new, so we've created the friends' activity page to keep you instantly updated. You can control what updates you get from friends and what updates they receive about you through the friends' activity settings.
  

-- The Nex Team

Now you can have your own arcade right at your fingertips! Nexopia is bringing you 10,000 of the best online Flash games powered by Heyzap on our new Nex Games page.

• Shooter, strategy, sports, puzzles, and all of your other favorite gaming genres -- there's something for everyone.
  
  
• Challenge and play with your friends in the multiplayer games.
  
  
• Purchase Coins to unlock special features and levels in the more advanced games.
  

Eventually we'd like to add more features to this section, like scoreboards, awards, and ways to share your favorite games with friends. So what are you waiting for, go work out some of the pent up tension in those itchy keyboard fingers.

-- The Nex Team


NOTE: Comments will be moderated. Any spam or non-constructive comments will be deleted.

We like to keep you all in the loop about what's new on Nexopia, and this week we rolled out two new features to help you get the most out of your Nex time:

1. Set your mobile to sleep.
   When you sign up for Nexopia Mobile, you'll find that on your preferences page there is now the option to automatically turn off Nex Mobile for a set time period. No more being woken up at night by your friends' Shouts and PMs!
   
   
2. More +1's for Plus members.
   When you come across some cool blog content on Nex, make sure to +1 it! The more +1's a post gets, the higher it raises in the Top Blogs and the more other people will get to see it. Now Plus users get to mark their favorite posts as +1 twice instead of just once.

-- The Nex Team

We wanted to deliver more of the best user generated content on Nex straight to your greedy fingertips, so check out the new Top Blogs feed page.

This page lets you click through all of the most recent public blogs posted across Nexopia for your browsing enjoyment, including battles, photos, videos, and polls.

If you find something cool, vote for it by clicking the +1 button (if you're a Plus user, then you can +1 a post twice!) -- the top rated blog posts will be featured on the Most Popular lists for the immediate quick fix when you're searching for cool stuff.

Don't want your posts to show up on the Top Blog page? You can hide your public posts from the preference page; also, freeform posts will never show up here.

Find out more about this new feature here.

-- The Nex Team

Effective 10:30PM August 9th this Nexopia account will no longer be used.

I've since read to part 4 in Perdido Street Station and have arrived at the beginning of chapter 27. I've found that I have around 330-350 pages until I've finished the book. I've only been reading for about 2 hours now, finishing around 4 chapters per hour, at this rate, I should be able to finish the book by the time the week is out. I don't know how much longer I'm able to keep this up, my paranoia is beginning to grow and my suspicion that my parents are awake are seemingly confirmed by quiet mutterings whilst in my room or any area near by to my room. For now I hope that any noise made in this basement is not transmitted throughout the house or heard by anyone other than myself. As I previously stated I am becoming quite paranoid, which by all means could be due to my lack of sleep. However as the night goes on I am unable to sleep knowing that by the time the morning arrives I'll be safe in the confines of my room, keeping silent till others awaken. Although the silence in the basement comforts me, it terrifies me in every manner. But at the same time it invigorates me to know that this is something that I am fully capable of pulling off. I sit here now, writing this in near silence, only whirring of the computer and the sound of the keys being depressed under the weight of my fingers with only the light from the monitor and the small candle beside me. This is beginning to become long, so before I begin yet another topic, I shall return to my small makeshift couch and table by the wall with my candle

I bid you farewell,

-Jay.