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Community Feedback: New Forum Software Is Live!

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 Although seeing the same format for a long time is comforting, the member experience shouldn’t include dealing with outdated, unsafe, slow software.

The transition to a new platform will never be 100% smooth but the days of dealing with out of date forum software are over.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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I will be here during your transition to the new platform, to help with any questions, help with navigation or how to do things, and to 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 that I 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 out in nature and exploring the back roads. During late autumn when it starts to finally 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 just drag and drop it to the text editor or even copy/paste it into there!

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


Gif links from sites like giphy.com will display automatically just 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 be seeing regular updates, which are largely fueled by community feedback. While that doesn't mean we can action every request, it does mean we will be actively listening to the feedback and sharing it with the developers. We do ask that you keep any questions, thoughts or feedback about the new forum software here in the Community Feedback thread to help us keep all the information together, so we don't miss anything.

There is still some work going on 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 proper 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 so we can look into them.
I won't always know the answers to your questions, but I can find someone who does, as needed. ;)

- Cricket
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Please be patient with me for a bit so I can get everything set up.

- Cricket
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Congrats on the new website and it looks so nice! I thought the website was unconsciously left as a maintenance mode since Homerefurbers site was running ok and I was just about sending a message via contact form. Then, this fresh website popped up! Honestly, as this new site looks totally different than the old one, I even thought a malware got this site through ads but it wasn't! So cool! Good job, admin!
I am working on setting everything up and then I will be here to answer questions.:)


- Cricket
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How To Keep Your Favorite Forum Sections at the Top

My Followed Forums

For sections of the community that have special importance to you, go to the forum section and click "Follow Forum".

You will see a list of options open for your preferences. Add a checkmark to your preferred options. Click Follow at the bottom.

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

- Cricket
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Trying out the quoting to see how it works
How To Quote/MultiQuote

When you see a post that you want to quote, click the reply button on that post. It will automatically add the quoted content to the content area, where you can add your reply/comments following the quote coding.

How To Multi-Quote

Step 1: Click the multi-quote icon at the bottom of each post you want to quote.

Step 2: Scroll down to the text editor, where you will write your post. Click Insert Quotes.

Step 3: A small window will pop up for you to verify (or delete) quoted content that will be added to your post. Click Quote messages if everything is correct.

Final Step: The quoted content will automatically be added to the text editor. Add your comments and click to post your reply.

Added Notes: You can multi-quote from more than one discussion thread in the forum. You can also highlight the part of the text you want to quote. A small popup will allow you to choose the multi-quote option using just the selected content.
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I notice that you don't block people, you ignore them, so you don't see what they post. I that the only option? Is there a setting that prevents them from posting in your threads without hiding their posts?

Ignore is the option we have available at this time.

Also, is there any chance of changing my username back to Rich?
The system grabbed the username that you registered with on the site. I can update this for you.
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Oh no... Conversations got imported as unread... Looks like i've got 2500+ conversations to mark as "read" lol
How To Delete A Conversation (Private Message)

There is no limit to the number of conversations you can have. You can keep them indefinitely. If you choose to have one no longer displayed to you within your conversations, click on the Kebab menu (three vertical dots) to the far right of the Star at the top of the conversation. Select Leave.

Once you leave a conversation, we cannot restore your access to it unless you are invited back to it.

You can do the following for leaving conversations in bulk (full page).

Open your conversation box. Add a checkmark next to the conversation title.

That will open a drop menu near the bottom. Add a checkmark to Select All.

Although you can add checkmarks next to each conversation, a drop menu near the bottom will appear once you select any. Click Choose action. Add a checkmark to Select all if you want to leave conversations in bulk (such as a full page).

Click the drop-down menu next to Choose action and select Leave conversations. Click Go.
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Cricket, these guides are great, but I would suggest putting them in their own "Guides" section, as I have a feeling this thread is going to get pretty cluttered up soon lol I love having simple visual guides like that though, so thank you!
There is already an FAQ area for the stuff you will see me post.

Click on the 3 dots in the upper right-hand corner of the site and select FAQ.

- Cricket
Cricket, these guides are great, but I would suggest putting them in their own "Guides" section, as I have a feeling this thread is going to get pretty cluttered up soon lol I love having simple visual guides like that though, so thank you!
There is already an FAQ area for the stuff you will see me post.
I notice that you don't block people, you ignore them, so you don't see what they post. I that the only option? Is there a setting that prevents them from posting in your threads without hiding their posts?

Also, is there any chance of changing my username back to Rich?
That username is already taken. Do you have a 2nd choice?

- Cricket
Perfect! The only couple I had expanded there were just plain text, so I didn't catch that these were copy-pasted from there lol
I actually have a different set that I use in here, as the FAQs are expected to be updated soon.
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YouTube link parse and auto-embed is awesome, but I don't think it parses shorts as videos, so those are just previewed links. If it were possible to expand to embed those too, that would be awesome as well
I don't believe that is an option at this time. We have to use the actual share links.

How To Display A Video In Your Post

If you want to display a video from a site such as YouTube, you can add the share link directly into the content area of your post, and it will display automatically.

To get the share link, navigate to the video. Near the title, you will see a share link. Click it.

A small window will open to provide you with a URL. That will be the URL you need to copy and paste into your content.
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I had discovered this, but I've got 76 pages to go through since I can only select a single page at a time... yikes
I was able to go to the next page and keep selecting. I tried 3 pages at a time.
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I would appreciate it if you would change it to Rich when you get a chance. Thanks.
I mentioned above that username is taken. Do you want me to change it to RichT?
Give me a few minutes to finish setting everything up, folks.

- Cricket
Checking on this now. Give me a minute, please.
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What is purpose of Gallery section?

What Is The Difference Between The Showcase And Gallery?

The Showcase feature is designed for members to showcase any items/projects a community member is working on. It includes uploaded images, text descriptions, and custom content. By contrast, a gallery would more resemble a photo album.

How To Add A Gallery

Click on the Kebab (3 vertical dots) near the upper-right-hand corner of the community. Click Gallery.

From the Gallery page, click on Your albums.

Near the top right of the page, click on Add media.

A popup will open. Click on Create personal album.

First, add a title to your album and a description. Now it is time to click Upload file.

Once you have uploaded your file, add some information for the image.

When you are done, click Save.

When you need to add to your album, click on Gallery from the drop-down menu below the Kebab (3 vertical dots) dots in the right-hand corner of the site again.

Click on Your albums from the left-side navigation. Then click on your album.

Once you click the specific album of your choice, click on Add media to upload the new images.

You can also update privacy options when you click on a specific album.

Click Save when you are done.

Why does the Gallery section suddenly show that I am not logged into forum, and does not register that I selected dark mode?

I am not able to replicate this. You may need to clear your LumberJocks cache in your browser.

What is the intended plan for premium memberships? Stated another way: What content does VerticalScope plan to make available to only paid premium members?
You can learn more here.

The premium forums will just be a private place (at this time) for premium members to discuss things that they may not want on the publick forums.

- Cricket
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Well, this totally sucks. Doesn't even look like the woodworking family we had...
It wasn't broke, there was nothing to fix. Let's face it, just because you can do something
new doesn't mean you should.
I am sorry, but parts of the old site were "broken" in many ways. It may not have been something you noticed, but the coding was outdated.

In my humble opinion, a successful forum community has never been about the platform. It is about the amazing members who come together to share a common interest, and along the way, true friendships are developed.

I have been helping sites transition to the new forum software since May 2019. In that time, I have noticed that during the first 30 days or so, traffic tends to slow down a bit while folks adjust to the new navigation and features. Somewhere between 60 - 90 days, the activity increases, and the community begins to grow. Give it some time. We will get there.:)

We will be seeing regular updates that are largely fueled by community feedback. While that doesn't mean we can action every request, it does mean we are actively listening to the feedback and sharing it with the developers.
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Can I ask a huge favor of y'all?

Can we keep all feedback, questions, concerns, requests for help, etc., regarding the new platform here in our Community Feedback thread rather than starting new threads?

The reason this is important is that we will be seeing regular updates, which are largely fueled by community feedback. While that doesn't mean we can action every request, it does mean we are actively listening to the feedback and sharing it with the developers. By keeping all of the information in one thread, we can help make sure that we don't miss anything.

We absolutely want to hear all of the feedback, both good and bad.

We are just asking that it be posted here in the community feedback thread.
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What I don’t like. The small thumb nail photos that show your project and the number of views are estimated by 1k, 2k etc. not the actual number.

My two cents.
Moving forward, you will be able to add the full images within the content. Give me some time to get caught up, and I will work with you to see if your older ones can be edited the way you want them to display.
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