IPS 4.3 is Now Installed

[iacas]

IPS, or "Invision Power Software," is the software platform that we use to run the forum.

Yesterday I upgraded from version 4.2.9 (the latest in a series of small updates) to the feature-filled 4.3 version. This update has been in the works since the start of 2018, and is finally here and in early tests delivers what it says it will.

Some of the best features are for admins and mods, but for you folks - the users and members - here are the features you will notice and want to use:

Automatic Content Moderation (Link)
This feature lets members hide content that's either inappropriate or spam. If enough members report the post as "inappropriate" (i.e. someone calling someone else names and behaving very poorly) or "spam" (obvious), the content will be hidden and moderators will be notified. Members with a reputation of > 72 need more reports for their content to be automatically hidden.

Emoji Support (Link)
In addition to the emoji we used to have (like  and  and  and ), we now have access to the full range of normal emoji, like 🤦🏼‍♂️ and 🗑️ and ✈️ and anything else. To type an emoji, just type it… or… just type a colon and then start typing the word. For example, for a facepalm, type : and then "face" like this: :face . A list of possible emoji will appear. Or select it from the emoji menu item in the toolbar.

Paid Clubs (Link)
I won't say much about this now because I don't know that we'll ever use the club, but eventually members can create "paid clubs" that members pay to join. Clubs received some other enhancements as well.

Gallery Improvements (Link)
Finally, you can create a gallery that anyone can submit to. For example, I've opened up the Animated GIFs gallery to everyone. My Newport Cup 2017 gallery is open to specified members (captains and players). (Though there's seemingly a bug with this right now.)

Excluding Groups from the Leaderboard
I've finally got the ability to hide myself from the Leaderboard. If you're not familiar with the Leaderboard, check it out.

Blog Improvements (Link)
Several small improvements to blogs. Check them out. If you don't yet have a blog, and want one… just visit https://thesandtrap.com/blogs/ and start one for yourself.

Improved Search (Link)
Yay! I'll look into setting up ElasticSearch eventually, but for now, even the MySQL search is improved.

This isn't a comprehensive list. There are a number of other small improvements and changes.

Edited April 26, 2018 by iacas
edited emoji part after upgrading to utf8mb4

[dennyjones]

6 hours ago, iacas said:

Excluding Groups from the Leaderboard
I've finally got the ability to hide myself from the Leaderboard. If you're not familiar with the Leaderboard, check it out.

Check the link please..

[iacas]

27 minutes ago, dennyjones said:

Check the link please..

Yeah…?

https://thesandtrap.com/leaderboard/

[billchao]

9 hours ago, iacas said:

Yeah…?

https://thesandtrap.com/leaderboard/

It didn't work when you first posted, maybe that's what @dennyjones is referring to. I assumed the site was still updating.

Fine now.

Are the emojis OS specific? Like some Apple emojis won't show on Android devices and vice versa? This is what I see on my phone.

I'm assuming the random question marks are other emojis that aren't supportrd by Android.

[iacas]

Actually that seems to be a bug right now, and not properly supported for some reason. I type them, they appear properly, and then when I submit they translate to ?? for me as well.

[iacas]

I think the upgrade was supposed to upgrade the format of some database rows to something other than UTF-8, like UTF-8mb4.

Testing utf8mb4

🤦🏼‍♂️🇦🇺🗑️

[billchao]

Testing 😲😩☠🇹🇼

[iacas]

12 minutes ago, billchao said:

Testing 😲😩☠🇹🇼

Cool.

Remember, if the emoji menu is slow, you can type a : and then type out the word.

For golf company logos, for example Snell, you can type :sne and the logos will appear, and if you finish it by typing ":snell:" without the quotes, you'll get .

[iacas]

Emoji are now supported throughout the site.

If the menu is slow to load for you, just type a colon and start typing a word like "palm" for a "facepalm" or whatever. Type "boat" or "flag" for the boats or the flags.

[boogielicious]

 

👍

[Club Rat]

Cool stuff.

Is this a better benefit for mobile users or desktop users or both?

[iacas]

10 minutes ago, Club Rat said:

Cool stuff.

That's not what's new. That we've had for… six years? More?

10 minutes ago, Club Rat said:

Is this a better benefit for mobile users or desktop users or both?

Everyone.

[Valleygolfer]

Hopefully it will clean up the mobile html entries. That is always a tedious endeavor and has cut down my posting

[klineka]

Is there any way, other than typing something in the "About me" section, to not see the "Your profile is 0% complete" ?

[iacas]

37 minutes ago, Valleygolfer said:

Hopefully it will clean up the mobile html entries. That is always a tedious endeavor and has cut down my posting

I don't know what that means. I use my phone pretty frequently. Be more specific?

6 minutes ago, klineka said:

Is there any way, other than typing something in the "About me" section, to not see the "Your profile is 0% complete" ?

I have an idea what you mean, but PM me a screenshot or something. The software has a "Profile Completion" setting, and it's enabled, but the "About Me" thing is in the optional forum information.

[Valleygolfer]

14 minutes ago, iacas said:

I don't know what that means. I use my phone pretty frequently. Be more specific?

I have an idea what you mean, but PM me a screenshot or something. The software has a "Profile Completion" setting, and it's enabled, but the "About Me" thing is in the optional forum information.

It is more of a process. If I enter something "here" and I want to do a correction or trim a quote, I have an extremely difficult time going back to the location I want to continue. I have to enter all text perfectly, then trim quoted areas. I know it is hard to understand but it has been going on for a while and half the time I just give up and discard the whole post all together.

[iacas]

1 minute ago, Valleygolfer said:

It is more of a process. If I enter something "here" and I want to do a correction or trim a quote, I have an extremely difficult time going back to the location I want to continue. I have to enter all text perfectly, then trim quoted areas. I know it is hard to understand but it has been going on for a while and half the time I just give up and discard the whole post all together.

1. I don't have that problem. But I'm using iPhones, and the editors work quite well. I can edit inside quotes, I can force touch and move the cursor around pretty directly, etc.
2. You can select text even on smart phones and quote only the selection of text.
3. You really shouldn't need to jump into HTML mode that often.
4. Consider just @mentioning people and referencing the quote.

In general, the smart phone isn't super well intended to do heavy editing, particularly in HTML mode. That's not really ever going to change.

[billchao]

15 minutes ago, Valleygolfer said:

It is more of a process. If I enter something "here" and I want to do a correction or trim a quote, I have an extremely difficult time going back to the location I want to continue.

I do 95% of my posting on mobile and I don't seem to have this problem. If you want only part of someone's post, you can always select it and hit the quote this popup.

If you want to use multiple quotes you can use the multiquote function and trim in the quote box or you can compose your post and add in quotes where your cursor is, like I'm doing here.

19 minutes ago, Valleygolfer said:

I have to enter all text perfectly, then trim quoted areas. I know it is hard to understand but it has been going on for a while and half the time I just give up and discard the whole post all together.

You can't see it of course, but I typed this sentence and then added the quote above.

I don't know much html and I never use it.