Elfpack has some more features now:

If you want to link to the April-fool's joke, you can write like:
<news:39> => <news:Is Elfpack slow?>

To link to a forum:
<forum:1> => <forum:Elfpack, newbie questions>

To a guestbook message:
<gb:12316> => <gb:12316>

And you can also do: <mailto:bill.gates@microsoft.com>

This might be complicated for you, but if you understand it fully, you can get a much faster Elfpack.

One reason why Elfpack is slow, is that searches take a long time to do. But results are cached and therefore if you search for someone like you, it will go much faster. So if you search for someone with "big boobs", it goes much faster if you also (temporarily) set your body shape to "big boobs."

Another thing is that Elfpack compresses text. This works well with words as they are mostly the same. But if you spell long words wrong, that message or wiki-page might take a longer time to submit. There is also a bug that makes short non-words like "u", "2", and so on extremely slow. If you avoid these, Elfpack will be faster.

Then there are often network-problems. If Elfpack doesn't respond for a few seconds, it often helps if you open another similar site (a community) and reload that a lot. That makes some stops in the network loosen up, just like if you flush a toilet. However: It will not work with a site that is very similar, like Elftown or CatHug, because that will just make the network even more stuck, as the compression-algoritms in it will have the opportunity to work much more than actually needed.

Another reason that it's stuck, might be that the keyboard is overworked and the computer has to run it's keyboard-fixing program. Even a very old computer can easily manage your typing even if you just press a lot of keys everywhere. But because the network-bus and the keyboard-bus are interconnected, and Elfpack demands a lot of your computer, there are often problems, and faster computers just ending up having more problems because they work harder. To fix this is easy: Just wave the keyboard a little and then go away some meters from it to lower your disturbance on it. Then it will start to work very quickly again. 

A simpler way to improve the speed is of course to help Elfpack buy new hardware by donating. See <URL:donate.html>!

There are now new mood icons available for public use via the Mood: link under the search box and above the Whee new messages link.

When you upload mood-images now, you can select that you want the Elfpack guards to look at them and make them available for all Elfpackers. Of course it has to be an image that you have done then!

Edit: A NOTE! One of the Guards will need to approve your mood icon before its released to the general public. Yes, they recieve notice that youve submitted one somehow. No, Im not entirely sure how it works. Just dont bug them about it. It'll get done.

And yes, each mood image counts as a point towards your very own full Artists badge.

Elfpack has started to offer space on the Mainstreet for ads. This is thought as a fun thing for the members, even if Elfpack will accept professional ads too. But there will be no annoying banners on Mainstreet!

It's cheap ($12 for 2 ads that will be there 1 week each) and easy to do. See elfpack ads for more info.

And... People who have donated to Elfpack before March 31th (including past donors!), will get one ad for free! Use it to promote your wiki, your dog or just brag about that you have donated! Drop [Hedda] a message whenever you want to use this offer.