As an experiment, I have modified the forum on this site (Funny Talk) so that you have the option of posting anonymously.  Same with the comments feature, and the reviews feature, so that acts can feel free to discuss the bad points as well as the good points of a gig without fearing that they'll be blacklisted by promoters.

Big thanks to Boyce Bailey for pointing out a glitch that resulted in multiple copies of one Facebook event turning up on here. (It was, as it happens, a Facebook glitch, so there's no guarantee it won't happen again, but at least we've cleaned up the mess.)

There is currently a problem with the feature on the site that pulls in Facebook event updates. It looks like Facebook has changed the structure of the messages it sends out, so currently Stand Up London doesn't recognise them as Facebook events, and can't pull the information from them that it needs. This will be fixed as soon as possible.

In the meantime, The Gig Guide and The Gig Calendar are still working properly, and promoters continue adding details of new nights to them, so feel free to check in those areas for information about gigs - or see the "What's On" panel on the side of the screen for upcoming gigs.

UPDATE: 28-Mar-2012

This problem has now been resolved, so Facebook event invitations will once again be appearing on the site.  The mechanism that llinks incoming Facebook messages with their corresponding entries in The Gig Guide is not working at present, but I'm working on that.  The messages themselves are coming through, though. I will also be adding a mechanism for pulling in standard Facebook messages (in addition to event invitations) and a few other things - although I suspect I won't have these shown automatically on the front page.

I've just made a lot of changes to the mechanism for creating an entry in The Gig Guide.  The result should be a lot easier to use, and will hopefully encourage more promoters to add details of their own gigs, and maintain those details any time they need to change them.  As part of this change, I have killed off the Funny People directory.  It was one of the least used parts of the site, and I posted a request for feedback on this and didn't receive any, so I'm guessing no-one is going to miss it.  Getting rid of it also makes it less confusing - a lot of people were puzzled about why they would want to put information about themselves in their profile and also in the Funny People directory.  Well, now they don't have to worry about that.  Getting rid of it also let me streamline the form you have to fill out when adding a new entry to The Gig Guide.  The new version is hopefully clearer, simpler, less confusing, and doesn't involve any repetition - but please give me any feedback you have on it.  Always keen to improve things.

You may have noticed over the last week that there hasn't been a lot of action on this front page.  Usually, there's a steady stream of updates from Facebook and other sources.  There's a good reason for the delay.  I'm in the middle of writing some software to make sure that updates get on the site quicker, slicker, more accurately, and that they look nicer, and do as much as possible to hook up into all the information that's already on here.  It takes a bit of time, and that has held me back from doing normal updates.  Work is going well, though, and full service should be restored soon.

On a more positive note, it is great to see that quite a few promoters are now adding their own gigs directly on to the site, and other members are filling in details for gigs that they know about that previously weren't listed.  Please keep up the good work.  The more of that that happens, the more useful the site becomes to everyone.

Here's a list of the most recent people to join our community, and a little bit about them.  If they've uploaded a picture, you might even get to see what they look like.  The names are linked through to their profiles, so it's also easy to drop them a line, and an easy way to get in touch if you happen to know any of them.

If you're one of the people on this list - welcome!  And you haven't yet filled in the "About Me" section of your profile, or added a picture of yourself, you can get to your profile easily by clicking on your name in the list and adding that detail in.  Don't be shy - you're a performer (probably ... most people on the site are).