Dreadknux

Wanted to throw in some suggestions for V5 Our Picks, seeings as the whole thing may likely be re-imagined somewhat with the lack of social media support etc. Filter by category/content type It would be good on the main Our Picks page to have some kind of filter option, maybe in a Tab Bar, that dynamically only shows items that relate to a particular 'node'/content type (i.e. click a "Topics" button and only promoted Topics appear, click a "News" button and only Promoted items from Page Records in a 'News' Database appear). Make this an option for Our Picks Blocks and allow for IPS Code to filter this out as well. I know there is a plugin or two out there that can allow for filters of this kind, but I'd rather have it baked into the core product. Ability to pin entries to top Admins may want to set some promoted items to the top of the list for certain periods of time, to highlight an event period or something. It'd be useful to allow some promoted entries to be pinned, just like topics/page records etc. Auto-promote certain content types I'm interested in exploring 'Our Picks' as a means to replace a homepage, but it would be really efficient if I could make it so that, whenever a particular type of content is posted (let's say, for my desired example, a Page Record in a 'News' database), it would be auto-promoted to the list. I know that the point of Our Picks is manual curation, and for most content I would want to do this (community-generated content like Topics, for example), but for content types I know will always be mod/admin approved, I think it would add some flexibility and save on repetitive donkey work for admins to include an option for this. Do not delete older items on re-promote Not entirely sure why this happens, but I've noticed that whenever a content item is "re-promoted", the older promoted instance is deleted in favour of the newer re-promotion. It doesn't really offer a level of permanence that I'd like to see in a feature like this (some admins may want to re-promote content for different reasons at different times, too), so I think there should be an option to stop this from happening.

I don't really want to put a bad review up and 'downvote' someone's hard work so maybe I'll just flag the author @A Zayed here and mention that this needs fixing in an update. Can't use it otherwise, the issue is just too crazy for me to deal with (been tearing my hair out for months lol)

So it turns out this was down to a plugin I downloaded from the Marketplace... I deactivated it and the issue no longer occurs. This plugin was created to actually REMOVE empty paragraphs from posts and content... so I'm a little bit shocked at the sheer irony of that!! Still can't believe it. Thanks for listening to another one of my feedback topics anyway - but this is a non-issue now!

I just wrote this whole long thing out, and realised that it might be related to something on my installation. Lemme investigate a second. Sorry!

Hi Marc - sorry for the double-post, wanted to add that there is also some weird disparity with the analytics between Pages and associated Topics when posted the other way (i.e. Pages Record is created, Topic is automatically created from it). The Analytics button works, but on the Pages Record it is showing completely different metrics to the Topic. Example (Pages Record, created first): https://www.sonicstadium.org/news/sonic/sonic-speed-cafe-extends-stay-will-host-acoustic-sonic-symphony-performances-r1460/ This was not a Pages Record I backdated post-publish, it's a new record. The "Most Popular Days" column shows incorrect dates and incorrect comment numbers, while the "Most Active Members" column is wholly inaccurate. Example (Topic, created from Pages Record): https://www.sonicstadium.org/forums/topic/32816-sonic-speed-cafe-extends-stay-will-host-acoustic-sonic-symphony-performances/ This is the correct analytics that I imagine should be sync'd / copied into the Pages Record version of the Analytics dialog box. Not sure if this is an issue that can be replicated, or just something on my community?

I'm just supposing in my last paragraph there, but the issue is that whenever I click the analytics button on a Pages Record that has been copied to database, I get that "We could not locate the item you are trying to view" error. Expected behaviour is to have the dialog box open with the Page record views, comments, most active members, most popular days etc metrics. But that's not happening. I'm not certain what is meant to be copied or not, as I don't know how the metrics work with the copy-to-database system.

My community has a 'news' forum where users can post interesting news topics to share with other members, that are then converted to Pages Records in a 'news' database if they are interesting enough for our mods/admins to write stories about. I have noticed that the new Analytics button does not work on Page Records that have been created as a result of a 'Copy to Database' conversion. It works fine on the original topic, however. Example (Original Topic): https://www.sonicstadium.org/forums/topic/32776-sonic-the-hedgehog-idw-900th-adventure-another-ri-cover-reveal/ Clicking the analytics button works as intended. Example (Pages Record, Copied from Topic): https://www.sonicstadium.org/news/comics/new-jon-gray-cover-revealed-for-idws-sonic-900th-adventure-r1456/ Clicking the analytics button on this page results in the following error: I did tweak the "analyticsItemLink" template on my theme minimally (only to add record views to the button itself), but just in case I reverted the changes to default and the issue remains. It is not a template issue. Given that a sync'd Pages Record and Topic tend to have some separate metrics (as you can see if logged in as Admin, the Page Record has 1.2k views and the Topic has around 200) but not others (comments and reactions are synced, for example, although reactions to the Topic OP are not synced with the Page Record itself), it's possible that there is some confusion in the code here resulting in this issue. If copy-to-database/synced topic/pages are enhanced in IPS V5 in order to have a closer relationship than they do in V4 (as per design flaws outlined here and suggestions made here) I think this problem could be overcome in the next major version of IPS?

Something I'd like to suggest for v5 or sooner, just a weird bit of behaviour I've experienced when copy-pasting content from one source into IPS' post editor. Whenever I do this, IPS adds an extra "<p>" code before and after the pasted content. The extra spacing is never visible in the post editor when initially pasting the content in, but once a post is actually published the extra paragraphs are added and visible. If a user also has access to the "Source" button on a post editor, clicking this after pasting content also reveals the added P tags, which are then displayed once the "Source" button is clicked a second time to return to rich text. I'm not sure why this behaviour exists, as it doesn't seem to serve any purpose other than to be very annoying 🙂 It just results in a lot of empty paragraphs from users who like to copy-paste content (such as quotes) and comment on them on my community. Fake Edit: I just tried copy-pasting content into this website on a recent post I made and not experiencing this issue... maybe it's an issue with my particular community, but it'd be good to hear from other community admins to see if this behaviour also exists on their sites too. Perhaps it's something IPS just fixed exclusively on their site 😄

No problem Marc - I still believe there should be some additional feature for IPS to remove even typographical quote marks from URLs, as they serve no functional purpose (and actually serve to break URLs as displayed above), but at least I have a way to avoid making that happen on mobile now. 🙂

EDIT: I have found a solution to an issue I have been facing on iOS where quote marks were always appearing as typographical (curvy) and therefore would always present broken links in IPS URLs (example below): For anyone else with this issue, go Settings > General > Keyboards > Turn off Smart Punctuation. Figured I'd share for people who were tearing their hair out at this like I have been 🙂

I'm confused, why would they have permission to reply to some records/topics but not others? I don't think I set any restrictions on those users (or any usergroups) for posting replies in those forums/databases either? OK I think I see what I've done here. I set the News forum to require 50 posts of content to be posted before being allowed to post topics and replies (or in the case of 47973, just reply to topics due to usergroup restrictions). But they were still able to post comments in a sync'd Pages record, so they'd be able to post through Pages but just not quote anyone. What's weird though is that for the user 47973 there does not appear to be any messaging telling them they do not have permission to post a reply? Normally there is something telling a user they don't have access, right? On the affected topics, the post area at the bottom of the topic page is just gone, there's no permissions message. Maybe that's something to add in a future update?

Hi Marc, sure thing - for that particular user: Pages Record: https://www.sonicstadium.org/news/media/sonic-friends-is-a-new-animated-series-heres-the-official-reveal-teaser-r1397/ Forum Topic: https://www.sonicstadium.org/forums/topic/32747-sonic-friends-is-a-new-animated-series-heres-the-official-reveal-teaser/ ^ if you go to comments at the bottom of the Page Record, or under any post in the Topic, check any post and the Multiquote and Quote links are missing (but Reactions are still present) ---- However that user does have quote options available in the following Topic (in the same forum): https://www.sonicstadium.org/forums/topic/32737-idw-sonic-halloween-special-cover-a-b/ And this Pages record (same database): https://www.sonicstadium.org/news/comics/new-covers-for-idws-sonic-halloween-special-2023-revealed-r1396/

No problem. I realise I have 2FA on my admin account, so I decided to double check the credentials of the account I already provided and it seems like I can sign in as other members okay (FWIW, I did also have a problem at first but realised that my AdminCP sign-in was still set to my own admin account even though I was signed in as the Support-provided admin on the front-end, once I signed out of AdminCP and re-signed in as the Support admin I was able to sign in as other members). Can you try again with the Support-provided admin credentials please and let me know? I've logged out entirely on my community just in case that was causing the issue for you.

Hi Marc, I’m not aware of any setting that can remove/restore the ability for admins to log in as users, I haven’t done anything to the Admin account provided in my Client Area settings… should I provide my own login credentials so you have a means to access, or shall I try deactivating plugins to see if that might be causing the problem?

Thanks @Jim M - I deactivated all but the core apps (deactivated all plugins too) and logged in as the affected user while using the default (unmodified) IPS theme... they still don't have the Quote options available to them. ^ This is what they see under a comment under CMS/Pages record ^ This is what the see under a post in a topic Affected user IDs on my community (that have reported this) are 19145 and 47973. They say it's happening to them on Desktop/Firefox (19145) and Mobile/Chrome (47973) but I was able to verify those Quote options were missing after logging in as each of them (via AdminCP) on Desktop/MacOS/Safari too.

One or two of my community members have reported that they cannot access the multi quote and quote buttons at the bottom of a content post (Pages record comment, topic post). I’m talking about this (circled): I checked the user’s group and the group’s settings and permissions and nothing seems out of place. Other members in the same usergroup can see and use the buttons no problem. And I haven’t touched the theme templates for this area of the community so it can’t be a theme issue. I can share the user ID having the issue if needed for troubleshooting further, but I’m just wondering if there is some esoteric setting or function that has somehow been activated (either on admin side or user side) that I might be missing here?

Thanks Charles. I just checked this out and I'm very impressed with the offering. I do appreciate the hard work you guys have all done at IPS to repackage this in a way that's enticing for admins like me that want to have it all 😆 I may wait until the new year to jump in on this (funnily enough my loyalty gets me a couple extra months on my plan, but if I jump in now it will push my renewal back to December which... isn't a convenient month for renewal fees! 😅 The offer is almost too good for now in that case, haha!). I know some of us clients like to whine about this and that sometimes... but the truth is I'm very happy as a long-term IPS customer, and when I get even a flitter of a 'grass is greener' thought in moving to another platform (other forums in the same content vertical as me go for a competing software) I just think about the things I plan to do for my community/site and realise that nothing really touches IPS honestly. Especially in the comms department - people may grumble that this topic or that topic doesn't get replied to, but you guys respond when it matters (tech issues etc) so I wanted to just show my appreciation for that too while I'm here. Thanks for all the hard work! As @CheersnGears said, I also don't believe that having "just a forum" cuts it anymore if you want to be serious about managing a community/site (although I've nothing against anyone who just wants to run a forum solo), so having all of the apps at your fingertips is the best approach for both clients and IPS (in terms of development I imagine). I know I've had great success in migrating my old Wordpress site content into Pages/CMS, and have lots of ideas of how to use Gallery and maybe even Blogs... I hope that this new "all apps" structure for Classic allows IPS to spend as much time revamping and enhancing each app as equally as each other... either way, I'm looking forward to jumping in at the right time for me and taking advantage of the offer. Many thanks again!

Thanks - I’ll look into it as a short term solution. Appreciate it! I think this should be a feature in the next version of IPS in the long term though so I’ll keep the topic open 🙂

Thanks for this, looks great - would this allow me to let users embed content from platforms I choose (like YouTube) while disabling the same for others (like Twitter)? It’s not super clear on the marketplace page

Interesting change - I'm all for it, if it means that self-hosted is sustainable for IPS to continue forward. I simply don't have the budget to move to cloud, however tempting it is. It would allow me to explore the apps I've been interested in but haven't taken the plunge on yet (like Gallery and Downloads). I'm interested in the Commerce revamp and the ways I could monetise my community to help keep it sustainable too, but I'll wait for v5 to play around with any of that I reckon. Few random Qs: The upfront cost of $499 - does that apply only to new customers, or would current self-hosted customers wanting to move across to the new service have to pay that too? Or is that price variable based on customer loyalty? Will customers be able to remove the IPS branding after migrating to the new plan, or will they still need to pay $500 for branding removal?

The AdminCP setting to "Automatically embed links" applies to every platform that is supported, and while I want to be able to allow embedding of YouTube videos etc I want to DISABLE Twitter links specifically. There appears to be no sub-setting to choose which platforms you can allow embedding on - it would be good to have support for this. There are multiple reasons I want to disable Twitter specifically: Embedded tweets take ages to appear on page load, making for a crummy UX for my users Distracts from community content, which is not helpful when Twitter etc are platforms that forums constantly have to compete with for attention - if people really want to see what a tweet says, they should just click the link Twitter going the way of the dodo generally and I really don't want to support it In a perfect world, would be good to have a sub-setting in AdminCP where we can pick and choose which links automatically embed and which ones we can disable... but in the short-term there should just be a mod/hack to allow disabling of Twitter embeds and auto-embedding of everything else. 🙂

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The Record Image field in a Pages database provides the correct og image for external linking. Just make sure the field is enabled in your Database (AdminCP > Pages > Your Database > Fields and then the ‘Record Image’ field under “Publish Fields”). Then, for each Page record, you just select Edit, find the image field, upload up it desired image to the field and then save. 🙂

Well I’m glad not EVERY useful feature is being deprecated! Just “semi-dead” 😅. Seriously though, I am excited about the thinking behind “smarter” solutions surrounding this - I’m definitely not against change (I got over Status Updates already, honest!), as long as I can get behind the general vision. For me, part of the appeal in migrating all of my separate silo sites into IPS was in exploring ways the different apps could communicate with each other by virtue of being on a single platform (being able to reference related forum topics in a wiki Page database record, or connecting an Event to a Gallery). I don’t necessarily feel like this is ‘old news’ or ‘end of journey’ / ‘looking back’ stuff - on the contrary, I think the inter-connection of apps is an exciting future-thinking concept for IPS with currently massively untapped potential. But I can definitely wait for something like this to be explored later throughout v5’s life. So just to be clear, I am definitely excited about what new and future things v5 would bring… but at the same time I think it would be a step back to regress the apps to siloed experiences. What would then be the benefit for customers to add Pages, Gallery, Commerce etc to their community suites if they each just acted like separate websites? If it’s just about having a shared member base across the apps, you may as well just set up a SSO for a bunch of different apps hodge-podged together (and I don’t like that idea, it’s very inelegant). The topics/pages thing, in particular, was all about tackling content redundancy and making sure that new Pages articles can leverage existing forum discussion to prevent the site looking inactive/dead. As long as the smart solutions-thinking down the road addresses this in some way, I’m on board. Granted, this is more a conceptual feedback now than a developmental one, but I figured I’d mention it now rather than regret not mentioning it all later when v5 is about to launch and we all find out it’s just a Rick Astley video on loop 😄

Yeah that’s fair enough, I shared a really bad example there. But I think it’s fair to say the documentation currently existing for v4 is severely lacking; even a basic glossary of theme terms would have been useful. But the few scraps the IPS ‘theme guide’ does have are unhelpfully scattered across a number of esoteric ‘help guide’ pages that individually are more patronising than they are genuinely helpful. I feel like I’m having to hunt pieces of a treasure map by hopping across different areas of the site 😅 We can agree that a v5 version of this could definitely be designed better at the very least. Anyway, Matt mentioned some level of information in a blog post so I can wait for that no problem. 🙂