Forum Updates for 2020-03-25: Mention Notifications, Links to Unread & more
2020 is turning out to be a very weird year. Some guy in China ate a bat and now many of us are stuck at home. Australia nearly burned to the ground. And, without getting political, a lot of international crap has gone down. And it's not even April yet! Kenny Rogers (RIP) knew when to fold 'em. ????
But without going any further down that rabbit hole, I'd like to introduce you to some new updates for our charming little forum here at RPLS Today. We haven't received word that forum members must be digitally quarantined to stay here at rplstoday.com, but these updates should make life a little easier on all of us when and if that day arrives. ????
Mention Notifications
You know that cute little bell icon we added to the forum menu on the last update? We've now included @mention notifications, so you'll know when someone's talking about you behind your back. ????
Private Message Notifications
Notifications of new private messages have also been integrated into the cute little bell.
Unread Posts in Widgets
The forum widgets found on the homepage will now show unread post titles in bold.
Recent Posts Links to Unread
We've added "new" icons to the Recent Posts page. Clicking on these icons will take you to the first unread reply since your last visit. This is a feature that has been requested for a long time.
Shareable Links to Specific Posts/Replies
On each post and reply, you'll see a link icon near the social sharing icons. This link icon has been there for a long time, but it was just a simple link, allowing you to right-click on it, copy the link, and use it to share with other. Now with this new functionality, you click the link icon and it will display a full URL and a shortened URL of the post/reply associated with it. You can then copy one of them to easily share with your friends. Please do!
Speed Improvements
Much of our most recent progress has been to improve loading times. Well, we've implemented a bunch more speed optimizations that include less database calls, lower overhead, and styling optimizations. What does all that mean? Aside from the performance boost we should all enjoy, it also means that you need to refresh your browser caches again. I've enabled a tool to help force your browsers to do this for you, but it's certainly not a silver bullet -- for the best results, clear your own damn cache. ???
New Tools for ME ???ñ
I would be remiss not to brag about my new superpowers. I now have a super-cool admin menu on the frontend of the forum, making it easier to moderate and ban users at will. Don't tempt me! MUHUWAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA ??? ????
That said, I'd like to THANK YOU for keeping things relatively sane around here, especially through all the trauma this Earth has been going through for the last few months. This place is a real treat to work on these days and I really, truly appreciate each and every one of you.
And, lastly...
REFRESH YOUR DAMN CACHE
???ý
A very weird year... my granddaughter??s mom says 2020 is being managed by the front office of the Cleveland browns....
thanks Wendell for the website..
Ctrl+F5 a couple times will REFRESH YOUR DAMN CACHE... ???? ????
OR
Ctrl+Shift+Delete opens a dialog with options for clearing cache
A very weird year...
Aint that the Truth.
Last New Year's Eve, myself and a good number of friends were all pleased to see the back of 2019 and were hoping for better...
Ctrl+Shift+Delete opens a dialog with options for clearing cache
Never knew about this trick. Thank you!
Seriously have to say THANKS to @wendell...to me, the forum is more friendly and much faster than it has been in the past. I love the new additions to ease navigating the forum. Improvements are really appreciated, on my end at least.
You are very welcome! It's my pleasure. I really enjoy working on the forum these days. ????
Fyi...Yes, I've cleared my cache, closed the website, rebooted...all the things ????
Using the "unread posts" when I click the "new" icon next to the forum title, it takes me to the first post, not the "first unread reply". No new comments/replies have been added to that post so it shouldn't be the most recent. Not a real issue, just letting you know.
Using the "unread posts" when I click the "new" icon next to the forum title, it takes me to the first post, not the "first unread reply". No new comments/replies have been added to that post so it shouldn't be the most recent. Not a real issue, just letting you know.
My first thought is that the cookies may be reset the first time through and (hopefully) the feature will work correctly on future visits.
Could also be that it takes a few seconds to complete the action sometimes -- the link takes you to the first message, then after a second or two fast-forwards to the latest unread post.
*crosses fingers*
