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65 Comments
Posted by
Matt 
Laurel resting isn't an activity we do at IPS and we're all very hard at work on IP.Board 3.1.0 now that we've finished primary development on our suite of applications. We've got lots of exciting things planned and progress has already been made on a few key features.
As an early Christmas present to our community and to continue our honest and open development, I wanted to show you one of our already completed 3.1.0 features:
Enhanced Status Updates
During the latter stages of IP.Board 3.0.0's development, we added in very basic status updates in users profiles that was further enhanced by the index page sidebar hook. We've seen this feature get a lot of use on our own community and we wanted to take it to the next logical step and allow archived statuses and status replies.
There is a new tab in a member's profile for recent status updates and recent status actions.
As one would expect, this is all handled via Ajax with normal post operations for those who do not have javascript enabled. Replies appear instantly, comments are deleted instantly and even status updates are removed instantly. See it in action below:
There is also a new page for all status updates:
You can even receive email notification on any replies to your statuses or any replies to statuses you've replied to:
This takes a minor feature and gives it a little more focus and should help increase traffic between user profiles and give more of a social feel to your bulletin board.
Your status can also be updated automatically from Facebook if you are using Facebook connect.
As always, please keep in mind these are early preview screenshots and may change between now and the first public release of IP.Board 3.1.0. As always, we'd love to know what you think.
As an early Christmas present to our community and to continue our honest and open development, I wanted to show you one of our already completed 3.1.0 features:
Enhanced Status Updates
During the latter stages of IP.Board 3.0.0's development, we added in very basic status updates in users profiles that was further enhanced by the index page sidebar hook. We've seen this feature get a lot of use on our own community and we wanted to take it to the next logical step and allow archived statuses and status replies.
There is a new tab in a member's profile for recent status updates and recent status actions.
As one would expect, this is all handled via Ajax with normal post operations for those who do not have javascript enabled. Replies appear instantly, comments are deleted instantly and even status updates are removed instantly. See it in action below:
There is also a new page for all status updates:
You can even receive email notification on any replies to your statuses or any replies to statuses you've replied to:
This takes a minor feature and gives it a little more focus and should help increase traffic between user profiles and give more of a social feel to your bulletin board.
Your status can also be updated automatically from Facebook if you are using Facebook connect.
As always, please keep in mind these are early preview screenshots and may change between now and the first public release of IP.Board 3.1.0. As always, we'd love to know what you think.
65 Comments On This Entry
giggsey
23 December 2009 - 02:55 PM
You have way too much fun talking to yourself. 
Looking great though.
Looking great though.
Kotonoha
23 December 2009 - 03:22 PM
Is that little thing in the bottom right corner for resizing the text area and if so is that replacing the increase/decrease editor size buttons everywhere else too?
Vince G.
23 December 2009 - 03:37 PM
Kotonoha, on 23 December 2009 - 01:22 PM, said:
Is that little thing in the bottom right corner for resizing the text area and if so is that replacing the increase/decrease editor size buttons everywhere else too?
I think it's a browser feature.
Matt
23 December 2009 - 04:05 PM
@Lewis - the sidebar will be improved, screenshots after the holidays
@Kotonoha - Safari does that automatically.
@Kotonoha - Safari does that automatically.
Green Cat
23 December 2009 - 04:08 PM
Great improvement Matt, any chance of getting a "I like" feature too ? Thanks and Merry Christmas 
mz_
23 December 2009 - 04:14 PM
Looks great. I agree with the above, and chance of the "like" feature? and maybe a "dislike" feature that facebook hasn't added yet?
bfarber
23 December 2009 - 05:21 PM
Haha, I was teasing Matt about the "like" feature before he even posted this, as I was sure someone would request it.
One thing we were curious about - what does everything think about the layout? There was some concern that it would seem too similar to Facebook's layout, but on the other hand it's actually adapted from the profile comments screen with some space compression applied to make things more compact. The fact that it looks similar to Facebook's layout is due to a lack of any natural and good-working alternatives. Just curious what people's thoughts are - if anyone has suggestions on how to change it's visual look, or if it looks good as is (generally speaking)?
One thing we were curious about - what does everything think about the layout? There was some concern that it would seem too similar to Facebook's layout, but on the other hand it's actually adapted from the profile comments screen with some space compression applied to make things more compact. The fact that it looks similar to Facebook's layout is due to a lack of any natural and good-working alternatives. Just curious what people's thoughts are - if anyone has suggestions on how to change it's visual look, or if it looks good as is (generally speaking)?
Zepher
23 December 2009 - 05:22 PM
Status Comments are Cool! A ratings system integration would help. Facebook connect integration + friend's updates and the 'all updates' pages are great features too. Thanks 
Lewis P
23 December 2009 - 05:46 PM
@bfarber:
What strikes me straight away is the input boxes. The actual status input box is smaller than the status comments boxes. Seems a bit strange to do it that way, but perhaps its just me.
The thing I'd probably change first anyway is the background colours of the statuses. Maybe alternate them row1, row2 with a 1px border between them. Similar to comments on the blog. Then, do something similar with the comments.
You get the idea. That helps distinguish between things.
I'd probably then add the profile popup icons next to members names (http://community.inv.../125437-zepher/).
Something else that could possibly be done… Notifications. Maybe add a new 'Message' count to the profile picture in the top-right that indicates comments on statuses. Will mean that if you have emails off, makes things a bit easier to find.
Otherwise, I don't really see how else it can be changed. Without making it look like a topic on it's own accord.. you can't do a lot with it.
What strikes me straight away is the input boxes. The actual status input box is smaller than the status comments boxes. Seems a bit strange to do it that way, but perhaps its just me.
The thing I'd probably change first anyway is the background colours of the statuses. Maybe alternate them row1, row2 with a 1px border between them. Similar to comments on the blog. Then, do something similar with the comments.
Status (row1) |-- Comment (row2) |-- Comment (row2 altrow) |-- Comment (row2) -------------- Status (row2) |-- Comment (row1) |-- Comment (row1 altrow)
You get the idea. That helps distinguish between things.
I'd probably then add the profile popup icons next to members names (http://community.inv.../125437-zepher/).
Something else that could possibly be done… Notifications. Maybe add a new 'Message' count to the profile picture in the top-right that indicates comments on statuses. Will mean that if you have emails off, makes things a bit easier to find.
Otherwise, I don't really see how else it can be changed. Without making it look like a topic on it's own accord.. you can't do a lot with it.
Brett B
23 December 2009 - 06:27 PM
To create a pseudo 'like' feature, how about allowing users to rep status updates and comments on status updates?
Brett B
23 December 2009 - 06:27 PM
To create a pseudo 'like' feature, how about allowing users to rep status updates and comments on status updates?
Ditchmonkey
23 December 2009 - 06:38 PM
I'm a little underwhelmed on this one. Nobody uses status updates on my forum. Hoping that significant updates will be announced that are related to core forum functionality. Are we going to get tags in 3.1 or not?
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