Welcome to the third stage in the life of youlookfab.com!

First, YLF was a Blog

In 2006 Greg introduced me to this blogging thing and showed me how I could use it to take my knowledge about fashion and style to a much wider audience than I could reach through one-on-one wardrobe and style consulting. Before long we had lots of readers and many of you were asking for advice on topics relating to YLF.

Then there was a Forum

The second stage began in January last year. We decided to introduce a forum that would make it much easier for people to communicate with each other. This took off faster than we expected and we watched in amazement as an intelligent, compassionate and supportive community emerged. The strength and power of the YLF forum continues to blow my mind.

Now, the beginnings of a Social Network

Now that we’ve seen the potential of this community, we’d like to take it further. Closer to a full social network where you can express your style and share it with others. So over the past few months we have been working on some big changes under the covers to make this possible.

Today we are super excited about enabling the first three new features:

• One YLF Identity: Previously you only logged into the forum. Today when you log into YLF, you are logging into the whole site. This means that when you comment on the blog, the site will recognize you and automatically add your name and details.
• Your Style Profile: You can now create a rich profile that describes you and your preferences in a lot of detail (or a little, if that’s what you would prefer). You can also add a profile picture that will be displayed alongside your forum posts AND blog comments. This could be a picture of you, your beloved pet, or something completely different.
• Private Messaging: You can send private messages to other members. This lets you chat privately with other members, without needing to divulge your email address. Of course, you can also use private messaging to exchange email addresses with other members that you trust.

Over the next few days we will post more details about using these features. The more adventurous can jump right in. The new tab at the top of the page will take you to the Profile.

How to get started

If you are a forum member today, then you’re already a full YLF member with a profile page and the ability to send private messages. The information you previously specified in your forum profile is already in place, but now you can add a profile picture and provide additional information about yourself and your style preferences.

If you are a regular reader on the YLF blog, but haven’t yet dipped your toes into the forum, consider signing up. Even if you don’t use the forum, posting your comments on the blog will be more convenient, and you will be able to get to know other YLF readers a little better through their profile pages.

We’d love your feedback

These are our first small steps, but we will be adding more features over time. Please let us know what you think of the new features and if you experience anything strange (there are bound to be a few teething problems), you can comment on this blog entry, or go to the forum and leave your feedback there.

We hope you enjoy the new features as much as we do!