The Forums are getting an update!

All About Nameberry
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Edit: The update has now happened!

We hope you enjoy getting to know the new community. If you have any questions, take a look at our Quick Start Guide here:

(There is also a mobile version of this guide.)

For any further questions, please ask in the All About Nameberry category and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

(Pssst… Want to be in with a chance to win a $50 Amazon voucher? Check out our fun launch competition, full details here)

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We want to share with you some exciting news which, as many of you will know, has been a very long time in the planning and testing.

Next Sunday, April 26 we will be updating the Nameberry Forums to run on a new platform, called Discourse.

This will not change how you access the Forums, and all content on the current site will be kept.

The upgraded Forums will feature a much more modern, interactive, intuitive interface than the one we’re currently using, with a whole host of fun features we’re excited to bring to the community here (more on that below).

Logging into the new Forums for the first time

But first: the important bit.

When you log in to the Forums for the first time after the update, you should enter your email address rather than your username. Some usernames may have changed a little (e.g. some special characters removed), which is due to some characters not being allowed in usernames on the new platform.

Your current password should still work.

If you have forgotten the email address you registered with, please message us – including your username – at support@nameberry.com and we will be able to find it for you.

New features

Some of our favorite features of the upgraded Forums include:

  • The ability to @mention other users, which will notify them that they have been tagged;

  • The ability to like posts, earn badges and unlock different privileges as you contribute to the community;

  • Automatic embedding of images, videos, link previews and other media within posts;

  • Highly customizable user profiles and user cards (more on this below);

  • Improved anti-spam capabilities, and the opportunity for active community members to participate in Forum moderation.

We are also confident that this update will eradicate all of the annoying little glitches which have been springing up on our old Forums platform, and which have proved so difficult to fix.

Signatures

One feature of the current Forums which we know many of our members love is signatures. Unfortunately, Discourse does not include this function as standard.

HOWEVER, after listening to all of your feedback on this point, we do plan to add them back in as soon after the upgrade as we are able to.

We will not be able to bring over the content of your current signatures, so please save this somewhere before Sunday if you want to keep it.

In the meantime: The new Forums does include a feature called user cards, which function in much the same way. These can be customized to include background images, links and text, and are viewable by clicking on any member’s username or avatar.

You can learn more about user cards here. (Note: this link takes you to an external site.)

Getting used to the updated Forums

When you first log in to the new Forums, you will receive a message from @discobot, inviting you to complete a quick walkthrough of some of the key features. This is a fun way to get a feel for the new functionality – plus, you can earn your first badge!

We have also created this quick start guide which includes some helpful hints (with pictures) for navigating the new platform.

Thank you for reading! I will leave this topic open for any questions you might have.

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[name_m]Hi[/name_m] elenajeanine,

I’m not able to do that just yet, as the new Forums don’t go live until Sunday, April 26.

The link in my post above is just an example of a basic Discourse forum, so you can see the look and function. It is not the new Nameberry Forum. [EDIT: link removed as it was proving too confusing]

You will not need a special link to log in to the Nameberry Forums. You will be able to find it in the normal place on the Nameberry homepage, and any links or bookmarks you may have saved to the current Forums will be automatically redirected.

I hope that helps!

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@elenajeanine

No problem, I totally understand the nervousness when it’s something you love and enjoy being changed. We feel it too!

I will continue to keep you informed and please don’t hesitate to ask if you have any more questions, now or after the launch.

I hope you’re doing OK in quarantine. Hang in there!

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This actually excites me, because the current platform is a bit glitchy. I used Discourse back in the day and never had an issue with it - hopefully it hasn’t changed dramatically in the last 5 years or so lol. I love NB and it’s a great community, but switching platforms shouldn’t change things too much, I would hope?

I too am using NB as an escape right now during quarantine, so hopefully this will be a drastic improvement for the site!

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We really hope so too, [name_u]Haley[/name_u]! We’ve been struggling for a while with the glitching and we really want visiting the Forums to be an easy and enjoyable experience for everyone, free from frustrations.

Thank you for your support :slight_smile:

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Exciting! [name_f]Hope[/name_f] it all works out.

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Noooo I cant remember my old email ”

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UPDATE ON SIGNATURES

[name_m]Hi[/name_m] again everyone,

We’ve been reading each and every piece of feedback we’ve received so far very carefully, and we can see (as we expected) that the loss of signatures is a big problem for many of you.

While we do think the new user cards feature could make a good alternative, it’s not a direct replacement. We really, really want this changeover to be as smooth and stress-free for our community as possible, and we really do care about what you think.

Plan for adding signatures

To this end, we’ve had a big discussion around the signatures issue and this is our plan:

  • We will launch on [name_f]Sunday[/name_f], [name_f]April[/name_f] 26 initially without signatures (as this makes for a much less complicated transition).

  • Once the changeover is complete and we’ve ironed out any teething issues with the new platform and user navigation, we will install a plugin which allows users to create signatures in Discourse.

  • We will not be able to bring old signatures over automatically, so if you want to keep yours be sure to save it somewhere before [name_f]Sunday[/name_f].

[name_m]How[/name_m] it will work

The way the signature plugin works in Discourse is that it’s an opt-in system. Users who want to create signatures will need to enable this on their profile; they will then be able to create a signature and view those of others.

People who don’t opt in won’t see any signatures, regardless of whether other users have set them or not.

When the time comes for us to introduce signatures, I will create a pinned FAQ/how-to and let you all know that the feature is coming and how to use it. I’m afraid I’m not able to say now exactly when that will be, but we will treat it as a priority once this transition period is over.

I hope this comes as good news to those of you who were concerned about the loss of this feature, and thank you all so much for your constructive feedback!

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If you’re experiencing a problem or have any questions, please create a new topic in the All About Nameberry category.

This thread is now closed, as it will be much easier for the mod team to monitor all of the feedback if it’s all in one place.

Thank you so much for your patience and for flagging issues to us, it really helps us get things sorted as quickly as possible!