Online communities make city living a lot easier

Richmond, VA (PRLEAP) - Moving to a new city is a daunting task. With the help of the Internet, online communities make that process easier. You register an account, search through current postings by the community's members or make a new post requesting help on the information you seek and just wait for the answers to come. Most online communities are full of friendly members willing to help you get acclimated to your new city as soon as possible. Common questions for new residents are those seeking opinions on the safety of neighborhoods, finding rental properties or finding recommendations on restaurants. Many people call these online communities that target a metro area, “virtual cities”.

One such virtual city is RichmondForums.com ( http://www.richmondforums.com ). A trendsetter and one of the first of its kind for the city of Richmond, RichmondForums.com provides its services for people in the Richmond, Virginia metro area, RichmondForums.com is a social networking site and tells you to consider them as “your daily ‘Happy Hour’” in their welcome message to prospective members. The relaxed atmosphere is something Richmond Forums takes pride in and its shines through the messages posted on its forums.

Boasting a membership of 258 members and growing daily, Richmond Forums provides a medium for native and transplant Richmond-area residents to interact amongst one another. Prospective, new and old members can browse through the sites over 28,500 posts on over 3,000 topics.

The site provides a variety of incentives for signing up. Such incentives include a community calendar highlighting local events, an online photo gallery for users to upload and sort their photos online and an arcade where you can take a break from posting or reading through topics on the forums or from the paperwork at the office to waste away the time. RichmondForums.com was the first Richmond metro specific online community to offer such features and they remain popular amongst its user base. The site has monthly gatherings at local restaurants and bars. It also provides recognition to its most loyal and active of members through “Member of the Month” awards. The elected “Member of the Month” receives prizes for their selection. RichmondForums.com has also begun offering free advertising space to local businesses.

Signup on the site is surprisingly simple and completely free of charge. You need a valid email address and you need to create a unique username and password. Upon signup you will receive an email from the site administrator and be required to confirm your email address via a link in that confirmation email. Once that is done, you’re all set to interact with the community.

“We take pride in what we have to offer our members and the offline community as a whole,” said website administrator and founder, Edwin Iguina, III from IMPAQ Media. “We were one of the first independent mediums to offer a general discussion forum for Richmond, while yet being community conscious and offering discussion forums for local issues. Our features, and the work we’ve put into implementing them, are something we hope the Richmond community can see as an asset.” As for being an asset to the community, Edwin said, “We hope the general public, online and offline, can see us as an asset to the city. We feel we provide a valuable service to those who seek information concerning city issues, restaurants, entertainment and services.”

In a world dominated by the likes of MySpace, Friendster and the like, when it comes to local discussion and information RichmondForums.com stands head and shoulders above the rest. In closing, Edwin said, “’Community’ is a strong word with a lot of feeling behind it. We at RichmondForums.com like to think we truly are an online - COMMUNITY.”

About RichmondForums.com:

RichmondForums.com is a social networking website for the Richmond, VA metro area. RichmondForums.com has a membership of over 250 and a database of over 28,500 posts. RichmondForums.com is owned and operated by IMPAQ Media.

For more information contact info@richmondforums.com