EA - Forum feature updates: add buttons, see your stats, send DMs easier, and more (March '24) by tobytrem

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Forum feature updates: add buttons, see your stats, send DMs easier, and more (March '24), published by tobytrem on March 1, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum.It's been a while since our last feature update in October. Since then, the Forum team has done a lot. This post includes:New tools for authorsSee all your stats on one pageAdd buttons to postsImproved tables for postsImproved notifications, messaging and onboardingMore comprehensive and interactive notificationsSubscribe to a user's commentsImproved onboarding for new users:Redesign of Forum messagingOther updates and projectsJob recommendationsMaking it easier to fork our codebase and set up new forumsGiving SeasonA Giving portalA custom voting tool for the Donation ElectionAn interactive bannerForum Wrapped 2023MiscellaneousYou can now hide community quick takesClearer previews of posts, topics, and sequencesA new opportunities tab on the FrontpageNew tools for authorsSee all your stats on one pageWe've built a page which collects the stats for your posts into one overview. These stats include: how many people have viewed/read your posts, how much karma they've accrued, and the number of comments. You can access analytics for a particular post by clicking 'View detailed stats' from your post stats page.Add buttons to postsIf you have a "call to action" in a post or comment, you can now add it as a button. Your button could be a link to an application, a survey, a calendar, or any other link you'd like to stand out.Improved tables for postsWe've improved tables to make them much more readable and less prone to awkward word cut-offs such as "Weight"Improved notifications, messaging and onboardingMore comprehensive and interactive notificationsNotifications now have their own page, accessed by clicking the bell icon:On this page, you can directly reply to comments.We have also:Created notifications for ReactionsMoved message notifications from the notifications list to this symbolin the top bar.Made a notifications summary showing on hover so that you can check your notifications before clicking the bell to clear them (pictured below)We aim to make notifications informative without making them addictive or incentivising behaviour you don't endorse. If notifications bother you, you can:Change your settings to batch your notifications differently (or not be notified at all).Give us feedback.Subscribe to a user's commentsYou can now subscribe to be notified every time a user comments. We've also clarified subscriptions' functionality, with a new "Get notified" menu.Improved onboarding for new users:We've changed the process a user goes through when signing up for a Forum account.This has already increased the number of users giving information about their role, signing up for the Digest, and subscribing to topics.The new process looks like this:Redesign of Forum messagingThe DM page has undergone a total redesign, making it easier to start individual and group messages and navigate your message history.You can now create a new message by clicking the new conversation symbol () and selecting a Forum user (you used to have to navigate to their account). You can also create a group message by adding multiple Forum users in the search box:Other updates and projectsJob recommendationsYou may have noticed that we've recently been exploring ways we could help Forum users hire and be hired. As part of this project, we're experimenting more with targeted job recommendations.We're selecting high-impact jobs and showing each job to a small set of users that we have reason to believe may be interested in it. For example, if the job is limited to a specific country, we use your account location to help determine if it's relevant to you.We'll continue to iterate on thi...