XF 1.2 Conversation Management Improvements

While the conversation concept in XenForo works well, there have been some challenges managing your conversations, particularly if you have a lot. XenForo 1.2 makes some changes to improve this.

Most of the changes can be seen in this one screen shot:

So the first thing to note is that conversations now have their own tab, which allows us to give a few additional navigation links to specific lists.

From there, you'll note that conversations can be starred. You can see the conversation listed there is starred. Starring works like you're probably used to in emails; it's mostly to allow filtering.

You can also bulk manage your conversations (over multiple pages) using the inline moderation-style check box. You can star/unstar conversations, mark conversations as read/unread, or leave conversations with this.

Finally, you'll note that all participants are listed on the conversation list. They are also listed on the conversation popup. (Note that to enable this for existing conversations, you will need to use the conversation cache rebuild option after upgrading.)

Oh, and it's been there for a long time, but did you know that you can filter conversations by starter or participant? Click the "conversation display options" button. Go ahead, try it here now.

This is by no means the end of the line for conversations and we still have plenty of ideas to look into for future versions.

 

[Luxus]

How about this then?

 

[Crayo]

Absolutely not. Admins have no business sticking their nose in other people's conversations. If people are spamming you with conversations you can report them anyway. And please don't argue that admins can already read private conversations using the database. This has nothing to do with XenForo and a forum software should never give you the option to violate other people's privacy.

Whilst I am not on any side regarding this debate, there are other needs for Administrators to read through conversations depending on niches. If you perhaps owned a forum which contains an active market place, reading through private messages is almost a must when it comes to scam-prevention. There are quite a few other niches which would need this too. Luckily, mine doesn't, so it's a feature I don't personally need or care about.

As for this update, fantastic work again Mike. Looks great. Seriously can not wait for 1.2.

 

[swatme]

Please no! I dislike the new Facebook chat style conversation popup and I know others do too. On my site we use Arrowchat which provides instant personal messaging as well as the chatroom. Folk use the chatroom but the personal messaging is virtually unused. They much prefer the non-live conversations in xf.

you maybe few one who dislike facebook chat style out of BILLION users who loves it.
what i meant is an option to have that is better than nothing at all.

 

[Luxus]

Whilst I am not on any side regarding this debate, there are other needs for Administrators to read through conversations depending on niches. If you perhaps owned a forum which contains an active market place, reading through private messages is almost a must when it comes to scam-prevention. There are quite a few other niches which would need this too. Luckily, mine doesn't, so it's a feature I don't personally need or care about.

Justifying a bad action to prevent another bad action is not what we learned in school. Besides, marketplaces in forums usually are provided at own risk and without liability of the admin. Scams are bound to happen on every marketplace. You can tackle them with a trusted member group only, but the risk of being scammed will alwys be there.

 

[Morgain]

Where does it show the list of participants? I'm browsing from my phone and I only see one screenshot wtf...

At the bottom of the strip DRE, following name of sender - it's confusing because the other person is just called "test."

mike i highly suggest the ff
SEARCH FUNCTION
#1 SEARCH function for conversations, its hard to look one by one for particular conversation that you are searching for
CONFUSION
#2 With the newly improve conversation, Change the CONVERSATION color templates to differentiate it from regular forum posting theme layout.
FB STYLE CONVERSATION/CHAT
#3 Make Facebook chat style for conversation popup if someone send conversation to you while your still online. that way users will use the xf conversation than facebook message

SEARCH 100% YES - and I am concerned not to see this in HYS - hope it's on the way. Really definitely should be core.

DISTINCT DESIGN - very much YES - people often confuse whether they are posting to forum or me. Can cause embarrassment. Something quite small would do this - a thin double border with PERSONAL CONVERSATION - PERSONAL CONVERSATION - along the top of it, and between each message. But a small design tweak addon could do it
FB STYLE POPUP Nice for some but others will hate it. Good case for an addon.

Can someone illuminate Leave Conversation - is that a fancy way of saying DELETE?
If so what about batch delete esp for busy admins and mods?
If not I am concerned Delete was not on Mike's list of inline edits. I want to run a tick down the page and click Delete to cull my inbox at intervals just as I do email.Us busies get swamped as I am sure Mike knows.
Requires a junk folder for safety, double check.

Which brings us to FOLDERS - and yes I live almost happily with four gmail accounts for as many years as as gmail has existed. I still miss folders. Folders Hide stuff - I don't need to be reminded of legal obligations/ less joyful forums or email lists/ pestering clients/ software repairs/ demands to update/ unfavourite relatives .. unless I go and look at them. Message rules put them in a box, and the box shows me new stuff is there to check WHEN I WANT.
Meanwhile I can peacefully (or passionately) enjoy the stuff I prefer without being nagged by stuff I do not prefer.
Folders also make me feel I'm in control because the great mass gets tidied into MY cupboards - tags and stars can also organise, but less obviously because the great chaos is right there under my nose.
Admin option of course.

AVATAR PICS nice n pretty, good ID but perfect stuff for Syndol who will no doubt adjust his Conversation addons to give us all his extras. This is not a widely needed item.

Delighted to see STARRING - but one star is not enough.
On gmail I use 5 of the coloured stars
- high priority red action DO IT!
- 2nd priority orange = dunnit still active open
- yellow alerts my partner this relates to his work area
- blue = needs research / action but not urgent
- green = closed, but useful info for archive purposes.
I honestly don't know how I'd handle my 100s of emails a day w/o this - and thank gss my forums are small or my forum inboxes would be a nightmare.
So MULTI STARS please. Nor can this be an addon as it's too important to have the whole system collapse on upgrade and no support.
Also assigning my own definitions of the colours is essential. I don't want some intrusive system doesn't fit my case.

SUMMARY
Essential: SEARCH FUNCTION/ DELETE / FOLDERS option/ MULTI STARS option
Good addon potential: DISTINCT DESIGN / FB STYLE POPUP/ AVATAR MINI PICS

 

[AlexT]

Whilst I am not on any side regarding this debate, there are other needs for Administrators to read through conversations depending on niches. If you perhaps owned a forum which contains an active market place, reading through private messages is almost a must when it comes to scam-prevention.

If you are worried about this kind of stuff, why don't you simply disable conversations/private messages completely? Going through thousands of private messages in hope of preventing scam/fraud sounds like you're turning your members into the Orwellian transparent man. Not exactly the kind of community I'd want to join.

Besides - by doing this you basically make yourself vulnerable as an admin because, if scam occurs, you cannot claim later that you didn't or couldn't have known (safe harbor).

 

[twhiting9275]

We need it. We've had trolls in the past claim people where doing things, when they were not.

Absolutely correct. This is something that is 100% necessary, but it needs to remain admin (or super-admin) only, where only one or two people can access it

 

[DRE]

At the bottom of the strip DRE, following name of sender - it's confusing because the other person is just called "test."

OHHHHH

C'mon Mike! Could've at least named test 'boom shakalaka' or something.

 

[xf_phantom]

Where's the logout tab?Moved to account tab?

 

[Paul B]

Yes.

Surprised it took this long for someone to notice

There's also one other change

 

[xf_phantom]

Yes.

Nice
Space for 1 new addon tab

 

[Paul B]

And another one if you look closely.

 

[xf_phantom]

There's also one other change

The right arrow? (finally bug fixed yes, IMO a bug, because the other tabs with submenu doesn't have the arrow)

 

[Andrej]

It seems like Help tab is gone somewhere...

 

[Andrej]

The right arrow? (finally bug fixed yes, IMO a bug, because the other tabs with submenu doesn't have the arrow)

but... I really liked the arrow!

 

[Morgain]

I don't see the scope for argument here on viewing Conversations as a feature.
Some admins do not need it - most gamers, general debates, local communities.
Some of us absolutely need it to protect vulnerable members (minors, certain disabilities, support forums for PTSD, extremely inexperienced net users, etc)

As with so many other issues where there is a big divide, the solution is that it's optional.
Either the core offers options or it stays an addon.

The remaining issue is how it's done. Waindigo's addon Log In As User is strikingly useful, but it is too widely usable. Admins can give the ability to ANYONE - dangerous as while most admins have three brain cells some have only one.
It should be default admins only. Admin can add mods, or selected individual users.
It also needs a big alert flag so you don't forget you're logged in as someone else - easily done. Waindigo kindly made one for me and it's very helpful.
An admin option to make this a View Only ability, or a fully active Act As User ability, would be great. Many's the time Ive been able to fix problems for my users by logging in as them.

I think the best option is to have it as View Only default,
then click again to Act As .... A timed popup checks - you are currently here Acting As [username] - do you want to continue? Y/N.
This would revert to the default View Only.
The option to Return to [my username] is always there too.

 

[DRE]

Thank you for moving Help out of the way. I have it in my footer.

 

[DarkGizmo]

Great improvement! Wow how many HYS threads has there been this week?!

 

[tyteen4a03]

Great improvement! Wow how many HYS threads has there been this week?!

One per day, since Monday.

 

[DarkGizmo]

One per day, since Monday.

Wonder if that means 1.2 is around the corner.