Wow IPS 4.2

[DieselMinded]

So much win , i just upgraded an old ipB site

https://www.truckpullers.com

i am impressed

 

[Alpha1]

Very appealing!
https://www.truckpullers.com/discover/
We need this for XF!

 

[jmurrayhead]

Very appealing!
https://www.truckpullers.com/discover/
We need this for XF!

Nice...I love how it groups by "today", "yesterday", "earlier", etc.

 

[DieselMinded]

too much innovation for me to just start listing it. so glad i upgraded

 

[Dalton Prock]

Not bad at all, good luck in the next few updates as well. I might have to try out a demo in due time.

 

[Brent W]

Their user onboarding attempts impress me more than the discover page. Changing watch forums to followers and then showing the count is a simple and nice improvement.

 

[RobinHood]

Very appealing!
https://www.truckpullers.com/discover/
We need this for XF!

Good idea in concept, but I don't like the implementation. It's still got too much fluff in the feed to be readable.

I can't see myself using that page on a regular basis

It's too similar to XF's activity stream and not enough of a new content stream.

I can't even find a way to only view a list of individual threads that have new posts?

 

[Alpha1]

You are completely right! What it does better than the XF activity stream is that its:

• visible to guests, without exposing the member list and profiles
• the rows look orderly and consistent. The XF newsfeed can look quite chaotic.

 

[RobinHood]

the rows look orderly and consistent. The XF newsfeed can look quite chaotic.

I don't know, I think I prefer the styling of the XF one. The timeline on the left with the icons is too much and not necessary. I don't really care how old the content is or an icon to represent what it is, I just want a list of the latest content. I can figure out if it's an image a thread or a status update when I look at it.

I think there's too much white space in the default IPS styling in general. And not enough colour contrast between page elements to draw your eye to focal points in many areas, plus the circular avatars really throw me, I really dislike them. Not really sure why.

They use it a lot in clubs too, I guess it looks messy to me, especially when they break out of the box as below (and as per the original XF 2 buttons, so pleased that was changed)

Regardless, I still reckon that kind of activity stream is always going to be somewhat chaotic and therefore only handy in a ticker format in a widget to somewhere to give an idea of the live activity on a site, not something that is meant to be read in an orderly fashion. You need a properly designed new content page for that. One that shows the actual content, or links directly to it, not just a list of button clicks that members are actioning around the site (Although that activity should be tracked so that in the future we can potentially target new content alerts to the right people)

What it does better than the XF activity stream is that its:

• visible to guests, without exposing the member list and profiles

The member profiles are visible to guests? I tried clicking on a member and saw their profile.

I've blocked that on one of my sites so only registered users can view member cards and full profiles. I think this is the add on I had to use, maybe that and a template edit. Can't remember exactly. The member list is viewable, but not much use without being able to view the profiles. I guess it serves sort of as a taster. If you find a member you want to know more info about, you have to register to view their info.

 

[RobinHood]

Actually, speaking of tickers. I'm just trying to think back, didn't Facebook have a recent activity ticker in their right hand sidebar for a while?

It would show you pretty random entries of friend1 just commented on friend2's profile and person3 likes personX's photo.

Pretty much exactly what these recent activity pages are, condensed into a full height sidebar that updated quickly, only intended to occasionally catch your eye.

I just went back to check what's there now.

First of all, the tab that was open was a group (because I don't post status updates on fbook anymore, I literally only use it for groups, ie. communities and forums within the facebook ecosystem)

In that sidebar, after asking you to:

• Invite users to that group
• Create a brand new group
• Highlight upcoming events in the group
• Show a few recent group photos
• It then has a much larger 'Suggested Groups' to join block

Okay, so no recent activity anymore, and all context sensitive set of groups block makes sense. Fair enough.

So lets go back to the site index. After multiple refreshes, only once did I find a completely untitled box with that old ticker. Out of many widgets it's one of the few with no title:

When you make the window even larger what do you get? You get a full height chat box sidebar. Why? Because private instant message chat is hugely popular when it works well, and is...well...instant (and updates live).

So not only has this activity feed that's taking up an (infrequently visited) full page on forums, a stream that used to have a full height sidebar widget a couple of years ago on facebook, but it has now been relegated to a context sensitive tiny widget that I haven't even noticed in the last 12 months of nearly daily use because it only sporadically appears. And now it's actively being promoted via prime real estate in a top level nav item on a forum?! It's useless! What is IPS thinking? They're literally years behind what the best of the best know about community engagement and content discovery.

I'm not saying facebook is the be all and end all. There's lots to be desired. But damn, do they know how to expose content and drive engagement. And a full page recent activity list of button clicks isn't the way.

 

[Chris D]

visible to guests, without exposing the member list and profiles

FWIW this was changed in XF2.

 

[TPerry]

Good idea in concept, but I don't like the implementation. It's still got too much fluff in the feed to be readable.

For registered users, that is easily controllable with custom activity streams.

 

[DieselMinded]

just built a site on vb 4.2.5 suite last of vb4

only because i got a free license!

this is garbage what a joke from top to bottom in front and backend

i asked IPS if they would take it in trade towards another IPS license they told me they would give me 10% off

 

[DieselMinded]

you only get $40 off the upgrade to vb5 its still $209

no way im paying that when i can get IPS cheaper even on non-upgrade oh yeah and i upgraded from 3.8 to 4.2 for free on IPS

 

[RobinHood]

For registered users, that is easily controllable with custom activity streams.

I see, I just watched the video

https://invisioncommunity.com/news/9738-ips-community-suite-41-activity-streams-and-menu-manager/

It defaults to all activity, which is way over the top and quite unreadable imo, but it does seem to have quite a powerful editor where you can create admin defined defaults, and users can then define their own custom streams or even customise further an admin default. That's kind of cool.

I'm not convinced many users would end up making their own streams though. I guess it depends on how busy the site is.

The menu manager and ACP menu system seem quite nice.

 

[Alpha1]

I am so jealous right now...
The admin definable activity streams is great functionality. I must really commend IPS on that. I dont like the stream style but that can be changed.

I'm not convinced many users would end up making their own streams though. I guess it depends on how busy the site is.

My members have asked me many times to get functionality back to filter out forums that they are not interested in. (we had this for premium members on vb) Im sure that at least part of my members would find such filter stream valuable. Back on vb it was a reason my members bought account upgrades.

 

[JulianD]

I am so jealous right now...
The admin definable activity streams is great functionality. I must really commend IPS on that. I dont like the stream style but that can be changed.

My members have asked me many times to get functionality back to filter out forums that they are not interested in. (we had this for premium members on vb) Im sure that at least part of my members would find such filter stream valuable. Back on vb it was a reason my members bought account upgrades.

Wouldn't something like this work for you? https://xenforo.com/community/resources/th-ignore-new-posts.139/

 

[Alpha1]

yes, if another developer would create it so that its quality code and can be run without issues.

 

[AWS]

I revived an old site and upgraded it to the beta.

http://ipbwebmaster.com

I am impressed with it although since I've been away from IPB so long it's taking time to re-learn where everything is located in admin cp.

 

[DieselMinded]

I did the same ! I now have 2 IPS sites