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What is chamonixNOW and ChamShare?

ChamonixNOW is a social network and useful community resource for the residents of the Chamonix Valley, as well as visiting tourists. It is also an evolution of the original Cham Share which has been running since sometime around 2003. It is a forum of content supplied by the community of Chamonix-Mont-Blanc. Our local residents as well as local companies.

The main aim of ChamonixNOW is to provide real time accurate information related to the Chamonix valley without bombarding our users with messy banner advertising and awkward navigation. Our goal is to maintain a clean and easy to navigate interface, and provide useful information in a concise manner. You can use the footer menu to locate lots of useful real time information such as lift openings, weather, snow forecasts, avalanche warnings and more. We have aggregated information from many different sources, details of which can be found here

ChamShare: While advertising is allowed, it has become bonne-forme for business to adopt a softly-softly approach when making announcements for their services. Business owners do monitor the posts on the Share and will reply quickly to requests that they can help with. As Chamshare was originally created by business owners, it would be unfair to say no advertising. Just make sure you don't repeatedly post the same blatant advertising.

All ChamShare posts by default are private and visible to the community only. Some posts may be useful to the general public, therefore each member has the option to make their content visible publicly, in which case replies to that topic are also visible to the public.

Registered Members can post content to the share in several ways, by emailing the share from your registered email address, or by logging on to to chamonixNOW.com and using the flexible Cham Share public interface.

Membership is free of charge and there is no cost to submit content, we do not add any 3rd party advertising to our ChamShare emails, and the list is simple, really really simple, but above all, really useful to anyone with an interest in the Chamonix Valley!

ChamShare Content can include things like:

• Items For Sale
• Items Wanted
• Lift Shares and Transfer requests
• Accommodation requests
• Snow Reports
• Reviews
• Constructive Suggestions
• Mountain Tales
• Businesses can freely exchange information in a business member only area

There are some defined categories, and if you want to help keep our social community data well structured, all we ask is that you choose a category when you make your posts.

We also have a really cool search function, so if you are looking for a "sofa" or want to know about the best "dentists", then try the Cham Share search function first, you will probably find your answer somewhere in ChamShare!

If you have any questions, or problems relating to the system, email support@chamonixnow.com. If you have a question about Chamonix, then sign up and ask the list - that what's it is for! So sign up and get involved in the Chamonix social community now!

15/01/2012

chamBAY now Live!

The new Chamonix Market Place - chamBAY was made official earlier today (Well, announced to all members of ChamShare that is! Thanks to those who have emailed their messages of support in the last few hours! It's easy to use, and more importantly you can list whatever you fancy 100% free - gratis! Wham-Bam-Thankyou Cham(BAY)

01/01/2012

Happy New year!

Added a few new features today. There has been many suggestions made regarding locating Chamonix Information such as lift openings, piste condition, weather reports and a few web cams. Also that elusive "Chamonix Road Conditions" data.

We have aggregated from several sources all the information that is currently spread over many different websites and organised into a useful area here on chamonixNOW. If we have missed any useful data, do let us know! A one stop shop for all things Chamonix! (Without all those horrible banners)

15/12/2011

chamonixNOW announcement - how to unsubscribe

20/11/2011

Made a few changes to the system, this is to keep data structured ready for an overhaul that we will be working on soon.

There are now 2 account types, a standard account, and an extended Business account. Both account types are free, the Business account will have quite allot of useful features added in the next overhaul. We are currently working on an Android and iPhone App to help visitors to the valley locate and interact with businesses as well as a whole load of other useful stuff.

Separating users in this way makes sense and will enable us to concentrate more time to this project.

Business Account Users Will be able to create and modify at any time a page related to their business. This will be published within the business directory pages which are also going to be extended. 

Accommodation Providers can contact us now for details of how to get your availability, prices and descriptions published to the system. We are also offering free access to booking management tools.

Day... lost count... 20/05/2011

ChamonixNOW is moving to a new server, nothing to worry about but there may be some issues during the move, we hope to do this as quickly as possible with minimum downtime.

On a side note there will be some changes made in the next few weeks to the website - notably some extra tools to allow businesses to promote Chamonix related products, plus we will add a few extra features to Cham Share. Now that there is some data in the DB, we can see the kind of direction that the system should take. More news to come.

Anyone having trouble unsubscribing (it wouldn't be cham share if it was simple!) just email the list and we will sort it out, this will be added to members profile page very soon plus the options to subscribe to certain categories.

Day 10.... 13/02/2011

Cham Share is dead... Long live Cham Share!

So there was a vote, and a result of sorts. Cham Share will be moved to both ChamonixNOW and cham social. there will be simple settings to allow all members to choose how to send and recieve messages from the list. We will be working closeley with cham social this week to make sure the two systems are linked and the list remains as one - albeit with 2 systems.

I would like to give a big thanks to Tom Broxton, for the years of sterling service he has given our community and the work he has put in to build up Cham Share.

More news to come soon...

Day 1.... 03/02/2011

All seems quite stable, there have been no hideous email loops meaning everyone gets the same email repeatedly, so I am happy with that!

Please bear in mind that this system was built from scratch, now I have the basics running, we can take Cham Share wherever we want, its up to you, the list members to offer advice and suggestion.

So here are the current active features of chamonixNOW:

• You can email the list at share@chamonixnow.com, your email will not be added to an archive at present, I will switch that on in a few days time once i have finished the settings page for each user. Doing this way I think will also help ease transition pains.
• you can also make posts at the website, www.chamonixnow.com, these posts will be sent by email to all members who elect to receive the category you have posted to
• You will be able to add a category to your post by adding a simple tag to the subject line of your email, or if using the web-form, a drop down selector.
• All posts are by default private, invisible to Google and non members.
• There will be the option to mark your post for inclusion in the public website, this could be useful for things like items for sale, or lost pets.
• Anybody can contact me and request a page for their business free of charge. I think this will make a useful business directory.

The category function is currently disabled until a decent list of relevant categories has been agreed on. This will be implemented early next week.

Nick

02/02/2011 chamonixNOW ready to share...

OK, so its pretty close to exactly how Cham share works right now, I have included the [Cham-share] subject header so that your email filters are unaffected (if you use them to organise by this tag) Thanks to Tom Broxton for giving his blessing to let the name live on...

All members who have already registered at chamonixNOW.com can already start to use the email address share@chamonixnow.com  (provisional address- but I think it will do fine)

If you want to be able to send to the list using this address, you need to register otherwise your emails will be rejected.

So this is how Cham Share V3 works:

Exactly 100% like V2, but with some new features, that I am sure everyone will find really useful very quickly...

To message the list send an email to share@chamonixnow.com  you will receive replies as they come in to your email inbox - exactly as now. The Email system is provisionally live as of now.

You can click reply to reply direct to the sender in private, your email will not go to the list, it will only be sent to the person asking the question. The reply to all button will also only reply to the sender. This is a change to try to address the "I accidentally hit the reply to all" issue. If you want to post back to the list simply click reply and enter the email address share@chamonixnow.com to send your reply back to the list. This is the only difference at present. I can get easily get it to work with the reply to all feature, but personally I think this subtle difference will keep things a little clearer for now and helps you know exactly who you are emailing. If the reply to all is requested, I will of course add it quickly.

This is still under test, and currently there are the following know issues:

HTML emails are going to look odd. I am currently working to resolve this, so if possible send in plain text format (if you don't know about plain text, don't worry, this issue will be sorted soon).
 

There is a website, where you can sign up.www.chamonixnow.com, I encourage the remaining members who have not yet already registered to do so.

At present no emails are published to the internet. If you want a post visible in the members area, the web form currently allows this and will send your mail to Cham share. There will soon be the “option” to do this with the emails, but for now, its switched off.

There will be ZERO 3rd party advertising added to emails. This does not mean that you cannot use the list to promote as is the case now.

Businesses wishing to publish posts to the public website will be able to do so (in fact this is open to everyone) and it will be free of charge. This will go live next week.

As always “Cham Share” will remain a free service.

Update #6 2/02/2011

Many people are now posting to chamonixNOW using the web form, generally asking "does it work" and expecting to receive their message  in an email. This is exactly what will happen, but right now I have disabled the email to all, instead it come to my inbox only during the final hours of testing. Keep them coming, its really useful for me to have these mails. The system is working fine and works exactly like the old one. I hope to have the whole thing live in a few hours.

Full Launch later today.

Update #5 2/02/2011

OK, so its pretty close to exactly how Cham share works right now, right down to the reply / reply to all buttons in your email, I have also included the [Cham-share] subject header so that your email filters are unaffected (if you organise by this tag) Thanks to Tom Broxton for giving his blessing to let the name live on...

So this is how Cham Share V3 works:

Exactly 100% like V2 - the current system, but with some new features, that I am sure everyone will find really useful....

I have now run and tested my new system that functions to accept incoming emails and forward those emails to registered members. You must be a member to send to the list, or your email will be rejected. Later today, All members who have registered at chamonixNOW.com can start to use a new email address TBA . It just works exactly as you would expect. There are currently a few issues with email formatting, so I am working on that now

Update #4 1/02/2011

OK, so incoming emails are now working, I will be posting the email address later after I have done enough testing to make sure all works and incoming data is secured before writing to database.

Update #3 1/02/2011

Almost there. The system is now pretty much only missing incoming emails, which will hopefully be sorted today. I have all new posts now nicely ordered and categorised, and will be explaining how the category system works later on. For now though, everyone can sign up, log in and start posting. I will switch on the notification emails later today after I have done a little more testing (No need to clog up inboxes for everyone). If you do make a post to the system in the mean time, please do try to assign a category. NOTE: The ability to post public messages is currently disabled.

Update #2 31/01/2011

Well as usual the Cham share hornets nest is a swarmin!

So, to clarify a few points and to address the concerns of some.

There is debate over public vs private, and quite rightly so. However, there are several uses for the Cham share list, and a public arena is something that business Owners in particular have wanted for some time.

So if you post to Cham share (Or whatever it will be called) if you send an email, or use the web interface, your post by default is private. Any replies to that post will also be private. If you want your post to be made public, there will be a simple mechanism to do that and will require you to make a decision, do I want my post and subsequent replies to be visible to all on the Internet.. Any replies to a public post will also be public. When receiving a post by email, my system will make it very clear if a message is public or private. You then have a choice to make, do I reply or not? If you want to reply privately, then click "reply" in your email program as usual. To reply to the list, use "Reply to All" exactly as now.

Update #1 31/01/2011

All members can now post using the web form. NOTE: Until further notice all posts made will be set to private. There will be no public posting until a consensus is reached.

ChamonixNOW*

A working title for a Cham Share upgrade proposal

For many years, there has been a private email list serving the Chamonix Community. Free to join, open to anybody with a legitimate interest in the Chamonix Valley. Recently there has been many suggestions for an upgrade to a better way of managing our eCommunity.

Due to the amount of traffic that the list receives each day, it has now become necessary to re-structure the system, presenting content in a more categorised form, giving each user flexibility to decide what content they receive, and how they interact.

Cham Share is a community project and the consensus is to try to keep it that way. By sharing our thoughts and ideas of how it should be run is up to us all. This website has been set up to offer all members the opportunity to discuss ideas as the new system is built, so we can all decide how best to proceed forward.

Here are some suggestions we currently have:

• To keep Cham Share as a simple to use email list.
• Splitting the list is a bad idea and counter-productive for all members.
• To have a secure system that protects our eCommunity.
• Content should be private to community members only, with the option to publish publicly.
• Content needs to be more structured.
• Users want to be able to select the the topics that interest them, and ignore those that don't.
• Business owners would like a more private and focused area.
• Users do not want to be bombarded with irrelevant posts.
• Users do not want to see any blatant advertising.
• Create a knowledge base to minimise repeat questions.

The proposal we are currently working on has features vaguely similar a website style forum, but it is completely custom built and tailored to the specific needs of Cham Share, whilst at the same time retaining all features of the current email based Cham Share system.

Users can interact with this system by sending an email or opening a browser and logging in. Users can receive posts by email, through a browser, or using an RSS feed  (Alert Bear RSS viewer is one example that can be installed for desktop notification of new posts in real time using the RSS feed)

Posts will appear with replies ordered by date and time below. Posts will be organised by category, complete with a flexible search function.

We also propose to present Cham Share in multiple languages to encourage growth of our eCommunity, users can post in any language they like and receive posts in any language they like. We will use Google Translate API to take care of translation. Users can opt to receive posts in their original language.

Useful posts might be added to the public area - with contributors permission.

There will be no Banner or PPC advertising for logged in users, and no advertising added to emails.

So what's next?

Click here to register your support for our proposal, in a few days there will be a functional basis of the new system. For now though, as always we will remain in contact via Cham Share.