Celebrate Our First Birthday!

We are celebrating our 1st Birthday this month so we thought we would have a couple of banner contests to celebrate!

The theme for this contest is A TRIP DOWN BANNER MEMORY LANE!

The Empire of the Cat started life as a banner shop in April 2005, before moving to this new site. So to celebrate our original Banner shop concept and our love of banners, we are having a ‘trip down banner memory lane’ contest.

How to enter:

Open your banner closet and look at the back of the closet and dig out your old – but still loved – clothes. This could be the first banner you ever had, the first banner you got from one of the banner shops here or one that you’ve held onto for sentimental reasons – whether it fits you or not lol

As it is a special occasion, we are offering mega karma to the winners!
*don’t forget to tell us who made your banner so we can reward them too*

No need to request a banner for this contest as you are browsing through your existing collection!

A limit of 5 per member since a year is a long time and we all have so many beautiful banners. Please list the banner maker who made it for you and why you chose the banners you entered

Don’t forget to wear your banners around the site and Celebrate with us!

Empire of the Cat Birthday Celebrations – We are one year old this month!

Wednesday, 12 July 2006

The Empire of the Cat domain and site is now one year old this month, and we are celebrating!

It was on the 16th of July 2005, that I opened this site. It’s hard to believe that a whole year has passed already.

There have been a lot of changes over the past year, people have come and gone and during that time we have had 346 people join the forum in total!

I used to have another forum which operated as a Banner Shop, and I also had a separate website, which was 75mb in size and was a collection of things that I was interested in. It wasnt bad as a first attempt but it was just waaay too big and it wasnt integrated.

A portal was what I had in mind, so this site was started and has been in development ever since. People who know me, know well that I like to change things but it is only because I am trying to make the site better,and I am always thinking up ideas and ways to make it better. (I am not addicted to changing the site despite what you might have heard lol.) The forum was changed and expanded and upgraded into what you see today, and is built around a library theme with a check-in desk, a reference desk, a reading room, special collections and a lounge. The site is fully integrated, everything is linked together, and we are building content slowly but surely.

Our Original Online Book Group has read over 30 books in the last year and another 15 are still to come in the remainder of this year! We have had six authors join the board and post with us, and we hope to have many more. We have even obtained special Book Group discounts with one publisher for Shadows over Somerset which will be one of the books featured in August. The author, Bob Freeman, will be leading the discussion, assisted by Nabs, one of our Library Moderators.

More exciting news about the Book Group is that we will be featured as the Book Group of the Month next month on a book group directory site, and will be the first online book group to have that honour! We are also approved and listed with a number of other book related and publisher sites as a Book Group.

If you are finding our site for the first time, and share our love of books and reading and general chatting on the net, then come on in and help us Celebrate!

Elliel

Site Administrator

Emptying your Cache – and other technical things

• Internet Explorer: View / Refresh or F5
• Mozilla/Firefox: View / Reload or CTRL+R
• Opera: Doesn’t seem to have a menu option. Use the Refresh button on the toolbar or CTRL+R

2. Refresh the frames. We don’t use frames on this site but this is good to know anyway.  To refresh an individual frame right-click somewhere in an empty part of the frame (ie NOT on an image) and select the appropriate option from the menu that pops up:

• Internet Explorer: Refresh
• Mozilla/Firefox: This Frame / Reload Frame
• Opera: Frame / Reload or ALT+F5

3. Empty your web cache. The web cache is where your browser saves pages that you have viewed. This can save time when you visit the same site frequently, but it can also mean that your browser just shows you the page & images that it has saved on your hard drive, rather than check to see whether the page online has changed. As well as emptying your cache, it’s also worthwhile changing how often your browser checks to see whether pages have changed (see step 4).

• Internet Explorer: Tools / Internet Options. Then on the “General” tab (which is normally showing by default) in the “Temporary Internet Files” section, click on “Delete Files”. This can sometimes take quite a while if your cache has built up to mammoth size!
• Firefox: Tools / Options and then click on the “Privacy” icon on the left side of the window that appears. Then click on the “empty” button in the “cache” section.
• Mozilla: Edit / Preferences and then click on the + sign next to “Advanced” in the menu on the left. In the drop down menu that appears, click on “cache” and then click on the “clear cache” button in the main part of that window.
• Opera: Tools / Preferences and then select the “advanced” tab. Then click on “History” on the left side of the window, and then on the “Empty now” button in the Disk Cache section in the main part.

4. Alter Other Settings. This is optional, but changing how often your browser checks for updated pages, changing the size of your web cache, or automatically deleting the cache when you exit your browser can all make a difference to your browsing pleasure. If you have dial-up, then emptying your web cache automatically may not be a good idea, expecially if you regularly visit image-intensive sites.

• Internet Explorer
  • To change how often IE checks for newer versions of pages: Tools / Internet Options, then on the “General” tab (which is normally showing by default) in the “Temporary Internet Files” section, click on “Settings”. Then alter the settings at the top of the new window. I have mine set to “every visit to the page”, but choose the option you want.
  • To change the size of the cache: Tools / Internet Options, then on the “General” tab (which is normally showing by default) in the “Temporary Internet Files” section, click on “Settings”. Then alter the settings under “Temporary Internet Files folder”.
  • To empty the cache when you exit Internet Explorer: Tools / Internet Options, then on the “Advanced” tab scroll right down to the bottom of the list of settings. In the section called “security”, check the box next to “Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed”.
• Mozilla:
  • To change how often Mozilla checks for newer versions of pages: Edit / Preferences and then click on the + sign next to “Advanced” in the menu on the left. In the drop-down menu that appears, click on “cache”. Choose the option you want under “Compare the page in the cache to the page on the network”. Mine is set to “Every time I view the page”, but choose the option that suits you.(sir)
  • To change the size of the cache: Edit / Preferences and then click on the + sign next to “Advanced” in the menu on the left. In the drop-down menu that appears, click on “cache”. Change the cache size in “Set cache options”.
  • To empty the cache when you exit Mozilla: This option doesn’t seem to be available in Mozilla.
• Firefox:
  • To change how often Firefox checks for newer versions of pages: This option doesn’t seem to be available in Firefox
  • To change the size of the cache: Tools / Options and then click on the “Privacy” icon on the left side of the window that appears. Then change the size of the cache in the “cache” section. Note that the cache size is in kilobytes, not Mb.
  • To empty the cache when you exit Firefox: This option doesn’t seem to be available in Firefox.
• Opera:
  • To change how often Opera checks for newer versions of pages: Tools / Preferences and then select the “advanced” tab. Then click on “History” on the left side of the window. Change the settings for “check documents”, “check images” and “check other”.
  • To change the size of the cache: Tools / Preferences and then select the “advanced” tab. Then click on “History” on the left side of the window. Change the setting of “Disk Cache”.
  • To empty the cache when you exit Opera: Tools / Preferences and then select the “advanced” tab. Then click on “History” on the left side of the window. Check the “empty on exit” box.