Site News & Announcements

New Messenger and Chat

Our new Messenger has been completely rebuilt from the ground up and brings a much more modern, flexible, and user-friendly way to connect with other members.

So how do you access it?

You’ll now see “Messenger” in your left-hand navigation. Click the word to open the full Messenger system right on your screen. From there, you can view conversations, start new ones, search messages, and access your settings.

You’ll also notice a small “+” next to Messenger. That lets you launch a popup version of the messenger or open chats in their own window.

Three Ways to Message

You can now choose how you want to chat with other members:

Messenger Bar (Desktop)
Keep conversations open along the bottom of your screen while you browse. Drag, minimize, or expand chats as needed. You can have multiple conversations open and switch between them easily.

Full Messenger View
Access all conversations, search, settings, and message tools in one clean, organized space. This is what opens when you click “Messenger” in your navigation.

Popup Window
Open a conversation in its own window so you can move it anywhere on your screen. This is perfect if you like to keep a chat open while working elsewhere on the site.

New Features You’ll Notice Right Away

  A built-in mini editor with formatting options like bold, colors, fonts, and more
  Reactions you can add to messages with a click or tap
  Built-in Giphy support for quick, expressive replies
  Cross-tab syncing, so your messages stay updated across multiple tabs
  Search your conversations to quickly find past messages

More Control Over Your Conversations

We’ve also made big improvements to privacy and messaging control.

Click the Settings button (gear icon) inside Messenger to customize who can start conversations with you. You can set rules based on membership level, favorites, or group connections, and combine those however you’d like.

You can also create a personal block list that overrides everything else.

Within any conversation, you can close the thread with someone at any time. This stops new messages without requiring a full block, and you can reopen it later simply by messaging again.

A Much Better Mobile Experience

Messaging on mobile has been completely reworked to feel smoother and more intentional. It is faster, easier to use, and much more in line with what you would expect from modern messaging.

Updated Message Chatting

The new chat system (previously Scrolling Messages) has also been improved. Conversations now flow naturally from top to bottom, and the pop-out view gives you more control over layout and sizing.

You’ll also notice integrated chat features like games, scoreboards, and live activity, all built right into the messaging experience.

This was a large update that touches many parts of the site, and while we have tested it thoroughly, your feedback is incredibly helpful as we continue to fine-tune things.

If you notice anything that does not seem quite right, please let us know in Bug Reporting so we can take a look.

As always, thanks for being here and sharing your creativity with us.