šŸ†• Forum update (Discourse 2.8)

We have just upgraded this forum to its latest stable version (Discourse 2.8)!

The last update was already in June 2021, so quite a bit has been changed/improved/fixed ā€” a large part of the changes are not visible, but quite a few things are. Some of the ones worth mentioning:

  • Clearer distinction between regular topics and message topics by using different colors and speech bubbles (rounded corners). This has been a long standing request and itā€™s great to have some changes for that.

  • Faster image uploads: in most cases the image is now resized locally before it is uploaded making it faster and saving bandwidth for everyone.

  • The search box allows to more easily choose to search just within topic, all topics, all messages, etc.

  • Remember the latest search queries to make it easier to go back to it.

  • Fast edits: ever wanted to change a small part of your own post but need to load the whole composer/preview to do it? Now, in most cases, you can edit in place by just selecting the bit to change.

  • New emojis ā€” because one can never have too many emojis! :sweat_smile: Thereā€™s also a fix for a bug we reported to Discourse.

  • Allow bookmarking a topic instead of only specific posts.

  • Allow removing own vote from single choice poll.

  • Easier editing of image alt text.

  • Sticky avatars when scrolling through long posts/wikis.

  • Tags can now have descriptions. We will be editing that in the coming days/weeks.

  • Faster scroll performance on mobile.

  • There are many more changes. If curious, check here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here!

If you hit any trouble with a change that is not working as expected and/or donā€™t understand a new feature/behavior, please report it on this topic so we can look into it with you.

49 Likes

Very good to know that my inability to access the forum for a bit this morning was an update and not some hacker deleting it (the imagination of this not IT person runs wildā€¦)! :joy:

Thank you so much for this update on the update. It does seem we have some nice new features! :grin:

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Thank you Admin! I like the new ā€œā€“last visitā€“ā€ line! Kudos for the useful innovation. :clap:

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This is great! Many will appreciate it a lot and it will help forum newbies to get along better :slight_smile:

I love the sticky avatars, too. But it seems that it is slightly buggy (not too responsiveā€¦ sometimes it only happens after scrolling up and down again).

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:purple_heart: this new feature! Just tried it on a couple of images ā€¦ so glad I can quickly ā€˜shrinkā€™ them! Thank you!

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I just noticed that too.
If you scroll up from the bottom, it works perfectly for every post.
But from top to bottom you have to start over with every new post, so to speak.

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I donā€™t know if itā€™s the right place to say it but,
After the update Iā€™m having difficulty uploading pictures from my phone (I use android). Theyā€™re loading but failed after reaching around 40% , or is it my internet? If anyone has been experiencing the same

EDITED : yes itā€™s my slow connection :signal_strength:

Is it also a new update feature that we can only upload 5 pictures max at the same time?

Each pinned thread occupies more space after the update. How can I make it shorter? (Mobile View) Thanks.

I believe that was already the case before, but Iā€™m not 100% sure. Maybe others can comment on this.

Iā€™m afraid Iā€™m not aware of any setting for you to control the preview size of the entries on that view.

Some members have reported that some links to Postcrossing now show a ā€œLog inā€ title or onebox, like this link to my favourites:

or this one: Log in

This is because the favourite walls are behind a Log In pageā€¦ you just donā€™t see it usually, because youā€™re a member of Postcrossing, and already logged in. But the forum software is just a machine so they are not logged in, nor is anyone outside of Postcrossingā€¦ so they will not see the contents of that page ā€” theyā€™ll just see the Log In page. Up until now, the forum software wasnā€™t being very consistent in how it addressed links that had redirects on them (like that page), but theyā€™ve made it consistent in this last updateā€¦ hence the change in appearance.

To go around this issue, you can either link a word or sentence using the link in the toolbar above the editor, or paste your URL between < >, like this <https://postcrossing.com/user/meiadeleite/gallery/favourites>. This will show the full URL and not the just the title of the Log In page.

Hope that helps!

3 Likes