Just wanted to share some recent upgrades on CigarFriendly.us that were pushed out last night including Event Planning w/ RSVP.

1. The first change is a toolbar on the bottom of the screen. This contains quick links on the left side to navigate to certain parts of CigarFriendly.us a bit quicker. There is also a Chat panel, Friend Panel and Notification Panel.

The Chat Panel is a site wide chat. Currently it will not chat individually. The Friend Panel will show the online status of any friends you have on the site. You will notice currently next to their name it will say "(CF)". In time, as The Cigar Network(TCN) grows, this tool bar will be linked throughout the sites, allowing you instant communication with your friends regardless of what site you are on within TCN.

2. As mentioned above, you can now add people as friends on CigarFriendly.us. Links to add a friend can be found on both the member list, as well as within a users profile page. Their profile page can be accessed by clicking their name anywhere within the site. Friendship requests do require approval.

3. A very important new feature was added in the form of Events! You can now add an event on CigarFriendly.us and link it to a location that is on the site. As the event coordinator you can invite anyone you have "Friended" on CigarFriendly.us as well as upload a Comma Delimited Text file (CSV) of your stores email mailing list. The system will automatically check your list to see if any of the email addresses are registered users and send email notifications accordingly.

If the event coordinator has opted to allow guests to bring friends, any user can invite their friends through the site.

The Event page also has a fully integrated RSVP system. So no more guessing how many of your hundreds of contacts will be attending.

4. Site and Email notifications. Many new notifications have been added for certain actions such as being invited to an event, being added as a friend, someone commenting on your listing or profile, someone commenting on a listing you also commented on. These notifications can be turned on and off by accessing the Alert Preferences under Profile.

I hope these upgrades will find great use and help everyone who uses the site to find great events and share information in a easy and fun to use manner.
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