Update Coming Tonight (September 2nd)

There will be some downtime late tonight (perhaps 11PM Pacific time or later) for a forum upgrade.

The major feature in tonight's upgrade is the introduction of private messaging. Another feature that some may find handy is the ability to block members so that their posts won't show up in threads you read.

There are a few other minor enhancements. Once the upgrade is complete, I will make a post with more details.

Private messaging.... Woo hoo! Thanks, JB!

The update is complete!

Private messaging is now supported. Click on the Private Messaging link in the menu below the navigation bar to access your inbox. From your inbox, you can switch to your outbox, and send someone a message. The same formatting codes that can be used in regular posts and blog posts are also supported in private messages. You can reply to, forward, or delete messages that are in your inbox or outbox. When looking at a message that you sent, it will show you whether or not the recipient has read the message yet, and if so, the date and time that they first read it. (Basically, each private message has a built-in read-receipt that cannot be disabled.)

There are also 2 new items in your Preferences screen corresponding to private messaging. The first option lets you decline the receipt of private messages. This option is enabled by default, per the majority vote in a recent poll. If you do not wish to receive private messages, go to your Preferences page and uncheck the checkbox. The other option, which only applies if you wish to accept private messages, is a toggle that determines whether or not the system will send you an email as soon as you receive a private message. Regardless of this setting, if someone sends you a private message, the first time you load any page after the message arrived, a popup will appear to let you know that you have a new message.

Another feature that has been added is the ability to block posts made by other members. To block someone, browse through the enhanced Members list (more on that below) and click the Block button. If they are already blocked, the button will say Unblock instead. To see a list of who you have blocked, click on the Preferences link above and then the 'Click here to block or unblock members' link. A list of everyone you've blocked will appear. You can also access the members list from that page.

If you have blocked a member, and then access a thread in which the blocked member has posted, there will be a line of text that acts as a placeholder of the blocked message. There is also a link which lets you see the blocked message anyway, should you wish to. You can also access your list of blocked members from there too.

If you allow incoming private messages, and someone that you have blocked attempts to send you a private message, it will not allow them. However, they won't necessarily know that you have blocked them specifically, because they will see the same error message that would appear if you had disabled incoming private messages.

The members list has been improved to let you browse all members (which previously was the only way), or you can narrow down the list to those beginning with a certain letter or number.

Another feature many people were asking for which has been added, is the ability to distinguish between new threads and threads you have already read. This functionality might be somewhat primitive, but it is still better than it was before. When browsing through a topic's list of threads, any thread which has new posts will appear in bold text; those which have no new posts since the last time you viewed the thread will not be bold. You'll also notice a star on the icon next to the thread if it has new posts.

You can also mark all threads in a topic or forum as read with a new 'mark as read' button found in the Forum view and the Topic view. In case it isn't obvious, the hierarchy is Forum > Topic > Thread > Post. A 'Forum' is a collection of Topics, a Topic is a collection of Threads, and a Thread is a collection of Posts. The main forum page lists each Topic grouped by their parent Forum. To access the Forum view, click on the name of the Forum; to access the Topic view, click on the name of the topic. From either of these two views, you can mark all of the 'child' Threads as being read. As you start out today, every thread will appear to be unread, so you may wish to make use of the 'mark as read' button if you want threads to start standing out to you as read or unread.

The "top 5" and "top 10" information at the top of the main forum page has been adjusted somewhat -- the headers themselves are now clickable links which will take you to a complete list of the corresponding items. For example, clicking the "Latest Blogs" link will take you to the revamped blog listing, described below.

The blog listing is now sortable by any of the columns (click a column once to sort by that column; click again to sort in the other direction). As someone requested, a new column has been added showing the date of the most recent comment, which can also be used to sort the list.

As with any update, please keep an eye out for anything strange and let me know if something doesn't work as expected. You can either send me a private message, or use the Contact form and select 'Technical/Website Problem' as the subject.

Thanks!

Quote: JB

If you have blocked a member, and then access a thread in which the blocked member has posted, there will be a line of text that acts as a placeholder of the blocked message. There is also a link which lets you see the blocked message anyway, should you wish to. You can also access your list of blocked members from there too.

Now that is pretty cool. In a way, that's hilarious! [in a good way]. Kudos to you for your efforts. Some have questioned whether this site should be using something off the shelf instead, and they had a certain argument. But I am seeing some great ideas, and a highly superior site to some others, such as the confoundingly bad product that plagues the "Field and Stream" website.

I am glad to see you are not the webmaster who quit btw.

Quote: JB

You can also mark all threads in a topic or forum as read with a new 'mark as read' button found in the Forum view and the Topic view. In case it isn't obvious, the hierarchy is Forum > Topic > Thread > Post. A 'Forum' is a collection of Topics, a Topic is a collection of Threads, and a Thread is a collection of Posts. The main forum page lists each Topic grouped by their parent Forum. To access the Forum view, click on the name of the Forum; to access the Topic view, click on the name of the topic. From either of these two views, you can mark all of the 'child' Threads as being read. As you start out today, every thread will appear to be unread, so you may wish to make use of the 'mark as read' button if you want threads to start standing out to you as read or unread.

Can you add a button to mark every thread in EVERY forum as being read? Or simply reset everyone's so that they anything prior to today is assumed to have been read. There are too damn many forums to go thru to initially set them. This might need to be an option presented when new members sign up, too. I.E. If I were a new member, and return tomorrow, I probably would only want to be alerted to the newest stuff, and get to the old stuff on my leasure.

Also, when using the http://wizardofvegas.com/recent/ link, NONE of the threads are marked.

Quote: JB

The blog listing.... As someone requested, a new column has been added showing the date of the most recent comment, which can also be used to sort the list.

That was me. Thanks, but it's not working right.

Here's what I think it's doing: When you click on the latest post heading, it sorts based on the FIRST reply, although the date shown is the latest reply.


Keep up the good work!

Is it too early to ask for other features?

And incase anyone isn't seing the new buttons (like the "New Message" button on the PM page), do a ctrl refresh to get the updated style sheet. I think it's funny that you can ignore yourself, but you can't PM yourself. :+)

Quote: JB

If you have blocked a member, and then access a thread in which the blocked member has posted, there will be a line of text that acts as a placeholder of the blocked message. There is also a link which lets you see the blocked message anyway, should you wish to. You can also access your list of blocked members from there too.

Thanks!

Is the line of text "LA LA LA LA LA LA LA I can't HEAR you!!!"? If not, it should be.

Quote:

Another feature many people were asking for which has been added, is the ability to distinguish between new threads and threads you have already read. This functionality might be somewhat primitive, but it is still better than it was before. When browsing through a topic's list of threads, any thread which has new posts will appear in bold text; those which have no new posts since the last time you viewed the thread will not be bold. You'll also notice a star on the icon next to the thread if it has new posts.

Thank you very very much!

Quote: JB

Another feature many people were asking for which has been added, is the ability to distinguish between new threads and threads you have already read. This functionality might be somewhat primitive, but it is still better than it was before. When browsing through a topic's list of threads, any thread which has new posts will appear in bold text; those which have no new posts since the last time you viewed the thread will not be bold. You'll also notice a star on the icon next to the thread if it has new posts.

This feature doesn't appear to be working correctly for me. I went through and marked everything as having been read (which took maybe a minute). Then, as threads are added to, they show up as "new", as they should. I can manually mark them as read again, but if I just read the thread, it doesn't automatically get marked to show I have read it. Do I have to press the button every time I read a thread? That doesn't seem the right way to do it.

Thank you for doing this.