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alexj-12

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Hey everybody!

Just wanted to send out a quick message on all of the community updates that are coming up soon.

September 27th
We've developed a system to make it easier to find the content you're looking for through "feeds" that's being added to the site on September 27th!
  • Create many types of content through the "create" button at the top of the page.
  • Set your favorite feed as your default feed so that it will show up first when you log into the community.
  • Select from a large number of filter options to only see the content you want to see (these filters can be saved so that you only need to set them once)
  • A dedicated questions feed to help any and all questions get answered.
  • Upvoting! You now have the ability to upvote as well as react to any content that you like.

Screen Shot 2021-09-20 at 11.13.57 AM.png
Screen Shot 2021-09-20 at 11.18.16 AM.png

Screen Shot 2021-09-20 at 11.18.35 AM.png


September 29th
The site will be down starting at 8am CT for a site upgrade. The upgrade should take approximately 2 hours and is just meant to keep the site up to date and running smoothly!

October 1st
User upgrades and Achievements are coming October 1st! As I mentioned before here, we're rolling out some user upgrades and achievements. Just as a reminder, you're not required to get a user upgrade and can continue to use the site for free, but your support does help us keep the site going!

We're also adding an achievements system, which is a great way to reward you all for all of your successes and an easy way for you guys to track your progress.

Let us know if you have any questions about these changes!

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Do you guys solicit user feedback about an upvoting system first? Will there be ways to give feedback on it?

I thought it was tried already and people complained.

Just wondering the decision making process and if feedback will be collected.
 
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I am also not sure about the upvoting feature
 
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Yes, we're always looking for feedback on new systems we're implementing, so if there's a feature that enough people don't like we'll absolutely reconsider :) If you could provide additional information about why you're against the upvoting system that would be helpful!
 
Yes, we're always looking for feedback on new systems we're implementing, so if there's a feature that enough people don't like we'll absolutely reconsider :) If you could provide additional information about why you're against the upvoting system that would be helpful!
Well I don't mean to complain but my reasoning is twofold:
1) Upvoting is a popular feature on Reddit and Reddit is cluttered and full of uneducated opinions. I don't want SDN to be like Reddit! :lol:
2) The structure of the forums is such that it enables old threads (esp. flame threads that need to be closed) to die in a timely manner, and encourages people to read through all the posts in the forum before deciding which threads to reply to. Upvoting encourages people to just blindly flock to whatever threads are most popular.

I know that I may have not stated this properly, but what is popular is not always right, and what is right is not always popular.

The feed feature seems cool as long as it is optional

Some ideas:
1) Permanent time stamps on posts
2) More customization options
3) Reviews and recommendations forum

Thanks for listening! :)
 
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I agree that on SDN given the nature of debates, it's better that a thread and content is presented chronologically than by popularity.

Take pre-allo or allo for example. Frequently the least popular posts may be hearing something someone doesn't want to hear from a physician or adcom about say admissions. The most popular could be by people who have no real experience with admissions.

Same thing with threads. Sometimes it's the most contentious threads that make the most angry that is most useful.
 
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Thanks for the feedback!

The upvoting system is not entirely like Reddit's upvoting system in that the content that is most upvoted won't be moved higher up than content that has less upvotes. Think of it as similar to reactions. It's just another way to tell people that you like their content, but it's not moving that content to a place of more prominence, it's simply receiving an extra score.

Upvoted posts within a thread wouldn't be moved to higher within the thread and upvoted threads within a feed wouldn't be moved up to higher within the feed unless you used a filter to view a feed in that way.

So the structure of content will stay the same, having the upvoting system included is just another way for people to say that they like someone's content.

Let me know if that helps explain things better!

And thanks for the extra ideas @jhmmd I'll discuss those with the team :)
 
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Hey everybody, we just finished our site upgrade! This was a small update primarily meant to keep the site using the newest software and running smoothly, so there shouldn't be any major adjustments.

Please let me know if you see any issues or need any help!
 
is the default view with the most recent threads with posts going to be the norm?

I prefer the older view with all the threads viewable, but when I do set the view to it, the option to “set as default” does not appear
 
Hi everyone! Just to update, new achievements and user upgrades are now live on the site. You can check out achievements here and user upgrades here. I do want to remind you though, the user upgrades are not required to use the site, but you support does help us keep the site in good shape!

If you have any questions let me know :)
 
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I've noticed a couple of weird things since the updates.

1) On all of the newer styles (AC Default, AC Dark, Blue Thunder), Gold Member postbits have a yellow-gold background color; on the Basic styles, they do not. I understand that this may simply be due to those older styles not supporting the feature, but I wanted to point it out just in case it was intended to apply across all styles and/or was an oversight.

postbit_default.png

postbit_basic.png


2) When typing a query into the search box in the top right corner of the layout while partway down the page, it causes the screen to scroll up a small amount with each additional character typed. It also scrolls when using the backspace key or highlighting the typed text. This occurs on all styles for me except for Basic and Basic Dark. I'm running Firefox 89.0.2 on Linux Mint 20.2 (desktop) and Firefox 92.1.1 on Android 11 (mobile); this bug happens on both. Here is a video of this behavior.

I'll try to see if I can replicate it in other OS + browser setups in a little bit.

EDIT 1: Just tested it in Chrome 94 on Android 11---did the same thing. I also tested it on a few other forums I go to that also use the new version of XenForo and was not able to replicate it, so it seems to be SDN-specific.

EDIT 2: Tested it in both Edge 94 and Chrome 94 on Windows 10 while at work and was able to replicate it again in both browsers.
 
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Also think the showcased achievements should go up to 7+ and beyond. As a 7+ year member, not really excited to showcase 5 years only.
 
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I've noticed a couple of weird things since the updates.

1) On all of the newer styles (AC Default, AC Dark, Blue Thunder), Gold Member postbits have a yellow-gold background color; on the Basic styles, they do not. I understand that this may simply be due to those older styles not supporting the feature, but I wanted to point it out just in case it was intended to apply across all styles and/or was an oversight.

View attachment 344046
View attachment 344045

2) When typing a query into the search box in the top right corner of the layout while partway down the page, it causes the screen to scroll up a small amount with each additional character typed. It also scrolls when using the backspace key or highlighting the typed text. This occurs on all styles for me except for Basic and Basic Dark. I'm running Firefox 89.0.2 on Linux Mint 20.2 (desktop) and Firefox 92.1.1 on Android 11 (mobile); this bug happens on both. Here is a video of this behavior.

I'll try to see if I can replicate it in other OS + browser setups in a little bit.

EDIT 1: Just tested it in Chrome 94 on Android 11---did the same thing. I also tested it on a few other forums I go to that also use the new version of XenForo and was not able to replicate it, so it seems to be SDN-specific.

EDIT 2: Tested it in both Edge 94 and Chrome 94 on Windows 10 while at work and was able to replicate it again in both browsers.
Hey there! Yes, this is due to the basic styles being legacy styles, so the post bit coloring has only been added to the newer and up to date styles.

As for the issue with search, I'll take a look and see if I can determined what is causing this!
 
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@alexj-12 is it possible to make achievements and XP more current/updated with the account pls? Especially for those 100 post, 1000 post etc achievements
The achievements and XP are currently in the process of being applied to accounts retroactively. So all of the achievements that you earned before the achievements system was in place will be applied to your account, it just takes a bit of time for the system to go through all of the users and all of the content on the site :)
 
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Also think the showcased achievements should go up to 7+ and beyond. As a 7+ year member, not really excited to showcase 5 years only.
That's a good point! I'll see what we can do about adding more achievements like this
 
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I've noticed a couple of weird things since the updates.

1) On all of the newer styles (AC Default, AC Dark, Blue Thunder), Gold Member postbits have a yellow-gold background color; on the Basic styles, they do not. I understand that this may simply be due to those older styles not supporting the feature, but I wanted to point it out just in case it was intended to apply across all styles and/or was an oversight.

View attachment 344046
View attachment 344045

2) When typing a query into the search box in the top right corner of the layout while partway down the page, it causes the screen to scroll up a small amount with each additional character typed. It also scrolls when using the backspace key or highlighting the typed text. This occurs on all styles for me except for Basic and Basic Dark. I'm running Firefox 89.0.2 on Linux Mint 20.2 (desktop) and Firefox 92.1.1 on Android 11 (mobile); this bug happens on both. Here is a video of this behavior.

I'll try to see if I can replicate it in other OS + browser setups in a little bit.

EDIT 1: Just tested it in Chrome 94 on Android 11---did the same thing. I also tested it on a few other forums I go to that also use the new version of XenForo and was not able to replicate it, so it seems to be SDN-specific.

EDIT 2: Tested it in both Edge 94 and Chrome 94 on Windows 10 while at work and was able to replicate it again in both browsers.
Could you tell me if you're still seeing this issue with search? We attempted to replicate using the browsers you mentioned and aren't able to see the issue on our end
 
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Could you tell me if you're still seeing this issue with search? We attempted to replicate using the browsers you mentioned and aren't able to see the issue on our end
Yes, I'm still seeing this behavior on all of the non-legacy styles. Just because I don't know that I made it very clear in my original post---and in case it helps at all---it only occurs when I am partway down the page. Also, I generally use Basic style, so it's not an issue for me personally. Still, I could see how it might be frustrating for users of the newer styles who are trying to use the search function, particularly on mobile, which is why I wanted to mention it. Would be interesting to hear if it's affecting anyone else.

Oddly, I just tested it again using the default AC style in an older version of Firefox (87.0, on a brand new installation of Ubuntu 21.04) and actually wasn't able to reproduce it there, so... *shrugs*.
 
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Yes, I'm still seeing this behavior on all of the non-legacy styles. Just because I don't know that I made it very clear in my original post---and in case it helps at all---it only occurs when I am partway down the page. Also, I generally use Basic style, so it's not an issue for me personally. Still, I could see how it might be frustrating for users of the newer styles who are trying to use the search function, particularly on mobile, which is why I wanted to mention it. Would be interesting to hear if it's affecting anyone else.

Oddly, I just tested it again using the default AC style in an older version of Firefox (87.0, on a brand new installation of Ubuntu 21.04) and actually wasn't able to reproduce it there, so... *shrugs*.
Okay got it! We'll keep looking to see if we can replicate this issue. Could you provide links to any specific pages where this was happening?
 
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Okay got it! We'll keep looking to see if we can replicate this issue. Could you provide links to any specific pages where this was happening?
It seems to be occurring site-wide for me, but here are a selection of URLs for pages that I've explicitly tested and replicated it on:


It's also happens in my PM inbox and threads, too, so... pretty much everywhere on the forums, haha.
 
It seems to be occurring site-wide for me, but here are a selection of URLs for pages that I've explicitly tested and replicated it on:


It's also happens in my PM inbox and threads, too, so... pretty much everywhere on the forums, haha.
Thanks for taking the time to get these links for me! We'll take a look and see if we can replicate and I'll let you know if we need any extra info :)
 
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@alexj-12 Is there any way that we can resurrect the Threadloom search function? The new search is much more limited and not as good at catching and ordering all the relevant posts. Really missing Threadloom.

It was working well for a little while after I'd flagged the issue with it, but now it's disappeared completely.
 
@alexj-12 Is there any way that we can resurrect the Threadloom search function? The new search is much more limited and not as good at catching and ordering all the relevant posts. Really missing Threadloom.

It was working well for a little while after I'd flagged the issue with it, but now it's disappeared completely.
I'll look into this to see what might be the issue here. Thanks for your patience!
 
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I just got a notification that I "reached level 25". However, apparently, I have already been there at least since October 4. If it is just telling me now, that's quite a lag. Snail mail would have beaten it.
I reached level 15 about a week ago, but then just reached level 8 yesterday :laugh:
 
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I just got a notification that I "reached level 25". However, apparently, I have already been there at least since October 4. If it is just telling me now, that's quite a lag. Snail mail would have beaten it.

I reached level 15 about a week ago, but then just reached level 8 yesterday :laugh:
Thank you both for letting me know about this! I'll pass this info to our add-on developers to get out a fix
 
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