Expected release is this fall.

* Private Messaging Improvements
vBulletin 3.8 has a number of changes and improvements to make the system easier to use and manage.
Users now have the ability to change the sort order in private message folders from the existing date-newest-first default. They have added also Quick Reply to the private message viewing page, removing the need for a visit to a separate interface. In order to find what you are looking for more quickly and easily, there’s now an inline search system too. Also, as an anti-spam measure, it’s now possible to limit the number of private messages any user may send in a given period of time.

* Social Group Discussion Topics
While the current 'social group messages' system allows messages to be posted to a social group, unlike forums it does not allow messages to be divided up into discussions. Being one of the most requested features the team will implement this in the version 3.8. Social groups in 3.8 now have the ability to contain individual topics, each with reporting, inline moderation and many of the other tools one would expect from vBulletin.

* Social Group Avatars
In the new version, when users create a social group, they can upload a picture to represent the group, which will be shown both on the group page, and on the list of groups.

* Social Group Categories
To help users to find more easily a social group that they’d like to join, the administrator can now create categories to which social groups can belong.

* Most Recently-Updated Albums
Bringing users’ album pictures out of the dark recesses of their profile, vBulletin 3.8 has a system to display the most recently-updated albums from all users in a unified interface. Now everyone will know when your members upload new pictures!

* Moving Album Pictures
It’s now possible to move pictures from one album to another, rather than having to delete and reupload (that’s much more user friendly!).

* Thread Prefix Permissions
For the administrators who want to be able to limit the ability of their users to access thread prefixes and prefix sets, vBulletin 3.8 now gives you that ability.

As the first post shows, I have expected this update for quite a while now.

Here is a summary of the main changes:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=295860
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=298045

Full list of changes: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/blog.php?b=2334

Thank you Marc for keeping this Forum as up-to-date as possible!
I appreciate all your hard work. :applause: :applause:

Stijloor.

Here is a more complete listing of the changes. Please take a minute and read through them.

Social Group Discussion Threads

* Messages in Social Groups are now threaded into 'Social Group Discussions'.
* Discussion are sortable by creator, replies and last post.
* Discussions can be filtered with a simple full text search on titles.
* Discussions can be managed with Inline Moderation to soft delete, physically remove, approve and unnapprove them.
* Discussions are Read Marked using both database and cookie methods, with a jump to go to first new post.
* Users can subscribe to discussions and receive email notifications on new messages.
* Subscribed discussions with new posts are aggregated in the User CP.
* Individual Discussions have social bookmarking links (user defined, such as Digg, StumbleUpon etc).
* New 'Can Always' permissions to create and view both discussions and messages, simplifying access.
* Fallbacks implemented for non javascript users.
* Moderators can Quick Edit social group messages using AJAX.
* Posts are now ascending, which is more intuitive in threaded discussions.
* Users can configure their groups so that only the group owner can create new discussion threads.
* Moderated and Deleted discussions are aggregated in the User CP where the user has moderator permissions.
* Moderation permissions are seperated for discussions and threads, including deletion.
* Some extra database cleanup is performed with discussion related data when a user is merged or deleted.
* On upgrade from < 3.8, existing messages are moved to an initial discussion with the same name as the group.
* Social Group info is hidden when entering a discussion or viewing pages of results to move focus to discussions.


Social Group Changes

* Social Groups are Read Marked using both database and cookie methods, based on new messages or discussions.
* Mark All will read mark all discussions in a group via AJAX.
* Social Groups can be subscribed to, adding group aggregation to the User CP.
* Social Groups now belong to a category.
* A group's category is displayed in the navigation breadcrumb, group lists and group info.
* A new overview page displays a random group, your groups, new groups and groups that you created.
* Groups that you created are navigatable via AJAX and display further information about the group, including pending members and moderated items.
* A category cloud is displayed in the group overview with popularity weighting based on the number of groups.
* Categories can be created and deleted and merged in the Admin CP.
* On upgrade from < 3.8, existing groups are moved to an initial 'Uncategorized' category, which can be renamed.
* Groups can be filtered by category, via the category cloud or advanced search.
* Social Groups can now have a group icon. The icon is displayed in the group info, and a thumbnail version is used in group listings.
* Icons are displayed on the User Profile page for groups that the user is a member of.
* Permissions control user abilities to upload icons for their groups, including file size and the ability to upload animated icons.
* Icons can be stored in the database or filesystem.
* A new permission can limit the amount of Social Groups an individual user can create.
* Social Groups can now be transferred between users. The group will only be transferred if the recipient accepts the transfer.
* Moderators with the appropriate permission can transfer any group. This is useful when a group owner becomes inactive.


Private Message Changes

* Read receipts are automatically accepted when a PM is replied to.
* A new Quick Reply can be used to reply to PM's.
* A new user option is available to set the default value for 'Save Copy' which is also used with Quick Reply.
* PM's can be ordered by Title, Date and Sender.
* When ordered, PM's are grouped by:
o Title - Alphabetical ranges (A-H, I-P, Q-Z, 0-9 and other) - Non ASCII chars are grouped based on transliteration where possible
o Date - Today, Yesterday, individual day names, Last Week, 2 Weeks, Last Month, Older, etc.
o Sender - Grouped by Sender
* Private Messages can be filtered by Sender, Title, a given date period, and whether the message has been read or not.
* Message Throttling. Admins can define a time period and the maximum amount of message each usergroup can send within that period.
* Message selections are remembered over multiple pages for bulk actions (Move, delete, mark as read etc).


Profile Privacy

* With the appropriate permission, users can now configure which parts of their profile is visible, and to who. The configurable components are:
o Profile Picture
o Visitor Messages
o Contact Info
o Albums
o About Me
o Friends
o Recent Visitors
o Group Memberships
o Custom Field Blocks where the admin has allowed it
* The components can be configured to be visible to:
o Everyone
o Registered Members
o Contacts
o Friends

* Generally information is only hidden/displayed within the user profile page with the exception of Albums which also affects the ability to view the albums.
* Also, custom field blocks can be configured by the admin as to whether they will be included in users' privacy settings.


Albums

* Pictures can now be moved from one album to another.
* Album covers are regenerated when moving images if the cover is moved, or the destination album has no cover.
* The default albums view now displays recently updated public albums.


Lightbox

* Lightboxes can now be used to view all images in a post.
* Next and Previous buttons can be used to navigate the attachments, and wrap when the first/last image has been reached


Other Changes and Additions

* Options and permissions for Human Verification checks have been streamlined. There is now a single bitfield option to select which HV checks are used, and a single permission to select who must pass the HV checks.
* Thread tags can now be merged and renamed, and threads are updated to reflect the changes.
* Tag selection in the Admin CP is remembered over multiple pages for bulk actions (Delete or Merge).
* A new Terms and Conditions link is configurable and displayed in the footer by default.
* A new Community link replaces the Members List link with a submenu for Social Groups; Pictures & Albums; Contacts & Friends; and the Members List.
* Deleted and Moderated items in the User CP menu have been collapsed into submenus to reduce clutter.
* A New Items submenu is also available with the newest Visitor Messages; Group Messages; Group Discussions; Picture Comments and Album Pictures.
* Some cleanup has been done on the User CP menu to ensure only links that the user has permission to are displayed.
* A new permission to view thumbnails in posts has been added. This allows users to see thumbnails even when they do not have access to view the full image.
* Improved RSS filtering for RSS Feed Forums. Terms can now be quoted into phrases, and a new 'match all' option is available.
* Templates can now be compared with 'inline diff', reducing the screen space used to find differences while displaying line numbers. Diffs are wrapped in an optional number of lines for context.
* Thread Prefix Permissions - Thread prefixes can now be configured so that only certain usergroups may use them.
* Support for TypePad Anti-Spam
* Username availability now checked via AJAX during registration
* Notices can now be configured to be dismissible, allowing users to close notices that they have read.
* Post edit histories can be pruned in Admin CP.
* Forum rules can be viewed outside of the registration process, which is useful for logged in users when multiple registrations are disabled.
* PM Reporting.
* Subscription folders can be emptied with one click.
* Quick Edit is available for Visitor Messages and Picture Comments, as well as Social Group Messages.
* New UTC and user date and time criteria for Notices.
* Improvements to Contact List editing. Show Avatars option is now preserved.

Marc, some of the layout looks different today. Did you make a change, or have I just not been noticing? For example, the color code of the different groups at the top among others, I have not seen before.

Add the lower navigation bar to that.

I like them, FWIW...

I'm making some small improvements here and there. The color codes is one. Another is an additional 'navigation' bar near the bottom of thread and forum pages just above the 'Bookmarks' bar and the Tags bar.

Tinkering.

:applause:Love:applause: the lower navigation bar.

(Edited to avoid confusion)

I *assume* you're speaking of where it is located in the Page View (as opposed to the Forum view).

I'll look into lowering it. It locates on a hook in a couple of templates so that would be a manual mod that I'd have to carry through every time there is a software update.

Personally I like the location. It's above the 'Quick Reply' box, yet is not tall enough to have to scroll to get to the Quick Reply box. But, then again, I have a 24" monitor (these old eyes like BIG things, like text).

On the other hand, I put that in to help people who are not used to navigating and sometimes get confused as to where they are in the forum.

For the record, exactly where do you suggest it be put? MY ERROR - I read Love as Lower... My bad. Long day - Tired eyes.

I *assume* you're speaking of where it is located in the Page View (as opposed to the Forum view).

I'll look into lowering it. It locates on a hook in a couple of templates so that would be a manual mod that I'd have to carry through every time there is a software update.

Personally I like the location. It's above the 'Quick Reply' box, yet is not tall enough to have to scroll to get to the Quick Reply box. But, then again, I have a 24" monitor (these old eyes like BIG things, like text).

On the other hand, I put that in to help people who are not used to navigating and sometimes get confused as to where they are in the forum.

For the record, exactly where do you suggest it be put? MY ERROR - I read Love as Lower... My bad. Long day - Tired eyes.

I also think that the love bar should be lowered. :tg:

The color codes is one.

We have a thread on this - looks like an update is in order.


Color and Font of Registered User names? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?p=253082&highlight=color#post253082)

We have a thread in this - looks like an update is in order.


Color and Font of Registered User names? (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?p=253082&highlight=color#post253082) I'll take care of that.

Meanwhile - I upgraded software today. Changes are relatively minor:

vBulletin 3.8.2

vBulletin 3.8.2 is a maintenance release for the vBulletin 3.8 series, which addresses various issues found since 3.8.1 was releases. Maintenance releases follow our scheduled release policy.

Some of the issues fixed include:

* Social group dicussion email notifications don't always work (27226)
* Access masks not reset properly with paid subscriptions (27385)
* Friend requests received by users that are in "Tachy Goes to Coventry" (27213)
* Profile field category privacy ignored in "About Me" tab (27453)
* BB code case maintained when not parsed (27433)
* External.php feeds don't handle thread]/post BB code properly (27276)
* Avatars show up in social groups/visitor messages when users don't have permission (27369)

A full list can be found in the bug tracker. See http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?p=1715441 for details.

Social Group Subscriptions Improved

In 3.8.1, social group subscriptions were disabled because of confusion over the functionality they provided. In 3.8.2, they have been improved and re-enabled. When subscribing to a group, you can now choose to receive a daily or weekly digest of the discussions that happen within that group. You can still choose to not receive any email notifications when subscribing to a group.

Group subscriptions which were created before 3.8.2 will not automatically send email notifications. These users can modify their existing subscriptions or resubscribe to enable email notification.

Meanwhile - I upgraded software today. Changes are relatively minor:

That was fast. I did receive a message to come back in 20 minutes while logging in a short while ago but it looks like everything was over in just ten over minutes.

You probably logged in a bit after the upgrade started. It took about 20 minutes start to finish. I have some template cleanups to do, but I'm kinda tired this evening and will do the cleanup tomorrow.

Ok, something really cool just occurred. On my Iphone, I was viewing a thread. I went to go do something, and the last post in the thread had been edited. A box showed up in that thread (on my Iphone) stating the post had been edited, go and review latest version, etc.

Not sure if that is with the new upgrade, Iphone, or what. Since it was on Iphone, I could not take a screenshot.

LiveTopic (http://elsmar.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=32686)