New Features

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I thought I'd put in an announcements forum as a place where I can announce new features for the forum and such.

So, we'll start with this. You may have noticed that I've been doing a few little upgrades over the last few days. Some upgrades are for supporting members only, other upgrades are for everyone.

Everyone

1. There's now a topic search feature above the forum list and at the top of all the forums. Start typing and it will look for threads with your keywords in them.

View attachment 3108

2. There's now a "Thread Starter" banner under the user name of the poster who starts a thread when they respond within that thread. It doesn't seem like much, but it's handy to know at a glance if the original poster is responding to your comment.

View attachment 3109

Supporting Members

You have all the above plus...

A new "bump" feature that allows you to bump one of your threads once a day. I know that sometimes, especially in the presentations forums, a post can fall the the second page pretty quick. If that happens, you can bump your thread back to the top for another go. Please note that this is a bit of a test feature and may be removed if it's abused (although I'm not too worries, seems like a great group here).

View attachment 3110

Second, you now have a "History" link when the Forums tab is active. This will give you a list of your recently viewed threads. It's handy if you want to refer back to a topic that you recently viewed and can't quite remember which topic it was.

View attachment 3111

Thanks again everyone!

Steve

PS More to come :)
Thanks Steve.
Honestly the only 2 internet sites I visit daily are your forum and the nature group my wife and I administer. You run this forum in much the same spirit we run our FB group. No flame wars, friendly communication and banter and a genuine desire to discuss nature photography.

I can't speak for everyone here but I think many would agree we appreciate this forum and the effort you continue to put in to keeping it friendly and informative. Well done!

Jeff
 
I ran a discussion forum from the mid-90s until a few years ago. It had close to 10,000 members. I can appreciate how much work this is and how little most people understand what's involved. I think you are doing a spectacular job and I can't thank you enough for providing a safe place to ask questions and get information. This is a very valuable community resource. Thanks again.
 
I ran a discussion forum from the mid-90s until a few years ago. It had close to 10,000 members. I can appreciate how much work this is and how little most people understand what's involved. I think you are doing a spectacular job and I can't thank you enough for providing a safe place to ask questions and get information. This is a very valuable community resource. Thanks again.
Definitely a valuable resource. It has been very helpful for me
 
Thanks Steve.
Honestly the only 2 internet sites I visit daily are your forum and the nature group my wife and I administer. You run this forum in much the same spirit we run our FB group. No flame wars, friendly communication and banter and a genuine desire to discuss nature photography.

I can't speak for everyone here but I think many would agree we appreciate this forum and the effort you continue to put in to keeping it friendly and informative. Well done!

Jeff
I ran a discussion forum from the mid-90s until a few years ago. It had close to 10,000 members. I can appreciate how much work this is and how little most people understand what's involved. I think you are doing a spectacular job and I can't thank you enough for providing a safe place to ask questions and get information. This is a very valuable community resource. Thanks again.
Definitely a valuable resource. It has been very helpful for me

Thanks so much :) Also, thanks for being a supporting member - it helps defer the server costs.
 
I don't know what you are paying, but I had an outstanding and reasonably inexpensive company for my server. If you are interested in learning more about them, shoot me an email. I'm not trying to push anything, I just want to help if I can.
 
A question, what do the "reaction score" and "points" actually mean? Thanks. Also, this is the best photo site available on the web today! I do go to other sites but, yikes, they have some problems with the people on those sites. Often they are not really interested in learning about photography and on some sites it seems they just want to run others off so they can rein "supreme."
 
Hi Steve, thank you for building this wonderful forum with its nice and helpful members.
I try to find the best way to see all pictures from one member, but can't find even my own with one click.
Can you give me a clue, how to do so, without see all the comments of this user, only her/his posted images.
Thank you in advance.
Greetings and best wishes, Manuel
 
Hi Steve, thank you for building this wonderful forum with its nice and helpful members.
I try to find the best way to see all pictures from one member, but can't find even my own with one click.
Can you give me a clue, how to do so, without see all the comments of this user, only her/his posted images.
Thank you in advance.
Greetings and best wishes, Manuel
Hi Manglo, I'm just learning how to how to do this forum myself. I really couldn't tell you. I sure someone here knows how to do that and help you. I,ll see what I can find out and let you know. :)
 
Thanks Steve for creating an enjoyable forum. Not sure how others feel, but I think it would be extremely helpful to have a listing of themed threads at the top of each forum (eg wildlife). I tried doing a search for one just now (squirrels) but couldn't find an exisiting one becuase it was buried under the more recent posts with squirrel in the title. Since I couldn't find one I started a new one but thankfully a moderator new where the old one was and moved mine there.
 
Thanks Steve for creating an enjoyable forum. Not sure how others feel, but I think it would be extremely helpful to have a listing of themed threads at the top of each forum (eg wildlife). I tried doing a search for one just now (squirrels) but couldn't find an exisiting one becuase it was buried under the more recent posts with squirrel in the title. Since I couldn't find one I started a new one but thankfully a moderator new where the old one was and moved mine there.

That is something I noticed on other forums, when you go to start a new thread there is a popup that basically asks if you saw these already existing threads with similar keywords prior to starting the new one.
 
I thought I'd put in an announcements forum as a place where I can announce new features for the forum and such.

So, we'll start with this. You may have noticed that I've been doing a few little upgrades over the last few days. Some upgrades are for supporting members only, other upgrades are for everyone.

Everyone

1. There's now a topic search feature above the forum list and at the top of all the forums. Start typing and it will look for threads with your keywords in them.

View attachment 3108

2. There's now a "Thread Starter" banner under the user name of the poster who starts a thread when they respond within that thread. It doesn't seem like much, but it's handy to know at a glance if the original poster is responding to your comment.

View attachment 3109

Supporting Members

You have all the above plus...

A new "bump" feature that allows you to bump one of your threads once a day. I know that sometimes, especially in the presentations forums, a post can fall the the second page pretty quick. If that happens, you can bump your thread back to the top for another go. Please note that this is a bit of a test feature and may be removed if it's abused (although I'm not too worries, seems like a great group here).

View attachment 3110

Second, you now have a "History" link when the Forums tab is active. This will give you a list of your recently viewed threads. It's handy if you want to refer back to a topic that you recently viewed and can't quite remember which topic it was.

View attachment 3111

Thanks again everyone!

Steve

PS More to come :)
Thanks.
 
That is something I noticed on other forums, when you go to start a new thread there is a popup that basically asks if you saw these already existing threads with similar keywords prior to starting the new one.
I found a plug-in that does it, but I'm not a fan of how it works. You can't just click away from the list - you have to hit the cancel button that uses the circle-with-a-slash in the lower right corner rather than the more tradition "X" in the upper right. Forum software is really confusing to a lot of people so I hesitate to add anything that's not 100% intuitive. I might talk to my own developer and see if he can make me something that will do the same thing but not be quite so confusing.
 
This is a plug in used on another forum.....

1687965125930.png


It pops up and is easy to ignore.....
 
@Steve , has the 'bump thread' feature been removed? I haven't used it in a while but just noticed that I do not see it on one I would like to bump.

Thanks!!
It has been. It was a plug-in that wrecked much of the functionality of the board when I updated the forum for a security patch. I discussed it with a third party developer I trust and he told me it was never a good idea to use plug-in that mess with the board in that way. Turns out he was right, so I had to remove it to get everything working as it should again.
 
It has been. It was a plug-in that wrecked much of the functionality of the board when I updated the forum for a security patch. I discussed it with a third party developer I trust and he told me it was never a good idea to use plug-in that mess with the board in that way. Turns out he was right, so I had to remove it to get everything working as it should again.
I fully understand! Thanks for the quick reply and keep up the good work!!
 
I assume you want to keep the main forum page clean and simple, which is why there are only a few thread options. However, I have noticed recently that some users are posting wildlife images under the landscape forum if the animal is relatively small in the frame. This is (in my opinion) kind of a gray area: is it a wildlife shot or a landscape shot? In truth it is both. IN MY OPINION (and I would love to hear input from others), it would be nice to add a new forum for this, though I am not sure what to title it. Maybe something like Environmental Wildlife or Wildlife in the Landscape or ?
 
I assume you want to keep the main forum page clean and simple, which is why there are only a few thread options. However, I have noticed recently that some users are posting wildlife images under the landscape forum if the animal is relatively small in the frame. This is (in my opinion) kind of a gray area: is it a wildlife shot or a landscape shot? In truth it is both. IN MY OPINION (and I would love to hear input from others), it would be nice to add a new forum for this, though I am not sure what to title it. Maybe something like Environmental Wildlife or Wildlife in the Landscape or ?
I just moved one, We don't always spot mis-postings. Sorry about that.
I personally think the forums we have are enough. It's either wildlife OR its Landscape. Any wildlife, even on a wonderful landscape, is still wildlife.
 
I assume you want to keep the main forum page clean and simple, which is why there are only a few thread options. However, I have noticed recently that some users are posting wildlife images under the landscape forum if the animal is relatively small in the frame. This is (in my opinion) kind of a gray area: is it a wildlife shot or a landscape shot? In truth it is both. IN MY OPINION (and I would love to hear input from others), it would be nice to add a new forum for this, though I am not sure what to title it. Maybe something like Environmental Wildlife or Wildlife in the Landscape or ?
It's a gray area for sure. At the moment, there aren't really enough posts of that nature to justify a new forum page. For now, we'll try to keep it moderated so animals that are small in the frame are generally in the Landscapes forum and ones that are large are in Wildlife.
 
What is needed is chit-chat. So many folks start threads in general photo discussion about things that don't belong there. It's nice to shoot the breeze, but if it is clearly a contrived connection to the purpose of that subforum I think it should be moved to chit chat.

Another type of posting that should be moved is maybe somebody wants their photo to get more attention and they think it's going to get more views in general photo discussion than in a presentation forum, so they clearly contrive a connection to general photo discussion and stick it there in the first few posts. Sometimes this is a judgement call as to where the thread should be, but sometimes it's obvious. I know at least one forum that moves anything that has a photo by the OP in the first couple of postings.
 
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