Hey folks, Harry here - you may notice on your navigation bar above something called "THE ZONE". This is a new place for most all of you, but for a little over 220 folks, this has been a little piece of beta-test heaven.

A long time ago, when Earth was hundreds of thousands of miles from where it is today, if not a gabillion miles, AICN had a Forum. It was a quaint little space with miserable functionality, but some good folks. Then one day... it was gone. In fact now as I abuse my ear noodlez trying to recall the fate of the AICN FORUM, I can only recall that it died of neglect. It died because it ceased to be loved and cared for. There was no real sense of community, at least that I ever sensed. Not that I was frequenting it much.

When ol Doc Falken came aboard AICN early this year - one of the things we really wanted to recapture was a forum driven by those that most wanted to have a space of their own here on AICN. A place with paragraph breaks and word wrap. A place with self-posted pics and clickable links. A place where they create the topics and they create the polls. A place that felt like home.

You can see these various cult groups that pop up all over AICN. The TAILENDERS & the @qu@f@gs, those people that seek out old dead talkbacks for stories long ago and began making their own hidden world. But even here - there was a sense of wanting to rattle the cage, to be something a bit more. That is why today we give you THE ZONE.

For the last several months - we, the folks behind AICN have been enjoying a wonderful relationship with the folks in THE ZONE. We sort of let them take the reigns, let them drive the car, and they didn't want to wreck it, they wanted to form a real community of film lovers and afcionadoes -- where they could talk, celebrate and debate film and a myriad of subjects -- all without the spiteful, cynical hate that is too often associated with The Internet and in particular the AICN Talkbacks.

We empowered a League of Elders - folks your age, younger and older - from all over the world to create their dream platform to play in and live with one another. Today we open it up to the rest of the world. We believe we have most of the technical kinks worked out, while leaving all the good kinks in. You'll find a whole host of strange new phrases and modifications - but best of all, you'll find the best damn internet community I've ever had the pleasure of interacting with.

It's honest, real criticism and discussion based on what they think and feel - without the rampant homophobia or racism or hate that we see taking place here all the time. In that way, it's the flip side to the AICN universe. The look changes and the dream changes. The folks running it want to welcome you to THE ZONE. They're good people, just like you. This isn't replacing TALKBACKS - merely an alternative for those of you that would like more functionality and civilized lunacy.

I hope to see many of you in...