What will the new server be like?

Forest

Forest

Beloved Grand Eagle
Hi everyone,

I've asked Jan to take a moment and tell people her impressions of the forum software on the new server. My take is that the new software is much more up-to-date, so it'll be more attractive, run more rapidly, and have a couple new features. There will be a small learning curve, but it won't take too long. Before we dive in and make the switch, I thought it might be helpful to have a bit more of a discussion, though. Thank you, Jan, for helping with this!

Anyone else who has gone to visit the server, feel free to chime in. Also, anyone else can feel free to ask questions.

It's going to be an exciting time, and it will be great for the wiki going forward.
 
So far so good, @Forest! Everything you said about the looks and flow are right on - yet in essence, it's really not radically different.

Enhancements that I am liking:

A "What's New" item on the main dark blue menu bar takes you to a page with all of the new stuff, starting with "Latest posts", while a submenu bar across that top of the section gives options for Featured Content, New Posts, New Profile Posts, Your News Feed, and Latest Activity.

I love the new feature called Featured Content! It means that a particular thread or post can be featured (presumably by a moderator) at the top of the main What's New page.

Reaction emoticons! Instead of the single option to Like a post, when you hover your mouse on the word Like, six emoticon reactions pop up. Nice, right? Including Love!, Sad, and LOL.

In another nod to getting on board with social media norms, the upgrade eliminates the phrase Private Conversations (so awkward - you can't really shorten it to PC because nobody knows WTH you're referring to). We will now get to refer to them properly as Direct Messages and DMs.

What I hope we can fix:

I'm not loving the look of the quotes function - it is harder to distinguish from your main post. Also, so far, my experience with quoting seems to be that I have to actively click on the screen to get an entry point for my own message. Too many people already hit the Reply button and then don't know how/where to start their own response. This will not help! I'm going to search for a setting or an add-on that Forest can tweak for this. (Ahem - custom settings and add-ons are one reason why this is not a simple proceess!)

Okay, I'm going to go see if I can grab some screenshots off my old laptop (my test site machine) that will give us some visuals.
 
Screenshot 1 WhatsNew.png
 
This is the view when you click on the main Forums tab on the blue bar. Below it are options for finding specific content. The next screenshot is what you see (I managed to capture the dropdown menu) when you click on "Find threads"


Screenshot3 Forums.png
 
Overall, there are better navigation features (like the one just above for finding your own stuff).

Another nod to contemporary protocols: avatar stand-ins using female, male or ? symbols are out, and first initials are in.

You might notice the old dates on some of these screenshots - the test site was restored from a July 2025 backup.
 
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