The Daily Jolt (www.dailyjolt.com) is back and better than ever! Founded in 1999 by a group of friends between Amherst College and Brown University, the Jolt was created for their specific campuses. From there, it quickly spread to UMass, Smith, Mount Holyoke, and Hampshire, and is now at more than 200 campuses.

This fall, the Daily Jolt released a new version of the website. In addition to a makeover, updating its look and feel, the new site provides the ability for students to more easily share their opinions, thoughts and ideas, as well as creating commentary.

“The Jolt has always been the authentic voice of students on the UMass campus delivering a truly local online experience that is both at arms length to the administration and a hub for the community,” said Daily Jolt General Manager Max Woolf.

A new flyer board feature lets you upload and add images for events, announcements, and classifieds as an exact replica of a paper flyer. The site also has an enhanced marketplace and textbook exchange, as well as weather, professor quotes, a blog for students, dining hall menus, collegian news, forums and much more.

“I like that even though the site has been around the UMass campus for a few years, we're basically starting all over because its a totally new site,” said UMass senior and Daily Jolt editorial and publicity assistant Andrea Schneider. “And I think although CampusLive has a lot of the same features, The Daily Jolt seems more like a community; I feel like the people who visit the site have been for years.”

One of the most intriguing new features for the UMass community is the work that has been in the forum.

“The Daily Jolt has seen and is acting on two distinct trends in forums and message boards: one trend is for complete transparency and the other is for complete anonymity,” said Woolf.

The forum has always been one of the central features of The Daily Jolt. It allows students to have authentic and

open conversations on a range of issues relating to life, campus, and the community. With respect to offering a place for transparency, The Daily Jolt has created a “Conversations Forum” where every post includes the user name of the individual making the post. An equal but opposite “Confessional Forum” aka “JoltSecret” has been created to allow thoughts, opinions, and statements to be posted anonymously. As always, the “Original Daily Jolt Forum” will continue allowing users to choose between posting their identity or posting anonymously.

“The Jolt wants students to have a choice without restricting or restraining, while at the same time, continuing to have moderation as needed,” said Woolf.

The Daily Jolt was born out of the UMass community and continues to serve the UMass community. It is run by a total of five students here at the University, who are in contact with General Manager Max Woolf via email, phone and instant messenger.

You can view the new and improved UMass Daily Jolt at http://uofma.dailyjolt.com.