Upcoming Forum Changes

[Joe]

Hi EDF'ers!

 

I am planning to roll out some significant upgrades to the EDF platform at some point in the next few weeks. The main aims of this upgrade are:

• To make the forum easier and simpler to use.
• Add some genuinely useful features which people have previously asked for.
• Modernise the layout to bring it up to 2023 standard

Here is a summary of the more significant changes:

 

A local events calendar

This is a new area of the forum which allows people to submit, view and comment on upcoming events. This will be similar to the 'Whats on in East Dulwich' board, however the big difference is that you will be able to see a clear date, time, venue and overview of all events, organised in chronological order on one page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Improved For Sale section

When you enter the For Sale or Family Room classifieds board, there will be an option to see thumbnails of the photos people have uploaded of their item, instead of a text list. This will hopefully make it much quicker and easier for people to browse.

 

Simpler Post Editor box

The post editor box (the text entry box when creating a post) will be simplified. For example, allowing you to see formatting as you type instead of having to use code markup.

 

Easier to use Private message interface

The Private Messages interface is (IMO) not visually appealing, especially when using the interface on mobile. The new private message interface will be 'chat / messenger' style, so you can see the flow of the conversation.

 

 

I will provide more information nearer the time of the switchover, including a more in-depth description of the improvements.

 

Now to the part where you can help!

I would greatly appreciate volunteers to test the new changes and provide feedback.

If you volunteer, I will send you a link to the demo (test) version of the forum. You can access it whenever you like. I will provide instructions on the areas which require testing and feedback.

If you would like to sign up as a volunteer, please fill in the following form and I'll get back to you in a few days: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScjrKEud--mV59r9nKuCj_aiqwY-HMJUGxElB6KRUQJ0Bjmog/viewform?usp=sf_link

 

Thanks all.

- Joe

 

[jazzer]

Good to see that you're seeking feedback on your proposed changes. Since you took over ownership you have gradually added small changes and additions to improve what is available for users to delve into. So any of these new proposed changes will have been through some level of "testing" by users so if and when they go live it will provide confidence to users that what has changed has been previously scrutinised. It will be interesting to see the changes being rolled out and the format and what can be done as a result of the changes.

[Joe]

Thanks jazzer.

Back in June 2022 when the migration was done from the old forum platform to the current, there were short timescales to get it all migrated and tested over - Mark's hosting contract had a fix end date at the start of July, so this was a hard deadline. There were also various technical reasons we couldn't simply continue to use the old forum platform. Mark did bring in a few volunteers to help test things, but obviously only so much feedback can be actioned upon in a short space of time.

With the platform changes I'm proposing, there has no such deadline and we should be able to expand the amount of time we put into testing to cover a wider range of forum members.

[Pugwash]

I find it very difficult when replying to private messages - not clear which box you have to complete can you simplify this.

[Joe]

Thanks to the people who have filled out the form so far.

I will hopefully be able to send out the link in the next couple of days.

 

I find it very difficult when replying to private messages - not clear which box you have to complete can you simplify this.

 

I agree. The private messaging system in the upcoming forum platform is simpler and should be much more intuitive to use than this one.

[OutOfFocus]

If you offered to help, maybe worth looking in your spam box. My invite went there.

comment not critism!

[Sue]

If you offered to help, maybe worth looking in your spam box. My invite went there.

comment not critism!

 

I offered, but nothing in my spam folder 😭

[Joe]

I offered, but nothing in my spam folder 😭

 

Hi Sue, I can see you signed up via the Google form. The email would have been sent on 23rd Feb. Anyone who signed up prior to that date should have had an email sent to them.

If you can't see it, let me know and I can resend.

[Sue]

I offered, but nothing in my spam folder 😭

 

Hi Sue, I can see you signed up via the Google form. The email would have been sent on 23rd Feb. Anyone who signed up prior to that date should have had an email sent to them.

If you can't see it, let me know and I can resend.

 

Ah ok thank you, I have found it, sorry

[Joe]

FYI I am looking to migrate to the new forum system very soon. Potentially overnight tonight during the quiet hours if everything goes well.

As mentioned, all members, posts, private messages will be migrated so hopefully the transition will be seamless as possible.

[jazzer]

I hope the transition goes smoothly for you Joe, I have tried logging into the new website that you provided a link for but it will not allow me to log in. Good luck with tonight.

[Peckhamgatecrasher]

Hi Joe

I think you've done a fantastic job on the new forum. Thanks.

One query: what does "reputation" section mean? Sounds a bit sinister to me (although my reputation went south years ago).

PGC

[Joe]

8 hours ago, Peckhamgatecrasher said:

Hi Joe

I think you've done a fantastic job on the new forum. Thanks.

One query: what does "reputation" section mean? Sounds a bit sinister to me (although my reputation went south years ago).

PGC

Thanks for the feedback. Appreciated 👍

The reputation thing is a feature which I've accidentally enabled prematurely (I need to do some testing on it first) so I have disabled it for the time being. Thanks for pointing this out! But if you are curious, its was a tracker for showing how many times you've been 'thanked' using the icon at the bottom right of each post.

[AITIPI]

Massive thanks to take the time to improve the forum