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Community Feedback: New Forum Software Is Live!

13K views 189 replies 38 participants last post by  admin 
#1 ·
We are excited to announce that we are live on our new forum platform!

It’s been a long time coming. Let’s face it. Sometimes older forum technology lags behind other parts of the internet. Although seeing the same format for a long time is comforting, the member experience shouldn’t include dealing with outdated, unsafe, slow software.

The transition to a new platform will never be 100% smooth but the days of dealing with out of date forum software are over. We have teams dedicated to building a world-class community for you. The development has been steady with regular software releases since May 2019. Asking members for feedback and coming up with ideas for improvement is what we want.

Speed and Reliability Are Key
No one should have to wait for information. This site has been built to be much faster and more reliable, period.

New Homepage Experience
Our algorithm will serve a personal customized feed based on your prior engagement with content on the site. If you’ve liked and or commented, or are following certain topics that are of interest to you, similar content will appear at the top of the homepage.

Search
We have introduced new search algorithms, powered by an industry-leading AI platform, to help you find information faster. We plan to roll out new features to continue improving search, and to power many additional areas of the forum.

Due to the volume of content, our search platform may take some time to complete indexing over the first few days after migrating. During this process, you may see a limited number of posts until indexing has been completed. We appreciate your patience.

Finding Your Way Around
We have made the design clean and simple to use. Near the upper right-hand corner of the community, you will see navigation icons.

The first icon is for what’s new on the site.

Clicking on it, by default, will take you to new unread posts. On that page, you can click on additional tabs as well, such as Popular, if you prefer to view active topics.

Clicking the list icon next to “NEW” will bring you to the full forum listing.

Clicking your avatar will give you a drop-down menu for all things related to your account.

You can also navigate more by clicking the 3 vertical dots.

Dark Mode
We have introduced Dark Mode. One of our favorite features allows you to access the site with a power-saving, and easier on the eyes dark mode. You can access it in the drop-down menu under the 3 vertical dots.

Save Bookmarks
Now you can save your favorite discussion threads and posts! Bookmarks are a handy way to remember and easily find great content or stuff you want to read later.

We also wanted to make it easier for new users to understand the lingo of forums. We have cleaned up various language to more commonly recognized phrases including:
  • Following - Thread subscriptions, and Watched are now known as Following
  • Conversations - Private Messages or PMs are now conversations and can be accessed from the user avatar drop-down in the main navigation
  • Showcase - Showcase is designed for users to "showcase" items/projects through the use of uploaded images, text descriptions and custom content categories. It’s a way to visually and textually provide detailed information on the content you wish to share. The showcase would be similar to a catalog, whereas the gallery would be like a photo album. It can be accessed from the drop-down menu with the 3 dots.
Take a tour and look around! Check out the Help section for some quick FAQs about the new platform.

Please keep all feedback, questions, concerns, requests for help, etc. regarding the new platform right here in this Feedback thread. This will help us make sure not to miss a request for help and also let us pass along your thoughts to our Product team. The Admins and I will be here to help along the way taking note of your comments.

- Community Management Team
 
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#82 ·
Repeat after me. This is for the people. This is for the members. This is because you 'all' asked for this. This is to enhance the user experience. This is so we can justify increasing the member pricing at the end of the year. Now let's begin again with some FEELING!!.....oops, hang on a second. I got an Ad pop-up from Walgreens for a sweet BOGO for some Vitamin S.....I'll be back.:rolleyes:
 
#100 ·
At this time there are no special badges. There are profile tags for premium, moderators, admins, and vendors.

The developers are working on improving the Trophies features for this. I do not yet have an ETA on this though.


- Cricket
 
#101 ·
Loving the new look! So far its pretty intuitive. One minor thing so far is that the photo gallery is a tiny bit confusing with how "Your Albums" appear. It's a collection of the last 4 photos added to the album with one photo that has the folder icon to indicate the album. You have to hover over the image to see what the album name is. It would be nice to have the album title already visible. Just an idea. By the looks of it we are no longer be able to make an album photo cover with this particular layout? All in all, so far I am enjoying the updates!(y)
 
#102 ·
How does a person turn off the "alert" for liking a post ? I find it annoying to have to clear that evry time I log in and I really don't care for the software reminding of what I already know. I have unchecked every alert in the preference area and they still show up. Is the only solution to not "like" any posts?
 
#108 ·
When you are reading a thread, you will see a green dot on the avatar of those who are online.


You can also click on the 3 dots in the upper right hand corner of the site and select Members.
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This will bring you to the Members page with options in the left sidebar, including who is online.
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You can also search to find a member.

There is also a section that displays the newest members.

- Cricket
 
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