This is a celebration of both new members to the forums and our great existing community of experts and t-shirt enthusiasts who take time out of their day to offer help to their peers.

What does that mean for new members and people thinking of registering?

While we always encourage new members to register and post their questions in the forums, for the month of August, we're offering a bit of incentive

The new member that starts the "most interesting" topic in the month of August wins a free, supercool, highly coveted T-ShirtForums.com T-Shirt!

What constitutes the "most interesting" topic?

A: Good question. It could be a simple question that gets a lot of response from other members. It could be an interesting observation/tip that members can use.

The winner will be decided by a combination of number of replies to the topic, the "thread rating" of the topic (members can rate each thread on a 5 star rating scale), overall member response to the topic, etc. The final decision will be made by yours truly

If you've been watching and reading the forum posts for a while, waiting for a chance to register and introduce yourself and get involved, this is a great time to join our t-shirt community. You know who you are

This is also the time where we vote for our new "Most Helpful Member"

Our last winner, badalou, has served his title well. He has logged over 2,000 extremely helpful posts here at T-Shirt Forums! That doesn't count all the private emails and phone calls that he has taken the time to answer over the past year. Lou is truly an asset to T-Shirt Forums!

Not to worry, Lou's not going anywhere though (although he may be busy making more TeeSquareIt tools to help keep your transfers straight), but it's time to pass the torch on to another deserving member.

With so many helpful members of our community, I know it's going to be fun challenge to vote in a new MHM (Most Helpful Member)

The member (with more than 15 posts) that is voted "Most Helpful Member" for the month of August will win a $100 Gift Certificate to eBay or Amazon.com (or $100 via PayPal)

You also get a cool "most helpful member" t-shirt avatar background (instead of a white or black t-shirt background). Lou's is a cool tan color...what color will you choose?

• Seeing if you have an answer from some of our "Unanwered Topics". There's also a link to unanwered questions in the left hand area once you're logged in.
  
• Refraining from referring new members to "use the search function"
  
  Don't get me wrong, the search IS very helpful for finding answers that may have already been posted. It should definitely be the first stop when trying to find an answer to a question.
  
  However, not everyone knows how to navigate an online forum.
  
  Also, it can be a challenge sometimes know which terms to search for since they weren't part of those older topics. It can also get frustrating sometimes to search and search through 1000's of topics, when you aren't sure if the answer is there.
  
  "Use the search" also doesn't come off as very helpful or friendly to someone that is new to the whole process.
  
  Some alternatives to "Use the Search" would be:
  
  • take a second to repost an answer if you know it
    
  • just skip that topic and wait for another member to get a chance to answer the question (it may be their first time getting to answer a question and contribute).
    
  • link them to a specific popular search tag keyword that would give them an answer to their question
    
  • link them to a specific thread so they don't have to try dozens of search terms. You can also let them know what search terms you used to find the answer to help guide them in the right direction.
    
  Not to worry, I'm definitely guilty of this too But let's all try to make an effort this month to avoid pushing that UTS button (U.se T.he S.earch)
  
• Take a second to welcome some of our new members in our Member Introductions forum.
  
• Give some helpful suggestions and reviews in the "Site Reviews - Design Reviews" forum.
  
• Keep posting helpful tips, information, suggestions, videos, answers in the forums!

Q: Who will decide who the "Most Helpful Member" is?

A: You do! You can send your nominations to me privately via the Forum Feedback section, or PM or Email. Only these 3 methods of voting will be accepted.

I will tally the votes at the end of the month and announce the winner!