Well, without any prior notice that I was aware of, when I updated to the recent Board software the POPULAR NOW Block on right column of my home page disappeared. Kaput.

I contacted Support and apparently this Block was removed from the Plan I am on. A similar “Trending Now” Block is available on other Plans. Starting at $250/month. That would put me out of the Discussion Forum business. All for one simple Info Block. 

This is a blow to my long term community. 22 years running with a Conversion to IPB in 2016. That block is an integral part of my Members  Board browsing and participation experience. 

Could the IPB team PLEASE explain to me the reason and logic behind arbitrarily eliminating this very popular and used info Block for those of us with smaller more intimate Board Communities. That one block and the data needed certainly wasn’t taxing the server enough to warrant this. 

 

And more importantly is there any way this can be added back into “lesser plans” with the next Software Update/Upgrade…????

17 hours ago, Allen Bradford said:

…

Could the IPB team PLEASE explain to me the reason and logic behind arbitrarily eliminating this very popular and used info Block for those of us with smaller more intimate Board Communities. That one block and the data needed certainly wasn’t taxing the server enough to warrant this. 

 

Any explanation forthcoming? And is there some process that this feature can be reinstated for basic plans on next update?

The popular now widget was removed because it had technical problems on many communities and those issues were inherit in its design so were not fixable. It was a very old feature so could not be adapted to a modern framework.

It seems you were not having those problems so I can see why you might be frustrated. I am sorry for the disruption there and how it might seem like we just removed something for no reason. You can always read our Release Notes to know everything that changes with each release before upgrading.

3 minutes ago, Charles said:

The popular now widget was removed because it had technical problems on many communities and those issues were inherit in its design so were not fixable. It was a very old feature so could not be adapted to a modern framework.

It seems you were not having those problems so I can see why you might be frustrated. I am sorry for the disruption there and how it might seem like we just removed something for no reason. You can always read our Release Notes to know everything that changes with each release before upgrading.

True, I never had any issues with that feature. Being able to quickly find and access the most active Topics from the Home page was an integral feature. 

Why not replace it with the Trending Now similar Block rather than eliminate a popular feature that was native to a Board/Plan?

Is there a process in which this could be considered and implemented for those of us on lower tier plans with smaller communities?  

Also it’s standard practice and highly recommended by IPB to do the Upgrades regardless of what the Release Notes indicate for changes. Stuck between a rock and a hard place so to speak.

I dont mean to be a pest, well maybe I do. I have always been a champion of this IPB Suite Software for the last 8 years since my Conversion from another platform. And I’ve never been a complainer. 
 

I will ask again. Will the developers consider adding the Popular Now or “Trending Now” block back into lower tier Plans? And if not, why not? 

We're discussing it internally. It was an engineering decision, not a business decision but there is a discussion about it.

1 hour ago, Matt said:

We're discussing it internally. It was an engineering decision, not a business decision but there is a discussion about it.

Thanks I do appreciate the consideration. 

Another note concerning the removal of Popular Now and reason to bring it back in lesser tier Plans.

This is unfortunate for Moderating a Board. I would always check the hottest Topics block whenever visiting my Board. A lot of times very active Topics were going off the rails and needed Moderating. It was a quick way to see what was cooking. Just this morning I stumbled upon a Topic that had gotten out of hand with politics (No Politics Board) and caught it late. I would have seen this Topic heating up if the Popular Now feature was intact. 
 

It may have been an engineering decision but it the removal negatively impacts the running of a Discussion Forum. 

Just checking back in hopes the Support team is seriously considering adding back the Popular Now or Trending Now feature to lower tier plans on the next Software Update. My Board Members miss it and are not happy it was suddenly removed. 

I'll add it to today's call list and get back to you later.