Social Group Discussions

The old forum version had a flat, non threaded message wall in the social groups. The wall is great for leaving messages such as 'hey, nice group!' but isn't that useful when it comes to actually having a meaningful discussion about the chosen topic. In order to greatly enhance the ability of social groups to allow users to talk about their common interests, the social group messages have been threaded with the use of 'discussions'.

By default, the user who created the group can moderate their discussions and the messages within them. Another permission allows users to configure their social groups so that only they can create discussions within that group. This allows users to create social groups with greater control over the subject matter (kinda like a forum with limited 'Can Post Threads' permissions like Updates & Announcements here). Because users can take control of their groups and can be given the primary responsibility for maintaining them, this also reduces the potential extra work for board moderators.

Discussions and messages now also have several features from forums and threads. This creates an interesting scenario where group owners can now see how moderators work with the forums, and allows them to get involved in their own space. Features included:

• Full inline moderation (Discussions and Messages)
• Quick Editing (Messages)
• Subscriptions (Groups and Discussions)
• E-mail Notifications (Discussions)
• Social Bookmarking (Discussions)
• Read Marking (Groups and Discussions)

With read marking, users can mark discussions or entire groups as read, as well as automatic marking when users have read the last post of a discussion, or the last discussion of a group.



Social Group Discussion Threads Details

* Messages in Social Groups are now threaded into 'Social Group Discussions'.
* Discussion are sortable by creator, replies and last post.
* Discussions can be filtered with a simple full text search on titles.
* Discussions can be managed with Inline Moderation to soft delete, physically remove, approve and unapprove them.
* Discussions are Read Marked using both database and cookie methods, with a jump to go to first new post.
* Users can subscribe to discussions and receive email notifications on new messages.
* Subscribed discussions with new posts are aggregated in the User CP.
* Individual Discussions have social bookmarking links (user defined, such as Digg, StumbleUpon etc).
* New 'Can Always' permissions to create and view both discussions and messages, simplifying access.
* Fallbacks implemented for non javascript users.
* Moderators can Quick Edit social group messages using AJAX.
* Posts are now ascending, which is more intuitive in threaded discussions.
* Users can configure their groups so that only the group owner can create new discussion threads.
* Moderated and Deleted discussions are aggregated in the User CP where the user has moderator permissions.
* Moderation permissions are seperated for discussions and threads, including deletion.
* Social Group info is hidden when entering a discussion or viewing pages of results to move focus to discussions.

Social Group Categories

Each Social Group now belongs to a category. Categories allow users to find groups that are relevant to them, especially on larger boards. The categories are predefined by the board admins. As well as providing suggestions to the users for the kind of groups they could create, this also allows admins to encourage users to create social groups that are relevant to the board as a whole.

Categories are included in the advanced search filters, and can also be viewed individually. Selecting a category displays only the social groups that are in that category.



When upgrading to 3.8, any existing social group messages will be moved into an initial discussion named after the group, and all groups will belong to the inital 'BaccaratForums.com' category, which can then be modified by the board admin.



Social Group Changes

* Mark All will read mark all discussions in a group via AJAX.
* Social Groups can be subscribed to, adding group aggregation to the User CP.
* Social Groups now belong to a category.
* A group's category is displayed in the navigation breadcrumb, group lists and group info.
* A new overview page displays a random group, your groups, new groups and groups that you created.
* Groups that you created are navigatable via AJAX and display further information about the group, including pending members and moderated items.
* A category cloud is displayed in the group overview with popularity weighting based on the number of groups.
* Categories can be created and deleted and merged in the Admin CP.
* Groups can be filtered by category, via the category cloud or advanced search.
* Social Groups can now be transferred between users. The group will only be transferred if the recipient accepts the transfer.

Private Messages

Previously PM's were only sorted by date. Most people will find this best for their default view, but sometimes you want to see what messages you've had from other people. PM's can now be sorted by sender and title as well as date. Interestingly, the PM's continue to be grouped based on the chosen sort method. For example, if you select Sender, each message will be grouped by the username of the person who sent the message.



...and if you select title, the messages will be grouped within A-H, I-P, Q-Z, 0-9 et cetera.



You can also find messages with a new filter that has been added to select messages within a date range, or by searching the sender or the message title.



Previously you could select several messages to perform an action on them (such as move to folder or delete). However, your selection was limited to a single page. Now you can search through all of your PM's, selecting multiple messages from multiple pages and folders before performing an action on all of them.

Private Message Changes Details

* Read receipts are automatically accepted when a PM is replied to.
* A new Quick Reply can be used to reply to PM's.
* A new user option is available to set the default value for 'Save Copy' which is also used with Quick Reply.
* PM's can be ordered by Title, Date and Sender.
* When ordered, PM's are grouped by:
o Title - Alphabetical ranges (A-H, I-P, Q-Z, 0-9 and other) - Non ASCII chars are grouped based on transliteration where possible
o Date - Today, Yesterday, individual day names, Last Week, 2 Weeks, Last Month, Older, etc.
o Sender - Grouped by Sender
* Private Messages can be filtered by Sender, Title, a given date period, and whether the message has been read or not.
* Message selections are remembered over multiple pages for bulk actions (Move, delete, mark as read etc).


Profile Privacy

* With the appropriate permission, users can now configure which parts of their profile is visible, and to who. The configurable components are:
o Profile Picture
o Visitor Messages
o Contact Info
o Albums
o About Me
o Friends
o Recent Visitors
o Group Memberships
o Custom Field Blocks where the admin has allowed it

* The components can be configured to be visible to:
o Everyone
o Registered Members
o Contacts
o Friends

* Generally information is only hidden/displayed within the user profile page with the exception of Albums which also affects the ability to view the albums.


Other Changes and Additions

* A new Community link replaces the Members List link with a submenu for Social Groups; Pictures & Albums; Contacts & Friends; and the Members List.
* Deleted and Moderated items in the User CP menu have been collapsed into submenus to reduce clutter.
* A New Items submenu is also available with the newest Visitor Messages; Group Messages; Group Discussions; Picture Comments and Album Pictures.
* Improved RSS filtering for RSS Feed Forums. Terms can now be quoted into phrases, and a new 'match all' option is available.
* Username availability now checked via AJAX during registration
* Notices can now be configured to be dismissible, allowing users to close notices that they have read.
* PM Reporting.
* Subscription folders can be emptied with one click.
* Quick Edit is available for Visitor Messages and Picture Comments, as well as Social Group Messages.
* New UTC and user date and time criteria for Notices.

If you need any further explanation of any of the features, send me a private message.