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 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!

The only thing that has been removed from the current profiles is the scrolling friends block (as it received a lot of complaints and did not work for some people.) We're hoping that you'll like the new options that we've made -- but if not, please tell us!

Head over to our testing site and take a minute to check everything out and let us know what you think! Keep in mind that there may be some bugs still, so if you see something not working right make sure to tell us. We want to hear your feedback so that we can make them even better before we launch them to the rest of the Nexopia community.

Remember that this site is NOT THE SAME as the normal Nexopia. Whatever you do on it WILL NOT show up on the real Nexopia.com. So feel free to play around, edit your profile, try out the new stuff and when you go back to the normal site everything will be as you left it.

-- The Nex Team

Want an early preview of what we're working on here at Nex? If you stroll on over to your general preferences page, you'll see that we've introduced a new option coined simply as Super Secret Awesome Mode.

Enabling this super secret awesome mode (though admittedly not as secret now that we've let you in the loop... but still undoubtedly awesome) will give you first look at new features we're currently hard at work on before they're released to everyone else on the site. (Keep in mind that turning this mode on is sort of like a test phase for any new features -- so things may still be buggy or not work properly yet!)

First up for a sneak peek (only in super secret awesome mode, mind you) is the new User Search & Browse. You can use the search in your sidebar to look for specific users by their Nexopia username, email, or even real name; or if you'd rather, you can browse through users you don't know by location, school, gender, or interests.

(If you don't want people to be able to search for you by your real name or email address, disable the searchable option for that information in your account preferences.)

Tell us what you think about the new search here in the comments, and if you find any bugs make sure to report them to us in this thread.

-- The Nex Team

We want to know what your ideal Nexopia profile would look like! One column, three columns, huge profile pictures or tiny ones -- whatever it is we would like to see it. So whip out a napkin, a piece of paper, or Microsoft Paint and sketch it out for us. If sketching isn't your thing then just write your ideas in the comments section. This isn't a contest or a skill competition, we just want to know your ideas.

Post your sketches and ideas in the comments!

-- The Nex Team

We've been hearing some feedback about the rules for profile pictures. Among the feedback is:

• The rules are too confusing
  
• Why do I have to show my face?
  
• I keep having pictures denied and don't know why
  

We wanted to hear what every one thinks about the rules. Are they too strict? Should Nexopia allow any type of profile pictures? Should it just have to be a picture of some part of you (a cool tattoo on your arm)?

Let us know what you think!

-- The Nex Team

We want to deliver more of the best user generated content on Nex straight to your greedy fingertips, so we're looking at some new feed pages that could let you browse through the newest public blog posts (battles, photos, videos, and polls) and give your vote to your faves. The most popular content will be featured on Top 5 lists for your immediate quick fix when you're searching for cool stuff.


What other sort of top content would you like to see and be able to create on Nexopia? Give us your thoughts!

-- The Nex Team

Some times it's hard to keep all your friends in the loop when they don't have Nexopia accounts. So we want to develop a way to let you easily share your favorite Nex blog posts and get people on other websites to come check out your stuff. Eventually we'd even like to spread this sharing functionality to other Nexopia pages.


What do you think? Which of your top internet sites would you love to be able to share your Nex content?

-- The Nex Team

We realize it's hard sometimes to keep up with all your messages and friends here on Nex when you're on the go. How'd you like to be able to send and receive all of your Nexopia private messages via texting right from your cellphone? Anytime. Anywhere.

-- The Nex Team

Hey, we're looking at making some improvements to the sidebar, as well as adding Shouts. The Shouts feature is still in the rough design stage and we're trying to figure out exactly what it's going to be. It allows you to quickly post what you're doing, thinking, or checking out, and keep your friends informed.

The sidebar changes clear up some of the clutter in the sidebar, and gives you more control to see what you're interested in by collapsing and expanding different sections. The search and moderator box are not shown in the image below, but will stay in the sidebar for the final release.

Let us know what you think in the comments!

-- The Nex Team

We've all been looking for an easier way for everyone to buy PLUS; after all, not everyone has a credit card or online banking that they can use.

So as an alternative, we're thinking it would be pretty handy to let you order specific amounts of PLUS with your phone. All you'd have to do is simply send a text message with your cell or call a designated number on your land line phone, and your PLUS would just get charged to your regular monthly phone bill. It doesn't get any easier.

Let us know what you think!

-- The Nex Team

Hey guys, we're working on some new additions to the blogs that will make it much easier to post content like videos and polls without BBCode. The default freeform block will still be there.

Here are a few cool features we're excited about:

• Upload photos without leaving the blog, no need for sites like Photobucket
• Easier video embed with the ability to search YouTube videos in the new entry page
  
• New content on blogs like Polls and Battles

Check out the early sketches below and let us know what you think.

-- The Nex Team

Head's up guys! You've been asking for more new site themes, so here's some good news -- we're going to be launching another Nexopia Site Theme design contest for you to show off your creative skills with.

Contest details are still being ironed out, but stay tuned for the announcement on the front page in early February!


EDIT...

So it turns out all those details didn't take nearly as long as we thought to sort out, and we figured, why wait till February? Check out the front page on Monday, January 12th for full contest details!

-- The Nex Team

Hey guys, we know it's pretty annoying to not be able to easily see if any of your friend's have made new galleries and having to check their page all the time. To make this more convenient, we're developing a new page for your Gallery section that will list any recently created friends' albums that you may want to check out; as well as a notification in your sidebar just like you have for new friends' blog entries.

Here's an early design screenshot, check it out and tell us what you think.

-- The Nex Team

Hey guys, we're working on updating the comments page to make it a bit more useful especially since we've added the ability to comment on photos in albums. Specifically we'll be adding both Gallery and Blog comments to the page to make it easier to keep track of all your comments in one place. Let us know what you think.

-- The Nex Team

PS - those of you with a keen eye might pick up another cool galleries feature coming soon.