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Community Feedback: New Forum Software Is Live!

61179 Views 1592 Replies 155 Participants Last post by  BobHall
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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 Although seeing the same format for a long time is comforting, the member experience shouldn’t include dealing with outdated, unsafe, slow software.

The transition to a new platform will never be 100% smooth but the days of dealing with out of date forum software are over.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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Okay, not been on in a bit and a few forum software went live 5 days ago. Rather that wade through 22 pages of this thread, are blog series posts now defunct? I can't find a way to continue a series I was working on.
Definitely not a fan of the new layout. I used to be able to see several projects without scrolling. Now all I can see is 2 unless I scroll. It was a good run, but I doubt I'll use this site as much as I used to.
Well, I just popped on and it is a bit confusing. I will figure it out. Optically it is not as compact and intuitive as the prior layout. There is a massive amount of dead space (the projects page in particular). I estimate that there is only 40% utilization of the screen (on a mac, 24" monitor) for actual content, the rest is blank. No worry though as not my circius and not my monkeys. They can do as they wish. I will adapt. It appears we gained some better AJAX functionality in image uploading and video linking, but got a more "phone" oriented interface. Alas, that is the way things are going.
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YVW James. No, the only people I follow are the spammers - that's basically how I keep up with them. After their first post, they often come back later on to add their spam links. That's when their turkey is done.
Sad, but, I didn't know how many members were actually following me. LOL I really don't consider my skill levels worthy of being followed. But, I was flattered that they thought so.
HOPEFULLY, all these very talented techno gurus that are working diligently on the new platform issues (behind the scenes) will have some good news in the near future. Stay patient and stay tuned.
There is a massive amount of dead space (the projects page in particular).
I hadn't really paid that much attention to dead space. I just took a look at the Projects page and I sure see what you mean. Then I turned off my ad blocker and there was no more dead space!
One piece that would help restore the blog functionality is the allow the Original Poster to set the new content on a new page. This would allow each chapter to have its own page.

Is this possible?
I wish we had been told in advance that we would lose all of our "project" favorites. That is a major loss for me and one of the main reasons I liked this forum so much. Hopefully you can find a way to get them back.
I have to agree. My favorited projects was like a library of ideas and inspiration. Several hundred projects selected over the past 12 years - all gone.
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I have to agree. My favorited projects was like a library of ideas and inspiration. Several hundred projects selected over the past 12 years - all gone.
same here, hopefully they will figure a way to get it back ? this should have never been omitted. 😞
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Whatever method is being used to choose the "Recommended Reading" at the bottom of pages needs some work. For example, the recommended threads at the bottom of this page saw their most recent activity in 2007, 2011, 2013, and 2014. They all deal with features specific to the old web site.

I suggest disabling this feature for now.
I would tend to agree. I've clicked on to a couple and then realized they were last active 5+ years ago. Apparently it uses some algorithm based on topics you've been active on to recommend similar topics, but I think it needs to account for the time since it was last active or something. Kind of annoying, personally. Would be neat if it worked though lol
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same here, hopefully they will figure a way to get it back ? this should have never been omitted. 😞
100% this 😕
YVW James. No, the only people I follow are the spammers - that's basically how I keep up with them. After their first post, they often come back later on to add their spam links. That's when their turkey is done.
Sad, but, I didn't know how many members were actually following me. LOL I really don't consider my skill levels worthy of being followed. But, I was flattered that they thought so.
HOPEFULLY, all these very talented techno gurus that are working diligently on the new platform issues (behind the scenes) will have some good news in the near future. Stay patient and stay tuned.
Thanks again John. Wouldn’t it be nice to get be behind the scenes. I always wanted to get behind the scenes but was never allowed back there. (8^}
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... but got a more "phone" oriented interface...
Cartoon Gesture Poster Happy Font
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I have to agree. My favorited projects was like a library of ideas and inspiration. Several hundred projects selected over the past 12 years - all gone.
Yea...I am not at your level, but I had a list of things I wanted to be able to turn back to for inspiration, of course, until the projects section gets doctored up a good bit, no need to worry.
When you are using the "NEW" ballon to follow discussions, I noticed that if someone posts a project it doesn't show up unless I have my settings wrong.
If that's the case, I think it should show up to give projects more attention.
I just logged in after a few weeks and noticed the change. First question, where did the projects I "favorited" go? I don't see them anymore. Second, I don't like how projects are showing up in a list view. The grid view, in my opinion, was really great. The list view shows you a smaller number of projects per page and hence, more pages to scroll through for the same number of projects.
I would agree, I would love to see something more like this for the Showcase/Project section (This was done by almost exclusively modifying css styles in dev tools as a quick example/POC)
Product Wood Font Screenshot Adaptation
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+1 Losing my favorite project and forum post bookmarks is becoming more disappointing the longer I use the new site.

+1 Need grid view for projects, as well as summaries for TOP projects.
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What's the deal with this "Enable Push Notifications" pop up that keeps showing even after I've told it "never" 14,352 times already? Please, please, Make It Stop! :))
BillL
Hi I'm really lost here on the new layout.
Are there no longer a personal page with my projects and blogs and a control panel, from where I can post new blogs and so on?
Perhaps I have been blocked...
I tried navigating around, half an hour now and can't find it anywhere.
Best thoughts,
MaFe
Hi I'm really lost here on the new layout.
Are there no longer a personal page with my projects and blogs and a control panel, from where I can post new blogs and so on?
Perhaps I have been blocked...
I tried navigating around, half an hour now and can't find it anywhere.
Best thoughts,
MaFe
Mads - Click the icon top right with your profile picture and select My Showcase. That will show a list of your projects.
To see your blog posts, select Blogs in the header of the My Showcase page and select the Filter lookup. Type 'Mafe' in the 'Started by' field and click the Filter button.
To post a new project or blog, click the 'New' icon that looks like a speech bubble and to the right of where it says 'Whats New', click Create Post. You will then be able to choose whether you are posting a project or blog etc, just like before. Hope that helps.
Hi I'm really lost here on the new layout.
Are there no longer a personal page with my projects and blogs and a control panel, from where I can post new blogs and so on?
Perhaps I have been blocked...
I tried navigating around, half an hour now and can't find it anywhere.
Best thoughts,
MaFe
Actually there is an easier way than what I just posted Mads. Click your profile picture (top right) and select 'My Profile'. From here you can access everything. The 'Articles' link is any reviews you have posted, the 'Showcase Items' link is where you see your projects, the 'Discussions' link is where you see your blog posts.
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