New Forum Features Guide - July 2008

[Darren]

There are some new features that were implemented as part of the recent software update for ClubSNAP and this is to highlight some of them. We will add to the list as we implement additional features as not all of the new stuff have been activated yet.

Thread Tagging
This is a new way to facilitate additional searching and grouping options for threads, and users can add tags to threads that they create or read if they have the proper permissions set.

Tags can be added when creating a new thread, or to an existing thread.



Users can then click on these tags to find all other threads that have the same tag, and will also contribute to the building of a search cloud tag that gives users a quick visual guide to what has been searched for recently and how frequently.

[Darren]

Notifications

Users may have already noticed the new notifications drop down at the top right hand side of the page above the navigation bar.

[Darren]

Member Profile Page, Visitor Messages,



By far the most visible change, the new member profile page adds in a lot of new functionality as well as a cleaner layout.

1. Visitor Messages (Public Messaging) - users can now leave public messages on another users profile which are viewable by other users.

2. Friends (Social Network) - you can invite other users to become part of your social network on ClubSNAP.

3. Social Groups - explained in next post

4. Visitors to Profile Page History - keep track of who has viewed your member profile page.

[Darren]

Social Groups

The biggest user-friendly change/addition to our Forums is the ability for members to create their own Social Groups based on whatever they feel like (we will likely draw up guidelines on this shortly).

This one feature alone greatly boosts our long-standing motto which is to foster friendships amongst photographers. We encourage the use (not abuse, though) of the Social Group feature to create further social cohesion among members, and to encourage members to make friends.





Each Social Group has their own messaging system, however, please note that we do not encourage long discussions within the Group's messaging systems. Discussions on activities and updates should still be conducted in the normal fashion in the appropriate Forum sections.

If the Group messaging system is abused, we may place restrictions on the use of the messaging system, so the onus is currently on the members (and creators of the groups) to manage the discussions within the Group messaging system. This privilege is given on the basis that members will not abuse it, and may be revoked if abuse occurs.

[Darren]

Social Bookmarking of Threads

Users can now quickly bookmark threads and send them to various popular bookmarking sites if they come across interesting threads within ClubSNAP and want to share them with the general Internet populace.