From the Editor: Welcome to our new site!

NEW SITE
We've got lots of reasons for building this new site, and one of the primary reasons is because we had too much stuff, and too much traffic for the old account!! We were running into limitations such as disk space, plus not being able to do more advanced stuff, such as running cgi scripts, or having image maps, etc.

Also, we wanted an easier address to remember. Unfortunately, rto.com was taken just one week before I attempted to register it, so we have WWW.RTOP.COM - think of the 'P' as the 'P' in Outpost.

Please update any links, bookmarks, notes, (greeting cards, flyers, T-shirts, and tattos :-) )etc. that you may have with the old address. Because of the improvements at the new site, it will not be possible to run both sites in parallel so the old site will be abandoned as soon as practical.

There is also a new RTO Link Icon, which anyone can copy and use to link back to the new site. Find it in The Office.

NEW DESIGN

One of the first things you'll probably notice is the new graphics. Our graphic artist has done a fine job! You can find him and the other people who make the RTO happen in the Masthead section of the Office.

THE EXCHANGE

The biggest change, in terms of functionality, is the Exchange. We have responded to the numerous suggestions and comments on the Exchange that we have received from you in the past. There are new ways to find trades:

• by the Last 5 Trades (by RTO-X#)
  
• by the Previous Week (by date)
  
• by RTO-X number
  
• by date
  

  ....and the most requested new feature:
  

• a search function - this allows to specifically search the TRADE, FOR, and LOCATION fields individually.
  

Also, trades are now posted as you submit them, and a confirmation email is sent to you with the assigned RTO-X# and a randomly generated password. Using these two pieces of information, you can modify and/or delete the trades in the future if you need to.

Please see the Exchange FAQ for more information on the new features.

FEATURES

Features has been improved, a little here and a little there. Expect new articles of the best quality more often.

PIPES

Pipes has been outfitted with some automation that will allow link submissions to be posted on the fly, and you can choose to enable a password feature for each submission. In this way you will be able to go back and edit or delete the post as necessary (note: this feature is undergoing final testing and should be available shortly). Think of this as a community bulletin board. Those people representing web sites can use this functionality to keep their Pipes listing up to date. Note that the RTO reserves the right to modify or delete any listing, regardless of any password at our discretion.

THE OFFICE

The Announce Elist subscription script has been rewritten making it easier to use mailings should be more prompt. The Masthead has been moved to its own page because of its growing size. Feedback has been completely rewritten to make it easy to post your comments, and they show up instantly. Also, look here for advertising information.

ADVERTISING

You've probably also noticed the Sponsor logos and ad banners. This is primarily to maintain free access to the site, and still be able to continue to add new functions and features. We want to be able to keep growing, and to add fresh, new information and services regularly.

If you are interested in advertising on the RTO, please see the Advertising section of the Office.

ON THE HORIZON

I've been busy working up new sections and reworking some. Look for more improvements to Pipes, the Aquaria Glossary, the FishRoom Web-side Companion, the Isles, the Observatory, and more!

FEEDBACK

Let us know what you think. We're excited about the changes, and want to know what's working for you, (and if anything doesn't work well, we want to know that, too!). Please use the Feedback feature and select "Our New Site and Look" from the category field.

- Todd Zebert, Editor-in-Chief