DU upgrades for the New Year (including the much-requested "Auto-trash by keyword" function) [View all]

[EarlG]

This discussion thread was locked by Skinner (a host of the Announcements group).

Last edited Fri Jan 4, 2013, 05:11 PM - Edit history (1)

Happy New Year DU! At the end of 2012 we almost finished a number of updates and new features but didn't have time to implement them before the holiday break. Some of these changes are minor, some not so much.

This is part one -- there will be more coming (including "Subscribe to people&quot in the near future.

[font color="red"]Correction: Originally this announcement stated that Jury checks will now be performed on the Latest and Greatest pages only. Actually, the checks are performed on the main pages of all forums and groups as well as the Latest and Greatest pages.[/font]

Auto-trash threads by keyword
Is there a particular subject that you just have no interest in seeing on DU's Latest or Greatest pages? Now you can auto-trash threads by keyword. To use this function, visit My Account > Trash Can and check out the Trashed Keywords section. Enter a keyword there, and thread titles which contain that keyword will not appear on your Latest or Greatest pages, or while you are browsing a forum or group.

My Posts and My Subscriptions tabs light up when there is new content
Wherever you are on DU, you can now see at a glance if someone has replied to you, or if someone has posted in a group that you subscribe to. The My Posts and My Subscriptions tabs will light up whenever there is new content. Once you have clicked through to either page, the corresponding tab will return to its regular grey color.

Jury checks now run on the Latest and Greatest pages, and in forums and groups, instead of on threads
Previously, when a Jury was required, the system would select the first six eligible members who clicked on a thread anywhere on DU. This ensured that Juries were always filled with members who were actively using DU at that moment, but had the unfortunate side effect of interrupting people's browsing -- just when they clicked on a thread that was of interest to them, they would get a request to serve on a Jury. We have changed this so the check is now performed when members visit the Latest or Greatest pages, or when they visit the main page of any forum or group. In other words, we're going to interrupt people when they're looking for something to read instead of when they've just found something to read.

Star member notifications
Star members are now automatically notified by DU Mail one week before their star is due to expire. If their star subsequently expires, they will receive one more DU Mail message to notify them of this fact.

Updating post count and user registration numbers on the home page
Those who were here before the advent of DU3 will recall that we used to have an updating post count and user registration count on our Latest page. This feature was left out in the transition to DU3 and replaced with static numbers. This has now been fixed so that the numbers update automatically. You can see this feature in action in the "Enter Discussion Forums" box at the top of the home page.

More coming soon...