Local Area User Groups (LAUG's)

We've added a much requested feature called Local Area User Groups. This is still a beta project and we may cancel it in the future, all depending on popularity.
Although the Member Profiles have a location field, this new forum allows people to introduce themselves and organize user events, instead of having to use the Private Messaging system. With this new forum people can bounce around ideas and others in the same area can respond and possibly get together.
Be sure to check out our SCF / SketchUcation User Events article below.

Special Interest User Groups (SIUG's)

We've added special forums which discuss specific professions. Many times a discussion in a forum can become very specifically geared towards a certain profession and the thread can go off-topic. The SIUG's are a place where people of for example Woodworking professions can come together and converse about SketchUp and Woodworking techniques.

Various changes

More past changes regarding the structure of the forums can be found in the article 1st Anniversary SCF.

Articles

1st Anniversary SCF

A personal note

For me this article is very personal. Although I have no intention of tearing up old wounds, I think it is good to look back at what was and what is at present - the SketchUp community. Because no matter how one looks at it, May 10th was exactly one year ago that we continued where the old forums stopped. And even though we never wanted to replace what was, and initially wanted to only provide a temporary space for people to make the transition to Google Groups easier, for many of you the SCF has become the new home for the SketchUp community.
A look back to May 10th 2007 and the time which has passed since and the future.

Past

On May 10th it was exactly one year ago, an announcement was made on the forums at sketchup.com. A lot was said and a great many people wore sad faces, including our beloved friends at Google itself. Everyone that was a regular at the old forums shared his / her opinion and the old forums as we knew it would never be the same again.

Going back to the threads which are now part of Google Groups, I remember the immense shock I felt when people were signing up at the non-professional personal little hobby site called SketchUcation.