Well I'm sure producers and site owners alike will notice that I've completely redone the categories system on UMD. For years I've been thinking what I should do about them, as producers / store owners have been asking me to add new categories for their downloads and sites: "What about a category for socks?" "What about inflatables?" "Methylcellulose FTW!" "Hey man, you've got a leather category, so how about PVC too?"

All legit requests. But I didn't want to line the left side of the site with 10,000 categories. And I didn't want to force producers to have to select from too many categories when adding downloads. Simplicity is the key! So what to do?

My solution was to get RID of the categories per se. We now have keywords. So when you are filling out a form that would normally have a bunch of category checkboxes to select from, there will instead be a field to just type in whatever keywords you want. Does your download have pink neon afro wigs in it? Then just type that shit in!

Visitors now get a very short, simple list of main "categories" on the left while they are browsing. Mud, oil, pies, water, a few others, and that's it. Emphasis is now on search instead, because that's what people do. UMD's search hooks onto your keywords, and onto the description that you write for your site or download, and that's it (that's how it has always been anyway). The advanced search page shows all keywords still.

To supplement our new keywords field when filling out a form, there is a master list of "keyword suggestions" that I am developing. You can click them to add the keyword into the field instead of typing it in. The list has socks in it, inflatables, PVC, methy, and perhaps someday... pink neon afro wigs! If a keyword is not there that you want, then just type it in. This keyword list appears when adding sites and downloads, and I am working on bringing it to user profiles and other areas for the site, too. Perhaps the forums....

This keyword list is big and will keep growing with your suggestions, but it will always be optional to use, and even hidden away unless you pull it down. There will also be a separate list for UMD's sister all-fetish site, so I am excited for that. So enjoy, and you producers and visitors out there, give me some feedback, you fools!

Messmaster