The SW Team is pleased to provide you with an update of what has been implemented since our last announcement.
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There has been LOADS of work over here. We have several new features to release in the coming months, that we've been working in parallel. Please stay tuned for further updates!
Now, let's talk about what's released.
[big]• Whiteboards 🖼️[/big]
This was one of the [u][b]MOST requested[/b][/u] features since the very beginning of Similar Worlds! We're very glad it's finally out, and the user feedback has been awesome so far. 😁
[b]The Whiteboard is a place where people can send Gestures, Attributes, Images, Comments, and much more...[/b]
You can be [u]creative[/u] on the Whiteboards and have some nice chat that is not specific to any Post or context. A "🔆 Good Morning" will be a good start 😎
[big]• Attributes 🤪[/big]
With Attributes, you can give your opinion about someone else, describing the best (or worst!) qualities of someone. You can rate other users with attributes via their personal Whiteboard.
[big]• Gestures 🌅[/big]
Nothing like being nice to someone you like, with a Gesture. Sing a Song, wish Good Morning, give a Smile, pray, etc... all via their personal Whiteboard. (a couple more are due to be added to the current list soon)
[big]• Post Reply Permanent Links 🤩[/big]
It is now possible to see a paginated view of all nested replies of a Post Comment. We noticed that Comment threads on Posts can become very large, so we thought it would be convenient in some situations to have a better way of paginating through all those replies.
The way to access this view is by pressing/tapping on the Timestamp of the parent Comment (e.g. where it says "2 days ago") to enter.
However, if you come from a Notification, you go to the normal Post page, but the linked reply will be highlighted:
[big]• System Fixes and Improvements 🧱️[/big]
We are continuously working on improving security and other technical elements. As usual, we always work in correcting known glitches, fix bugs, and make improvements to the System, Security and User Interface.
Here are a few of the changes that might interest you:
- Continued work to prevent trolls and spammers/scammers. - Notifications for Poll answers. - New Profile Events page (you can access this in your Account Settings page, at the bottom). - When posting, we are now reminding users of the Acceptable Behavior on Similar Worlds. https://similarworlds.com/help/47-What-is-the-acceptable-behavior-on-Similar-Worlds - Add Video button to the text tools, for better access to post a YouTube video. - [Comment Deleted] warning in Notifications (so you know in advance whether a comment is deleted, in your notifications). - We will not show pictures of Blocked users in the Blocked List, anymore. - Better filtering for Messages, sending unwanted messages to Message Requests. - A number of improvements to the Report Abuse reasons (removing some useless ones and adding new), for better organization.
💡 [b][c=#BF0000]If you find any weird behavior in our system, please let us know straight away by sending any of the admins a Private Message, an email to us or open a Staff Support Ticket. This is the best way to reach us (rather than creating a public post) and ensure that we will look into the problem as soon as possible.[/c][/b]
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Thank you for your support and we hope you continue to stay with us.
We are constantly listening to your suggestions, so please keep giving them to us, as they are very important to the future of Similar Worlds.
Not being able to see blocked users photos in the blocked list means that we can’t see which people we’ve blocked are still here and which aren’t. We can’t distinguish whether someone is totally removed or simply inactive, thus we can’t make an informed decision whether to unblock a user who shows as “cancelled”. I feel this change punishes those who have blocked and therefore benefits those who have been blocked....which I think is not desirable.
@DragonFruit I really don't understand what's the problem with Show Canceled. It does make the separation between fully Canceled and those Inactive, because the people in that list are ONLY canceled/suspended/terminated users. The temporarily inactive users don't appear there, so any users in the Show Canceled list are generally SAFE to be unblocked.
The reason for this change was not to get more people to buy VIP. We got some complaints by our users that people could stalk their profile picture through that list, and that was the reason we decided to remove the pictures.
Note that other social networks, such as Facebook, do not show any profile pictures on the Blocked list.
I guess it comes down to choosing between blocking and muting carefully and if you unblock accidentally or unknowingly then in 24 hours you reblock them. As for who can or can’t see my pic in the block list I don’t care. They can choke on it. 🤷🏻♀️@Nuno
@Nuno Thank you...you could have told us that ahead of time so we’d know (all I needed was a sufficient explanation). I was an attorney....and some legal definitions didn’t mean the same thing to everybody. When a change like this is made, PLEASE give a detailed explanation so that we’ll all know (a lot of us din’t equate “cancelled” with "completely gone".
Thanks for all you and the rest of the team do here. ⭐️ The whiteboards are great and I think they will help people socialize even better. I like how you and the rest of the team are working on security issues regarding scammers and spammers too.
Is it still possible to see someone’s recent replies when you go to their profile? The button seems to be gone. That was one of the ways I’d keep up to date with my friends. Please bring it back!
All awesome, but I especially love that you now highlight the reply that is linked from notifications. Sometimes in a busy and fast convo, this gets lost/difficult to track manually.
SW-User
Reading this, I was excited to hear that the problem I mentioned in my ticket was fixed! 😒
@Nuno I used to look at the Blocked users pic and delete any (from being blocked by me) with the "banned" symbol or the "x". Showing cancelled didn't seem to catch all the users who had apparently left?
@CoffeeFirst The Cancelled Users page should show you users who have left permanently. Any others who have temporarily left may come back, and if you unblock them, they will be able to contact you once they come back.
Having a whiteboard is like getting a pet rock for Christmas. I believe the site will suffer as it did with the introduction of messages. Less vital now.
Thanks but about the “no discrimination” section- [quote]Do not say anything that is likely to offend or alienate people based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion.[/quote]
Someone somewhere is going to be offended by something. It’s just how people are. We used to handle it with aplomb, muttering profanities under our breath. Now, people try and get the whole place shut down because they can’t deal with the fact no one besides their mom finds them to be special.
@xixgun Why can't we discriminate on the basis of religion? Those other things people have no control over. But people choose to follow a religion. If the ideas of a religion are wrong, then I shall not be silent! If people decide to hold certain beliefs then they should be prepared for the consequences.
@VeganNudist definition of sexism: prejudice, stereotyping, or discrimination, typically against women, on the basis of sex.
No one is prejudice against mens health. No one is discriminating against men. No one is stereotyping you. This wasn't left out because the MEN who run the website hate men or want to stick it to them. Therefore it is not sexism. It is an oversight. There are only 2 admins.
Back to my original thought: you could have asked for them to add it and left out the part about sexism. Don't be that guy.
@fallenite Hello. If you installed Similar Worlds on your homescreen as an app, and activated Push Notifications, what else is missing that an app would give you?
@fallenite Why do you think a native app would automatically provide better functionality? The mobile app will not necessarily be better than what we already provide to you, or have a better user interface, etc... We already provide a full mobile interface on Similar Worlds, and use every modern technologies that Browsers these days provide to make websites work better on mobile phones. If you are experiencing usability issues, please try to give as much detail as you can about your usage issues, and we'll try our best to fix them as our priority.
The only issue I have with removing photos of a blocked user is, their photo can sometimes identify them when they make a new account with similar details... I will say this though Thank you.
