When I started thinking about creating ForexTurtle back in 2006 I began casually collecting information about companies in a Notepad file.  At first I just recorded their name and web address, but I soon realized that I often returned to the Notepad file to add some interesting tidbit I had discovered.  My efforts at note-keeping soon became an enormous mess and, it was at that point, I decided to structure the data I was capturing in XML.  I chose XML because it was more structured than my random Notepad notes and it was quick and easy to maintain.  After a few months of collecting data in a number of XML files, the design for a permanent database structure began to emerge.  Some thought about features, some data normalization and I was off to the races. That is how the ForexTurtle database evolved from a bunch of scattered notes to XML to SQL Server. 

While I continue to add Forex websites to our database, I also continue to create XML lists of interesting stuff that I find from time to time.  I call them Quick Lists and I have a ton of them.  At some point we'll probably add the content of some of these lists to our permanent database, but who knows when either the relevance or preponderance of data will make that beneficial? For now, we're just going to publish them in their current XML format.  

The new ForexTurtle website will have a section called "Quick Lists" (bet you didn't see that coming) which will include, not only lists we are developing, but lists submitted by some of our current members.  All of the lists include web addresses so you can easily link to any sites you find interesting. Anyone can submit additions or corrections to these lists and anyone can submit their own list for publication

Not to let the cat out of the bag, but some of the lists we're publishing with the new release are "Shari'ah Compliant Forex Brokers", "Brokers Who Offer FX Options Trading", "Forex Auto-traders", and "Forex Trading Contests".  We have so many lists that we're only going to publish ten at a time and we're going to rotate them every month. 

Next, I'll tell you about another feature we're adding with the new release - Ask Our Expert.