Community Admin Blog

Online Store And Chexpress Run Coming To An End

Sat, 24 Jan 2015 20:44:00 +0000

For many years, Christa Semko has been providing us with chemical manufacturing news updates through her blog. For even more years, we've had an online store where you can purchase quality engineering calculations in MS Excel format. We'll be ending both of these features in 2015.

The online software store will close on June 30, 2015. So, please, if you want to purchase any of the titles available in the store, please do so as soon as possible.

ChExpress has been discontinued as of January 1, 2015.

OK...so maybe that's some sad news. I really enjoyed Christa's updates, but clearly there are many other sources of the same information available. We could have continued ChExpress, but really there are folks out there who do it better and faster than we could.

The online store has seen sales decline for the past 2 or 3 years. This was surprising to me...a little. I don't know exactly the reason for the decline, but they could include:

1. Folks moving to mobile applications and devices where macro-enabled spreadsheets either don't work or don't work well.

2. A general concern about the future of MS Excel which may be making people hesitant to invest money in a calculation stuck in that particular format.

3. A general need for these calculations to be cloud-based and accessible from any where.

What ever the reason may be, it's clear that our online store make little sense any longer.

Let me be clear about this though....just because these two (2) services are being discontinued does not mean that Cheresources.com is going away.

Rather, we're going to continue to be the best place for chemical engineers to come and discuss their technical issues among one another. That's what we're best at and that's what we're going to continue to do for our community members.

At this time, no other services are being considered for discontinuation.

Mobile Cheresources.com

Fri, 28 Sep 2012 17:53:00 +0000

So look, most of us are engineers. We're still trying to get our hands around the mobile revolution right? Maybe for some people, it's been easy to leave our desktop or laptop computer behind...but not for us. There's no question that it will be a long time before most engineers can leave their "real" computers behind, and I realize that most of you do and will continue to access Cheresources.com on your "real" computers.

But, in fairness, we haven't really made it appealing to access our site any other way. Consider this: so far in 2012, there have been 1,695,025 visits to Cheresources.com. Of those visits, how many have been from mobile devices? A whopping 65,596 or about 3.9%. No, that's not many of you. But, and this is what really what got my attention, that number of mobile visitors to the site has tripled from the same period last year.

So, we thought it was about time to show you some nice ways to access the site and interact in the community via your favorite mobile devices. While I wish there was a single app capable of this, we're just not that far along yet.

Accessing the Blogs and Articles

Two of the most popular apps on the I-Pads, I-Phones, and Android devices for viewing content are:
Google Currents (Android link here and I-Pad/I-Phone link here) and Pulse (Android link here and I-Pad/I-Phone link here).

Both the blogs and the articles are available on Google Currents:

Once you have Google Currents installed on your mobile device, just follow this link in your browser and add Cheresources.com to you account

Pretty easy...right? Currents is a really nice reader and you can get all types of content there.

The blogs can be access with Pulse if you prefer that reader:

Once you have Pulse installed on your mobile device, just use the search feature and search for "Cheresources.com Blogs".

So, there are a couple of nice methods of access the articles and blogs on your mobile devices whether you favor Android or Apple products.

Now, if you want to participate in the community section from your mobile devices, we'll show you how to do that as well.

Using the Community Forums from Your Mobile Device

Currently, the company that powers our site (Invision Power Services) only has an app available for the Apple platform, but an Android version is coming.

Let me also give some guidelines. If you use a 10" tablet for your mobile browsing, I've found that the standard site seems to work just fine on those devices. If you're using an I-Phone, I'd recommend grabbing the app.

The I-Phone app is available here.

There is a small charge to get this app ($1.99 USD), but if you're serious about accessing all of the knowledge in our communities on the go, it's well worth it. You can access your messenger, compose posts, read posts, and see all of your notifications. You'll be asked to enter the address of the community that you want to access. Our address is www.cheresources.com/invision (you have to include the "/invision" part).

There's a quick overview of how to access our site on mobile platforms. We'll update this blog posting when there is an Android option available for your phone as well. Until then, feel free to drop any comments below.

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Archiving And Searching Updates

Mon, 23 Jul 2012 21:23:00 +0000

As our community continues to grow, we look for new ways to manage the tremendous amount of information at the site. A recent change that we've made is to archive forum topics that are beyond 18 months old.

As posts are placed into "Archive" status, they will be at the same URL address, but they will not be able to receive new replies. Instead, they will continue to exist in a "read-only" state for future reference. The advantages of archiving older records are:

1. Increase the speed of the site.
2. Prevent old posts receiving new replies from jumping to the top of the forums.

The archiving of older posts also means that we need to make a change to how we search on the site. Previously, when viewing the forums, the search box at the top of the page searched all forum topics only. We've changed the default search to a Google powered search of the entire site (including both current and archived forum posts, articles, downloads, and blogs).

If you want to search only current topics in the forums (ie. those not archived), you can switch to "Forums" in the search tool. Remember though, that archived topics will no longer be included in this search (which is why the default search has been changed to the site-wide option). Here is a screen shot of how the default search will present results now:

These new archiving rules should help keep our community responsive, while also preserving all of the valuable information that we have all shared dating all the way back to 2003.

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Some Community Housekeeping

Wed, 23 May 2012 18:48:00 +0000

If you've been poking around the site recently helping others, you may have noticed various design elements moving around.

It's been on my TO-DO list to clean up and streamline the site's interface for members who are logged in for a while now. Here are some changes that we've made for members who are logged in:

Banner at the top of the site - Gone
Sidebar present while viewing a topic - Gone
Ads after the first post - Gone

We used to house the "Top Downloads" and "Recent Article" in the Topic View sidebar. But, my thinking on the subject is that members of the site already know how to find this information. Want to know the most popular downloads? Click on "Downloads". Want to find the most recent articles? Click on home.

I can almost hear many of you rejoicing now! A nice clean space to read and write and help each other.

Our site is expensive to administer, but we're working to keep the ads from disrupting the user experience. Let us know how you like these changes.

Community Upgrades - May 2012

Fri, 04 May 2012 02:47:00 +0000

We just completed what is actually a quite substantial software upgrade here at the site. Most of the significant changes are best described as "under the hood". We're hoping to see some performance enhancements and some fundamental changes are happening for future enhancements as well.

There are a few changes that you may notice on the user side too.

First, the return of the positive/negative feedback system. But, this time, it's going to be completely transparent. Everyone can see who gave them both positive and negative feedback. Feel free to discuss among yourselves why various feedback was given, but I think it's important. Below, you can see that by clicking on the reputation points received, you can see who gave the point and link to their profile:

Also, new visitors and registered users can now log in to our community with your Google credentials in addition to your Facebook credentials.

In order to try to cut down on topics being discussed multiple times, we've added a feature that will show topic starters a list of similar topics based on the title just before they begin a posting. You can click on any of the titles of the topics shown and a new window will open up so that you can see what was discussed previously (and maybe even get the answer that you need as well).

At the end of your postings, you'll now have the ability to automatically share your community posts on your Facebook page. Personally, I'd rather have that capability with Linkedin.com rather than Facebook, but hopefully that will come in time.

In the future, we're hoping to have a very good mobile computing option for everyone (iOS and Android). The current version of the iOS app is limited to the forums only. I'd like to wait until the articles, blogs, and downloads sections are incorporated (and they will be) before discussing it much further.....but if you're interested in accessing the forums from your mobile devices, ring in the comments below. If there is enough interest, I'll discuss if further for everyone.

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Revisiting The Reputation System

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 20:55:00 +0000

A while back, I posted a blog entry on this subject here:

http://www.cheresour...and-reputation/

We've had some time to live in the environment and I collected much feedback from the community. I wanted to raise this issue again to see how you think the current reputation system is working.

One drawback that we continue to run into is that newer community members don't really understand the feedback system and give unintended negative feedback.

What I've done as of this writing is to remove the negative feedback option and only allow positive feedback. Another option we have is instead of the "positive feedback" system, we could use a "Likes" system as shown here:

http://community.inv...356018-ipboard/

I'm interested to hear some more feedback. To review, our options are:

1. Positive and Negative feedback available
2. Positive feedback only
3. Likes system

As always, I'm open to changes that make as many as possible feel comfortable in contributing.

Thanks,

Chris

Our Transition Continues: Technical Q & A Database And Che Links

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 20:14:00 +0000

I've completed transitioning a couple of legacy databases over to our new system.

The technical question and answer database has been ported as well as Dr. Bernhard Spang's ChE Links database. Links to these resources will reside under the "FAQ" menu item and you can find them here:

Technical Q & A Database

ChE Links Directory

As I continue porting over more and more of the most popular articles (and now that the home page has been transitioned as well), I hope that you feel like you're spending the majority of your time within the friendly, single-sign environment that's been developed.

There are still many legacy articles and newsletters to go, but by the end of 2012, I think you'll be hard pressed to find many pages of our old static look!

Happy New Year to all of our community members.

New Index Page, Better Searching, And Customer Reviews

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 15:14:00 +0000

Our latest update to our site is complete and this one was a long time coming. I'm sure that many of you who frequent our forums long ago bookmarked the address to get straight to the forums. I can't say I blame you as it wasn't as easy as it could be to get around from the main index page at:

www.cheresources.com

Well, that has changed. The main index page of the site now serves as an excellent landing page to see what's going on at the site:

From the index page, you can now quickly jump to the most popular forums, see the latest Download files, articles, blog postings, status updates, and more. You can also find the login links and main menu are now accessible at the index page as well.

We've also made a couple more additions. As the site grows larger and larger, searching efficiently has always been a big challenge. The search button on the main menu will provide a way to search the entire site powered by Google. But, that wasn't really good enough. Sometimes, you may only want to search forum postings, or downloads, or another section of the site. The search box next to the logo will limit your search to the section of the site that you're currently viewing (forums, articles, downloads, blogs, or store). But, you can also click the section name next to the search icon and activate the site wide Google search from there as well or even search a different section of the site:

This should provide great flexibility in helping you find what you're looking for here at Cheresources.com.

Also, we've added the ability to add and view customer reviews for our online store titles. If you make a purchase in the online store, you'll notice a "Write a Review" link is now available to you:

We continue to make great strides in pulling all of the sections of the site under one consistent look and feel. There's still much work to do, but in the mean time, the legacy content menu items at the very top will help you get to the older content until we complete our transition.

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Online Store Transition Complete

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 16:46:00 +0000

If you've been following my blog here, you know that we've been working to transition our entire site into the software that powers our community section. Now, we've completed the transition of the online software store.

We've removed the Online Store legacy menu item at the top of the site and added a category breakdown under the "Store" menu item in blue:

We've also imported all of our past online store customers into the new system. Moving forward, when you make a store purchase, you'll always have access to it by clicking your display name in the upper right and selecting "Member Support". Under here, you can click on "Purchases" and download your files at any time.

If you made a software purchase in our old store system and want to have it available in the new system, just shoot me a message and we'll try to accommodate as many requests as possible.

This will complete phase one of our transition which was to fully consolidate all member management into a single sign on for the entire site. This is a huge step forward for us. Moving forward, we'll continue to convert legacy content over to the new system until the old format is completely gone.

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Cool Videos For Chemical Engineers

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 02:03:00 +0000

Since I spend much of my blogging time focused on administering our community, I thought it might be fun to throw some interesting videos out on to the blog for all to enjoy. Some of you may already be familiar with pinch valves and spiral heat exchangers, but I thought that since they're not widely used, some may find them interesting.

The pinch valve is a type of valve often used in slurry services such as those found in municipal waste (very exciting) and other types of duties that are traditionally difficult to handle with other types of valves. Essentially the valve uses rubber sleeve that is mechanically pinched to turn off the flow:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjPlztCRfyA&hd=1

Sticking with the slurry theme, the spiral heat exchanger is designed especially for highly fouling and/or slurry duties. The key to this type of heat exchanger is that it utilizes a single channel design for each fluid that actually increases the fluid velocity if a deposit begins to form. The result is a "self-cleaning" action (shown in the second video). This type of heat exchanger is commonly employed in a variety of duties. If you have a shell and tube heat exchanger that must be cleaned frequently, these are typical target applications for this type of heat exchanger.

Spiral Exchanger Flow Path

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0yrKdfhydxs

Spiral Exchanger Self Cleaning

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl-hb3XBMFs&hd=1

And now, not sticking with the theme at all, below is just a fun video showing a burst test for a PVC pipe. At least it's entertaining to watch the PVC "creep" prior to catastrophic failure (don't worry, no one was hurt).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JK4Cxgi4UH0

Video Blog: Upcoming Improvements To Cheresources.com - August 2011

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 17:19:00 +0000

We have some exciting changes about to occur in our community via a significant software upgrade. Most controls that you're accustomed to using will remain as they are, but our hope is that the site performs faster and is easier to use.

Rather than screen shots, I thought I would put together a quick video to demonstrate some of the improvements that you can expect. Have a look at the video below.

We're planning on taking the site offline for the upgrade on Friday, August 26 at around 8:00 AM EST

Drop any comments below.

Mobile Cheresources.com - How Will We Get There?

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 01:05:00 +0000

So, many of us have mobile computing devices these days. Whether it be a smart phone or tablet computer, it seems like these new devices are everywhere! But, there's one thing that is certain....very few of you are using to visit Cheresources.com.

In May 2011, there were over 170,000 visitors to Cheresources.com (some months the site exceeds 250,000 visitors). During that same month, 1,525 visitors were using mobile devices to access the site. So, some quick math....that's about 0.89% of our visitors coming from mobile devices!

Why?

For all the talk about cloud computing, Google Docs, Android, iOS, and on and on and on, technical sites seems to be way behind the curve. You can access our community from your smartphone and you'll be greeted with a clean, mobile-optimized skin for viewing and posting to the community forums. Alternatively, you can also see the "full" version that you get in your browser by using the link at the bottom of the mobile skin.

But, what you can't do on a smart phone or tablet, is download one of the many great MS Excel spreadsheets that may contain VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) and use it on your mobile device. They won't work in Google Docs (without conversion) nor will they work in the online version of MS Excel that Microsoft offers either. Nope, you can only use these in the good-ol'-fashioned version of Excel found on our local computers.

So, maybe the reason that our community members stick with their laptops and desktops is that it's really the only way that you can get all of the benefits of the site. In the future, we're hoping to offer a better performing mobile version of the site, but even that won't solve our problem:

How do we drag all of our precious MS Excel files with all of their fancy tricks into the mobile computing age?

If you're waiting for me to answer this question....I guess you'll have to keep waiting. You see, I'm writing this blog to listen to you! As a technical community, engineers have written thousands upon thousands of "apps" in MS Excel. The problem is that they're being left behind. I did some research on the topic. Here's an interesting post from http://www.droidforums.net/forum/htc-thunderbolt/134609-opening-excel-attachments.html:

Depending on how complicated your Excel files are, they may not work at all. Our company uses spreadsheets with custom macros (Visual Basic) and they cannot be used on any non-full-Excel program I've found so far. I'd pay quite a bit for an Android program that allowed me to run custom macros and VBA programs.

To this post, the following reply was made:

Being able to run macros would present some major security issues. Your company would be better off getting a dev to make a business specific app... or something like that. VBA is not really a true programming language because it's above the application level. Not saying its not useful, I use it all the time, but for a mobile platform a business specific app would be the way to go.

So, as a community, if we want to take our spreadsheet with us on our mobile devices, we have to have an app developed for every single spreadsheet containing even one line of needed VBA code???

Really??

I'm a big fan of all the progress that we're seeing, and mobile apps have a place, but are we supposed to now offer MS Excel versions of all of our spreadsheets and have apps developed for each of them too? And when a revision is made to a spreadsheet, we have to change both the app and the spreadsheet?

There is something called "Google App Script" which is Google's answer to VBA. In fact, it's far more powerful as it can leverage many more types of functions and interactions that Excel cannot perform.

The solver is there, you can write your own macros, in fact, in looking at the documentation....Google Docs, just might be ready for the technical community.

Would Google Docs make a good home for all of our valuable spreadsheets to ensure that they live a long prosperous life? You could easily access them from any mobile device. It's time to start thinking about our favorite spreadsheets and the best way to host them moving forward.

Imagine if you could download a similar version of the spreadsheets that we have here today into your own Google Docs account where you could perform and save your calculations...then, access them anywhere, from any device.

Tell me what you think?

I'd love to hear your feedback. Do you use Google Docs today? If you haven't checked it out for a while, it's really becoming impressive. Perhaps I'll chose one of our titles that looks challenging to convert and see how it goes.

Making It Easier To Include A Drawing With Your Community Posts

Wed, 11 May 2011 16:27:00 +0000

I've long wanted to find a way to make it easier to include drawings with your community forum postings. It just makes it much easier to understand the information that you need to relay.

So, what we've done is to add a couple of resources for you to use right above the "Click to Attach Files" button in the post screen.

If you have a Google Docs account, there is a great public drawing template that you can copy into your personal account to use over and over again. If you don't have a Google Docs account, it's free to set up. Just use this link.

You can get some more details on how to use Google Docs to create drawings by reviewing this entry in our FAQ section.

Google Docs makes an especially good option if you don't have access to MS Excel which so many of our visitors use for this purpose. Another option for those without MS Excel would be to download these equipment symbols (from the Download section) and import them into the spreadsheet application in Google Docs. You can then save that document as an MS Excel sheet and post in the forums.

Of course, if you do have MS Excel, we've included a direct link to the equipment symbols right above the attach button so that you can quickly download it and start copying and pasting symbols to construct your drawing.

Remember, uploading your drawing in a format that others can append makes it easier for all of you to collaborate. By placing these links directly above the "Click to Attach Files" button, we hope that it will make it easier for you to consider drawing a sketch to include in your forum posting when appropriate.

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Submit Your Files - Earn An Upgrade

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 17:21:00 +0000

Our new download section is officially a hit! It's quite clear that the members of our community love this new feature. One place on our site where you can find the very best download files.

We launched the Download section at the beginning the year via our blog entry What's New in 2011?. Since that time, we've moved most of the downloads into this new section and even pulled the best attachments from forums and placed them in the Hall of Fame Community Downloads section.

A couple of features that we haven't yet mentioned is that the Download section includes version control and it incorporates the same "Like" system as the rest of the community.

Version control is used to make any notes about a file when it is added to or changed. The "Like" feature is great! If you download a file, be sure to click the "Like" button as shown above and you'll receive instant notification if the file is changed in the future. These are great features for a system of files that we'd like to see added to over time.

Now, it's your turn to submit your favorite MS Excel sheet to help us build our library. If you submit a file that is accepted and placed into the Downloads section, we'll upgrade your to ChE Plus status!

Even if you've downloaded a file and added information to it. Send it to us so that we can add it to the master file for everyone to use.

You can see what files are available to our premium community members in the ChE Plus section of the Downloads area. If we publish your file, you'll get access to a great library of technical articles, equipment specification sheets in MS Excel, and additional spreadsheet calculators. The idea here is simple...if you share, so will we.

Ready to submit your files?

For consideration, submit your files through our support system. It's really quite easy:

1. Once logged into your account, click the down arrow next to the word "Messenger" in the upper right part of your screen. Select "Member Support":

2. Now click on "Support" on the left menu:

3. Next, click on "New Request":

4. Now, give your submission a title, select "Download Submission" for the type of request, tell us a little bit about your submission, attach the file, and then click on "Submit".

That's it. We'll review the file and let you know if it's accepted. If so, we'll upgrade your account to ChE Plus level and you'll have access to even more great information!

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Two New Downloads You Don't Want To Miss

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:04:00 +0000

You know, sometimes our community members really amaze me! Their willingness to take time out of their busy lives to help others makes me very proud of our community.

Art Montemayor and Dale Gulley (of Gulley & Associates) have collaborated on a heat transfer workbook that every process engineer should have at their disposal. And, that's not the best part!

This workbook doesn't just contain calculations from textbooks...it's packed full of experience based information that these gentleman are sharing.

Well, enough celebrating this great addition, you can find it in the Downloads section here:

Process Heat Transfer

Art has also taken his large collection of data from the world of industrial gases and packed another MS Excel workbook for all as well. It would take one hours of searching to find all of this information individually!

Compressed Industrial Gases Data

Thanks so much to both Dale and Art for sharing these fantastic works with the community.

Is This The Future Of Water?

Thu, 31 Mar 2011 23:31:00 +0000

It seems like more and more often, people in the chemical industry want to talk about WATER. Put fairly simply, they want to use less water by recycling the water they do use or finding innovative ways to use water efficiently.

It's not surprising. The world grows, but the amount of usable water stays fairly constant, it just goes around in a circle called the water cycle.

I've been following an interesting technology for a while now and it looks like one company is about to begin the commercialization process. Oasys Water just raised $10 million dollars to take their forward osmosis (FO) process mainstream. If you're interested in a deeper look at the technology beyond the press releases, check out the December 2008 issue of Environmental Science and Technology.

In short, FO uses a "draw solution" and a membrane to allow water molecules to flow from a lower concentration of salt (seawater for example) to a highly concentrated salt solution (called the "draw solution"). The idea isn't new, but has been largely discarded in the past because the salts used in the draw solution couldn't be driven off the water effectively whether the challenge was economics or purity. Oasys Water founder, Robert MsGinnis, claims to have solved this problem and if he's correct, he may have one of the great engineering achievements that we've seen in a while. Below is a nice video on the subject as well:

McGinnis cites an approximate temperature of about 122 degree F needed to drive off his solute and leave behind pure water. The solute components (ammonia, carbon dioxide, and others that McGinnis keeps secret) can be recycled and used to recharge the next batch of draw solution.

The benefits of this technology are very exciting and for now, Oasys seems to be focusing on desalination (and why not). Looks like we're getting closer to being able to use low grade heat to purify sea water with what looks on the surface to be an environmentally friendly answer.

Drop your comments below, let me know what you think about the technology.

Hall Of Fame Community Downloads

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 16:52:00 +0000

Over the years, many of our community members have shared some really useful spreadsheets and other tools here on our site. However, as our community grows larger and larger, some of these great tools have gotten pushed to the back of the line and can easily get lost in the shear number of conversations taking place in our community.

Today, we're releasing the Community Hall of Fame section in the Downloads area. Head over and check out some of these great tools! There are more to come as some community members have volunteered to update some of these tools and even add to them. We'll post another blog entry when more are available. Enjoy!

Keeping Your Email Address Up To Date

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:09:00 +0000

Remember the last time that you felt that knot in your stomach when you discovered that you had to change your email address? We use our email addresses everywhere...including our favorite chemical engineering community site.

As we send out our bi-weekly updates to keep you currently on what's available on the site, we sometimes receive bounce back messages. While this is inevitable and folks are always changing jobs and getting new email addresses, we do our best to keep our community database clean and up to date...but we need your help.

The next time you log in, click on "My Settings" in the upper right part of the screen and then select "Change My Email Address" and make sure that we have your current address.

If the email address on your account bounces, here is how we generally handle it:

1. We check to see if you've participated in the community via posting, if not, we generally assume that your account is old and purge it from the database.

2. If you do have postings, we'll turn off your email notification and post a private message to you to make sure that you update your email address the next time you log in.

We appreciate your help in keeping our community up to date. Remember, only other members of the community can see your email address and that's only if you choose to make it available to them. And, please don't post your email address in forum postings (see this blog entry for more information)

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Introducing Our Community Service Program

Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:27:00 +0000

I've been trying to think of a nice way to reward those in our community who have consistently shown a high level of valuable input and really helped make our online home special. I think that I've come up with something that most of your will find valuable, but we may do some more interesting things later as well.

Community Service Program

Let me start by saying that we value everyone who participates in our community. Your support and willingness take time from your busy schedules to post information on our site is what makes it so special! So thank you to everyone.

For our most active and highly regarded community members, we're going to upgrade your community membership and give you access to our premium content ChE Plus files for your dedication and service to our community.

Now, exactly how I arrive at who is eligible for an account upgrade is very subjective....but that's one of my little benefits of running the community. I look at everything from the number of posts, quality of the posts, frequency of activity, profile rating, posting reputation, and more.

Let me this very clear though....please do NOT starting posting one line responses in an effort to boost your post numbers. Frankly, the number of posts is not nearly as important as the quality of the posts. Also, never ask for positive feedback from other members. If your advice is good, our community has shown that you will be rewarded.

I've gone through our current member roster and decided on 32 community memebers who have earned an upgrade to their account. The list of these members is at the end of this post (but don't go yet).

If you've been upgraded, you can now access the ChE Plus files under the "Downloads" menu item in our community:

Help Other Members Who You Think Deserve an Upgrade

We have many members who are close to earning an upgrade, but aren't quite there yet. So, you can all help each other by letting other members know that the advice that they've given is valuable. Two of the best ways to do this are to give their posts in the forum positive feedback to raise their reputation:

and to visit their profile and leave a positive comment and raise their profile rating:

Other ways to earn your upgrade include starting your own blog and writing valuable posts (you can review how to start your own blog here).

Or, you can email me files that you think would make a good addition to our Downloads Section.

Don't be afraid to start your own blog and do some writing. All blogs posts are reviewed and approved before their published to the community.

We're growing fast and we want to keep it up. I thought that maybe some additional incentives would help everyone!

Updates to Our Member Rankings

I've changed our member ranking system to the following:

0-9 posts = Brand New Member
10-29 posts = Junior Member
30-49 posts = Veteran Member
50+ posts = Gold Member

I want to make something very clear about all of our feedback systems:

Don't get too caught up in our feedback system. The important things to remember is that we're all here for the same purpose. The feedback systems in place are meant to encourage us to communicate well and improve where we can. If we're all using the feedback system appropriately, it should prove helpful. It's a way of noticing that someone who is taking the time to answer your question has given quality advice to others in our community. We're not here to judge each other...we're just saying "Thanks!"

More Rewards Down the Road?

In the future, we may run contests or do giveaways of some type and members who have earned an upgrade for their service may be given better odds of winning future prizes too (kind of like having your name in the hat three times instead of once). I'm still tossing around ideas, but I'm open to any suggestions for cool prizes that you may like. Drop a comment below.

Our First Class of Upgrades

Before we list our first class of upgrades under our new Community Service Program, I want to publicly acknowlege Art Montemayor who has been helping to moderate our community for many years! Not to mention that he's given as much quality advice in our community as anyone.....ever. Thanks for your service Art!

Here are our community members who have been upgraded. Congratulations and thanks for your contributions:

Zauberberg
djack77494
JoeWong
fallah
Qalander (Chem)
gvdlans
pleckner
breizh
kkala
joerd
mbeychok
proinwv
katmar
shan
Profe
MrShorty
riven
abhi_agrawa
Toor
talvi
P.Engr
ayan_dg
daryon
asade abiodun
smalawi
demank
steven7788
fatimah
Lowflo
chemsac2
rowanlim
yalcin

If you didn't make the list this time, no worries. I'll be on the lookout for our next class of outstanding community members soon! Also note that there are some excellent community member who were deserving of this upgrade, but who are already existing ChE Plus premium content members! Thanks for your support as well!

======================================
** UPDATED APRIL 28, 2011 **
======================================

Eight (8) new members have earned upgrades in our community service program:

latexman
Jiten_process
erwin.apriandi
Himanshu Sharma
JMW
pavanayi
paulhorth
SSWBoy

Congratulations folks!

======================================
** UPDATED OCTOBER 6, 2011 **
======================================

Five (5) new members have earned upgrades in our community service program:

shan
pawan
A mukherjee
ogpprocessing
rsk

Congratulations folks!

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Engineering Tips - Great Resource

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 02:08:00 +0000

Excellent link to the JM Campbell Company website below which appeared in our forums. Check it out.

==========================================
Did you know this resource? Hope you find it useful.

http://www.jmcampbel...tm-archives.php

Source: Jm Campbell Tips

Community Update: Article Transition Underway

Thu, 03 Feb 2011 14:47:00 +0000

As our transition continues here at Cheresources.com, you may start to notice that our articles are beginning to look a little.....well.....better! We've begun the process of porting over our articles in the main section of the site to our new community driven system.

If you have bookmarks or links to our articles, no worries, all of the old URL addresses will forward to the new locations.

Integrating our articles will help keep you in the community environment that we're all growing comfortable with and the overall look and feel will be much improved:

At the top of the articles, you'll see a link to the author's community profile so you can contact them seamlessly and you'll notice the rating system in place as well as the usual "share links".

At the bottom of the articles, you'll see a drop down box which will contain a list of articles in the same category, download and print links, Facebook integration, the commenting system, and a "Watch this article" button. Watching an article will send you a nofication when comments are made.

So, for a while, our site will remain a combination of the old with the new, but over time, you'll start seeing less and less of the old site format and more and more of our community driven system.

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What's New For 2011?

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 15:09:00 +0000

What new for 2011? In short, a lot. But, first, let me tell you why. For over a decade, Cheresources.com has been growing and growing. Over that time, our systems, databases, and overall look has diverged into separate sections. If you're viewing an article and then go to the online store or the community/forum section, it felt like you went to a different site. The technology that powered the site has become obsolete. It had to be changed.

Where Are We Coming From?

We're transitioning from static HTML content to a completely dynamic, database driven web site. It's a crucial transition that must take place considering how many different ways our visitors expect to be able to access our community (think smart phones, I-Pads, and other devices).

Also, we had a separate database for our community/forums, mailing list for updated content notification, ChE Plus premium content, and our online software store. No good! Confusing for our visitors and extremely painful for me!

So, here's where we're going in 2011!

New Logo

Hopefully, you noticed our new and improved logo at the top of the screen:

The "U" is functioning as a tank with a mixer installed. I thought it was a nice touch!

Facebook Fan Page

Whether it's your "thing" or not, there's no denying the fact that Facebook's popularity cannot be ignored. I've watched students use our site for years, and then become practicing professionals and continue using the site. People spend more time on Facebook than any other website in the world.

So, the Cheresources.com Facebook Fan Page will allow you to do the following:

Get updates from Cheresources.com
Get to know other community members on a personal level

We've never really had a good place for our members to communicate on a personal/social level. This is our intention with the Facebook page. So, if you're a "Facebooker", jump on the Like button and join in.

Database Consolidation

We spent much time in 2010 working on a plan to consolidate our databases. The mailing list database and the ChE Plus premium content databases have now been consolidated into our community database so now all members of these sections now have a single sign on for the entire site. We've sent out emails regarding this transition, but you can review these message below to learn how to assign a new password to your account (If you have a forum account, you're all set):
ChE Plus Has Moved
Mail List Subscribers: Join Our Community

The online software store database will be ported over as well, but first we have to transition the software store into the new system which we'll work on this year.

New Download System

You'll notice two (2) new menu items on the blue community navigation bar in the Community:

"Downloads" will take you to the new download system. Many of the popular downloads from the site have been ported over to this system and links to the old locations are forwarding here.

You'll also see the ChE Plus premium content download files have been included. You must have a subscription to ChE Plus in order to download these files. Existing subscribers will have access to these files after they reset their account passwords.

New Online Store

The new online store is currently only being used for new ChE Plus premium content purchases. The online software store will be ported over in the coming months. Existing purchase data will be included in the new members profiles so that we will have all of the records of software purchased in the old system.

After this transition, store purchases will be available in the member's profile for future downloads later. It will be like having a virtual file locker here at the site.

Article Conversions

Now this one is a "biggie". We have hundreds on articles that we've developed at the site over the years (meaning myself and our visitors). Ultimately, each and every one of them will be converted into our new system. We'll start with the top 100 in terms of traffic and go from there. Right now, we've converted five (5) of them to get us started.

You can see an article that's been transitioned here:

http://www.cheresources.com/content/articles/heat-transfer/specifying-a-liquid-liquid-heat-exchanger

Notice the look and feel are consistent with the rest of the site. Even the commenting system is the same.

The old URL location of these articles will automatically be forwarded to the new article, so don't worry if you've bookmarked or linked to articles.

The process of converting our articles will take some time. I've been working on it for about 18 months now. I've released five (5) and there are many more that just need a quick review and they'll be ready as well.

Until we get most of the articles converted, the index of the site (what you see if you just to go www.cheresources.com) will still feed to the old format. Porting the index page over to the new system will be the finale of this transition. As we release more and more articles, you'll notice that you're spending less and less time in the "legacy" portion of the website and more and more time in the new version.

Member Area and FAQ

A couple more new items that you'll notice. Under the member profile pull down arrow in the upper right part of the screen, you'll see a new item called "Member Support" and on the main navigation bar, you'll see a new item called "FAQ".

These two items will serve as our support system for our members. The FAQ section will be use to host answers to frequently asked questions on the site. Under the "Member Support" section of the site, you can submit support ticket requests, you can see your purchase history and download files purchased in the new system.

Wrapping Up

I'm really excited about the future of the site! There has been a lot of work going on behind the scenes for the past two (2) years to bring about these changes. Right now, the skeleton is in place to transition every part of our site over to our new system and when we're done the entire site will feel tighter and more friendly than ever.

As with any major transition, I'll make some mistakes in design or content. If you see anything odd, let me know right away. I'm always interested in our visitor's feedback, so if you have any comments, drop them in the comment box below.

Have a great 2011!

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Understanding Your Community Profile

Thu, 23 Dec 2010 17:15:00 +0000

Happy Holidays to All,

I wanted to take a few minutes to explain what details on your community profile are visible to whom.

When you complete your profile, you can choose to keep some details private or make them public. Let me explain what we mean by "public".

First, only a registered member of the community who is logged into the site can even access member profiles. This is the "zero access" level.

Once a visitor registers by confirming their email address and logs into the site, they can see only the information that you've elected to make public on your profile. We'll call this the "member access" level:

Now, if you "Friend" a member of the community (which requires your explicit permission), then they can see the same profile information that you see when you look at your profile (which contains more details than are available to a "non-friended" community member). We'll call this the "friend access" level:

If you'd like to remove a friend from your friend's list, see the images below for instructions:

Hopefully, this will help clarify what information is available to the other members of the community. If you have questions, please drop me a PM.

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Water Content Of Natural Gas

Thu, 09 Dec 2010 02:05:00 +0000

This is the final posting of what turned into a fantastic discussion with regards to estimating the water content of natural gas streams. Take advantage of all of the research that these folks did and even download a spreadsheet to check against your own calculations. Go all the way to the bottom of the thread to download the last version of the spreadsheet.

===========================================

Dear All,

There has been a very healthy debate on the subject matter and I have spent considerable time and effort researching the subject. Today on the auspicious day of Diwali I am presenting my latest efforts on the subject matter by providing a spreadsheet which is very accurate in not only predicting the water content of sweet natural gas but also for sour natural gas. My Diwali gift to all the esteemed readers and friends of this fantastic forum. Comments are welcome. In the earlier posts on the same topic I have mentioned about this research of mine and wish to thank the authors of the article from which the spreadsheet is inspired. The title of the paper and the link for the article is also mentioned in the spreadsheet.

Comments are welcome.

Regards,
Ankur.

Source: Water Content Of Natural Gas

Chexpress Is Joining The Community

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 03:47:00 +0000

In a trend that you'll see continuing over the next year, ChExpress will be moving from it's current location on the main body of the site, into our community section.

ChExpress, in case you don't follow the updates, is our chemical processing industry new brief producted by our editor Christa Semko on a bi-weekly basis. It's meant to give you a 5 minute overview of happenings in the industry.

ChExpress is perfectly suited for our blog format. Christa is all set up and ready to perform her first "beta" installation of ChExpress later this month. This will act as her trial run before moving ChExpress into our community blog system full time next year.

If you want to receive notifications when the ChExpress blog is updated, simply visit the blog at:

http://www.cheresources.com/invision/blog/17-chexpress-blog/

and click the "Watch" icon at the top of the page. Then, whenever Christa posts updates, you'll be in the know!

The new format will also give you a chance to communicate with Christa in the comments section and send her your feedback.

Attached Thumbnails

Watching Forums And Topics

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 19:41:00 +0000

I received a great question this afternoon:

I am trying to figure out if there is a way to subscribe to RSS feeds to new content posted in different forums... or perhaps to get a daily email alert of new content.

Is this possible? If so, please describe the process.

There are several ways to receive updates and see new content from our community. You can always subscribe to an RSS feed using your browser or the RSS reader of your choice, but for even more control, consider the steps outlined below.

First, log in to the community and click "My Settings"

Next, click on "Notification Options" and select how you'd like to be notified of new posts made in a particular forum or topic (Email or Personal Conversation most likely). Selecting email means that you'll receive an email when a new topic or post is made to a "Watched" area of the community. If you select "Personal Conversation", then you'll be notified of Watched content the next time you log in to the community.

Now that we have our preferences set, you can browse to a Forum (Indusrial Professionals for example) and click the "Watch Forum" button at the top of the forum.

Individual topics work the same way. Just click on "Watch Topic"

After clicking on "Watch Forum" or "Watch Topic", you'll be presented with a few options with regards to how fast you'd like to be notified for each Watched item.

The most common options are "Immediate Notification" where you'll receive an email or PM for each topic in a Watched Forum or for each post in a Watched Topic. Alternatively, you can choose Daily or Weekly Digest where all of your alerts will be consolidated and sent to you at once on a daily or weekly basis.

Another nice feature is the "View New Content" option.

This will show you all new content since your last visit to the community. You can review all of the forum posts, blogs, status updates, etc. in one place and then mark them all as read. The next time you log in and click this options, only newly created content will be shown to you.

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Do I Need A Reflux Drum?

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 13:28:00 +0000

Somtimes, there is a community forum conversation where so much great information and insight is shared that I like to bring it to everyone's attention. Below is one such posting where some community members debate the need for a reflux drum on a distillation column. If you want to add your experiences to this conversation, use the link below and post your comments in the forum.

I would like to debate the need of reflux drum in continuous distillation systems. Why it can't be through gravity flow? Simply condenser outlet can have one U seal on both sides & one can go to column as reflux and other one can be used for product withdrawal. Let us start this discussion / debate for vacuum distillation which is more critical in terms of pressure balancing, flows etc.

Source: Need Of Reflux Drum

Member Status And Reputation

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:32:00 +0000

When browsing around our community, you may have noticed that some members are decorated with "ChE Jedi" or "Excellent" reputations. I thought I'd take some time to explain these ratings and ask for suggestions for changes. Drop your suggestions in the comments below.

Member Status
Member status is our measure of the number of posts or topics made by each community member. I'll choose one of our esteemed community members Zauberberg to use as an example. In the image above, you can see from his abbreviated profile view shown in the forums that his Member Status is "ChE Jedi". But, what does this mean?

Our Member Status rankings are currently set as follows:
0-9 posts = Newbie
10-30 posts = Member
31-50 posts = Veteran Member
>50 posts = ChE Jedi

We can set these to any values that you'd like and I chose these long ago during the process of setting up the community section. I'm thinking that maybe it's time for some feedback from the community. We can set as many levels as we'd like and call them whatever we wish. For example, we could have:

0-20 posts = New to Community
21-40 posts = Associate Community Member
41-60 posts = Community Member
61-150 posts = Senior Community Member
>150 posts = Hallmark Community Member

Again, I'm just making them up. We could use whatever theme you'd like.

Reputation
The reputation system is different. This is a peer-review system where other community members can assign pluses or minuses to community contributions.

For example, if someone gave a terrific answer to a question in the forums, you can click the "Plus" button to improve their reputation by one point. Alternatively, if someone posts a question with little or no detail, that may be grounds for a "Minus" to their reputation.

Currently, our reputation levels are set as:
< -20 = Bad
-10 to -19 = Poor
-9 to +9 = Neutral
+10 to +19 = Good
>20 = Excellent

Just a side note: Our administrators and moderators have their reputation set to 20 by default and are not eligible to receive repuation points

Again, if you think adjustments should be made to this scale, give me your comments below.

Remember, you can always go to your Profile and click on the "Reputation" tab to see who has given you reputation points and for which posts. The idea is to reinforce quality postings and encourage improvement for postings that need a little work.

I look forward to hearing your feedback.

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Quickly Interact With Other Community Members

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:51:00 +0000

Following my last blog posting entitled "Enjoy Our Community, But Protect Your Email Address", another blog posting about how to safely interact with other community members seemed appropriate.

There are a couple of options available to you. First, you need to be able to find the contact information for the other community members. While most members make their email addresses available to other members, some may prefer to use the private messaging (PM) system in the community. If you see a member's display name in a forum or blog posting, you can click on the red arrow beside their name to activate a pop-out which will show a profile summary which will include their email address (if made available to members) or you can use the PM button to shoot them a quick PM.

By default, when members are sent a PM, they'll also receive an email notifying them that they have a new message. If they've elected to turn this option off, then they'll be notified of the message the next time they log in.

Alternatively, you can also click on any member's display name to be taken to their online profile as well. From their profile, you can find their community postings, make a friend request, and more!

Also, you can click "Members" in the "Community Links" menu bar (blue bar under main menu) and then click on "Apply Filters" to search for other community members as well.

Our community system is powerful and you'll find that the more time you spend here conversing with your friends and peers, the more you'll learn. Take some time to get know how our system functions as it will be spreading throughout Cheresources.com over time.

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Enjoy Our Community, But Protect Your Email Address

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 01:51:00 +0000

I wanted to post a quick blog entry on a subject that I should have commented on long ago. In the process of exchanging ideas and helpful attachments, many of our community members are posting their email addresses in the community forum in the body of their posts.....really bad idea.

By posting your email address in body of a community forum post, you're virtually assured of it being harvested by a SPAM bot. Now, you may ask, "Why isn't Cheresources.com protecting my email address?" We take significant steps to protect our members data. When you complete your online profile, the email address that you provide can be hidden from other members in "My Settings". You can choose to receive community notifications via email or via private messenger when you visit the community. Here's the big difference: Even if you don't hide your email address from other members, ONLY MEMBERS can find your email address on your online profile. It's virtually impossible for an automated bot to register as a member of our community and perform a mass harvest of our member's email addresses. Believe it or not, when you do see SPAM on our forums (something that we've gotten our hands around pretty well over the years), it's an actual human being with nothing more productive to do....which really makes me sad :(

However, if you post your email address in the body of a forum posting, it can easily be harvested by SPAM bots. So, if you need to send a file to a member (but don't want to post it on the forum for all members), simply visit their profile by clicking on their name and find their email address there or send them a private message (PM) and use the full editor which will allow you to attach files to the PM. Remember that only registered members of the community can download attachments and post topics, but anyone can view the text posted in the forum.

In the future, if there is enough interest, we can make arrangements to set up a fully private forum section where only members granted permission by myself can converse and exchange information that may be of a more sensitive nature. We'd likely keep such a forum limited to what I'd consider "Power Users" in our community with an established track record of quality community interactions.

Our community is growing fast and it's really exciting. The new features that we continue to introduce are really helping to draw our community members closer to one another and there's more to come!

Easily See All Available Blog Entries

Tue, 12 Oct 2010 14:59:00 +0000

Looking for an easy way to see all of the available blog entries in our community in one place? Check out the Cheresources.com Blog Entry RSS feed:

You can also subscribe to this feed with your favorite RSS Reader and get updates any time a new blog entry is added:

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Mobile Community Access And Updates

Thu, 30 Sep 2010 15:16:00 +0000

These days, many of us are carrying around smart phones. Did you know that you can view and reply to community postings on your smartphone with any mobile browser? The community software is configured to recognize that you're accessing the site from a mobile device and displays the forums in a light-weight, easy to navigate format designed for your phone.

Simply access the site as usual at http://www.cheresources.com/invision/

Then, click on the arrow on the top right corner of the screen to open the menu. Now, select "Sign In" to bring up the log in screen:

Once you're logged in, you can browse the forum topics and reply to questions as usual:

If you'd like to update your status from your phone, you have several options. You can use the iPhone app as described in our previous blog posting. Or if you've linked your account to your Twitter or Facebook account, you can use any mobile application that you choose for updating those services and your updates will automatically appear in our community.

If you don't use the iPhone app, you can download an application called "Social Beat" for nearly all mobile platform applications (including Blackberry):

Just log in to Social Beat and update your linked Twitter or Facebook account right from your phone.

Use these tips to stay in touch in our community while you're on the go!

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Uploading Your Profile Photo

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 18:19:00 +0000

If you haven't yet done so, you may want to take just a couple of minutes during your next visit to upload a photo to your community profile. It really helps other community members connect with you on a little more personal level.

Here's how you can upload your photo to your profile:

1. Log in to the community section with your username and password

2. In the upper right portion of the screen, click "My Settings"

3. Select the "Profile" tab on this screen

4. Now, on the menu on the left, select "Change Photo" and upload a small photo of yourself.

5. You can also select "Change Avatar" and upload the same photo if you'd like.

The avatar is just a smaller version of your photo. The avatar and the photo are used in different locations throughout the community.

If you have any problems, please let me know via private message.

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Video Blog: Share Links

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 17:01:00 +0000

View on Vimeo.

Wow, my first video blog! Learn more about the two (2) sets of share links that appear on each topic in the forum. Share your feedback below....but no comments on my appearance. I'm chasing two young children around my house and maybe it shows.

Bp Texas City

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 13:52:00 +0000

As a follow up to the discussion cited below, MarketWatch is reporting the following:

"BP PLC /quotes/comstock/13*!bp/quotes/nls/bp (BP 38.43, +0.05, +0.13%) has agreed to pay a $50 million fine over safety hazards at the oil company's Texas City refinery where a 2005 explosion killed 15 workers, The Associated Press reported Thursday. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration is still trying to collect another $30 million that BP is contesting, according to the AP"

======================================================
What probably has to the most tragic and hardest experience for any engineer is to realize and admit that he/she has been the cause of human deaths during his/her watch - moreso when it is admitted that the whole tragedy was easily preventable.

Attached is a local story on the subject disaster. I am posting this as a grim reminder of what dire and tragic circumstances we, as engineers, can bring upon others when we become careless, sloppy, and fail to give importance to the welfare and safety of those people that are under our supervision and care. As I stated in my first posting on this tragedy, almost 3 years ago, it all could have been so easy to avoid; all they had to do was to forbid any outsider within the immediate vicinity of the Isomerization Unit while it was being started up.........and no one would have died.

I hope this serves as a lesson learned for all reading this.

Source: An Admission Of Guilt

Manufacturing Enhancement Act Of 2010

Thu, 12 Aug 2010 12:50:00 +0000

Video from White House Signing

Yesterday, August 11, 2010, President Obama signed into the law the Manufacturing Enhancement Act of 2010. In essence, this bill is designed to temporarily suspend tariffs on raw materials and components that manufacturers need to import into the U.S. because a viable domestic source is not available.

Most are hailing this move as a necessary short term fix to help U.S. manufacturers stay competitive on the global stage. But, is this enough? Post your comments below and let us know what the U.S. really needs to do to preserve its manufacturing base.

Share Any Issues....

Sat, 07 Aug 2010 19:34:00 +0000

As you've seen, we've made a lot of changes to the community. We've tested on Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3.6.8. If you spot a problem, use the comments below and let us know.

Our Big Changes....

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 13:40:00 +0000

So, you've likely noticed some changes within the community section of our site. The new face lift is the first step in our effort to better integrate the community portal with the rest of the site. Let's get a few items out of the way quickly:

All of your posts, profile information, private conversation, and other information is all still here and perfectly in tact. All of the links to your favorite message are the same.
The changes made (which we'll cover in detail later) are cosmetic and the addition of features. None of the features have been removed. Functionality is only getting better.
Just in case you ~~hate~~ (let's say "thoroughly dislike") the new look of the community portal, we've made it possible for our members to revert back to the previous style so breathe easy.

How Important is Our Community

As a member of our online community, you represent the most important segment of our audience.....period. Quite simply, you're the folks how take the time to interact with and assist one another on a consistent basis. We're working to better the community portal portion of our site to bring the technology up to date with our new "social media" world. We want everyone to be happy with the look of the portal. So, if you're not a fan of the new look, we'll show you how to revert back to the overall style that we used previously. In the coming months, the body of the site where the articles, online store, and other information resides will be converting over to a look and feel similar to what you're now seeing here. It's all in an effort to be more consistent and to ultimately have a single login for the entire site.

We can't possibly test our new look in every browser, so if you notice anything that looks out of place, please use the Contact link and let us know.

The new design is meant to be lighter, cleaner, and ultimately faster. It used to be that we only had to be concerned with the various web browsers that our visitors were using. But, more and more, people are accessing the community via mobile computing devices including smart phones and tablet devices. The centered devices consistently performs better over a wider variety of devices. So, now you have a better understanding of the change and what's coming up.

Great...I Understand the Change, Now How Can I Get Back to the Old Style

If you're a registered member of the community, you can navigate to the main forum page and go all of the way to the bottom of the page. You'll see a link reading:

"You are using a theme designed for your browser. Click here to manually choose a theme"

After clicking the link, return to the same location on the page at the bottom. Now, on the right side of the screen, you'll see a pull-down box reading "Joomla". To revert back to the previous community design, simply pull down this box and select "Cheresources". We're hoping that the majority of you like the new look, but it was made with the full intention of allowing you to continue to use the wider format if you'd like.

Now that we've had a chance to explain a little about the changes, let's go over some of the new features available. In case you missed some of the features that have been developed over the previous few months, you can review those here:

Post #1 and Post #2

Introducing Topic Preview

When browsing the various posts in our community, you have hover over the white area to the right of the topic title to activate a green up arrow. Click this area and you'll see a brief preview of the topic without having to load fully load it.

New Site Menus at the Top

At the top of the screen, you notice a new menu set with links like "Home", "Online Store", "Articles" and others. These are links to other main sections of the site added to assist in navigation.

Twitter Connect

In addition to Facebook integration, we've now added integration with Twitter. In conjunction with this change, we've added the latest status updates to the main page of the community. From there, you can see all of the status updates from all of the member and even reply to them. You can pipe your Twitter and Facebook status updates right to our community portal. Just as you could sign in with you Facebook credentials previously, you can now do the same with your Twitter account and bring in your profile information and picture from Twitter.

I-Phone App and More on the Way

If you're an I-Phone or I-Pad user, you can now access our community via a newly released I-Phone/I-Pad app which is available in the I-Tunes store. An application for Andriod based devices is expected soon as well. This adds the power of the our community in the palm of your hand and makes it easier to post your status updates as well.

We're very excited about these mobile application developments. Image being able to be out in the field, take a photo, post a message, and solicit advice from your favorite technical community all while out of the office!

Introducing Our Community Blog System

You may have realized by now that you're reading this posting in a format that is a little different that the question and answer format of the message board. The message board has always been a great place to post your questions or to provide answer or insight into problems to other community members. However, what we've been lacking is a place where our community members can sound off about topics related to the chemical and other industries.

Our new blogging system is available to all members and provides our community members with a place where they can share thoughts and spark discussions about a wide variety of topics. Questions should continue to be posted in the message board. Here are some examples of postings that may make better blog posting than message board entries:

Share your thoughts on current events relating to industry or energy policy.
Share a technical article that you've written or just a quick tip.
Share career advice
Discuss new features that you'd like to see in our community.

Just as you'll have a chance to do at the end of this blog posting, community members can post comments and assign ratings to your blog postings. As we get started with blogs, all postings will require approval prior to being posted. The most recent blog entries will be featured on the main page of the community portal (and ultimately on the main site as well).

Getting started with your own blog is easy. Let's review the set up:

First, register or login to the community portal
In the upper right portion of the screen, select "My Setting".
Click on the "Blog" tab and create and name your blog.
Now, "My Blog" will be added to your pull down menu in the upper right portion of the screen.
After selecting "My Blog", you'll see a menu block labeled "Add Entry".
Now, you're ready to begin blogging! Screenshots of the setup are included below.

Blog This!

After setting up you're blog, you'll notice that in the message board area you'll see a "Blog This" button in topics. You can use this button to pull topics over to your blog for further expansion. For example, let's say that you read a posting about a particular pump problem that a community member is having lately. You can use the "Blog This" button to insert the topic post right below your blog post where you describe a similar situation and how you ultimately solved the problem. Then, you can post a reply in the forum pointing to your blog posting.

Using the Blog This! feature is appropriate when the information that you want to add in your blog is general, but valuable, in nature. Direct replies that are specific to the problem being discussed in the message board should be kept there.

Screen shots of "Blog This" in action are below.