MaricopaChat.com made easier

MaricopaChat.com – Maricopa’s community forum – is getting a cleaner look, more functionality and enhancements to improve the user experience.

Over the weekend readers will be able to access the old MaricopaChat.com forum, but new conversations should be posted on the new version.

Beginning Monday all forum traffic will be directed to the new forum and the old site will no longer be accessible.

Such popular features as avatars, signatures, emoticons and private messaging remain, and new features will make it easier for users to communicate with each other.

New users no longer need to wait for approval to participate in conversations because an automatic-verification email grants immediate access.

The new “friend or foe” lists allows users to track and follow their friends on the forum, or automatically hide posts from other users.

Users have complete control over how other users can connect with them as well. By accessing the Board Preferences in the User Control Panel, users can opt in – or out – of receiving emails and private messages and showing their online status.

Editing and publishing options have been added. Once a new topic has been posted the subject line and content of posts easily can be updated if necessary. In addition, users will have the ability to preview messages in advance of posting or saving a message as a draft to come back to later.

In addition to posting topics of discussion, users can share images more easily and create and manage their own polls.