We’ve upgraded the forums in a MAJOR way! The new release contains a bunch of new features and improvements. To kick it off, let’s take a closer look at the new header layout and new view modes for the forum index and topic pages.

New traditional header design

A much more compact header compared to the previous version. The new design condenses the navigation bar into a single row, moving all sub-navigation items into dropdown menus. And our new search modal provides convenient access to the advanced search filters from any page.

Forum Index: Feed view

One of our goals for this update was to re-imagine new ways for you to consume content. Table view has been the typical way of displaying forums, providing visitors with a simple summary of the most recently active topic. Grid mode introduced cover photos to forums, while fluid view allows visitors to filter through a list of topics to easily focus on multiple areas of the community.

Joining these view modes is our new Feed view, which is a list of recently active topics with snippets of the most recent replies, allowing you to easily see what each forum is focusing on at a glance. The topic list drops below the cover photo and converts to a scrollable list on small devices.

Topic pages: Compact view

We’ve also introduced a new, compact layout option for topics. We wanted to create a layout which placed focus on your content while still keeping all of the authors profile information easily accessible within a mini profile. Stats, rank, badges, reputation points and more can be found by tapping the icon at the top of every post. The mini profile strip has also been added to other areas of the software too, such as comments and reviews in applications like the gallery, and will appear on the mobile layout when the traditional "table view" is used in topics.

Switching between the new compact view and the author sidebar view takes just seconds giving you complete control over your community view.

Accessible interface

The main content area has been designed with accessibility as a priority. High contrast text colors and larger font-sizes help to make reading more comfortable and clickable table rows allow you to navigate between pages more easily. A visible focus ring significantly improves navigation for visitors who find it more comfortable to browse with their keyboard TAB key, instead of using their mouse (ie, visitors with conditions such as Parkinson's disease, or those who have temporarily lost function due to a broken arm).

Dark mode

Dark mode has become increasingly popular over the past few years - so it's no surprise that the update has been designed from scratch with both light and dark mode in mind. By default, you will be able to choose your own color scheme preference: either light, dark, or system. System assigns a color scheme based on your system preferences - so if your device automatically switches to dark mode at night, your view will too!

Mobile UI

With an incredible amount of mobile visitors accessing this site, we’ve placed a huge priority on redesigning the interface to ensure it lives up to today's standards.

A new navigation bar at the bottom of the page provides convenient access to your activity feed, notifications, messages, a search panel, and navigation links. A conscious effort was made to ensure that this information was available within a single tap, and we found that a bottom bar like this was easier to interact with compared to icons in the header.

A goal of the mobile UI was to display elements that were previously only available on larger devices, while still maintaining a clean interface. For example, to improve navigation, we've added a scrollable breadcrumb list to the top and bottom of the page. To improve guest participation, we added Sign In and Sign Up links to the bottom navigation bar. These links were previously hidden within the hamburger menu, so we feel like this will really improve registrations. And profile information is now available within posts, comments and reviews on small devices.

This release features redesigned dropdown menus with an app-like design on mobile devices, improved accessibility, and smoother performance.

Dropdown menus have received a significant redesign, resulting in a native, app-like experience on touch devices. Menus transition into view, occupying a larger area of the screen, which is great for accessibility. They can be dismissed by swiping the menu off-screen in a downward direction or by tapping the blank area above the menu.

These menus have also received accessibility improvements on desktop devices. They can be toggled using the Return/Spacebar keys, tabbed into using the Tab key, and dismissed via the Esc key. A huge win for visitors who are unable to comfortably use a mouse (or prefer to use a keyboard) while browsing our community.

Combined, this makes browsing on mobile via browser or PWA feel like a truly native experience.

 

Quickly find the most helpful answers

Forum platforms have a wide range of uses, from helping with support to sharing knowledge, ideation and social interaction. Topics can span years, and once the initial explosion of replies has passed, the topic lives on in local search and search engines for future viewers to discover and get value from. However, it's not always easy to get the best content from a very long topic.

You may have noticed that when you come to a topic seeking an answer, some replies are less than helpful. It's common to find a lot of social content mixed in with useful replies. Jokes, GIFs and off-topic musings are all great while the topic develops organically in real-time. Having fun is critical to feeling a sense of belonging in a community. However, those coming to the topic a little later, say from a link Google has suggested, just want to get the useful content in the fastest way possible.

That's where 'helpful' voting comes in.

You can already mark a single post as the best solution for that topic. Still, not every topic gets a definitive answer, and some community strategies resist quickly marking a post as the best answer to encourage more discussion rather than effectively ending it. Even when you have a definitive answer, there is often value in other highly rated posts offering more context, alternative solutions and more thorough explanations.

With Helpful voting, members are encouraged to flag which posts they find helpful in the topic. When enough votes are added to a single post, they are suggested as a possible answer. You can also tune out the noise and view the most helpful replies only.

This is a powerful way to get the very best content from a topic in a short space of time.

If you eventually choose to mark a post as the definitive answer, the suggested post will be replaced with the answer you choose, but you can still see the posts voted as helpful to gain further context.

The helpful voting works independently from reactions, which tend to cluster around social content. Social media conditions us to add a like or funny reaction to content that gets an emotional response. Indeed, a lot of the most highly reacted content is funny content. Social reactions are valuable when building connections between community members but often don't reflect what is the most useful content.

Helping our members find the best content within topics helps them do more with less time.

Helpful voting also feeds into picking Community Experts, a new feature we'll talk about next.

Finding Community Experts

Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience. Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts? And is there a better way?

We think so.

What makes an expert, and why are they important?

Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognize a handful in our community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.

Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.

In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.

The new update identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.

Each forum will have its own experts, so in our very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.

When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them.

Topic Summaries

Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.

Above, I discussed another feature designed to help find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?

We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.

Introducing a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.

The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives you a good idea of the time they'll save. A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

A More Performant, Polished UI

This update introduces a brand new, modern interface which brings improvements to performance, aesthetics and mobile usability.

New view modes, light/dark modes, a search modal and a mobile navigation bar are some of the things I've showcased previously. Now, lets take a closer look at some other miscellaneous changes that we've been working on, including some of the code reductions and performance improvements that we've been able to achieve in the process.

Widgets

Sidebar widgets are perfect for displaying content feeds, featured members, announcements, advertisements and more on your page. In the previous version, the widget column would often become an empty space once the widgets had been scrolled past:

Now widgets now stick to the screen once the last widget has been reached, ensuring readers have more convenient  access to widgets rather than a void space.

Messenger

The Messenger is a great way to reach out to members when a private chat is more appropriate than a topic. Inspired by modern email clients, the messenger has been revamped with a full-height, sticky inbox, a longer message snippet, mini profiles and a more polished UI - all with a performance improvement.

Grids and Masonry

Grids have received a code overhaul, resulting in more performant page rendering and nicer looking grids (especially on small-medium displays such as mobiles and tablets).

Click targets

We wanted to make it as simple as possible to navigate, and one way of doing that has been by implementing larger click targets. Clicking anywhere inside an entry in a table or grid will now take you to that entry (you can still click on other links like normal within the click target, such as subforums or profile links).

Data Lists (tables)

Speaking of tables, they too have been revamped. Tables automatically adapt to the space they've been assigned to (for those curious, this is done using CSS container-queries), so they're always neat regardless of the screen size, with no overflow or squashed layouts.

Profiles

Profiles have been polished and include some nice improvements such as sticky widgets and tabs. 

On mobiles, the side column collapses into a carousel, and the sticky tabs allow you to easily flick between content types without scrolling to the top of the page.

Tabs

You may have noticed that tabs on mobiles are now scrollable, compared to a dropdown menu from the previous version. We made this change to ensure that tabs are given more equal exposure on small devices, and have managed to reduce the CSS by a whopping 80%.

Carousels

Last and certainly not least, are carousels. Carousels are great for displaying large amounts of data in a confined space and they've been rewritten from scratch. Previously, a Javascript library was used to create the "scroll effect", however this has never been the smoothest experience on laptop trackpads and touch devices.

Now carousels are powered by native smooth-scrolling and scroll-snapping, which results in a much nicer user experience, especially on touchscreens. We've been able to remove a staggering 95% of the Javascript, substituting it with just a few lines of CSS.

To be honest, we've only just scratched the surface here! In addition to these changes, we've modernized (and reduced code) in almost every component throughout the suite including avatars, cover photos, dropdown menus, forms, inputs, buttons, lists, off-canvas menus, side menus, columns and more!

Combined, these changes result in not only a significant reduction in code, but also a polished UI that performs smoothly on desktop and touch devices.

New Live Community Features

Last year we introduced new features that immediately showed who was currently reading a topic and who was replying. This feature leveraged new technologies to connect members with each other instantly.

Let’s delve into the latest live community features. We'll examine how these features instantly notify us about new events, updates, or interactions and how they contribute to a shared sense of presence. These features go beyond the static posts and comments we've grown accustomed to and introduce a real-time element.  

Posting
We've all been involved in a busy topic where you're keen to see what replies your latest post has. Previously, you could see who is active on a topic and who is typing, but you have to hit refresh to see the new posts added to the topic. If you're anything like me, then you hammer refresh until something new appears.

This is no longer a problem. As you interact with a topic, new replies are automatically added to the topic without needing to refresh. This one feature brings the conversation to life, and you get a real sense of other members interacting with the topic at the same time as you.

Reactions
Did you drop a razor-sharp GIF or post something applause-worthy? Watch as others react to your content in real time. There's no need to refresh or return to the topic later to see who enjoyed what you wrote.

Getting rewarded for your content is gratifying and encourages you to post more and show your appreciation for other's content via reactions.

Notifications
Notifications have long been a valuable way to be notified when anything important happens in your community. It may be that someone has quoted your content, tagged you in a post or started a new topic in a forum you're following.

Now you can watch the notification count rack up in real time, alerting you to new events that you may otherwise miss as they happen.

The All-New Editor

This update has a brand new editing experience powered by a lightweight, fast React text editor built for mobile and modern browsers.

The venerable CKEditor v4 at the core of our old editor was starting to show its age, so we wanted a clean slate with this update with an editor that was optimized for mobile use, easily extensible and had a feature set that would take us into the next era and beyond.

The Toolbar

The toolbar has been redesigned to put the most commonly used styles first, with the least used styles and functions into an ellipses menu. The new paragraph menu contains the header styles, as well as the code block. The plus menu adds lists, boxes and quotes. The benefit of this new compact menu is that it displays just the same on mobile. Previously, there were different editor styles for desktops, tablets and mobiles with some style buttons removed to save space. Now, this is no longer the case. Even the smallest display gets all the functionality.

Emojis & Icons

Emojis have become a great way to embellish writing and express emotion. The new emoji picker has been modernized with larger emojis and tooltips to showcase the emoji shortcodes.

The Icons tab, new for this update, allows you to add Font Awesome Icons directly to your content.

Lastly, both the emoji selector and the shortcode suggestion dropdown support arrow-key navigation, so you don't have to move your hands from the keyboard to the mouse.

Content Boxes

The feature I'm personally most excited about is boxes.

The concept started as an abstraction of spoilers because sometimes you just want "a box" - a section that stands out from the rest of the content, something we do manually in our documentation and guides on this site. Each box has a tile and the following options:

• Expandable - You can mark a box as "expandable" which is functionally the same as a spoiler. One improvement is that expandable boxes use native HTML details and summary elements instead of plain Javascript animated divs.

• Colors - You can optionally keep it grey on grey like spoilers, but I think that's so boring! The colors automatically adjust to the theme colors, so it will look great in dark and light mode.

• Float (left/right/none) - You can make the box align to the left or right of other content just like you can for images

• Width - When the box is floated, you can set the width to big, medium or small.

 

Link Expansion

We’ve long expanded some links, such as YouTube, offering more context or even a mini-player where appropriate.

With this update, we've added support for embedding dynamic link previews using site metadata. For those unaware, the Open Graph (OG) Protocol is essentially a way webpages can specify a title, image, and description to be dynamically embedded on another platform. This is the underlying technology when you see the link preview in Meta, X, Slack, or iMessage.

Semantic Headings and Relative Sizes

We’ve added a block selector with headings 1 through 6 in the new editor. It's possibly the most common request I hear so that people can use consistent styling rather than just big bold text in a paragraph tag. Semantic headings are also ideal for SEO and accessibility.

Using clear header tags means screen readers and search engines can better understand your content as using absolute font sizes, such as 16px, can make it unclear what type of element is actually being used. Is it a heading or just a paragraph with large bold text?

Furthermore, you may want different sizes depending on the content and device type. Mobile devices may benefit from a large base font size. So we added percent-based font sizes which change the font size based on whatever the default would be for that block.

Further UX Improvements

The new editor has several tangible improvements, including a mobile-first design.

In the last editor, some functionality was hidden behind modals and double clicks, which are either not obvious on mobile devices or not possible at all. The new editor no longer relies on modals and instead uses buttons and dropdown menus that work perfectly with mobile and other touch-based devices.

New Line Arrows

For block content, such as boxes, images and quotes, we've added the ability to create a new line before or after the block with the click of a button. This was an issue of frustration for mobile and touch devices where it was not always clear where the cursor was and a finger is a much less accurate aiming device!

Sticky Toolbar

Anyone who has authored a long piece of content knows the pain of scrolling up and down to get the toolbar in view. To make writing longer content less stressful, we've made the toolbar sticky so that it will always be fixed at the top of the editor after scrolling down.

Markdown Style Shortcuts

One common request is to support markdown in the editor. While we opted not to include full markdown support, the new editor recognizes many markdown-style formatting shortcuts.

Colors

A common challenge with rich text editors on sites with multiple themes is colors often need to consistently look right across all themes. This is even more important with this update, as it has a native dark mode feature. For this reason, we opted to offer a reduced set of color options that all adapt dynamically to the theme. I mentioned this about box colors above, but this is also true of the font color. The difference in shade is slight, but it's very noticeable without it. Toggling between light and dark mode will never produce unreadable text.

Image Resizing

Our brand new editor has many great features and quality-of-life improvements, one being the ability to resize images via drag handles. You can still specify a precise pixel value in the image menu, but the ability to resize using grab handles makes it easier to find the right size for your images.

Embed Resizing

We can also resize embeddable media, such as YouTube, in the same way as you resize images. You can resize by using the grab handles or set a specific pixel value, giving you fine control over the size of your embedded media.

Drag and Drop

We've added the ability to drag and drop quotes, boxes, and images within the editor.

 

Tagging Reinvented

This update overhauls the concept to bring content across different sections together with a beautiful new tag page.

Tagging is a powerful concept but previously underused due to overly complex interfaces in different areas of the suite, a confusing open tagging model option and no real benefit in content discovery beyond a simple list of content items.

A driving force behind this update is the question of how we can help time-pressured community members find the content that most interests them.

We already have a robust taxonomy through forum and category structures, but what about content in less visible areas such as galleries? How can we bring those together to homogenise the type of content and focus on the content itself?

Taxonomy via tagging across all applications in the community suite is the answer. However, we needed to re-approach how tagging was implemented to bring our new vision to life.

Out with the old
The current tagging system was implemented loosely, allowing open tagging, which is more akin to hashtags than high-level taxonomy. Allowing forums, albums, and blog categories to define their own tags turns tagging into more of a status label, which does nothing to help bring disparate content together.

In with the new
With a new focus on taxonomy and content discovery, we set about rebuilding tagging. The UI to tag items is the same, but now each defined, globally available tag has its own page with cover image and ability to feature items within that tag page.

A uniform approach to different content items in the UI breaks down the barrier between content types and focuses solely on the content. Tags featured on its page are automatically displayed on the community Featured Content page.

Finally, tags can now be followed, allowing you to get a daily or weekly digest of all new tagged items, making it easy to read more of the content you love.

 

Dormant Account Login Notification

Keeping member accounts secure is a top priority for all community teams, and with data breaches containing usernames and passwords regularly shared on the dark web, it makes sense to be vigilant to a potential account takeover.

You will now receive an email if a successful login occurs six months or more since the last log in to ensure the account is still in the right hands. If the account owner is not responsible for logging in, they can contact the community team to ensure the account is returned to the owner.

 

Enhancing the Mobile Experience with New PWA Features

What is the Progressive Web App (PWA) and how do I use it? A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a mobile-optimized version of our community that members can add to their device’s home screen, just like any regular app. It launches in full-screen and supports push notifications and badges (when enabled).

To install the PWA:

• iOS/iPadOS: Tap the Share button in Safari (square with an arrow), then tap "Add to Home Screen."

• Android: Tap the three-dot menu in Chrome, then tap "Add to Home Screen."

Some members may not be aware that they can install our community directly to their device like a native app. To help with that, we’ve introduced a new installation prompt banner to help guide them through the install process.

This banner appears when users are browsing the community in a mobile browser. Tapping the banner brings up step-by-step instructions tailored to their device. It’s a gentle nudge that increases PWA adoption while also respecting visitors' choice with a dismiss button.

Pull to Refresh on iOS

Just like in a native app, users can swipe down to refresh the page in iOS, making it easier and more intuitive to see the latest content. This feature replaces the Refresh button previously found in the mobile footer and brings the iOS experience in line with modern mobile app standards.

Loading animation

Navigating between pages in PWAs could sometimes cause confusion due to the lack of a loading indicator. To alleviate this, a custom loading animation has been added which should reassure you that the next page is actually loading. It’s a subtle addition, but it's one which many visitors would expect to see in modern mobile apps - and now they can!

App icon badges

Receiving a notification on the community now adds a notification badge to the PWA icon on your home screen, even if the PWA isn’t open. It’s a great (and familiar) way to inform you that there’s fresh content waiting for you, and it's just a single tap away.

Redesigned enable push prompts

Enabling push notifications has never been easier. You are now prompted not only in the main notifications menu, but also when tapping follow on any item.

 

 

And Finally…

You may notice some weird behavior (formatting issues, buttons not working, etc). This is because you have old files from the former version stored in your browser's cache. YOU must clear your cache in order to resolve the issues (Search YouTube for "How to clear your cache on (your browser name)" to learn how).

That said, there is a known issue with the top green menu button not working, and a fix in the works for that.

Thank you, and enjoy the new features!

Glenn

Just seeing the new update I already love it!!!!

Sweet ~Liking the Dark Mode

Thank You

🫥

A-Jay

Great Job!

Took me a minute to figure out how to change from dark to light mode but the new lay out is very nice and easy to navigate.

Well done 👍🏼

42 minutes ago, Glenn said:

We’ve upgraded the forums in a MAJOR way! The new release contains a bunch of new features and improvements. To kick it off, let’s take a closer look at the new header layout and new view modes for the forum index and topic pages.

New traditional header design

A much more compact header compared to the previous version. The new design condenses the navigation bar into a single row, moving all sub-navigation items into dropdown menus. And our new search modal provides convenient access to the advanced search filters from any page.

Forum Index: Feed view

One of our goals for this update was to re-imagine new ways for you to consume content. Table view has been the typical way of displaying forums, providing visitors with a simple summary of the most recently active topic. Grid mode introduced cover photos to forums, while fluid view allows visitors to filter through a list of topics to easily focus on multiple areas of the community.

Joining these view modes is our new Feed view, which is a list of recently active topics with snippets of the most recent replies, allowing you to easily see what each forum is focusing on at a glance. The topic list drops below the cover photo and converts to a scrollable list on small devices.

Topic pages: Compact view

We’ve also introduced a new, compact layout option for topics. We wanted to create a layout which placed focus on your content while still keeping all of the authors profile information easily accessible within a mini profile. Stats, rank, badges, reputation points and more can be found by tapping the icon at the top of every post. The mini profile strip has also been added to other areas of the software too, such as comments and reviews in applications like the gallery, and will appear on the mobile layout when the traditional "table view" is used in topics.

Switching between the new compact view and the author sidebar view takes just seconds giving you complete control over your community view.

Accessible interface

The main content area has been designed with accessibility as a priority. High contrast text colors and larger font-sizes help to make reading more comfortable and clickable table rows allow you to navigate between pages more easily. A visible focus ring significantly improves navigation for visitors who find it more comfortable to browse with their keyboard TAB key, instead of using their mouse (ie, visitors with conditions such as Parkinson's disease, or those who have temporarily lost function due to a broken arm).

Dark mode

Dark mode has become increasingly popular over the past few years - so it's no surprise that the update has been designed from scratch with both light and dark mode in mind. By default, you will be able to choose your own color scheme preference: either light, dark, or system. System assigns a color scheme based on your system preferences - so if your device automatically switches to dark mode at night, your view will too!

Mobile UI

With an incredible amount of mobile visitors accessing this site, we’ve placed a huge priority on redesigning the interface to ensure it lives up to today's standards.

A new navigation bar at the bottom of the page provides convenient access to your activity feed, notifications, messages, a search panel, and navigation links. A conscious effort was made to ensure that this information was available within a single tap, and we found that a bottom bar like this was easier to interact with compared to icons in the header.

A goal of the mobile UI was to display elements that were previously only available on larger devices, while still maintaining a clean interface. For example, to improve navigation, we've added a scrollable breadcrumb list to the top and bottom of the page. To improve guest participation, we added Sign In and Sign Up links to the bottom navigation bar. These links were previously hidden within the hamburger menu, so we feel like this will really improve registrations. And profile information is now available within posts, comments and reviews on small devices.

This release features redesigned dropdown menus with an app-like design on mobile devices, improved accessibility, and smoother performance.

Dropdown menus have received a significant redesign, resulting in a native, app-like experience on touch devices. Menus transition into view, occupying a larger area of the screen, which is great for accessibility. They can be dismissed by swiping the menu off-screen in a downward direction or by tapping the blank area above the menu.

These menus have also received accessibility improvements on desktop devices. They can be toggled using the Return/Spacebar keys, tabbed into using the Tab key, and dismissed via the Esc key. A huge win for visitors who are unable to comfortably use a mouse (or prefer to use a keyboard) while browsing our community.

Combined, this makes browsing on mobile via browser or PWA feel like a truly native experience.

 

Quickly find the most helpful answers

Forum platforms have a wide range of uses, from helping with support to sharing knowledge, ideation and social interaction. Topics can span years, and once the initial explosion of replies has passed, the topic lives on in local search and search engines for future viewers to discover and get value from. However, it's not always easy to get the best content from a very long topic.

You may have noticed that when you come to a topic seeking an answer, some replies are less than helpful. It's common to find a lot of social content mixed in with useful replies. Jokes, GIFs and off-topic musings are all great while the topic develops organically in real-time. Having fun is critical to feeling a sense of belonging in a community. However, those coming to the topic a little later, say from a link Google has suggested, just want to get the useful content in the fastest way possible.

That's where 'helpful' voting comes in.

You can already mark a single post as the best solution for that topic. Still, not every topic gets a definitive answer, and some community strategies resist quickly marking a post as the best answer to encourage more discussion rather than effectively ending it. Even when you have a definitive answer, there is often value in other highly rated posts offering more context, alternative solutions and more thorough explanations.

With Helpful voting, members are encouraged to flag which posts they find helpful in the topic. When enough votes are added to a single post, they are suggested as a possible answer. You can also tune out the noise and view the most helpful replies only.

This is a powerful way to get the very best content from a topic in a short space of time.

If you eventually choose to mark a post as the definitive answer, the suggested post will be replaced with the answer you choose, but you can still see the posts voted as helpful to gain further context.

The helpful voting works independently from reactions, which tend to cluster around social content. Social media conditions us to add a like or funny reaction to content that gets an emotional response. Indeed, a lot of the most highly reacted content is funny content. Social reactions are valuable when building connections between community members but often don't reflect what is the most useful content.

Helping our members find the best content within topics helps them do more with less time.

Helpful voting also feeds into picking Community Experts, a new feature we'll talk about next.

Finding Community Experts

Long ago, back in the dark ages, forums used the number of posts a member made and how long ago they joined to demonstrate trust and experience. Is simply posting a lot and being a member for a long time the best way to know which community members are experts? And is there a better way?

We think so.

What makes an expert, and why are they important?

Community experts are the keystones to any thriving community. You probably recognize a handful in our community. They tend to be active regularly, are often the first to try and help others with their questions and help set a positive example within the community.

Wouldn't it be great if newer community members could discover who these super users were a little easier? These members trying to find their feet in a new community could follow trustworthy individuals, absorb the positive tone of the community, and even get help a little quicker.

In the past, forums have shown trust and experience through basic metrics like post count and the years since they joined. However, these metrics only show that the individual has been around a long time and posts a lot. It doesn't show that they are potential role models or helpful and trustworthy.

The new update identifies these experts through metrics such as the number of solutions they have, the volume of 'helpful' votes on their replies, the speed of answers and more.

Each forum will have its own experts, so in our very broad community, someone who is very helpful in a particular area will show as an expert in that area only.

When a member has been picked as an expert, they'll receive an email thanking them, and they can then opt-in to be shown as an expert along with a regular notification or email with any unanswered questions in forums they are experts in.

Every few months, the experts are recalculated to reflect the organic way communities grow and change. After all, there's little point in showing that a non-active member is an expert. It might even encourage new community experts to keep up the great work and remain active longer.

Community experts have a badge shown with their posts, along with the option to follow them.

Topic Summaries

Whether you have hours to browse a community or are short on time, scrolling through a very long topic can be more than a little frustrating when you want to follow the topic's core journey.

Above, I discussed another feature designed to help find helpful answers quickly, but what about social topics that do not have a simple question-and-answer format?

We've all come to a lengthy topic for the first time and found it a little intimidating to find the most relevant content among hundreds of posts, which don't always further the topic. These off-topic posts are important because they help social cohesion and build relationships between members at the time of posting. Still, those visiting later often want the truth of the topic.

Introducing a topic summary feature designed to make the most of your time.

The topic summary is generated by an algorithm that uses many touch points such as average read times, reactions, number of shares, external linking and more to determine how useful a post is via a numeric ranking.

The summary shows an estimated read time of the entire topic and an estimated read time using the summary, which gives you a good idea of the time they'll save. A shorter read time will make longer topics more accessible to a greater audience.

A More Performant, Polished UI

This update introduces a brand new, modern interface which brings improvements to performance, aesthetics and mobile usability.

New view modes, light/dark modes, a search modal and a mobile navigation bar are some of the things I've showcased previously. Now, lets take a closer look at some other miscellaneous changes that we've been working on, including some of the code reductions and performance improvements that we've been able to achieve in the process.

Widgets

Sidebar widgets are perfect for displaying content feeds, featured members, announcements, advertisements and more on your page. In the previous version, the widget column would often become an empty space once the widgets had been scrolled past:

Now widgets now stick to the screen once the last widget has been reached, ensuring readers have more convenient  access to widgets rather than a void space.

Messenger

The Messenger is a great way to reach out to members when a private chat is more appropriate than a topic. Inspired by modern email clients, the messenger has been revamped with a full-height, sticky inbox, a longer message snippet, mini profiles and a more polished UI - all with a performance improvement.

Grids and Masonry

Grids have received a code overhaul, resulting in more performant page rendering and nicer looking grids (especially on small-medium displays such as mobiles and tablets).

Click targets

We wanted to make it as simple as possible to navigate, and one way of doing that has been by implementing larger click targets. Clicking anywhere inside an entry in a table or grid will now take you to that entry (you can still click on other links like normal within the click target, such as subforums or profile links).

Data Lists (tables)

Speaking of tables, they too have been revamped. Tables automatically adapt to the space they've been assigned to (for those curious, this is done using CSS container-queries), so they're always neat regardless of the screen size, with no overflow or squashed layouts.

Profiles

Profiles have been polished and include some nice improvements such as sticky widgets and tabs. 

On mobiles, the side column collapses into a carousel, and the sticky tabs allow you to easily flick between content types without scrolling to the top of the page.

Tabs

You may have noticed that tabs on mobiles are now scrollable, compared to a dropdown menu from the previous version. We made this change to ensure that tabs are given more equal exposure on small devices, and have managed to reduce the CSS by a whopping 80%.

Carousels

Last and certainly not least, are carousels. Carousels are great for displaying large amounts of data in a confined space and they've been rewritten from scratch. Previously, a Javascript library was used to create the "scroll effect", however this has never been the smoothest experience on laptop trackpads and touch devices.

Now carousels are powered by native smooth-scrolling and scroll-snapping, which results in a much nicer user experience, especially on touchscreens. We've been able to remove a staggering 95% of the Javascript, substituting it with just a few lines of CSS.

To be honest, we've only just scratched the surface here! In addition to these changes, we've modernized (and reduced code) in almost every component throughout the suite including avatars, cover photos, dropdown menus, forms, inputs, buttons, lists, off-canvas menus, side menus, columns and more!

Combined, these changes result in not only a significant reduction in code, but also a polished UI that performs smoothly on desktop and touch devices.

New Live Community Features

Last year we introduced new features that immediately showed who was currently reading a topic and who was replying. This feature leveraged new technologies to connect members with each other instantly.

Let’s delve into the latest live community features. We'll examine how these features instantly notify us about new events, updates, or interactions and how they contribute to a shared sense of presence. These features go beyond the static posts and comments we've grown accustomed to and introduce a real-time element.  

Posting
We've all been involved in a busy topic where you're keen to see what replies your latest post has. Previously, you could see who is active on a topic and who is typing, but you have to hit refresh to see the new posts added to the topic. If you're anything like me, then you hammer refresh until something new appears.

This is no longer a problem. As you interact with a topic, new replies are automatically added to the topic without needing to refresh. This one feature brings the conversation to life, and you get a real sense of other members interacting with the topic at the same time as you.

Reactions
Did you drop a razor-sharp GIF or post something applause-worthy? Watch as others react to your content in real time. There's no need to refresh or return to the topic later to see who enjoyed what you wrote.

Getting rewarded for your content is gratifying and encourages you to post more and show your appreciation for other's content via reactions.

Notifications
Notifications have long been a valuable way to be notified when anything important happens in your community. It may be that someone has quoted your content, tagged you in a post or started a new topic in a forum you're following.

Now you can watch the notification count rack up in real time, alerting you to new events that you may otherwise miss as they happen.

The All-New Editor

This update has a brand new editing experience powered by a lightweight, fast React text editor built for mobile and modern browsers.

The venerable CKEditor v4 at the core of our old editor was starting to show its age, so we wanted a clean slate with this update with an editor that was optimized for mobile use, easily extensible and had a feature set that would take us into the next era and beyond.

The Toolbar

The toolbar has been redesigned to put the most commonly used styles first, with the least used styles and functions into an ellipses menu. The new paragraph menu contains the header styles, as well as the code block. The plus menu adds lists, boxes and quotes. The benefit of this new compact menu is that it displays just the same on mobile. Previously, there were different editor styles for desktops, tablets and mobiles with some style buttons removed to save space. Now, this is no longer the case. Even the smallest display gets all the functionality.

Emojis & Icons

Emojis have become a great way to embellish writing and express emotion. The new emoji picker has been modernized with larger emojis and tooltips to showcase the emoji shortcodes.

The Icons tab, new for this update, allows you to add Font Awesome Icons directly to your content.

Lastly, both the emoji selector and the shortcode suggestion dropdown support arrow-key navigation, so you don't have to move your hands from the keyboard to the mouse.

Content Boxes

The feature I'm personally most excited about is boxes.

The concept started as an abstraction of spoilers because sometimes you just want "a box" - a section that stands out from the rest of the content, something we do manually in our documentation and guides on this site. Each box has a tile and the following options:

• Expandable - You can mark a box as "expandable" which is functionally the same as a spoiler. One improvement is that expandable boxes use native HTML details and summary elements instead of plain Javascript animated divs.

• Colors - You can optionally keep it grey on grey like spoilers, but I think that's so boring! The colors automatically adjust to the theme colors, so it will look great in dark and light mode.

• Float (left/right/none) - You can make the box align to the left or right of other content just like you can for images

• Width - When the box is floated, you can set the width to big, medium or small.

 

Link Expansion

We’ve long expanded some links, such as YouTube, offering more context or even a mini-player where appropriate.

With this update, we've added support for embedding dynamic link previews using site metadata. For those unaware, the Open Graph (OG) Protocol is essentially a way webpages can specify a title, image, and description to be dynamically embedded on another platform. This is the underlying technology when you see the link preview in Meta, X, Slack, or iMessage.

Semantic Headings and Relative Sizes

We’ve added a block selector with headings 1 through 6 in the new editor. It's possibly the most common request I hear so that people can use consistent styling rather than just big bold text in a paragraph tag. Semantic headings are also ideal for SEO and accessibility.

Using clear header tags means screen readers and search engines can better understand your content as using absolute font sizes, such as 16px, can make it unclear what type of element is actually being used. Is it a heading or just a paragraph with large bold text?

Furthermore, you may want different sizes depending on the content and device type. Mobile devices may benefit from a large base font size. So we added percent-based font sizes which change the font size based on whatever the default would be for that block.

Further UX Improvements

The new editor has several tangible improvements, including a mobile-first design.

In the last editor, some functionality was hidden behind modals and double clicks, which are either not obvious on mobile devices or not possible at all. The new editor no longer relies on modals and instead uses buttons and dropdown menus that work perfectly with mobile and other touch-based devices.

New Line Arrows

For block content, such as boxes, images and quotes, we've added the ability to create a new line before or after the block with the click of a button. This was an issue of frustration for mobile and touch devices where it was not always clear where the cursor was and a finger is a much less accurate aiming device!

Sticky Toolbar

Anyone who has authored a long piece of content knows the pain of scrolling up and down to get the toolbar in view. To make writing longer content less stressful, we've made the toolbar sticky so that it will always be fixed at the top of the editor after scrolling down.

Markdown Style Shortcuts

One common request is to support markdown in the editor. While we opted not to include full markdown support, the new editor recognizes many markdown-style formatting shortcuts.

Colors

A common challenge with rich text editors on sites with multiple themes is colors often need to consistently look right across all themes. This is even more important with this update, as it has a native dark mode feature. For this reason, we opted to offer a reduced set of color options that all adapt dynamically to the theme. I mentioned this about box colors above, but this is also true of the font color. The difference in shade is slight, but it's very noticeable without it. Toggling between light and dark mode will never produce unreadable text.

Image Resizing

Our brand new editor has many great features and quality-of-life improvements, one being the ability to resize images via drag handles. You can still specify a precise pixel value in the image menu, but the ability to resize using grab handles makes it easier to find the right size for your images.

Embed Resizing

We can also resize embeddable media, such as YouTube, in the same way as you resize images. You can resize by using the grab handles or set a specific pixel value, giving you fine control over the size of your embedded media.

Drag and Drop

We've added the ability to drag and drop quotes, boxes, and images within the editor.

 

Tagging Reinvented

This update overhauls the concept to bring content across different sections together with a beautiful new tag page.

Tagging is a powerful concept but previously underused due to overly complex interfaces in different areas of the suite, a confusing open tagging model option and no real benefit in content discovery beyond a simple list of content items.

A driving force behind this update is the question of how we can help time-pressured community members find the content that most interests them.

We already have a robust taxonomy through forum and category structures, but what about content in less visible areas such as galleries? How can we bring those together to homogenise the type of content and focus on the content itself?

Taxonomy via tagging across all applications in the community suite is the answer. However, we needed to re-approach how tagging was implemented to bring our new vision to life.

Out with the old
The current tagging system was implemented loosely, allowing open tagging, which is more akin to hashtags than high-level taxonomy. Allowing forums, albums, and blog categories to define their own tags turns tagging into more of a status label, which does nothing to help bring disparate content together.

In with the new
With a new focus on taxonomy and content discovery, we set about rebuilding tagging. The UI to tag items is the same, but now each defined, globally available tag has its own page with cover image and ability to feature items within that tag page.

A uniform approach to different content items in the UI breaks down the barrier between content types and focuses solely on the content. Tags featured on its page are automatically displayed on the community Featured Content page.

Finally, tags can now be followed, allowing you to get a daily or weekly digest of all new tagged items, making it easy to read more of the content you love.

 

Dormant Account Login Notification

Keeping member accounts secure is a top priority for all community teams, and with data breaches containing usernames and passwords regularly shared on the dark web, it makes sense to be vigilant to a potential account takeover.

You will now receive an email if a successful login occurs six months or more since the last log in to ensure the account is still in the right hands. If the account owner is not responsible for logging in, they can contact the community team to ensure the account is returned to the owner.

 

Enhancing the Mobile Experience with New PWA Features

What is the Progressive Web App (PWA) and how do I use it? A Progressive Web App (PWA) is a mobile-optimized version of our community that members can add to their device’s home screen, just like any regular app. It launches in full-screen and supports push notifications and badges (when enabled).

To install the PWA:

• iOS/iPadOS: Tap the Share button in Safari (square with an arrow), then tap "Add to Home Screen."

• Android: Tap the three-dot menu in Chrome, then tap "Add to Home Screen."

Some members may not be aware that they can install our community directly to their device like a native app. To help with that, we’ve introduced a new installation prompt banner to help guide them through the install process.

This banner appears when users are browsing the community in a mobile browser. Tapping the banner brings up step-by-step instructions tailored to their device. It’s a gentle nudge that increases PWA adoption while also respecting visitors' choice with a dismiss button.

Pull to Refresh on iOS

Just like in a native app, users can swipe down to refresh the page in iOS, making it easier and more intuitive to see the latest content. This feature replaces the Refresh button previously found in the mobile footer and brings the iOS experience in line with modern mobile app standards.

Loading animation

Navigating between pages in PWAs could sometimes cause confusion due to the lack of a loading indicator. To alleviate this, a custom loading animation has been added which should reassure you that the next page is actually loading. It’s a subtle addition, but it's one which many visitors would expect to see in modern mobile apps - and now they can!

App icon badges

Receiving a notification on the community now adds a notification badge to the PWA icon on your home screen, even if the PWA isn’t open. It’s a great (and familiar) way to inform you that there’s fresh content waiting for you, and it's just a single tap away.

Redesigned enable push prompts

Enabling push notifications has never been easier. You are now prompted not only in the main notifications menu, but also when tapping follow on any item.

 

Curated Profile Photo Gallery

Some members are privacy-focused, and do not upload profile photos to protect their identity. This means profile images remain limited to the default letter image, which doesn't allow for much personalization.

This release introduces a user photo gallery that allows the community team to upload a curated library of images, which member of the community can then select

By using only community-approved photos, this ensures that profile images remain safe, consistent, and non-identifying, while giving members a sense of individuality and belonging.

 

And Finally…

Some of these features are still rolling out, or are not fully configured yet.  I am working through those over the next few days so you may notice a few features missing or not fully functional yet.  I appreciate your patience, however if something is flat-out broken then please don’t hesitate to inform me.

Thank you, and enjoy the new features!

Glenn

Just sayin', I believe some of us older and Tech Compromised forum members are going to be left behind with the new changes.

10 minutes ago, Tackleholic said:

Just sayin', I believe some of us older and Tech Compromised forum members are going to be left behind with the new changes.

Nah, you'll be alright. It just takes a little time to adjust to the new surroundings.

Every time I do this, and I mean EVERY TIME (and it's been 30 years of updates), there are always some members that don't like - even hate - the update. But after learning the ropes, virtually all of them don't want to go back.

Just give it some time. It'll grow on you.

I have a notification but it won’t open. Non responsive.

Very cool

Dark mode - very nice @Glenn ! Looking forward to enjoying all the upgrades- thanks!

59 minutes ago, gim said:

I have a notification but it won’t open. Non responsive.

I hate to say this, but you know what I'm going to say anyway....

Can you please clear your cache? Then close your browser and re-open it to start a new session.

Thank you. In a few days I'll have it figured out like a new TV remote.

Looks good. Like it

Dark mode is such a blessing, thank you! While it will take me some time to learn the ins and outs of the new format, it sounds like a ton of positive changes. thank you

Awesome. Maybe the problems I was having will be cured as a result.

Very nice! Dark mode is much easier on the eyes!

I just glad you’re back…. When I first saw “site closed” I panicked. It’s going to take me a bit of time to learn the new site… I was just getting used to the old one hahah. I’m a dinosaur in a high-tech world.

Thanks for looking out for us Glenn and making things easier.

When you get old, routine is your best friend. When I saw "The New Forum" it scared me.

That being said, I've already figured out Dark Mode, and I like it!

I did that Glenn. None of the icons in the top right are responsive. They look much smaller than before too. Guess I won’t be reading notifications.

I've been around since 2010 and saw this site evolve a few times. I LOVE THIS ROLLOUT!

1 question @Glenn , the Menu button next to the bass resource logo is unresponsive is that supposed to be that way or part of the ....

11 hours ago, Glenn said:

And Finally…

Some of these features are still rolling out, or are not fully configured yet.  I am working through those over the next few days so you may notice a few features missing or not fully functional yet.  I appreciate your patience, however if something is flat-out broken then please don’t hesitate to inform me.

You're working on?

The MENU button stops working for me after I move from the home page into the forum. I've tried it on multiple browsers on a Mac.

When it comes to tech stuff I'm pretty much a drunk person with a head injury. I'm going to assume there are at least a couple other similar users on here so once I finally figured these two things out I thought I would share them:

I like to see everything that's new when I log on instead of list of forums. That is this button in the upper right corner. Heck, maybe it has always been there! But I haven't had to find it in many years so...here you go:

LOVE the new feed @Glenn. Great layout for seeing what's new!

EDIT:

And this drop down box lets you make the feed view permanent.

Also, DARK MODE. This one took me longer to find. Lower left corner. Love this also.

14 minutes ago, Tennessee Boy said:

The MENU button stops working for me after I move from the home page into the forum. I've tried it on multiple browsers on a Mac.

Me too. I haven't figured that one out yet. I just click on the logo to go back to home screen and then the menu button works.

Edited January 10Jan 10 by BigAngus752
Added info to make new content view permanent.

I'm having the same issues as a couple of other users here.

I'm unable to sign in, menu only opens on the main page.

This is happening in Chrome, I'm logged in now using Firefox.

I've done all the cache cleaning and issue still exists.

Also I'm old and using Windows 7.

bah humbug, I hate change... been married to the same woman for 48 years and I still don't understand how she operates.

3 minutes ago, OkobojiEagle said:

bah humbug, I hate change... been married to the same woman for 48 years and I still don't understand how she operates.

Well, you're old forum has divorced you. Maybe if you posted more pics of flowers and opened up about your feelings on the forum more often you wouldn't be in this pickle.

Just took a few minutes to adjust to the new forum. Same good content just a new face.