We know it’s been awhile, but never fear, we haven’t been slacking off. There’s been so much to do and so much we wanted to tell you, and now we finally can.

First up, our absolute favorite change. If you’re like us, and we know you are, you don’t want to enter the CAPTCHA code—the often eye-crossingly squiggly letters that you’re prompted to enter every. Time. You. Submit. Something. And now you won’t have to! As long as you’re logged in and behaving yourself, you won’t have to keep entering the code. But if you do something bad, that CAPTCHA will be back(cha)!

Some other changes:

• Alerts: Ever get surprised by finding a new mixxer has decided to follow you? Missed the latest submission to your private group? No more surprises. We’re launching email alerts so you’ll get some email when someone friends you, comments on something you’ve submitted, submits something to your private group, etc. Don’t want to get any mail? No problem. Just turn off the emails in the “Your Account” area.
• Videos: No more wondering if someone is just submitting the same video under different titles! You’ll now find thumbnails for all videos from Metacafe and YouTube.
• World Locations: We’ll always have Paris—and this time we mean the one in France. (Unless you wanted Paris, Texas, of course.) Now when you submit content from around the world, our Global Locater will give you more options than you ever knew you had.
• Invites: Sure, you can fire up your email, and take the time to write an email to tell your friends about the great stuff you found on Mixx, but that takes time and who has time? Mixx is all about saving time—saving time to find the good stuff on topics of interest, and now, saving time to invite your friends to join you in the Mixx. Just click the Invite link in the upper right!
• Vote Counts: In the old days (last week), if you voted on a story that was listed in multiple categories, the vote count would reflect on the votes cast in that category. Starting today, you’ll see the total votes the story received, forever and always.

Well, that’s all we can tell you about right now, but there is more exciting news on the way—so check back soon!

The Mixx Team

It’s about to get a little more crowded in here, and we thought it only fair that you be the first to know. After all, you’re the reason Mixx is ready to welcome the public today—you heard us—today! We’re really excited about it, and can’t thank you enough for all of your comments and suggestions.

Your feedback has led to changes in the Mixx Lounge; the way you edit YourMixx; and how karma points are awarded; as well as helping us find and squash a bunch of little bugs. Sounds gross, but you know what we mean.

Now, just because we’re going public doesn’t mean that we love you any less—we still want to see you in the Mixx as often as you can visit. And if you want to stay over, we might have a few sleeping bags around here somewhere.

Thanks again!

The Mixx Team

Many of you have asked about our Local feature. Which means we probably didn’t do a very good job explaining it. The Local feature makes it really easy to find and share things that are relevant to your hometown, where your parents live, or pretty much anywhere in the US. And that’s the catch: Right now, our system can only accept US locations.

We love the feature too, and we’d like to use it to find out what grandma’s up to now. We didn’t find out about the last incident until Uncle Olaf finally emailed the article and a copy of the police report. But you probably didn’t need to know that. Anyway: Rest assured that we are working on the international angle, and we’ll let you know as soon as it’s ready to go! In the meantime, if you hear anything about a Greta von Magnusson and a can of spray paint, please give us a call.

Team Mixx

Time to roll out the red carpet for awards night at Mixx!

Actually, since we just launched the MixxAwards, it’s awards day every day. MixxAwards are these cool little badges that you’ll see on the profiles of some of your fellow Mixxers. And while we’re sure it’s an honor just to be nominated, we want you to go out there and win!

The categories are:

• Top Submitter: The Mixxer who submitted the most stories, photos and/or videos
• Most Contentious: The Mixxer who submitted the article that got the biggest split on votes, up and down
• Most Opinionated: The Mixxer who made the most comments, and no, they can’t all be on the same story
• Thought Leader: The Mixxer who submitted the story with the most positive votes
• Conversation Starter: The Mixxer who submitted the story with the most comments
• Hyperactive: The Mixxer who voted the most, up or down
• Enthusiast: The Mixxer who voted the most stories up
• Curmudgeon: The Mixxer who voted the most stories down
• Top Ten: A story this user submitted hit the Mixx Top Ten most popular

Coming soon: the MixxLounge. No mood lighting or chanteuse, but you will find out the winners of the most recent MixxAwards. This is also where you’ll find our Karma Leader Board, which shows the total points of the top Mixxers.

C’mon—you know you want to win, so get out of the blog and back into the Mixx!