Ladies & Gentlemen; Allow us to introduce the future of Message Boards...ProBoards V5
While the modern Internet message board bears little resemblance to its progenitor, the BBS or, bulletin board system, online-forum software developers have done little to incorporate the advancements of Web 2.0 technology.
Not so with enlightened industry leader Patrick Clinger, CEO of free forum host ProBoards. As a panelist on ForumCon's recent "Future of Forums" roundtable and, no stranger to "firsts" in this space, Clinger has been in the fore of discussion board development since creating his first message board 14 long years ago.
With the development of ProBoards' new V5 forum software, forum enthusiasts should be thrilled by the marriage of an interactive AJAX, Web 2.0 environment combined with the traditional functionality of a feature-rich discussion forum. Through this dramatic transformation, ProBoards ushers the staid message board into the 21st century. V5 users will enjoy....
Global login; By simply using their email, users will now be able to easily manage multiple unique profiles, join new message boards with just a few clicks and, login to multiple separate forums with a single "global login" identity.
Upgraded search; Alone in their provision of an AJAX driven "live-search" tool where results update as the user types, ProBoards understands a key feature of online forums is the volumes of topic-specific information contributed by experts and enthusiasts; thus making this new "data-mining" tool a boon to users.
Flash based avatar maker; As new members generally don't have ready-made avatars when they join a free forum, the interactive avatar maker in V5 provides for the creation of entirely unique, customized images for each of their new profiles.
Notifications; Message board owners will enjoy increased participation as members respond to a variety of notifications related to their activities. Members can customize notifications and receive links directly to postings where others have "liked", "tagged", or "quoted" them, and much more.
Activity feeds; Utilizing V5 activity feeds, members can easily follow others, see which topics they've participated in, read the posts they liked and more thus keeping them connected to friends and updated on discussions as they develop.
Enhanced privacy controls; For those who prefer a little more anonymity, members can control who can see or, "follow" their message board activity. They also have the option to control who can private message (PM) them and even hide postings from other forum members they don't choose to interact with.
Next-gen forum moderation tools; enables forum moderators to communicate privately about issues that may require action. Moderator input is stored in protected areas which can then be reviewed, discussed and acted upon by fellow moderators (issue warnings, ban users, disable accounts, take no action, etc).
WYSIWYG editor; ProBoards is also including the most advanced post-editor of any free forum software on the market. The V5 user-friendly editor supports advanced style sheets (CSS) allowing for the creation of truly unique posting options.
As the social media miracle evolves, like-minded global constituencies continue to seek more empowering platforms to host their discourse. Scheduled for a 2012 launch, early adopters have been signing up in droves to take the new "gold standard" of message boards for a test drive. For a preview of ProBoards V5-Beta, go to http://proboards.com/beta.
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About ProBoards: ProBoards is the largest host of free discussion forums on the Internet. Build a successful community and join the millions of people who use ProBoards each month. Visit us at http://proboards.com for more information.