If you haven’t notice anything at all, congratulations. You just might be one of the few people, who, along with SOPA and PIPA proponents, talk about “online community” as if it was some sort of outcast group. This failure to realise that the world has really changed, and absolutely everyone is now part of this online community; that absolutely everyone will be harmed in one way or another if the bills will make it, is simply overwhelming.

Here at Oxwall and Wall.fm we support websites, companies, and individuals who are protesting SOPA and PIPA. We believe that installing censorship in any form, blocking websites, killing the notion of “fair use”, disrespecting user submitted content, reducing privacy, etc., is not only a huge blow to the progressive development of the Internet, but also a general assault on democracy and freedom of expression – something we give people collective tools for.

Most importantly, we do not want anyone to have the ability to puppeteer the Internet and then face the grim future where the law could suddenly place too much power into wrong hands, inevitably leading to the abuse of said power. Stop SOPA.

When that’ll happen, you can expect to see several much anticipated features (including Private Groups and Forums), and also a number of enhancements for the existing ones (like the Instant Messenger). As usual, we’ll fix all bugs found since the last release. Have some patience and wait for the full list of new features and improvements, which we’ll post along with the release.

Please note that Wall.fm team will take a short break December 29 – January 3 to, um… celebrate the arrival of the Dragon. If you encounter any pressing issues during that time (let’s hope not), drop us a line in the appropriate forum (Wall.fm/Xitti), and we’ll get back to you asap.

The entire Wall.fm team hopes that the New Year will bring you a lot of joy, and all of your dreams will come true. Don’t forget, it’s 2012, so let’s party like there’s no tomorrow!

With holidays quickly approaching, we decided to let you know about the latest developments in the Wall.fm camp.

First of all, don’t forget to check out our updated Roadmap, to see what to expect in the new release (tentatively planned for January).

At the same time some of you might have noticed a few hiccups in our operation occurring in recent weeks. It is happening because we are migrating to a new server base, as the old one had a few irreparable issues beyond our control.

You can expect improved reliability and general service satisfaction once we complete the migration. Please bear with us for the time being, since while the process is underway, some minor problems can still transpire.

As always, thank you for your support and understanding!

As we continue to evolve, we realized that the time has come to take this communication to a new level. To do so we are launching a stand-alone Wall.fm and Xitti Feature Suggestions Board (suggest.wall.fm) on the popular UserVoice platform.  The benefits of this new system include:

• Quick and easy access;
• Simplicity of submission process;
• Clear view and tabbed categorization;
• Voting order for developers to see what’s really in demand;

In the following days we’ll be shutting down the Feature Suggestion section of the main Wall.fm forum, but not before transferring all outstanding requests that have potential to be implemented to their new home.

Feel free to browse around the new board, vote up the suggestions you like, or add more to the list. Wall.fm team will be checking the website daily, and if your idea is picked up by the developers, it will end up in the Accepted section.

Processing Wall.fm and Xitti Suggestions 

Note, that the voting system will allow us to see what’s really in demand, but that does not mean the most-voted feature will be automatically picked up by developers. We will process all suggestions, no matter how many or few votes they have. It is important to understand that everyone has different needs, and we must prioritize the development in accordance with our roadmap, so that the end product can be accessible to the widest audience possible.

Unfortunately, our hosting partner experienced unexpected problems during the transfer and right now we are jointly working on restoring the situation this very minute.

We feel your pain and are sorry for this mess. Please know that NO DATA WAS LOST and everything will get back to normal shortly.

UPDATE

The problem is fixed. Once again, we are terribly sorry for the caused inconvenience, and are truly grateful for your patience and understanding.

In the last few days you might have noticed that Wall.fm experienced some accessibility issues. In order to fix this problem we decided to increase our hosting resources.

Although this will benefit everyone in the end, please note that temporary 2-5 minute downtime can be expected within the next several hours, as we work on the issue.

Thank you for your understanding.

As per our schedule, we have completed the Quality Group testing, and updated all of the Wall.fm and Xitti networks. Check out your sites and enjoy the improved service!

Although there were no major changes this time around, the areas affected most by this release include Newsfeed, Events, Groups, Forums, Mailing Lists, etc. All of them were substantially cleaned up, and a number of those pesky bugs were removed. The full list of improvements can be found here.

Right now our development team is busy polishing up the existing software before introducing some new features. We hope you like what you see. Oh, and get ready for a pretty big surprise in a couple of weeks. Can’t tell you much right now, but I’m sure you’ll enjoy it.

On Friday, October 14, our Quality Group will begin testing a bunch of improvements for existing features, which means that pretty soon the entire community will be enjoying the new release. (Click here to learn more about Quality Group Testing).

As usual, the Quality Group testing will last approximately one week, and once it’s done, all Wall.fm and Xitti networks will be gradually updated. Don’t panic if your site will appear unchanged in exactly a week. The updating process is automatic and can take as long as a couple of days. Also, we will notify all network owners about the completion of the Quality Group testing and the beginning of the update with a newsletter.

Here is a peek at what to expect:

Newsfeed and Events Improvements

• Status Update is now integrated into the Newsfeed;
• Changing Event icon in Newsfeed is now functioning properly;
• Birthdays can now be configured to show up as Newsfeed items;
• Changes to Group descriptions and icons are now reflected in the Newsfeed;
• Notification system for Events commenting added;

User Features Improvements

• Users without permission to create Groups will no longer see a link allowing them to do so;
• ‘Featured’ tab (with user photos and videos) is no longer visible unless there is actual featured content present;
• Attachment Button functions properly in Internet Explorer now;
• Right-to-left text input is now available in text editor;
• Option to disable favicon is added;
• Language issues fixed in Mailbox and Events;
• Guest visitors are now asked to sign-in before viewing Friends Lists;
• Blog and Links widgets are not visible on the frontpage until an appropriate item is added;

Admin Features Improvements

• Flagged pictures are now reachable even without included description;
• Mass Mails can now be sent only to active users with confirmed emails;
• Maximum photo file size in Mailbox can now include decimals;

Other stuff

• Tons of other minor fixes and improvements; it would take too long to list all of them here. Just wait for the release and find out yourself. We are sure you wont be disappointed.