Architecht

I split this out into its own thread just to demo how this will work, and because this was the last item on the old combined probation discussion thread.

I changed the default embedded video size to be no larger than a certain set of pixel dimensions, so it's no longer 100% of the available space.

If you've found that your display name has changed and/or your private messages are missing, you've ended up with two accounts. We can merge your accounts to fix this. You can request a merge in two ways: If you have split accounts and haven't requested an account merge yet, please do so in the account merge request forum. ONLY you and the staff will be able to see your post in that forum. You can also call CGC customer service or use the contact us form, and your name will be added to a queue for merging.

So let me give you a little primary. I can tell you a few simple steps to follow at the end, but you'll be much better off if the overall system and how it works is in your head, because you'll be able to adjust things to be even better in the future than just defaulting to what the old boards used to do. It really isn't that different than the old boards in basic functionality - it just ads more options and the control are slightly different. FOLLOWING - WHAT, WHERE, WHY WHAT: You can follow forums, threads and users. You can also follow other newer features of the boards that aren't fully in use yet, but may be over time - like calendar, galleries, blogs, etc. WHERE: Forums and Threads are followed by clicking the + sign in the green circle next to the name of the forum or thread AFTER you drill into it. Users are followed with a button on their profile pages. Similar mechanisms for everything else. WHY: Once you follow content, you have two ways to consume it. FIRST, as you follow the content you can choose whether to be sent notifications of new posts are or not - via both the notification system on the boards, and email. So make sure as you select to follow something that you choose HOW To be notified, AND whether you want others to see that you follow that content. SECOND, You can ALSO use the "Activity" links to quickly view all of the activity from ALL of the things you follow - forums, threads and people, etc. What is MOST like the old boards is seeing a list of only the top level items that you follow (like topics/threads) with a read/unread indicator. That is this activity stream (Activity --> https://www.cgccomics.com/boards/discover/26/ If you like that stream, then look next to the title at the top of it, and just to the right you will see a faded little checkmark. If you click that, then this stream will replace the "Unread Content" between the Jump To and Mark Site Read menus in the upper right and lower right of the pages. BUT you can also make your own streams, and choose to apply all kinds of other filters. That is probably best understood by experimenting with it a bit. I also find "Content I posted in" to be super handy - because even if I didn't expressly follow it, I can see any conversations I already participated in. ALSO NOTE: If, under notification settings, you choose to turn these on: Automatically follow content Automatically follow new content I post Automatically follow content I reply to Then the followed content links will show everything that you expressly follow AND all the content you make or participate in.

On the other hand, that right hand column is what allowed me to remove a bunch of posts from being stickied at the top of comics general... which is nice.

Nope

You can adjust whether you want to be notified of Likes on the notification settings page.

Turned on the Like button (in the quote bar on the right). Let's see if I can get 50 likes on the thread starting post, and see what it looks like when a very liked post gets highlighted! Plus, I really think this content will help people.

Eh, we'll try it for a bit. If it starts to become a way to troll people, we'll turn it off. Enjoy for now.

A thread for each case, but still a single thread for the updated list of accepted probation entries.

Finally going to try the separate threads for probation discussions. I have locked this thread, but kept it for historical purposes.

Added this

Hi all, This is a little jump-start package of tips to help people navigate the boards quickly. FIRST - YOU MAY WANT TO TURN ON SIGNATURES (while logged in, click "Forums" -> "My Settings" -> "Signature Settings" in the main menu) SECOND - YOU MAY WANT TO CHANGE YOUR THEME (under the "theme" drop down at the very bottom of pages and on the left) THIRD - YOU MAY WANT TO CHANGE THE WIDTH OF THE SITE (by clicking the pencil icon at the top) Customize those preferences as you like THEN: GETTING TO UNREAD POSTS IN A THREAD You just click on the black dot / star to the left of the thread title to go directly to the new stuff. You will notice that there is a red line separating the new stuff from the stuff already read. (p.s. it's a star if you have posted in that thread yourself) GOING TO UNREAD REPLIES IN A PRIVATE MESSAGE This doesn't work. The vendor removed the ability to do this. Currently don't know if they have plans to fix it. Click the black dot from the pop-up you get from the envelope at the top. NOTE: This currently does NOT work from the full InBox page. We have filed a feature request to fix this. For the technically minded among you, you CAN just paste this: ?latest=1 onto the end of the URL for a private message and it jumps you there, but that's a pretty difficult way to handle it. Better to just use the black dot from the envelope view. REPLYING TO A POST AND THEN GOING BACK TO READING You can hit the Quote link at the bottom of each message to reply. After you save your reply, you'll be at the end of the thread staring at your new message, but you might not have read all the remaining messages in the thread. Just click the swoopy arrow on the right side of the post you quoted and you'll jump directly back to where you left off. GOING TO THE TOP OF A PAGE In the lower right hand corner of your screen you will see a red arrow inside of a circle. If you click that you'll be automatically sent to the top. GOING DIRECTLY TO THE LIST OF FORUMS There are a few ways to do this. First, you can use the bread crumbs in the upper left / lower left of the page that show you where you're at, and just click on the level you'd like to visit. Second, you can go to the top of the page, click "categories" and move around that way. GOING STRAIGHT TO A SINGLE FORUM On most pages directly to the right of the breadcrumbs you can find a link that says "Jump To". This allows you to pick a forum from the drop down, click away and hit Go and jump directly there. VIEWING LOTS OF POSTS IN A SINGLE LIST In the menu at the top you will find "activity streams". This offers you various ways to view new content across mulitple forums in a single list. NOTE the expanded / condensed view in the upper right of these pages. ALSO NOTE: Under "My Activity Streams" is the ability to create your own stream, made up of just the forums you care about. It's really sweet.MAKE SURE you click on the gear icon next to choices like content types to get cool extra options, like narrowing by the forum. JUMPING TO NOTIFICATIONS When you get a pop up alert, like about a private message or being quoted - you can click it and go straight there. EMOTICONS Hover over emoticons where ever you see them for a reminder of the text code to quickly add them to a post without needing to click on the emoticons menu. ALSO, use the "categories" drop down in the emoticons menu to quickly find the one you are looking for. FOLLOWING A CONVERSATION If you read a quote in a post and then the reply, but you don't understand the context, use the swoopy arrow on the quote to go to the post they replied to, and see what THAT post quoted. Keeping doing that until you're all caught up. MAKING A POST SOMEWHERE WITHOUT HAVING TO JUMP THERE FIRST Use the Create menu at the top to quickly make a new piece of content WHEREVER you would like to make it, without having to navigate to that section first. SEARCH Hover over the magnifying glass at the top on the right for a quick search box you can click in, without having to use the whole search form. Click it to get a more advanced search. NOTE: a search will currently only search the most recent FOUR of years of content - if you need to find older content you can use a google search with this as the first search term-- Site:www.cgccomics.com/boards QUOTING PART OF A POST Highlight some text in a post if you only want to quote SOME of it, OR if you want to quote that post AND whatever they quoted then highlight ALL of it. Then hover over your selection and click the quote hover menu. HOVERING Lots of things give you features by hovering. You can see the first and last post in a thread by hovering over it. You can ignore a user by hovering over them (no, not me!). Try hovering. You never know what coolness you will find. EMBEDING YOUTUBE Just paste the link. The boards will embed it for you like magic. READING THE NEXT UNREAD POST Underneath the reply box once you have reached the end of a thread, to the right is a link that will just move you to the next unread thread. To the LEFT is a link that takes you back to the topic list. JUMPING TO DIFFERENT SPOTS ON A THREAD (credit: LazyBoy) Clicking on the thread title takes you to the start of the thread. Clicking on the circle (or star) 1 takes you to the first unread post. Clicking on the page number 2 takes you to the start of the that page. Clicking on the time of the last post 3 takes you to the last post. RESPONDING PIECE BY PIECE TO A QUOTED POST Put your cursor into their text just after the part you want to respond to and hit enter twice. This will split up the quoted post so you can respond to various pieces. I made this text an announcement so that it can be see across all the forums, but I'll post it here too so you guys can compl uh, ask questions about how to do other things.

I'm not sure exactly what you're asking, but here are some things you might be looking for: The red arrow in a circle in the lower right of your screeen scrolls you to the top of any page At the end of a thread, in the lower left is "go to topic listing" and in the lower right is "next unread topic" - both of those might move you on without scrolling When going into a thread, click the black circle (or star if you've posted in the thread) to the left of the title in order to go straight to the first unread post At the top/bottom of some pages you can find a "jump to" link to the right of the breadcrumbs that will move you straight to a forum In the main menu at the top the "categories" drop down can move you to a list of forums

Yep. I agree with a variety of the observations made, which is why I made the quick fix beta theme. Here's my personal list: More contrast between the font color and the background inside of posts A subtler "quote" bar at the bottom of posts Slightly larger font inside posts Slightly smaller fonts on the title, reply count and view count on the thread list A bit stronger contrast between alternating lines on the thread list (more like the list of forums) A slightly tighter padding around the thread items in the thread list Bring back a highlighting background color on threads in the thread list that have new posts An alternative dark / not-quote-black theme for those who prefer really low luminosity of the reading experience Honestly, I prefer the round avatars, but I'm not married to either result Get rid of the weird arrow that points from the post to its author, or at least make it the same color as the post background Toned down background on the quoted text, maybe with a light colored key line around it instead How much of that will get done I don't know. Whether all of those changes would make people happier, or half would love half the list and hate the other half, and the rest of us visa versa... also don't know. BUT we might be able to make a couple variations on the themes to give people some choice.

Do you realize that you're quoting a post from 2007 criticizing the old board skin that you are now asking for?

If you are the thread starter, you will find a button at the top of posts in the marketplace forums that allow you to mark a whole thread as sold and then lock it. We do not HAVE to lock it, that's configurable for the whole function. (although not selectable by each individual member).

It's pretty cool, I think.

Hi all, I've installed a new plugin that gives people a button at the top of the post called "Mark As Sold". It locks the topic, puts sold in the title, and adds a red badge to close the thread. See what you think. Locking the topic is optional in the settings. We could mark it as sold and NOT lock the topic.

There is a plus sign in a green circle next to the forum name at the top of the thread list.

You could also hit the + icon next to the Quote option, and generate a string of posts to quote if you really wanted to... but htey might be in reverse order unless you drag them around. I bet in most cases people conclude that they don't need to do it. If your reader doesn't understand your post based on the one quote you can easily include, then THEY can use the swoopy arrow to quickly track backwards until they are caught up.

Have you tried the swoopy arrow on the right of the quote block? It lets you jump to the quoted post, and daisy chain back through the conversation.

I think there is more to do here, but for now, if you go to the lower left corner at the bottom of the page, you will find a "Themes" selection. Pick the "beta tweaks for feedback" theme. It's not great yet, but it moves in this direction.

I ditched the right hand column in the posts view. I left it on the thread list. Some people were asking for it, and I think we are going to keep it because of the promotion of the marketplace. BUT, I agree, it didn't really belong on the page with the posts.

There are two ways to do it: 1. Highlight the whole post you want to quote (including the previous quotes), hover over the highlight and click the quote button that appears when you hover. 2. Hit the + button to the left of "quote" on a post, then use the swoopy arrow on the right of the quote you want to go to the post that was quoted and click the + button there too. Now you can hit the "2 quoted" button in the lower right of your screen to quote them both. NOTE: you may need to drag the quotes into the order you want. ON THE UPSIDE -- most of the nested quoting on the old boards just got in the way and uselessly quoted too much. So there is a benefit here as well.