Neighborhood Link recently completely redesigned the Discussion Forum areas for its neighborhood sites. Besides a completely redesigned modern look, there are many new features.

Below are highlights of some of the new features:

Format: The new format was designed to be easier to read and to provide for more efficient use. For example previously in the old format, only one reply to a post could be viewed per page. Now four replies per page can be viewed at a time. Also, now when viewing the topics page, the topic with the most recent reply is at the top of the page.

Tags: Each Topic is now automatically tagged with its geographic location. Also, when starting a topic, you can tag it with appropriate key words that help describe the subject of the topic. Examples of a tag might be: crime, code violations, dues, security, etc. Eventually, tags will help Neighborhood Link provide for a much better systemwide searching mechanism.

Navigation: At the top of each page in the discussion area, there is now a series of navigation links which depict your current location. Thus, you could see at the top of the page: “US > Arizona > Phoenix AZ metro > Scottsdale AZ > Highlands West Discussions”. This would mean you were in the Highlands West Discussions area in Scottsdale, Arizona. Clicking on any of the links to left of “ >Highlands West Discussions” such as Phoenix AZ metro would show you all of the discussions in the Phoenix AZ metro area.

Respect-o-Meter: Each Neighborhood link user is now assigned a rank. Our Respect-o-Meter automatically assigns each user a rank based on the quality of that users participation in all areas of Neighborhood Link. Users who are helpful, promote community and are respectful of others will receive the highest rankings.

Avatars: Users now have the ability to upload avatars. Avatars are small graphics or images which are a graphical representation of the user. The avatar will appear above a username when someone posts in the discussion forums area. An avatar can be easily uploaded by going to the users profile area.

Tags: Discussion Forums, New Features