Welcome to hipmama.com! There have been lots of changes, so please take a moment to click around and check out all the options.

One of the first things you might notice is that you can now register to use the site. I promise that your confidential information will not be shared or sold - registration is in place to enhance the experience of people who want to participate at a deeper level. If you are mainly interested in reading our feature stories they are still available without registration. You can also view our events listings, links to other sites, and vote on our polls.

The new design and registration process does not change existing email accounts at community.hipmama.com. That service is separate and you will need to register in both places to use all the tools.

For people who wish to sign up there are some cool new things to try. After you sign the user agreement you will see a list of ways that you can contribute to the site.

One is the "blog" or online diary. This is a good way for you to meet other Hip Mama families, talk about your own life, point out interesting sites or activities, interact with friends, and talk about what matters to you. The blog format is primarily a monologue or place to write about your own thoughts, but can also be a good way to build up a community of like-minded friends.

The option "view recent posts" will show you all submissions from all sources, whether new featured articles or blog posts or event listings. If you click on the name of another participant you will be able to read their profile and find a link to their blog.

I'm pleased to point out that we also have two new initiatives to tie this site into the work other people are doing. One is the "site cloud" or list of sites we feel are in sympathetic agreement with the mission of hipmama.com. This is a list of political and community-based projects. If you are doing a site that you feel should be in the site cloud, please send me email so I can review it.

We also have a newsfeed featuring journalism from other sites. This section will be gradually expanded as we identify more options for news and commentary. You may also notice that we have a "Syndicate XML" button on the site now. This means that anyone who has a news aggregator can pick up a feed of announcements when we post new features.

Our archives of features from the previous site design will be in storage while we make the transition.

I want to extend a huge and appreciative thank you message to the crew of volunteers and beta testers who made this happen - they were all extremely generous with their time, skills, and opinions. Particularly heart-felt thanks go to Lynn for putting together the guts of the operation and being so patient, Susan for logical and pragmatic development, and Charris for style and graphics contributions.

This is a work in progress and I'm considering all kinds of new ways to expand and enrich the design, so check back frequently to see what has changed!

-Bee Lavender
Publisher/Editor