Upcoming Enhancements to our Forum and Social Community

[Bill - Seemiller]

Over the last few weeks, we've been working with our programmers on several features which will even further improve our already enhanced community. To learn more about our vastly improved forum and social community, visit "Welcome to your new Hair Loss Forum and Social Community".

 

These enhancements should be deployed to our community this upcoming Tuesday, August 31st sometime early morning.

 

I've listed several of the improvements below.

 

1. The most active members with profile pictures will be featured more prominently on the Home page, the "Profiles and Blogs" page, the "Search for Members" page and be featured toward the bottom of each profile page. Thus, you are encouraged to update your social profiles, add a profile picture, create blogs, photos albums, videos and participate on our discussion forum.

 

2. When creating a new forum topic, the "Manage Attachments" and "Notification/Thread Subscription" options will appear above the "Submit" button so they're more visible to everyone. Currently, you have to scroll down below the submit button to find them.

 

3. A prominent note will be featured on the "Your Info" forum page explaining how this section allows forum members to change and manage their info specific to the forum. It will also link to the page where you can update your social profile information.

 

4. You will be able to send private messages and add forum members as friends directly from the forum. You will be able to do this by clicking on their name on any forum topic and selecting "Add to Friends" or "Send a Private Message".

 

5. Currently, you can instant message any member you've befriended on the social community. This feature does not currently work when you're on the forum. You will soon be able to instant message your friends from anywhere on the community including the forum. Thus, you are encouraged to befriend anyone you might be interested in chatting with privately and instantly who's online at the same time.

 

6. The Hair Loss Blogs listing page currently only displays a description and link to the blog. Soon, it will also show a preview photo when applicable to the left of each description.

 

7. New friend requests will appear as a number next to the "Friends" button just like how the number of new messages you have waiting appears next to the "Messages" button.

 

8. Currently, Photo Albums on the social community only give you the option to organize photos by moving them up. You will now be able to move them up or down.

 

9. Currently, every time a user logs in from the forum, they're directed to the "What's New" page. However, upon login, you will now be redirected back to where you were on the forum before you were prompted to login. Thanks to Dave (TakingthePlunge) for suggesting this improvement.

 

10. Newly registered members will be forced to either upload their own default profile picture or select from a number of pre-defined profile photos. This should hopefully create some diversity in profile pictures and eliminate the number of faceless robots. Existing members will also have the ability to select from amongst the default profile pictures or upload their own by clicking "Change Photo". To start, there are approximately 15 default photos to choose from. We will be adding more in time.

 

11. A "Login" and "Join" button will appear on the primary forum navigation menu for guests or members who aren't logged in.

 

12. While members can currently add comments on individual photos in member created photo albums, there's not currently an option to comment on the entire album. Soon, you will be able to comment on photos and/or the entire photo album.

 

13. Currently, members are only notified via email when they receive a private message or if one of their created blogs, photos, videos or groups are commented on. However, members aren't currently notified when they comment on other people's profiles. Thus, like Facebook, members will soon receive messages and notifications anytime a member replies to something they've commented on - whether it be someone else's blog, photo album, video, someone's wall, etc. This option will be set by default but can be turned off by going to "Settings" and "Account Settings".

 

14. Currently, a red box appears in the top right hand corner of the community to notify members of their new messages, comments, friend requests, etc. However, currently, this box only appears on the social community and not the forum. This feature will soon be available on the forum as well. By clicking on the box, you can easily access any new messages or comments you should be aware of.

 

We're aware that the "Remember Me" option still isn't working for everyone and that some members have to keep logging in. Ultimately, an update to the social community software will solve this problem and we will soon be working on implementing this as well.

 

We hope you enjoy these new enhancements and as always, feel free to make any suggestions for future improvements.

 

Best wishes,

 

Bill

[Bill - Seemiller]

Guys,

 

Short of a few very minor issues, the above enhancements are complete. If you find or experience any issues with any of the above features and/or other problems, please post a reply or contact me privately at help@hairtransplantnetwork.com so we can get these resolved.

 

Ultimately, this is your community and we want to make it enjoyable for all!

 

Stay tuned on upcoming enhancements!

 

Bill