GLRF Community Platform V2.0 Launched

After years of promises and significant personal and developer delays, the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation’s new online community platform is now live.  The platform was officially opened for new registrations on 21 October 2024.  What’s so different?  Just about everything!

Probably the most important change is that V2.0 is responsive.  What does that mean?  For all you mobile users, you can browse and interact with the community with any mobile device, phone, or tablet, all day and all night.  Just type in the GLRF url, glrf.info, into any browser on your mobile and you will see and use just about every feature available that you would find on a desktop or laptop. 

Brand new to the V2.0 is  Regattas+  The section allows any GLRF member to list any rowing-related regatta, ergatta, and camp/clinic.  When we say any, we mean any: LGBTQ+-focused or not.  If you have a favorite rowing regatta, you can list it, and once listed, GLRF members can follow the listing to see who is going, track comments, see any uploaded files, and share images.  Every listing is designed to have an overview description (provided by a GLRF member) as well as links for the regatta website and registration.  Even better, any GLRF member can edit the listing if the description or dates or url is incorrect.  Best of all, there is a Member Going feature.  Yes, you can click “I’m Going” and the rest of the community can see that!

Probably the most visited aspect of the community is the Gallery.  Not only renamed, but completely redesigned, the Gallery removes endless layers of categories and subcategories and simply offers albums.  GLRF members can create their own albums or add to existing with absolute ease.  Since the gallery is an intrinsic part of the platform, GLRF members can find the gallery albums connected with the Community Calendar Events section and the Regattas+ section.

Another major remodel was the Countries section.  Now found under Connections, the Members, section allows visitors to click on every country with a GLRF member and see member demographics by region and metroarea.  We have added a country moderator feature that allows one or more country-specific GLRF members to send emails to all or portions of a given country. 

The Initiatives section is brand new and supports the Gay + Lesbian Rowing Federation’s goals to promote inclusion and acceptance, and to promote rowing in the broader LGBTQ+ community.

We encourage everyone to reconnect with our global rowing community.  Log in and update your profile, or if you have heard about our community but kept putting it off, take the plunge and register – it’s free!

Oh, we almost forgot!  Yes, there is an app!  It’s a PWA or progressive web app.  It looks and acts like a native application from the Google Store or the Apple Store but just works on any browser in a phone or tablet without all the updating and downloading.  Need some help? Click over to our FAQ's.