1.) The color scheme has happily been revised to black type on a blue-gray background, and the font size has been bumped up — so the whole thing is much easier on the eyes.

2.) The forum's been enabled so that any registered Sheldonista can start a new topic of discussion. (Ha! My bad: I had that feature turned off!)

3.) Testing out the first poll seemed to go well. We have around 1,500 people chiming in so far.

4.) New users may notice that when you go to sign up for the forum, the signup process takes you through the "Sheldon-by-Email" signup. Not to worry: That's a hiccup that's soon to be fixed. In the meantime, go ahead and sign up via that route, then e-mail me *or* follow these three steps to avoid geting that daily e-mail:

— Sign up here.

— Click the confirmation e-mail sent to your inbox.

— Once you're confirmed and signed in, go here to remove the Sheldon-by-Email deliveries.

My apologies for that wrinkle in the meantime. And my thanks to Mr. K at Dumbrella Hosting, who's been hard at work answering reader requests as they pop up... and who's been getting the whole forum system to run so smoothly!