Everyone at BassResource.com is very proud of the new updates. We have worked hard to create a quality, modern community platform, and we think we’ve nailed it. Just a few of the enhancements include:
User control panel pages updated to be simpler to use and understand.
Several style elements updated and refreshed.
Tighter integration of Facebook and Twitter accounts.
You can now easily add images and albums created in the Gallery to your posts with a few simple clicks.
Overhauled the editor to make it easier to use.
Overhauled the calendar to include many, many new features.
Made the Gallery much easier to browse and share photos.
Completely revamped the search functionality to include more sorting and filtering options.
Overhauled the underlying code to improve performance.
Hundreds of bug fixes and minor tweaks based on feedback!
There are too many enhancements to list, but following are details of the major ones that we hope you’ll enjoy!
Social Media Integration
We have matured the FaceBook and Twitter integration and now offer several new enhancements. Firstly, the pop-up dialogs have undergone a facelift to make them easier to use and easier to recognize which social networking account you are posting from.
We've gone ahead and added full Facebook and Twitter functionality to the mobile theme. You can now log in using Facebook or Twitter and share topics to Facebook and Twitter, all from your smartphone.
We've used the modal functionality to display these pop-ups to give some more room to display the data. The Facebook pop-up also has the 'Like' button included inside the box.
New Search System
The biggest change is of course a brand new filter menu, to replace the myriad dropdown menus that we previously used. Content can be effortlessly filtered with single clicks.
In addition to the main filter menu, search results also make use of a new filter bar to enable sorting and ordering (again replacing dropdown menus). This makes it much easier to find exactly what you’re looking for.
'Like' System
In the last update we introduced a new 'like' system on the forums, allowing members to express their interest in content of value to them. It allowed users to like content publicly or anonymously, permit a way for users to view who publicly liked a given piece of content, and permit users to be notified when the content is updated.
While this system was a good start, we felt that it needed some basic improvements in order to be useful and clear for the average member. Firstly, the 'like' system incorporated the methods for subscribing to content - but what if you don't 'like' the content and still want to be notified? Many members would not understand that they needed to 'like' the content in order to receive notifications about it, and indeed would tell us "but I don't like it?". We recognized we needed to address this confusion concerning a core feature in order for it to be useful. Secondly, the like system was utilized for the Gallery and Calendar, but not for forums and topics, providing an inconsistent experience for members when navigating the community as a whole. The process of following a Gallery entry versus following a topic was entirely disparate and inconsistent, which often leads to confusion for new members, and ultimately leads to the members feeling like they can't trust how a site will behave when they navigate from one area to another.
We have taken steps to address these issues in order to provide a better experience for you with this new release.
We have renamed the 'like' system to 'follow', providing a clearer association of what the functionality incorporates. Whether you like the content or not, you can follow it (publicly or anonymously) and elect to be notified of changes to the content. You can follow a content page without leaving the page, and you can still view the members who have publicly followed the content.
We have also changed over the topic and forum subscription systems to use the new follow system in, providing a consistent experience for members across the entire community, and incorporating some new functionality not available in the previous version.
The button that allows you to follow a piece of content is placed at the top of the page allowing quick and easy access for you to follow the content. When clicked, a small box will show up allowing you to choose how to be notified (if at all), and whether you want other users to know if you are following the content. Previously, when you choose to 'Watch this forum', you would first be directed to the user control panel to make your selection, and then redirected back to the forum once you were done. Now, you choose your options right on-screen and your selections are saved, allowing you to easily follow content without having to jump through multiple pages to do so.
You will notice a small icon next to the follow button with a number - this tells you how many people are following the content. When clicked, you will be able to see who is publicly following the content (the number of people anonymously following the content will be shown at the bottom of the pane to prevent confusion when the button indicates 5 people are following the page, but only 2 are listed because the other 3 are following it anonymously).
Reviewing Content You Follow
Another shortcoming of the 'like' system in the previous version was that we identified early on was that 'liking' content did not help you easily find and review that content later on. You could elect to be notified of updates to the content, but otherwise you were not presented with tools to easily see if there were updates to the content or review content you had liked to see if you should visit it again. Another issue was that the 'Content You Like' page is hidden away in the user control panel, an area many users do not regularly visit after they have set up their account.
You can now access 'Content You Follow' from the user dropdown menu at the top of the page, allowing you quicker and easier access to review the content you are following to check for updates. Additionally, this area is now part of the global search routines (searching, view new content, my content) giving members a consistent experience in reviewing the content they follow.
Another important change we have made to this area was to entirely refocus it. Now, the 'Content you like' page is entirely focused on allowing you to manage the content. While you can quickly see what content you like, it is presented as a simple list, allowing you to update your preferences for that content (how to be notified and whether you wish to like the content publicly or anonymously). We felt it was much more useful to focus this area on the content itself, while still allowing members to update their preferences as and when they need to.
User Control Panel
In many ways the user control panel follows the old computing convention of a special area for configuration and settings. The idea being that you keep all configurable elements in a single location. This works well for the most part but there are many times when you have to go looking for a setting to control how the board works often meaning you have to leave the page you're on, change the setting and then return to what you were doing. We wanted to move specific controls to their contextual location.
We've also merged a few areas together such as "Settings" and "Profile Information", "Email" and "Password". This reduces the number of links and allowed us to merge the "Profile" and "Settings" panes into one.
We've revamped the User Control Panel and stripped down many of the settings and put them in their relevant areas. For example, we've moved the View New Content settings into the View New Content interface.
You can now disable your personal messenger from within the personal messenger itself. You can elect to do this if you do not want to receive PMs from other members. Once it has been disabled, you can re-enable it by visiting the personal messenger again at any time.
Ignoring a user's signature, by clicking the “X” right in his sig, will add them to the 'Ignore Preferences' page so you can remove them.
New Photo Editor
We've revamped the photo editor to make it easier and simpler to use. The first thing you'll notice is that if you've connected your account to Twitter and/or Facebook, you can quickly select to synchronize your photo with the service on the same page.
We're also using square cropped images for your profile photo for a more uniform feel and you can adjust the crop viewport if the default center crop doesn't catch all the detail.
We really hope you enjoy this new interface and we're sure it'll make changing your photo an easier and more pleasant experience!
Notifications
We want the notification system to be something you use regularly to keep updated on new events and new content. We've really re-designed the alert system from scratch to make it simpler to use and indeed more useful.
The alerts are easy to see, right near the top of the page next to your name. A flag with a number (of alerts) will appear whenever you have an alert.
Once opened, you'll note right away that we're using icons instead of text links and that the 'tab' of the menu is correctly colored to give a full application feel to this system. We've also added a link to the notification 'options' so you can fine-tune your preferences quickly. The more eagle eyed among you will notice a few entries for "New topics" and "new replies" but we'll get to that shortly.
Inside the preferences form, we've removed the option to send a notification via personal message. We found that virtually no one uses this option and it creates a chain-effect when you have certain notification combinations. For example, you could get an email and PM for the same alert.
We've also moved the "show an inline pop-up" option directly inside the "Private Messages" section. Now, you will only get an inline pop-up for a personal message and not for other alerts. Also, when you receive a new personal message, you no longer get a notification about this. The new inbox alert system works exactly like the notification alert system in that the list retains the most recent items but the 'red alert' box disappears when you click the list.
You can elect to receive an alert when someone replies to a topic you're following just as long as you've selected an 'immediate' notification. This will be great when you want to continue browsing the board but need immediate notification when someone replies to a topic or starts a new topic.
Posting/replying
In general use, the new editor is much better at "WYSIWYG" (rich text editing) than our previouis implementation and we've extended it further.
Auto saving
A new and really handy feature we've added is auto save. As you type, the editor checks to see if there's any new content and if there is, it'll save what you've written. If anything happens to your page, upon reloading you'll see it's stored your content and you can quickly restore it. You won't lose another post to a browser crash or server time out!
Topic Replies
Quite often you're on a busy board such as ours and you're using the fast reply to make a post and when you submit the post you realize that others have posted in the mean time, making your reply either redundant or out of context.
To solve this, the board now checks at regular intervals to see if any new posts have come through, and if so, you can add them to the page to view them before you submit your post – without losing your post!
Other Enhancements
We've removed the old style forum jump form drop down interface in favor of a much enhanced "Quick Navigation" link that is in the footer of every single page.
We've also updated all the areas where the mini profile card was activated with the green icon next to a user's name. Previously, you have to click an icon to load the mini profile card. Now, simply hovering over a user's name will make the mini profile card appear.
The main user drop down menu has also been enhanced. You can now update your status via the menu which means you can do this from any page on the board.
You’ll also find additional filtering and sorting options for search results, user content, most recent topics, and more. Some of the new filters include: "Topics I participated in", "Content I am following", "Topics I started", and "Posts I made", plus you can filter by forum. You can also sort by date, member, and more!
Calendar Changes
We have added many new features to the Calendar, as well as improved usability. For instance, we have consolidated all event posting pages into one, so there is just one "Add Event" button now, instead of different versions spread across several pages.
We have made the Calendar easier to use, more useful to use, and more intuitive to navigate. When first visiting the calendar, you're presented with a refreshed calendar view. The main calendar now takes up the full width of the page, since it's the most important content on the page. Mini calendars now appear below - available, but not hogging space.
The new filter bar above the calendar allows you to switch seamlessly between month, week and day view. The menu next to the page title allows you to switch the calendar you're currently viewing.
Day view presents a much cleaner overview of events and birthdays taking place. In addition, a quick overview of members who have RSVP'd to an event are shown.
The redesigned event view shows full information about the event, together with comments and the RSVP list. We’ve also made it much easier to add an event.
We’ve made too many enhancements to list, but here are the major ones:
RSVP
You now have the ability to create events that request attendees to RSVP for the event! As the event organizer, you may need to know how many people will be attending, and/or if specific users will be attending. It is useful to have a way to allow users to signal that they will be attending the event.
Attachments
In our continued effort to increase consistency and functionality in Calendar, we have also implemented attachments for Calendar in the next update. When submitting or editing an event, you will be able to submit attachments just like you would be able to for posts in the forum. You can embed the attachments anywhere within the event content, or let Calendar just append the attachments to the end of the event information, again just like a post within the forum. Attachments may be useful for Calendar to share an event poster or flyer, to share coupons for an event, or to attach documentation users may need to be informed of prior to the event, just to name a few uses.
Notifications
You can now optionally elect to be notified of new or updated events in Calendar. Previous versions of the Calendar provided no way to push information to the member to notify them of changes in Calendar. Now you can follow both individual calendars and individual events, allowing you to be notified of additions to calendars you are following, and updates to events you follow. By letting Calendar notify you of changes, the software becomes more functional and useful in it's prime goal, sharing event-based data with the community.
iCalendar Support
The iCalendar specification is a universal format that many applications (such as Microsoft Outlook, Google Calendar, and iCal for Mac) support, allowing applications that support the format to share events between calendars.
Two options are available to export events from your calendars. You can download all events in the calendar as a .ics iCalendar file, which you can then import into a calendar application of choice, or you can subscribe to a calendar to automatically import new events as they are posted. Both options are presented on most pages of the calendar so that they are easily accessible.
All relevant data is included in an iCalendar export, including the event start, end and recurrence information, the event organizer information, attachments (when applicable), and RSVP attendees (when applicable).
Gallery updates
My Media
The new forum introduces a feature called "My Media". This allows you to quickly drop content from your photo album into posts in the forum. This is a huge improvement, because previously you couldn’t do this at all.
Tagging
Tagging allows you to 'tag' an image with data. You can then search these tags to return all matches. This allows you to add secondary categorical data to your images and movies. You can add tags when adding or editing images. The tags appear under the image name when viewing an image.
Quick Navigation
The Gallery now supports the quick navigation panel which is launched when you click the icon just below the search box. It contains a list of all Global albums and also a list of your own albums so you can go to an album quickly.
Image View Updates
We've made a few cosmetic changes to the view image page to bring it in line with the rest of the forums’ look and feel. The image title /follow image button is now in the same format as a topic title for consistency.
Sort by title
You can now sort an album by image title. This can be set when adding or editing an album as well as being available dynamically.
Other Miscellaneous Gallery Changes
Stats (number of images, comments, etc.) is now on the gallery home page - both the portal and browse views.
We've removed the limit of 10 images at a time, you can now upload as many images as you like in one go.
We've moved the slideshow button to a more prominent location, at the top of the page, next to the upload button.
We’ve added in the like / reputation button
Our underlying goal with these changes, beyond improving consistency within the community, is to enhance the content discovery process within forums, Gallery, and Calendar. We have spent a great deal of time with this new version, improving our view new content, user content, and followed content views to make things simpler for members to use, produce more reliable and consistent results when used, and provide better functionality for finding the content you are interested in.
We believe the combination of the changes we have made to all of these areas will make discovering new and updated content much easier and much more enjoyable to members providing a better experience within our community.
