Forum Updates for 2021-09-01: Topic Prefixes, styling updates, and more!

Topic Prefixes

The first iteration of Topic Prefixes has been implemented. You might be asking, "WTH are Topic Prefixes?" Well, I'm glad you asked.

When creating new topics in the forum, you'll be given the opportunity to choose a Topic Prefix. For now, they are only active in the Buy, Sell & Trade subforum, where you can choose from "For Sale", "Want to Buy" or "Trade". Eventually, we will implement them, where applicable, in other forums.

You'll also now see a Topic Prefixes dropdown above topic lists. This will allow you to quickly view a list of topics with specific Topic Prefixes. For example, if you want to see all items for sale, you'd select the "For Sale" option in the Topic Prefixes dropdown. As mentioned above, Topic Prefixes will be implemented in other forums in the future, so you'll be able to quickly find topics with specific Topic Prefixes assigned to them.

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Styling & Layout Updates

In a previous announcement, I mentioned that I was working on the website to fix some problems. These were mostly related to attaching files and GIFs to new topics, but there were also some other miscellaneous issues that had been ongoing for a few months. These issues ended up being incompatibility issues between the forum software and the overall website theme we are using, and neither party showed any interest in owning up to or fixing the problems. So I took matters into my own hands and made some pretty sweeping changes across the board -- this not only included changing to a new base theme, but also redesigning the entire website in the new theme and trying to keep it looking about the same while also improving a few things.

Some of the improvements include:

• Updated the overall layout to better accommodate larger screens while also improving mobile layout (known as "Responsive Design"). The previous theme and overall design were responsive, but this updated theme makes it even better.
• Corrected a problem with some intermediate-sized devices (small to medium tablets) wherein there was zero padding on the left and right hand sides.
• Removed inconsistency in navigation menus between forum pages and non-forum pages.
• For those on larger screens, you'll notice that the navigation menu is now "sticky" when you scroll down. This will help with overall navigation so you don't have to keep scrolling back up to the top for navigation.
• Improved load times overall.
• Improved our SEO for better visibility in regards to surveying-related topics.
• Lays the groundwork for future features and updates.

Since the initial "soft launch" of the new styling updates (per the announcement linked above), a few more updates were made to further tweak the new design:

• Updated the mobile header layout to improve visibility of the mobile menu.
• Adjusted the mobile layout of the "reply" and "cancel" buttons in the reply box.
• Added account-specific links in the mobile menu.
• Adjusted various line-heights associated with forum topic titles (there was way too much vertical spacing in topic titles that required more than one line).

All of that said, I would encourage you to report any other problems via our support forum. It doesn't matter how minor or major they might be, I want to be aware of them and fix them where possible.

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Thank you!

Keeping up with everything here is a constantly moving target. But that's what I do! If you'd like to become a Supporter of SurveyorConnect, we'd appreciate your support. And if you are in need of a new website for your surveying business, or you'd like to have a "web team" on your side to manage ongoing updates and maintenance tasks, please take a look at my business website at https://harnessyourwebsite.com .