Updated

jason

Seanchaí
Staff member
Thread for questions and problems with the forum upgrade.

Watched threads, email notifications, and latest posts

Watching a thread means that you would like to subscribe to it to have quick access to see if there's anything new posted there. When a thread is being watched, you'll get an alert at the top right side of your screen telling you there is a new post.

You may also choose to receive email notifications about the thread while watching it. In addition to the alert in your menu at the top right, you'll receive an email with the contents of the post.

Watching is often helpful to keep up to date on threads you have participated in.

Aside from using watched threads to stay up to date on the discussion that interests you, there is also theWhat's New? button. This shows you all of the threads with new posts that you haven't read yet.

To see a very fine-grained feed of new activity, including status messages, individual posts, and new avatars, check the Members section for the Recent Activity page.



Private messages/conversations

Your inbox contains private conversations (also commonly called private messages or PMs) between you and other people.

Private conversations are laid out just like threads, with the oldest message on top and the newest messages on bottom. This makes it easier than sending messages back and forth and needing to quote the entire message to be able to remember the context. After a few of those back and forth, you start getting a quote-inside-a-quote box that's bigger than the state of Texas and it just looks kind of ugly. So, now, it works just like a thread but only you and the other participants of the conversation can view it.
  • Starting a conversation

    To start a conversation with someone, click on their avatar to bring up their profile card. Look for the "Start a Conversation" link right above the "Member Since" date. You can also add more people to the conversation at this time by typing their names into the Participants box (add commas after each name).

    You can also lock the conversation so that you are the only one who can add a message to it. If you check this checkbox upon starting the conversation, it makes it like an old style inbox message where your reader has to send you a completely new message in order to reply to it.
  • Inviting more participants

    Although you can always invite participants to conversations you've started, you can also choose whether to allow participants to invite others. If you do, the other person or people in the conversation can invite others to join, and they will be able to view all of the messages in the conversation.

    While reading a conversation, if you have started it or the conversation starter has chosen to allow anyone to invite others, you will see an "Invite More" link in the sidebar below the list of participants.

    Once invited, a participant cannot be forcibly removed, even by a moderator. The person must specifically click "Leave Conversation" in order to no longer be a part of the conversation.
  • Changing the subject

    For conversations that you have started, you may at a later time choose to change the title or the options. Click the "Edit Conversation" link at the top, just above the first post. With this popup, you can lock or unlock the conversation, or allow or not allow anyone to invite others.
  • Crowd control

    To report a private conversation that contains abuse or spam or anything that you feel is inappropriate, click the "Report" link next to the date of the message. A moderator will be alerted to the message and will handle it presently.

    Please note that moderators who are invited to the conversation may invite others, even if you have not specifically chosen to allow participants to invite others. To handle an inappropriate message without allowing a moderator to see the rest of the conversation, use the Report link instead of inviting them to the conversation.
Privacy
Everyone should take the time out to check and set their privacy settings
on any forum. Just hover over your name at the top then select Privacy. Here you can do anything from showing your online status to who can view your profile page. Just
select the section you want to change and click on the selection you
want then click save at the bottom.

Status Updates
A status update is a little piece of information about you like how your
feeling or what you are doing much like Facebook or Twitter. You can
Update your status 2 ways, either by hovering over your name at the
top right and filling in your status at the bottom of this box or by going
to your profile and adding in a comment there. Your status update will
show on your profile and also on your profile card. On a members profile
you can also comment on someone’s status update by clicking on the
comment text just right of their status.

Following People
Want to keep an eye on what your friends are doing? Well that's easy, you
just simply follow them. You can "Follow" people very easily. Simply click on their avatar to bring up their profile card and click on follow.
 

Winter

I've been here before
I don't like that it says I'm a "New Member". LoL but other than that, the upgrade seems nice so far. Especially since I was able to poke around before it went live. It'll be interesting to see how everyone likes it knowing how Freemasons and any kind of change go together!
 

jason

Seanchaí
Staff member
I don't like that it says I'm a "New Member". LoL but other than that, the upgrade seems nice so far. Especially since I was able to poke around before it went live. It'll be interesting to see how everyone likes it knowing how Freemasons and any kind of change go together!
That is one thing that I did not catch in the pre-test was some of the profile information. You can edit that here http://www.freemasonhall.com/community/account/
 

jason

Seanchaí
Staff member
Updated the first post with some helpful info. Should explain a few new things.
 

MWS

Active Member
Looks great, thanks for all your had work over the long weekend! I look forward to poking around.

One issue remains (for me at any rate) I'm getting an error when attempting to connect with Tapatalk...saying the plugin is not working? I've reinstalled it but get the same error message...

Low priority of course, I can still access from my laptop.

Mike
 

jason

Seanchaí
Staff member
Looks great, thanks for all your had work over the long weekend! I look forward to poking around.

One issue remains (for me at any rate) I'm getting an error when attempting to connect with Tapatalk...saying the plugin is not working? I've reinstalled it but get the same error message...

Low priority of course, I can still access from my laptop.

Mike
One of the reasons for the switch too, is I'm going to be saving money for our own free app to use. I'm hoping by the end of summer.
 
Reactions: MWS

jaya

Active Member
When I try to make changes to my profile it tells me to enter my lodge in the required format. I have not changed lodges and it should still be the same. I have tried the following with the same results:

Black Mountain 663
Black Mountain #663
Black Mountain, 663
Black Mountain, #663

What is the required format?????????
 

jason

Seanchaí
Staff member
When I try to make changes to my profile it tells me to enter my lodge in the required format. I have not changed lodges and it should still be the same. I have tried the following with the same results:

Black Mountain 663
Black Mountain #663
Black Mountain, 663
Black Mountain, #663

What is the required format?????????
Looks like there was a bug. I tried setting it to letters and numbers only, but then it will not allow spaces. It should be fixed.
 

jason

Seanchaí
Staff member
On thing you may notice that came up under your avatar, is something saying Verified. This is something that has been discussed in the past, and looks like we can possibly implement. The default is set to no right now. This is nothing personal, just working through the system.
 

jaya

Active Member
One problem with "verified" systems is who verified the verifierer? Another is that no forum can be tyled. There might be some in a section that your GL does not recgonize but other GL's do. We should not be discussing anything that is considered secret in nature on the internet anyway.
 

Custer148

Masonic Traveler
I got on the forum this AM -- thought I was lost at first. It is a nice change, it will take some getting used to but so far I like it. Thanks for your hard work Jason.
 

Winter

I've been here before
A verified / tyled format is possible. Other forums (TMS, Trestleboard) have used it successfully. The issue becomes setting the requirement for recognition. And the standard for that can safely be set by using that established by the Council of Grand Masters of NA.
 

jaya

Active Member
A verified / tyled format is possible. Other forums (TMS, Trestleboard) have used it successfully. The issue becomes setting the requirement for recognition. And the standard for that can safely be set by using that established by the Council of Grand Masters of NA.
TMS is a pay organization that gives their members access to the forum and the information is verified with the GL when you apply for membership. The Trestleboard consist of answering a few questions that can be looked up and found on the internet or by scanning in a copy of your dues card. MM has an exam by one of the admins and the questions can actually be looked up as well. TSS actually contacts your GL and checks if you are in good standing before you join. Freemason Network does the same thing by contacting your GL before you join. There are others that give access by similar methods.

Either way, none of those are tyled in a lodge sense. Even the subscription sites like TMS are not tyled. There is no way of knowing if a person's kid or wife is the one reading the posts as well. There might be some that are not recognized by your GL in there as well. The most common of that is recognition issues between MS and PHA jurisdictions. Some states still do not recognize each other at all. Very few jurisdictions have blanket recognition where all are recognized. Most are like mine where we recognize the PHA GL in our state, and possibly a few others (we recognize the MWPHGLOK as well), but that is it. If there is a PHA brother in a tyled section of a forum from a different jurisdiction other than those 2, my jurisdicton considers them unrecognized.

Look at Internet Lodge 9659 under UGLE. Even they do not hold tyled meetings over the internet.
 

Winter

I've been here before
I never said it was easy or simple. I only said that some sites have a system in place that works. At least enough to satisfy. Proper circumspection in addition can make it even better.

So it can be done. It merely comes down to how much work do we want to do in order to create a secure discussion area and who is going to do the work. And who decides who is a Freemason.
 

2SONDAD

Husband, father, son, Mason.
I really like the new look. I do miss the "Recent Forum Posts" on the home page though.
 
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