Feature Updates: November 2014

Real-time updates of the Socialcast stream are great at keeping you informed with timely information, but they can also be disruptive in a highly active community. In the past, you may have gotten frustrated when you were deeply engrossed in a long thread and the stream jumped once a new message got posted, forcing you to lose your spot.Good news! We have eliminated this stream bounciness and will now maintain your position in the stream after you’ve scrolled down. As new messages get posted, you will see a notification pop up in the lower right hand corner of the community. Clicking the notification will take you to the top of the stream allowing you to see the new messages.

2. Added @Mentions to User Profile Page

We have improved the user experience on a user’s Profile page in a way that is more intuitive and fluid. We now let users post @mentions on a user’s Profile page via the Share Form, and we will display those @mentions in that user’s Profile Stream in real time. All previous @mentions of the user will also be pulled into the Profile page. This will not change the existing behavior and display of @mentions in other streams such as the Home, Company, and Custom Streams.

3. Changed “Share” Button to “Post”

In the coming months, we will be doing some work on our traditional Share form, where a user would go to post a status update. In preparation for some of these new features, we are changing the wording of the button from “Share” to “Post”. This change will be visible everywhere the Share form currently exists, as well any Reach extensions which used the word “Share”.

4. Streamlined Town Hall View

In order to give a more consistent look and feel to our Town Halls we have moved some functionality around. We hope these changes will help Speakers, Moderators, and members navigate all the features more easily. Speakers and Moderators of a Town Hall will now find Unanswered, Answered, and Bookmarked messages under a filter dropdown on the Activity tab. The Activity tab will show “All” posts by default. Speakers and Moderators who select the Unanswered filter will continue to experience the real-time movement of questions from the Unanswered filter to the Answered filter as questions are addressed.

If the setting “Allow members to see questions before they have been answered by a speaker” is disabled, members of the Town Hall will only see the “All” and “Files” filter under the Activity tab.

5. Updated Custom Stream Filter

We’ve enhanced the logic that is used to create Custom Streams. Now, when you create a Custom Stream based on “Tag/Keyword”, you can filter posts based on specific tags (also known as Hashtags or Topics), in addition to Keywords. To create a Custom Stream based off of a tag, simply use the hashtag sign (‘#’) in front of your search term. An auto-suggest drop-down will show results for existing matching tags. You can also include tags that do not yet exist to filter future content containing that tag.

The existing Keyword behavior will remain unchanged. To enter a keyword, simply type in the keyword without a preceding hashtag sign. This will filter the stream for any mention of your “keyword” or search term. Tags and Keywords can be used in combination by hitting “Enter” for multiple search terms.

*Please note that On-Premise clients will receive these features in a future release.