As you know from the withdrawl I've put you through the last two days, AllDoulas has been through a major upgrade. With this upgrade comes a lot of neat new features that you are sure to love. If you have questions about the new stuff, please post them in the
Helpdesk forum. Onto the new features!
"Thanks" Posting
You'll notice in the bottom right of each post is a "Thanks" button (I still have to create a button that matches our site). This is to cut down on posts that just contain a "Thank you!!" reply. Please use the "Thanks" button instead of posting a reply if all you are going to say it thank you.
Multi-Quote
Now you can quote more than one post from different users in your replies.
At the bottom right of each post there is a new button with quotation marks on it. For every post that you want to quote, click the button and it will turn red to indicate that post is selected. Once you've clicked on all the posts that you want to quote, click the reply button. All the posts you've chosen to quote will then be listed in your reply.
You may have also noticed that when you quote someone, there is a new little icon next to the person's name in the quote. That little icon will take you back to the original post that you quoted.
Check If Already Posted button
Sometimes people do not research if a topic has been recently posted, and we'll have a few of the same questions being asked or topics started at the same time. There is now a "Check If Already Posted" button next to the title box when creating a new post.
Remember to title your posts appropriately with specific issues or questions, or else search functions don't work well and people can't find your posts.
Favorite Smilies
Have you ever wanted a way to "save" your favorite smilies so you can access them quickly without having to go through the list? Now you can select your favorite smilies to show up in the box next to the message editor, instead of the random smilies that appear there.
To choose your favorite smilies, click the new star icon above the smilies box when you are making a new post, or go to your account settings ("My Account" tab or "User CP" on navbar) and choose "Edit Favorite Smilies" on the left column.
Signature Countdown
Count down to a training, your birthday, a vacation, your due date, or anything and have it in your signature for everyone to see. This is a feature for AllDoulas Club members, Committee and Staff members. To use the count down, go to "My Account" tab and select "Edit Options". Scroll down to the bottom and fill out the counter settings.
Upload Signature Image
You can now upload an image from your computer to use in your signature. Since signature images should be wide and short to avoid excessive scrolling through threads, the max dimensions for the image are 500 by 100 pixels and 19.5 KB.
To upload a signature image, go to the "My Account" tab and "Edit Signature" in the left column. Scroll down to see the upload area.
User Infraction System
This system is used by the AllDoulas staff to take care of members who break rules and violate our Community Guidelines. How it works:
If a member breaks a rule, our staff will place an infraction on the member account and it is given points (basically like points on a driver's license). Once a user has so many points against them, privileges are taken away or they may be suspended or banned. Members who are given an infraction are notified via PM. Specific infractions expire over time, while others can be removed by staff members.
Top Posters and Other Stats
There is a Top Posters link under the Quick Links menu on the navbar that breaks down our top posters by specific periods of time. There is also a top stats box on our Forums homepage after the forum list, just before the "What's Going On" section.
Private Message Preview
Now, when you are notified via email of a PM, the content of the PM is emailed to you.
Committees and How to Join
Over the next little while I will be announcing the creation of committees that will help our community function. These committees will be made up of regular users with an existing staff member leading the committee.
The first committee we have created is the
Welcoming Committee. This committee is in charge of welcoming new members who post introductions in the Introductions forum, answer questions from new users and help them navigate AllDoulas. Any registered member in good standing (no infraction points) who has over 20 posts may place a request to join this committee. The leader is
Jesscardona and she will be processing the join requests. There are currently only 4 spots in this committee.
To place a join request for a committee, click the "My Account" tab and look down the left column for "Group Memberships". From there you will see options to join the committees. Please allow a couple days to hear back from the group leader.
Just For Newbies
Until you have 5 posts, you will see a confirmation screen when you create new threads, asking if you are sure you are posting in the correct forum. This is to cut down on the amount of threads our moderators need to move to more appropriate forums.
A Couple Other Notes...
Don't forget to alert AllDoulas staff of threads you think need our attention. If you see something getting out of hand or think a post has a Community Guidelines violation in it, please use the red & white triangle icon in the bottom left of the post to report it. A thread is created in our staff forum and we will see it right away. Thanks!
A new poll has been posted on our Home page. It is about advertising tools, please
discuss it with us!
I still have a few more updates to make and I will probably do them later tonight or tomorrow morning. Again, thanks for your patience!!
Big upgrade with lots of new features! PLEASE READ
