Pardon the interruption, but we have some exciting news. SwapYourShop made it into the 2011 SXSW Interactive PanelPicker! Our proposed panel is titled “Bartering Life: The Trend of Online Exchange Services” which will cover the appeal of online exchange services, why they’re becoming increasingly valuable, how they’re transforming the way users consume and how one can use these online services to consume at a low to no cost.

We’re thrilled to be included in the mix, but we need your help! A portion of the selection process is based on public vote. From now till August 20th, you can login or create and account on panelpicker.sxsw.com and vote. We really appreciate it!

Now back to our First Swappers…

We’ve now migrated to BuddyPress allowing our users to do more, and it seems to be working really well. We’ve had a ton of signups since the migration and our users seem to be online and engaged. Yes, there’s still a lot more to do, but we promise, we’ll get there as soon as we can.

Here’s a list of some new features that users can currently engage with. If you aren’t already using these, check them out.

• Create groups and add forum topics from within that group. Try creating a group in your own city or town. Maybe you can swap with someone in your current city for a change of scenery and check out another firm. This can also be a great way to meet more people where you live and share the joys and pains of your profession.
• Check out the latest activity for the entire community, your friends activity or your groups activities. This is a great way to stay informed as to what’s going on. And be sure to update your own activity every now and then by going to your activity tab under your account.
• A better organized search results interface with convenient “Add Friend” buttons for easy engagement with potential swappers. Start becoming friends with other swappers. This isn’t Facebook and you don’t need to actually know someone, but if they seem interesting enough to follow, are in one of your current groups or might be a potential swapper, befriend them. Don’t be bashful. Think of all the friends you can make from all over the world.
• Notifications to keep you updated with your activity. This feature has really helped users know what’s been going on while they’re not there. Just pay attention to your notifications.

We have lots of ideas in the works for making the site better including a gallery for uploading photos of your work space, home space and city or town. Keep an eye out for more features as we roll them out.

What else would the swap community like to see? What will bring you back to the site regularly? If you have any ideas or comments about how the site currently works, or doesn’t work, please let us know. We want to make the swap community a place for creative professionals to engage with one another with the hopes of one day fostering a swap.

As always, happy travels!

Over the past several weeks we’ve been collecting all kinds of great input from the community on what features the site needs. We brought some of these ideas to life last night by wrapping up our website migration process to a new platform. This is a significant change and we apologize for any frustration it may cause anyone. This was a one-time effort and hopefully the benefits of the new features outweigh any inconveniences you experience.

If anyone is having trouble accessing their account, you may need to reset your password, which can be done here.

Over the next several weeks we will be deploying several minor site updates, tweaks and fun features, so keep an eye out for them. We still continue to encourage input from everyone to help make the site and the community increasingly better.