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Community Feedback: New Forum Software Is Live!

6K views 18 replies 7 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 Although seeing the same format for a long time is comforting, the member experience shouldn’t include dealing with outdated, unsafe, slow software.

The transition to a new platform will never be 100% smooth but the days of dealing with out of date forum software are over.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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#2 ·
During your transition to the new platform, I will be here to help with any questions, help with navigation or how to do things, and listen to your feedback, so please don't hesitate to holler at me. I want to help. You can also check out our FAQs.

I do want to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Cricket. When I was born, my father told his friends I was the ugliest baby he had ever seen and sounded just like a cricket (I was born with the hiccups.), so yes, I have been Cricket for a very long time now. I live just outside of San Antonio, Texas. I spend most of my free time outdoors and exploring the back roads. During late autumn, when it starts to cool down, I disappear from the world for a bit for camping trips and hiking.

Please don't be afraid to explore and test out things to see how they work on the site. :)

Although you can certainly use the "insert image" icon to upload an image to your post, you can also drag and drop it to the text editor or even copy/paste it there!

You can easily share videos by adding the URL directly into the text editor!



Gif links from sites like giphy.com will display automatically by adding the gif URL directly in the text editor. Try it!



I am a huge fan of the dark mode for the community. What is your favorite feature?

The new forum software is still a work in progress.

We will see regular updates primarily fueled by community feedback. While that doesn't mean we can action every request, we will actively listen to the feedback and share it with the developers. We ask you to keep questions, thoughts, or feedback about the new forum software in the Community Feedback thread to help us keep all the information together so we don't miss anything.

There is still some work behind the scene, so you may notice some changes as we work.
  • It can take 24-48 hours for the site to finish indexing, so it may take a bit for search results to return accurate results, including showing all your threads/posts under your profile.
  • We will continue to clean up the order of the sections on the full forum listings page, so you might see some stuff move around.
  • We are reviewing permissions and special permission sections so let us know if you notice any issues that you would like us to look into.
I have worked with our community support team for seven+ years. I have worked with forums for closer to two decades. So I won't always know the answers to your questions, but I can find someone who does, as needed. ;)

- Cricket
 
#6 ·
Yep, question about pictures.
If I upload multiple pictures, they all arrive in the main body of the text in any order.
I worked around it by uploading them one by one at the place I wanted them in the text.
Surely there got to be a better way?
 
#7 ·
I believe it loads them in the order they are uploaded but that would likely be different based on the method used to upload.

I tend to just copy/paste the images into the content.

How To Upload Images To Posts

Start your post as usual, and click on the insert image icon.

A pop-up screen will allow you to drag and drop an image from your computer device to where it says Drop image.

You will now see the picture displayed in the content area of your post.

If, instead of dropping an image, you decide to click on the (Or click here) text, a new window will open, allowing you to select your photo using the following steps.

Click the image, so it adds the file name for you, then click on open.

Finish adding any content to your post, and then click Post reply.

- Cricket
 
#9 ·
That is not something we can do at this time, but you can keep your favorite forum sections at the top.

How To Keep Your Favorite Forum Sections at the Top

My Followed Forums

Go to the forum section and click Follow Forum for community sections that are particularly important to you.

You will see a list of options open for your preferences. First, add a checkmark to your preferred options. Then, click Follow at the bottom.

Your Followed Forums will display at the top of the full Forum Listing page.

- Cricket
 
#10 ·
I have to say that so far it's been fairly easy to use and kick around. (From a user's perspective)

If it's easy on your end with spaminators and installing updates....it's a keeper for sure.

I'm not exactly sure if it's got the functionality of semi-private or super-member forums....just to help monetize the forum. Not sure if you got the traffic for that. But so far it's been pretty good.
 
#11 ·
I'm not exactly sure if it's got the functionality of semi-private or super-member forums....just to help monetize the forum. Not sure if you got the traffic for that. But so far it's been pretty good.
We do have a Premium option available.

- Cricket
 
#16 ·
There sure is! :)

How To Report a Post
Click on the Kebab (3 vertical dots) to the far right of the time stamp.

Select Report from the drop-down.

Add your reason for the report to the popup and click Report when you are done.


- Cricket
 
#19 ·

The site will be transitioning from the dedicated support team (who works primarily with helping members transition to the new platform) to our regular tech support team. Although this means it may take us a bit longer to respond to your questions, we will continue to be here for you and the community.
- Community Management Team
 
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