Some information for those interested about our forthcoming software update, I've highlighted most relevant in bold...

Key Changes

In addition to many small bug fixes, this release includes:

• Performance improvements in: profile view, sitemap generator, posting replies, and Activity Streams
• More efficient license key checking to keep the keys from being checked too often which can slow the site down
• Admins - There is now a column in tasks view to show the last time it ran to help diagnostics
• When a member changes their email or password they now get an email confirmation
• If group promotion based on date is enable the system will now auto-promote even if a member does not login
• Admins - There is now a setting to change the number of topics per page in the forum view
• You can now press ctrl/cmd+enter in any editor window to submit the reply
• There is now logic to prevent double-posting when the initial post encounters an error on submit
• Moderators can now remove all followers from an item
• Contact Us is now configurable with various options
• Staff - Announcements can now be restricted by member group
• Admins now have a setting to have members automatically follow content they start or reply to. Members can optionally override this.
• The editor will now show a message if a link that can be embedded (image, video, etc.) failed to embed for some reason. Admins get more detailed error reasons.
• Admins - If our datastore (cache system) is not working properly the AdminCP will now show you a warning telling you that it needs attention.
• When a member is banned/suspended the system now shows a more friendly page with information on their ban. Previously it showed a permission denied page.
• Security Questions for account security

 

Security Questions

To enhance the security of our member's accounts we now have a new security questions feature where we can allow our members to put in their own, personal security questions. The member will then be prompted to answer those questions for account actions admins define.

Account Change Emails

Members will now receive confirmation emails when they change their email address or password.

Automatic Following

Our members can already choose to automatically follow content they start or reply to, but now we can define this as the default behavior for all members. Our members can of course override this to their own preference.

Embed Failure Message

To answer a frequent question "why didn't my media embed?" we now show you why. Regular members will just see a message indicating the Suite tried to embed but was not able to. Admins will get more information on what failed.

 

Suspended Member Page

If we banned/suspended a member previously they simply saw a generic permission denied message. We now show a more friendly page saying they were suspended and why.

The member can click to get the full information from the Warning System as well.

Announcements

Global announcements can now be restricted by member group (such as messages for Guests).

The following update after this one is still in development, but will include 

• Added quite a few new embed providers
  • codepen.io
  • coub.com
  • deviantart.com
  • docs.com
  • funnyordie.com
  • gettyimages.com
  • iFixit.com
  • kickstarter.com
  • meetup.com
  • mixcloud.com
  • mix.office.com
  • on.aol.com
  • reddit.com
  • reverbnation.com
  • screencast.com
  • screenr.com
  • slideshare.net
  • smugmug.com
  • ustream.tv
• Auto-saved content in the editor will now expire after 48 hours
• If you load an editor that has previous auto-saved content you will now be prompted to keep or remove it
• A batch of moderator improvements.