One of DPNow's busiest sections is the discussion forum. We admit it's been out of date for a long time. But now we have a much-improved forum to offer you!

We have a new and much improved discussion forum. The new forum went live last night and will replace the existing forum that has been operating, virtually unchanged, since December 2002.

Key improvements are the implementation of multiple boards covering a range of specific topics, an integrated portal providing access to and information about the most recent posts, improved password management and a better user interface, though existing users will find all the same familiar basic controls.

The new forum portal provides at a glance information about latest posts on all the new boards, plus direct access to each board.

For the first time, a simple one-time registration is required if you wish to post messages to the new forum. This will ensure that nobody accidentally or maliciously uses your forum identity as it will be password-protected by default. It should also dissuade forum spammers.

At long last, there are more flexible options for displaying lists of threads and messages. The original threaded display remains and is now supplemented by a neater collapsed mode. It's possible to toggle between the two at the press of a button.

It's now possible to toggle between a threaded and collapsed index view at the click of a button.
Individual threads can now be toggled between the familiar threaded display and an expanded mode, where all the messages in a thread are displayed in an open stack, popular with many other bulletin boards. Individual messages can now be enhanced by the poster with an 'avatar' picture, if desired.

You can now click a button to toggle between the usual threaded view and stacked expanded view. Note the new 'avatar' graphics.

Of course you can (and we encourage you to) post your photos in messages. This is done in much the same way as before, except there is now a new option to display images hosted on your own or another site against dark grey, black or white backgrounds. The old white default background has now changed to a light grey.

There are also numerous other improvements that you will discover along the way. The icing on the cake is a comprehensive new online help resource.

Realistically, while the new DPNow forum is a huge step forward from the old one, there are plenty of other features that could be further added and we are committed to introducing many of these in the coming weeks and months.

Why not have a look at the new forum now? To help encourage people to register and get involved in forum discussions, we're offering forum posters this month the chance of winning some prizes.

If you have some ideas for future forum developments, please let us know!