Good evening, everyone; it's me again, Kat! I've been back from my trip to France for some time now, but it's only now that I've updated. I have a week at home alone, during which I will be fervently working to get Route 50 updated. I'm here today to "foreshadow" some great new updates and events:

New homepage. (You have 2 days left to enter the contest!) Our homepage is going to get a complete redesign, so you'll be able to see all the happenings around the site, see what's trendy, and get up-to-date in a flash.

Groups. If I haven't announced it before (which I may have), I'm doing it now - Groups is underway! Soon, you'll be able to start up groups to band together with your friends. Just a little bit longer.

New styles? You guessed it, Route 50 will be getting a little mini-makeover soon!

Newspaper! That's right, Route 50 is getting its own newspaper! The name is The Evening Apricorn (TEA), and it'll be written by you, the members. We'll have sections for articles about Pokémon to opinion and programming, comics, crosswords, an art section, and more.

Our newest volunteer artists for TEA are Miguel and LostItem^art! Want to draw, too? If you think you've got the skills, send Kat some mail with tryout pics.

Anyone can submit content to TEA (your submission will have to be approved by the upper-level staff). If you have an idea, question, or concern about contributing, feel free to contact me. We'll have a guide for submitting to TEA up soon, but start thinking, writing, and creating now for a head start ;)

And, the obligatory "much, much more": Earn points for participating in the community, more widgets, new contests, ribbons, a dance? Oh boy, you have picked the best time to be a member of Route 50!

* Thanks to PepperKookBook for the Eevee image

One(four) question(s) dear madame: How different are groups going to be from clubs? Are they going to be forum-based too, partially, or have nothing to do with the forums? Also, could you give us some example of the advantages of them?

And the dance... will there be punch... ?
AND IF SO WHAT FLAVOR.

Groups are the Clubs system. We'll be phasing out the Clubs boards on the forum, I think. The advantage is that the group can actually have news and a private message board compared to a single thread.

Ah, awesome idea!

Thanks a million for all the hard work you upper-head peeps have been supplying us with! I wish you good luck, and shall the website run until the end of the Internet's days.

Whoo, awesome stuff! :D I'm excited for TEA and the groups~ ♥ Also wait dance what. OO: More excitement yay~ *hyper*

ahh i'm so excited :D

am i allowed to ask questions? haha i feel like probably i shouldn't but i will anyways (sun)


So....groups are more of a guild sort of thing....like not necessarily one topic or interest but a group of friends/peers, or they are just a club, one topic, but called a group?

You're def allowed to ask questions xD Groups are more of a guild thing. Here's a screenshot:



I think that should speak for itself ;D (Hopefully) A group can be made for any topic, interest, group of friends, or otherwise.

Aw darn, there goes my plan to ensure LotE gets read by almost every member of Route 50. Oh well. xD

How upper-level? Admins or Admins/Execs? Or possibly Admins/Execs/Directors?

If I have to help make decisions, I like warning notice a heads up. But I'm liking the newspaper, even before it's printed! Or, typed. Whatever.

Ha, Sparkleaf, I'm positive you'd be approved. Upper-level would be Execs+ I think. And, don't worry, we'll notify you.

Pft, Sparkle, now that you have unveiled your evil schemes, I will do my very to foil your plots at every turn. XD JK.

In any case, it's good to see that you're getting back onto your feet after all that's happened. Hopefully, we'll be able to keep things under control when these features are implemented.

Just curious, how often will TEA be published? I would like to help, but I might not can reliably if it's made to often.

Meep! So excited for everything on this news post. C':

It's like back in V2 when we were all so excited for the new Ditto Pink layout, and it BURNED YOUR EYES INTO YOUR SKULL WITH THE PINK, but we all loved it like no other. ♥ I'm sure this new layout won't burn our eyes, that's not what I'm saying, but I was just remembering fond things~ :'D

I can't wait for TEA, it would be nice to have my Sprite Contests advertised in there, if there's going to be an advertisement section. x3

Xeta: Oh yeah, definitely 8P

Twill: Monthly (Or every two weeks)

Coolio: Haha, I remember that so well! xD That layout was horrifyingly __________. The new ones will more likely soothe your senses and lull you into peace than set your eyeballs on fire.

You're right! There will be a Classifieds section! So you can advertise all your awesome shops and contests! 8D

[insert long text wall about how greatly excited Pope is]

For I am excited. Greatly.