Its that time of year again.

The kids are out of school for 6 weeks and I'm about to find my-self really super busy, and as has become something of a Canna Zine tradition, I'm off for a summer of sea, sand, surfing, and a goodly portion of sativa to accompany it.

But before I get my sex-wax out I wanted to give a brief outline of whats coming up for the Canna Zine in the forthcoming autumn/fall.

New Forums
We got some new forums coming, with a view to creating a whole new growers community the like of which doesn't exist today. Like to get involved?

A dragon family holiday snap-shot..courtesy of Mike Drinkwater animation

The old forum solution we used has been fine for us thus far, but of late, one or two members complained the picture handling abilities of the old forum wasn't up to scratch. Certainly not for those wishing to show up
close and personal trichome shots. Plus, if you wanted to post more than one picture in a post, it wasn't possible, but it now is.

The new trial forum is a vBulletin solution which comes with a load of features right out the box. Far too many to list here, but rest assured I'll get a full feature set posted up asap.

Unfortunately the new forum is on a seperate database to the Canna Zine, which means a new member ship is required. It was decided it was best to do it this way, for the security of the forum users who post pictures.

It takes just a moment, is (as always) free of charge, and as 500 members will pay witness so far, we never abuse our members e-mail address with spam, and we absolutely will never share it with a third party.

Using this new solution means we can protect certain forums and make sure they're only viewable by those we want to view them. This gives us an added element of security.

We can offer blogs, user galleries and we have a special offer for Canna Zine members which will see a years free unlimited CPanel web hosting for subscribers who wish to run their own Joomla or Wordpress website.

Check out the trial forum HERE . Feel free to sign up for membership, and keep an eye out for free seeds (courtesy of Soft Secrets magazine), free grow gear (from whoever I can blag it off), and more advice than you could shake a hydroponic truncheon at with regard to growing the finest, cleanest, purest cannabis money simply cannot buy these days.

News Portal
The Canna Zine news portal is also due something of an overhaul. Its served really well, but its starting to look a bit tired, plus the fact we have one or two display issues with Internet Explorer users plays on my mind constantly.

So we decided to create a front page which is more in fitting with a news website, but still keep all the old sections and categories which people like so much.

So if you want to bookmark just the UK Cannabis News sections and have only that page open when you hit the Canna Zine, you can. Same with US cannabis news, New Zealand, Asia, Europe etc.

This also applies to other sections like the video archives, or the Hemp sections. With our "office-safe" decor and the bookmark set on the hemp pages, no-one would ever know.-)

Soft Secrets
We've recently come to an agreement with Soft Secrets magazine which sees the Canna Zine providing around 50% of the "hard news", (crimes, busts etc) published in Soft Secrets magazine.

Its a huge responsibility and one I think we're well up for, so keep an eye out for the first Canna Zine news sections which will be published in SSUK4, due out around mid-August.

Going back to the new forums, and the best grow diaries will be put forward to Cliff Cremer, the editor of Soft Secrets, for possible inclusion in the magazine. So if you would like to see your prized buds published in glorious technicolour, with free seeds just to say thanks, head over to the new Canna Zine forums , sign up, and start posting. Its as simple as that.

We'll be back with our daily news updates around the middle of August. In the meantime, enjoy your summer, and stay safe.

Ian - Canna Zine news editor