Hello, and thank you again for signing up for the D.C. Registry's newsletter . It's been a while since we sent out the last newsletter, partly because we have been quite busy with web site design and programming services that we provide to other sites via Hagen Communications (http://philhagen. com/hagen/). Nonetheless, I wanted to update you on things here at the Registry and to welcome all of the new people who have signed up for this newsletter since the last issue.

As you may have noticed, we unveiled yet another new look for the front page of the Registry in late June. The goal of this redesign was to drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to load the front page, to reduce the amount of scrolling down necessary, and to expose viewers to all of the depth of our site. The front page now uses only one third of the bandwidth of the old version, yet it places links to all of our subsections on the front page. Previously, many people didn't realize how much depth the Registry has, including thousands of D.C. links, discussion forums, classified ads, chat rooms, columns, movie reviews, the D.C. Power Brokers, our free home pages program, and much more.

We also released a new version of our Home Page Creator in June. The Home Page Creator allows you to create a free home page (or even a complete web site) by simply filling out an online template in which you choose your graphics, build links, and write your text. No knowledge of HTML is necessary, nor do you have to rent any server space or learn any other complicated Internet protocols. If you can fill out a form and click a few buttons, you can create your own homepage! If you haven't already done so, I urge you to give it a try and to tell your friends. If you used the previous version, you will appreciate the enhancements that we have added, such as the ability to easily modify or delete your home page. Now, when you modify it, the script remembers all of your previous information and automatically fills in the form with that information, so that you only have to change the sections that you want to change, without having to fill out the entire form again. We've also added a few new features such as visitor counters on the pages. The Home Page Creator is located at "http: //dcregistry.com/homes.html".

Although our initial release date has slipped, we still plan to roll out the brand new Search DC! system within the next few months. As you may recall, Search DC! is our new, searchable database that will allow you to search for people, restaurants, hotels, and other items based upon many different criteria. For example, you will be able to search for a moderately priced Japanese restaurant in Arlington. You will even be able to search by zip code! Search DC! will be using essentially the same database search engine that we developed for our current Classified Ads. Needless to say, Search DC! will enable you to find people or things in the Washington, DC area in a way that no other web site can. When Search DC! goes online, we will post announcements both online and through this newsletter.

Our columnist, Sean Holt, took a longer vacation than planned, but he reports that he will have a new Who Cares? next week and will resume writing the column on a weekly basis. He has received some fan mail, especially from people who liked his early columns such as "39 Dead, Zero Wounded" and "Ellen Degenerates". Who Cares? is located at "http://dcregistry.com/cares . html".

We also have continued to add new movie reviews to the movies page, which lists movie reviews written by Gigi for our sister publication, The D.C. News? (http://thedcnews.com). Gigi writes entertaining and humorous movie reviews that don't pull any punches. The movies page is located at "http: //dcregistry.com/movies.html".

Finally, if you like the Registry, please tell everyone you know about it. We don't have the huge marketing budget that the big corporate sites have, so we rely on the quality of the site and the word-of-mouth advertising of our users to spread the word. We are currently getting about 20,000 to 25, 000 visitors each month, but we would like to do better. The more visitors we get, the more valuable the site becomes for everyone, as it means more classified ads, better discussions in our Discussion Forums, more people in our chat room, and more sites registering with us and getting listed in Search DC! With your help, the D.C. Registry will continue to be the finest online source for information on the Washington, DC area. Thank you for using the D.C. Registry, and I hope you will continue to be a part of Washington's Online Community.

Philip A. Hagen, Webmaster
D.C. Registry
http://dcregistry.com
Washington's Online Community