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Groups.io site updates #changelog

 

Hi all,

Time for Mark's weekly message about updates to the site:
/g/beta/message/12652

Feel free to reply to this topic if you'd like to comment on the changes. Or better yet, if you expect a lot of discussion start a new topic (or rejoin an existing one) about a specific change.


Changed the messages threading algorithm:
1. If a message has threading information, use that. (same as before)
2. If a message does not have threading information:
3. If it's a web post, assume it's the start of a new thread
4. If the subject starts with Re:, look for a matching subject within the last 30 days
5. If the subject does not start with Re:, look for a matching subject within the last 2 days

New here is 3: before it was possible for a message posted via the Groups.io "New Topic" button to be threaded in by way of a Subject match.

New here also is 5, and item 4 extended to 30 days (had been 7 days).

Note that "same as before" on 1 refers to the incoming message having at least one citation header field (In-Reply-To or References) which cites a prior message in the same group. With the additional requirement that the Subject field also match (ignoring Re: and similar).


The 'View/Reply Online' link in HTML messages now goes to the message.

Yay! ... and also displays the message number... double yay! This is the link that had been broken, but when fixed was made a link to the topic. But if the topic had a lot of replies that left you scrolling down to find the one you wanted to view/reply. This way is better IMO.


You can request RSVPs for repeating events.

I'm not sure, but I think that means you already could for one-time events? Sorry I haven't been paying much attention to the calendar feature.


Removed Google Hangouts integration.

Apparently Google disabled the interface that made this possible. I use Hangouts (love them for family communication) but hadn't tried integrating them with groups.


And a herd of minutia:

o Polls can now be anonymous.
o Additional image resize option of 312 x 312
o New users default to America/Los Angeles timezone instead of GMT
o Reminder to set up profile photo or Display Name when you log in
o Mod/owner and Poll creator can see who responded, and can email them.

The are other items that didn't capture my attention. Please call out any you find significant.


Shal


Re: always taken back to Topics view - can people here shed some light?

J_Catlady
 

Ok, pasted in your comment. Thanks.
J

On Sat, Jan 14, 2017 at 1:43 PM, Duane <txpigeon@...> wrote:
If you forward a copy of the Support verification email to me, I could add on to it.? Or you can just copy/paste my comment in a reply.

Duane





Re: Photos again

 

There are currently no search or sort options on Photos. (Albums, as well as photos within albums, are sorted by name right now, not date.) Mark has a card on the Trello page to do some more work on them, though -

Duane


Re: always taken back to Topics view - can people here shed some light?

 

If you forward a copy of the Support verification email to me, I could add on to it. Or you can just copy/paste my comment in a reply.

Duane


Re: Photos again

 

I don't see a way to sort the photos. We have so many folders of photos and now the oldest appears at the top so we have to scroll down a long way to find the new ones. Would like to be able to sort by date and alphabetically.

Barb B.


Re: always taken back to Topics view - can people here shed some light?

J_Catlady
 

Duane,

Could you mention it to Mark via support as well? It's been a week and I've sent him multiple messages and I don't think he understands that this is an actual problem. Thanks.

J

On Sat, Jan 14, 2017 at 9:53 AM, Duane <txpigeon@...> wrote:
Sort of...? ?I had noticed it previously, but just worked around it before.? If I click on a group name from the overview page - / - it always takes me to Topic View.? If I use the drop-down menu to get to a group, it remembers the previous view.? It was once fixed with:
BUGFIX: In the My Groups view, when clicking on a group, go to your last message view; same behavior as the sidebar from the #changelog of Jan 6, but looks like it snuck back in.? Definitely a Support issue.

Duane





Re: always taken back to Topics view - can people here shed some light?

 

Sort of... I had noticed it previously, but just worked around it before. If I click on a group name from the overview page - / - it always takes me to Topic View. If I use the drop-down menu to get to a group, it remembers the previous view. It was once fixed with:
BUGFIX: In the My Groups view, when clicking on a group, go to your last message view; same behavior as the sidebar from the #changelog of Jan 6, but looks like it snuck back in. Definitely a Support issue.

Duane


always taken back to Topics view - can people here shed some light?

J_Catlady
 

I've mentioned this in beta and emailed Mark about it, but nobody else seems to experience the problem and I haven't yet heard back from Mark: it has started to drive me absolutely insane that every time I go out and back into Groups.io (without logging out and back in), I am taken back to Topics view in all my groups, whether or not I was in Messages view before that. I've done experiment after experiment, and this is absolutely reproducible.

I'm hoping someone in this group can shed some light. Is it a bug? Is there something going on with my browser?

Could someone else try going out and back into Groups.io (without logging out and back in) from Messages view and see whether you're taken to Topics view? Or am I the only one?

The behavior started approximately a week ago.?

Thanks.

J


Re: Groups.io site updates #changelog

 

Maggie,

But when I use that link it always takes me to the first message in
the topic.
Well, the subtle thing I noticed seems to have vanished. Now the topic link is used. I think that's a bug so I'll cc this to support.

Mark:

On emailed replies it would be much friendlier if the View/Reply Online link either used the direct message URL, or a topic URL with a fragment part specifying this message.

And I'll give a nod to Brenda's concern (in beta@) - I'd prefer the message URL in all cases (topic starter and replies), and it would be helpful too if the message number were in the text somewhere.

Shal


On 1/8/2017 2:59 AM, Maggie wrote:
Hi Shal,

The "view/reply online" link works again, so Yay! Thanks for getting
that on the to do list. It a huge time saver! You said this:

One subtle thing I noticed, but I don't know if it is new, is that the
provided link ("View/Reply Online") is a link to the _topic_ if this
message is the first in a new topic, but is a link to the _message_ if
this message is a reply in a topic. That's kind of cool for the
topic-starting message, as it means you'll see any replies that beat you
to the punch.
....


Re: Groups.io site updates #changelog

 

Hi Shal,

The "view/reply online" link works again, so Yay! ?Thanks for getting that on the to do list. ? It a huge time saver! ?You said this:

One subtle thing I noticed, but I don't know if it is new, is that the provided link ("View/Reply Online") is a link to the _topic_ if this message is the first in a new topic, but is a link to the _message_ if this message is a reply in a topic. That's kind of cool for the topic-starting message, as it means you'll see any replies that beat you to the punch.

But when I use that link it always takes me to the first message in the topic. Usually that's OK, as you can just scroll through to the last one to reply. If there are a lot of messages in that topic tho, then it's not so user friendly. For instance, we have one topic that has 90 messages in it, 5 pages. The view/reply online link always takes me to the first message in that topic, so in order to reply online I have to scroll through 5 pages of messages to see the last one that I would be replying to. Since I have read every one of the messages already, it's a real waste of time to not be able to go directly to the last message through the link. Any chance of getting the link back to this below? The first link took you directly to the message you want to reply to and the second took you to the first message in the topic. The other thing I really like about this is that the message number is in the link. There is often an important message that I want to make note of and that message # made that quick and easy. There is no message number now since the link takes you to the "topic" rather than the "message".


Let me know if I should take this to beta, but thanks for you help!

Maggie





Re: Groups.io site updates #changelog

 

John P,

I do follow Beta, but at times struggle to keep up with it so I find
your synopsis particularly useful.
Mind you, that's by no means a synopsis of all of beta@, just the most recent #changelog posting by Mark.

If you read beta@ via email you can use the Advanced Preferences in your subscription to turn down the volume of messages. Following Only plus New Topics might be just the ticket. Or follow only the #changelog hashtag.

Shal


Re: Groups.io site updates #changelog

 


Thank you for the synopsis message Shal,

I do follow Beta, but at times struggle to keep up with it so I find 
your synopsis particularly useful.

John P



Groups.io site updates #changelog

 

Hi all,

Mark is back in town, and has posted about some updates to the site:
/g/beta/topic/4058007

Feel free to reply to this topic if you'd like to comment on the changes. Or better yet, if you expect a lot of discussion start a new topic (or rejoin an existing one) about a specific change.

Also, any reactions this synopsis/reaction message? Is it worth making a habit of it?


Photos, Files, Databases, and Links - oh my!

The big news there, for anyone who hasn't heard, is the ability to import Photos, Files, Databases, and Links (in addition to Messages and Members) in the Easy Group Transfer process. When emailing the transfer agent (transfer@...) specify which sections you wish to have imported, or all of them. Mark mentioned that just before going on break, but after the last Site updates message.
/g/beta/message/12219

Still waiting to see (or hear from anyone) what the import of Links looks like, given that there is no Links section to Groups.io. He must have tucked them somewhere...
/g/GroupManagersForum/topic/3918034


File Dysfunction

Another one that may be big for some folks is that he's changed the way Files work so that you are now forced to download them to open them, rather than displaying them in the browser. He mentioned Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) vulnerability as the reason. If I recall correctly, that's why Yahoo Groups made a similar change in their system.

As a user I really hate this restriction: modern browsers are perfectly capable of displaying everything from plain text to most image formats to PDF files, and that is often much more convenient than having to download them and then open them from my computer. I think the issue revolves around the security model used by browsers for site content: it doesn't distinguish user-generated content displayed by the site (Files) from the site contents. Whereas when you're forced to download the file it gets handled by your operating system with some paranoia ("Eww, this file came from the internet. You sure you want to risk opening it?").


Fabulous footer formatting fixes

Yes, the footer (for HTML messages) got prettier. And one got broken. Now it is fixed...
/g/GroupManagersForum/topic/3847418

One subtle thing I noticed, but I don't know if it is new, is that the provided link ("View/Reply Online") is a link to the _topic_ if this message is the first in a new topic, but is a link to the _message_ if this message is a reply in a topic. That's kind of cool for the topic-starting message, as it means you'll see any replies that beat you to the punch.

Someone had asked if the link on a reply couldn't bring you to the topic, but scrolled down to that reply. I don't know if there's a technical reason Mark didn't do that, but it is ok. There'll be the button at the bottom to view the whole topic.


And a herd of minutia

The are a bunch of other items that didn't capture my attention. Please call out any you find significant.


Shal


Re: Moving files to folders after the transfer

 

Hmm, maybe it has to do with the fact that the files were copied over. I've tried it several times on one of my groups and it always works. Definitely a bug as you noted on beta@.

Duane


Re: Moving files to folders after the transfer

 

Duane,

That would be great if it really worked. I've tried that multiple
times on different files and they don't move but stay where they were.
Unfortunately, there's nothing in the help section on files.

I guess we should have tested that with a test group first but we're
stuck now.

Donald

On Thu, 05 Jan 2017 15:54:38 -0800, "Duane" <txpigeon@...>
wrote:

They have to be done one at a time. There's a big HOWEVER though. When you click on the move/scissors icon, it pops up a list of all possible folders it can be moved to, so just one more click to finish. Should be fairly fast if you know what folders things belong in. Might want to clean up the folder arrangement first, if needed.


Re: Moving files to folders after the transfer

 

They have to be done one at a time. There's a big HOWEVER though. When you click on the move/scissors icon, it pops up a list of all possible folders it can be moved to, so just one more click to finish. Should be fairly fast if you know what folders things belong in. Might want to clean up the folder arrangement first, if needed.

Duane


Moving files to folders after the transfer

 

Our transfer went fairly well but the files sectioin is a real mess.

Is there an easy way to move multiple files into this or that folder,
or does it have to be done one at a time?

Donald


Re: Member bouncing and another not getting digests - how to help fix?

 

Thank you all. Figured out the issue and duh! it was that one member had set their digest to only following but they were not following anything so, no digest for them. So we set it back to all messages and hopefully that solves that. I had not thought to look in the advanced panel. My stupidity!

The other was bouncing and hadn't seen the message that was sent automatically to unbounce themselves. Once that link was clicked all was fixed.

So - all seems good now.

thank you!

Maria


Re: Member bouncing and another not getting digests - how to help fix?

 

J,

p.s. I think it's very unlikely that this particular member is using
advanced settings to tailor their digests. But I suppose it's
possible.
I agree, going as far back as November that doesn't seem as likely.

As I recall there was a glitch in digest processing mentioned in beta@ some weeks (months?) ago. Perhaps things are not as fixed as Mark would have hoped.

For what it's worth, the digest subscriptions I have are still rolling in fine, and the activity logs for those subscriptions show up-to-date last successful. I looked because I wondered if maybe the successful digest deliveries weren't being logged. Not it, at least, not always.

But we kind-of already knew it is not a general digest outage (or there'd likely be a lot more discussion of it).

Shal


Re: Member bouncing and another not getting digests - how to help fix?

J_Catlady
 

p.s. I think it's very unlikely that this particular member is using advanced settings to tailor their digests. But I suppose it's possible.

J