MAJOR BP Update Next Week! NEW: Closed Networking & Much More

[Joshua Dorkin]

We're planning on doing a MAJOR upgrade to BiggerPockets next week and I wanted to make sure everyone was aware.

1 - We're creating a closed network within the site for our users, so you can network privately amongst your colleagues or colleagues and followers.

This system will replace our current status system, and as a result, user "status" messages will no longer appear on your profile, next to your blog posts, or in your forum signature. Again, if these networking messages are to be private, we don't want them to be visible to others outside your networks.

2 - We're killing off our MySpace-esque profile message system. We've found this to have little practical value and it has been used very infrequently. That said, if there are any messages on your profile that you want to save or reply to, be sure to do so before next week.

3 - In summary, upon the new update BiggerPockets will allow our users to network both publicly (forums and blogs), and privately (dashboard / PMs). This will give our users more opportunity to connect with their direct peers on a much deeper level as well as to interact with the community at large. Users will also be able to share interesting articles, pictures, websites, and news with their closed networks, where they don't have that ability today. Of course, we've added new moderation tools for our users to go with this, to make sure that the site continues to be a place where spam is not welcome.

We'll be sure to announce the deploy once it goes live, and have several additional exciting new features that we will be adding in the weeks to follow.

We're extremely excited about this and hope that you will be as well.

Here's a little preview:

Have a great holiday weekend!

[Chris Clothier]

Joshua Dorkin - This is going to be a killer feature!

Many of us are only able to spend small amounts of time on the site and I mostly engage in the forums and on topics that others start. Being able to share real time with my colleagues and read real time what they have going on is a huge plus and will absolutely encourage me to spend more minutes each day on the site.

This is a powerful site. Be on the lookout for some numbers I am going to share this week. About how BP is turning into the biggest lead source I have online - seriously outpacing every other online source I use. This feature will only allow me to forge even stronger relationships.

I am gong to share this thread on Twitter & Google+. This is really good stuff -

Chris