iMIS SSO is now available

Understanding Our Commitment

• What is web accessibility? Websites and web applications designed and developed for people with disabilities to easily use them. This includes those with visual, auditory, physical, speech, cognitive, and neurological disabilities.

• Our standard: Our platform strives to comply with the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA, the recognized international standard for web accessibility.

New Accessibility Features at the Core

Our community experience offers a suite of built-in accessibility features:

• Optimized for screen readers: Screen reader users can navigate and understand your community through clear and accurate content descriptions.

• Clear headings and structure: Content is organized with headings and semantic HTML, making it easy for assistive technologies to convey the structure.

• Skip to content links: Keyboard users can bypass repeated elements and jump directly to the main content.

• ARIA attributes: These special attributes enhance information for screen readers and other assistive technologies.

• Meaningful labels: Interactive elements like buttons and links have descriptive labels so users understand their purpose.

• Full keyboard navigation: The entire community experience, from reading posts to commenting and searching, is accessible via keyboard.

• No redundancy: We streamline the experience by removing unnecessary links and actions that could confuse assistive technologies.

Accessibility as an Ongoing Mission

We are continually seeking ways to improve the accessibility of our platform. Your community is a place for everyone, and we work hard to ensure our technology reflects that commitment.

Help Us Improve

Have accessibility-related feedback or questions? We welcome your input. Share your feedback or contact us at support@forumbee.com.

What are Webhooks?

Webhooks are automated notifications sent from one application (like your Forumbee community) to another, triggered by specific events. Think of them like instant updates: when a new member joins, a post is created, or a topic is liked, a webhook can notify your connected applications. This enables many types of powerful integrations.

The New Forumbee Webhooks Dashboard

Previously, managing webhooks in Forumbee involved a bit of behind-the-scenes work. Now, the process is a breeze with our new visual Webhooks Dashboard. Here's what it gives you:

• Centralized Monitoring: View all your defined webhooks and their statuses in one place. Quickly identify successes and failures.
• Detailed Event Log: See exactly when webhooks were triggered, what events initiated them, and their delivery status.
• Intelligent Error Handling: When endpoints fail, get easy-to-understand HTTP status codes. Click to view the exact payloads sent and error messages, making debugging simple.
• Retry Functionality: Fixed a problematic endpoint? Retry sending failed webhooks right from the dashboard.
• Instant Email Alerts: Receive immediate email notifications when a webhook endpoint fails. Never miss a potential integration problem.

Webhooks Status Overview

Detailed Event Log

Use Cases Solved

Here are some common challenges the Webhooks Dashboard helps you tackle:

• Troubleshooting Integrations: When something isn't working right with your connected apps, the dashboard becomes your first line of investigation. Pinpoint specific communication failures and figure out if the problem is on your community side or within the external app.
• Maintaining Integration Health: Proactively monitor the success and failure rates of your webhooks. Receive email alerts when there are issues, so you can react quickly and keep your integrations running smoothly.

How to Get Started

If you're already using webhooks with Forumbee, log into your community as an admin and navigate to the Admin Console > Integrations > Webhooks to access the new Webhooks Dashboard. 

See also:

• Guide to Using the Webhooks Dashboard
• Guide to Setting up Webhooks

Note: Gamification is available as an add-on module. For pricing and details, visit our pricing page or contact us.

What is Gamification?

Gamification brings game-like elements into your community—such as badges, points, and progress tracking—to encourage engagement and recognize meaningful contributions.

How it Works

The Gamification module includes tools to help you build a customized rewards system:

• Automated Badges: Assign badges based on defined rules. Categories include:
  • Timed badges
  • Best of Community badges
  • Achievement badges
  • Progress badges
• Manual Badges: Award badges manually for special accomplishments or offline participation.
• Points: Members earn points for completing key actions in the community. The Points badge tracks cumulative progress and encourages ongoing engagement.
• Custom Badge Design: Upload your own badge images, set titles and descriptions, and customize the notifications members receive.

Benefits

• Encourage participation through meaningful rewards
• Recognize and motivate top contributors
• Let members track their engagement progress
• Add a light competitive element to increase activity

Request a Demo

If you’d like to see Gamification in action, contact us to schedule a demo. 

Key New Features:

• Set Event Time Zones: No more confusion when scheduling events outside your own time zone! You can now explicitly set the desired time zone for any event. This is especially useful for events with participants in multiple locations.
• View Events in Original Time Zone: See at a glance where an event is actually taking place. Click the globe icon to reveal the original time zone in which the event was scheduled, making collaboration a breeze.
• Localized Date and Time Formats: The event calendar now adapts date and time displays to match your chosen language settings in Forumbee. See dates and times in the format familiar to your region.
• Additional Bug Fixes: We've addressed several reported bugs to improve the overall reliability of the event calendar.

How to Use the New Features:

Imagine you're in Seattle (Pacific Time) and need to schedule a conference in Oslo (Central European Time) from 9:00 to 11:00 AM (Oslo time). Here's how:

1. When creating the event, search for and select "Oslo" in the time zone options.
2. Enter the event time as 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM. The system will automatically adjust it for viewers in other time zones.

View Event Times in Their Original Time Zone

Event times will continue to display in your local time zone by default. Click the globe icon to see the original time zone in which an event was scheduled. This makes it easier to coordinate with participants across different regions.

Localized event date and time format

The system now localizes date and time formats to align with your chosen language settings in Forumbee. For example, if you've set your language preference to Swedish, event timings will be displayed using day/month translations and the 24-hour clock format, reflecting local Swedish conventions.

Event schedule displayed in Swedish:

We Value Your Feedback!

Thank you for helping us improve the Forumbee experience. If you have any further suggestions or encounter any issues, please let us know.

Drag-and-drop article reorder

A new drag-and-drop interface is now available to reorder articles in manually sorted categories. Go to Admin > Categories > Topic Order and select a category. Set the default sort order to manual, then drag and drop articles in the list to reorder them.

If there are cloned topics in the category, they can be can now be reordered too.

Social logins

Login with GitHub, Google, LinkedIn, and Facebook is now available. Contact us to enable this integration for your account. 

Notification settings improvements

Additional notification settings are now available in your profile to give you more control over the community email that you receive. 

Granular control

Options to receive email are now split out by individual post type so that you can choose to enable/disable email separately for each of the following:

• Replies in topics you are following
• Topics in categories and tags you are following
• Topics in auto-notify categories (these are categories the moderator has configured to send notifications by default)
• Replies in categories you are following
• New posts by people you are following
• Private messages
• Mentions

In addition, the new "Include my own posts" option will send you email notifications of any new post that you add.

Email control for specific categories

You can now opt out of email from individual categories, while still continuing to follow the categories. This is helpful if you follow a category so that it is included in your All Topics feed but you prefer not to receive email notifications for it.

In a category you are following, click the 3-dots menu and select Turn email off.

You can also opt-out of category emails in Notification Settings. Click Show to expand the list of categories you are following or that are set to auto-notify, then uncheck the categories to opt-out of emails.

People-follow controls

With people follow, you can follow members to be notified of their new posts. This is a great way to keep in touch with others' activity, but you may prefer to control who has the ability to follow you.

You can now turn off the option globally to prevent anyone from following you. Go to Notification Settings and select the option Do not allow anyone to follow me.

Or you control this on an individual member basis. To block a specific member from following you, go to their profile and select Block User. They will no longer have the option to follow you. If they had previously followed you, they will no longer receive email notifications of your posts.

Additional file attachment types

The following file types are now included as approved file attachment types. They will be displayed with a unique icon and will no longer be zipped when attached to a post.

• BayesiaLab files (.xbl)
• Java class files (.class)
• Apple Keynote presentation files (.key)
• Sketch files (.sketch)

Webhooks

Webhooks are now available in early access release! Contact your account manager to have Webhooks enabled (requires the Enterprise plan). 

SAML Single Sign-On log

A log of recent SAML login attempts is now available in the SAML integration area. You can reference this log when configuring SAML to view successful logins as well as any SAML configuration errors that are generated. Go to Admin > Integrations > SAML then click the Log tab.

SAML SSO and Okta support

Support for Secure Assertion Markup Language (SAML) single sign-on is now available! SAML is supported by many identity provider services, such as Okta, Microsoft 365 (Office 365), Auth0, OneLogin, and JumpCloud, and provides seamless access to your community for your customers and/or employees.

Text editor updates

The text editor has received a design update. New higher-contrast icons are easier on the eyes and have been rearranged into a more logical order. All icons now have tooltip descriptions. 

The link tool now has a keyboard shortcut. Select your text and press the keys Ctrl+k or Cmd+k to bring up the link popup. 

An additional heading level (H4) can now be selected from the new Heading menu. 

Code formatting with Prism.js

Prism.js has been added as an alternate code formatting option. With Prism, you select the language for your code block and it includes additional options such as line numbers and shell prompt configuration. 

New category options

Registered users access setting

When a category is set to be accessible only by registered members, there is now a separate option to make the category name and intro visible to guests. By default, the category will not be visible unless you are a logged-in member. If you enable the option "Show category name and intro to guests" then guests will see the category in the listing with a padlock icon. When clicked, it will prompt the guest to sign in.

Unlisted categories

The option to exclude a category from the listing is now available in category settings. With this option, the category is still accessible according to its permission settings, but it is not included in the category listing or navigation. 

Misc Improvements and Bug fixes

• Option to show a word count as you type a reply is now available.
• Data exports from the Reporting area now match the role filter set in the interface.
• Filenames for Report CSV exports have been updated to include a description of what the export contains, including filter settings and parameter names. This also applies CSV exports of API data.
• Fixed an issue that caused access code category names to not be visible to guests. 
• Clicking the hamburger icon on mobile to close the fly-out menu would scroll to the top of the page. This has been fixed so it no longer changes the scroll point.

New moderation options

To provide more flexibility for managing users and posts according to your community needs, we've expanded the moderation settings. 

Moderation can now be enabled for the first # of posts by new members. This allows you to review their initial activity, so they have a trial period before they are established as trustworthy. Read more... 

If you have global moderation rules enabled, a new option provides the ability to trust individual members so they post freely. Read more...

Individual members can now have individual moderation settings. You can choose to moderate all posts by a specific user, or have their next # of posts be moderated. Read more...

SEO features

A sitemap file is now automatically generated and can be submitted to your Google Search console. Meta tags are configurable at the site level, and can be overridden for specific Categories and Topics. Read more...  

Enhancements to the topic editor

The topic editor in the moderate area has been updated with several UI improvements for ease of use and efficiency.  

• The primary actions (Publish and Save Draft) are now in a fixed position at the bottom of the page so that they are always at hand where you need them.
• The number of configurable topic options has grown, so we have made these into collapsible panels in the side column. It will remember which panels you have open the next time you return to the editor.
• The full admin left navigation has been removed in Edit mode to de-clutter the view and make it easier to focus on writing.
• The topic's category can now be changed while in the editor. Previously this option was only available outside of the editor from the cog menu. 
• The category name in the category selector now includes the full path including its parent sections. This makes it easier to recognize the category you are selecting.
• Added a more prominent "Edit topic" button when viewing a topic in the Moderate area.
• Fixed a bug that caused tags to be removed when you saved a draft.  

Misc improvements and bug fixes

• Updated Admin with new icons
• Fixed a bug where editing username would sometimes delete characters as you type
• Fixed a bug that caused the Zendesk ticket to not be updated with new replies if the ticket status was Closed.
• Fixed a bug that caused the Zendesk integration page to give an error when the connected user was removed in Zendesk
• Fixed a bug where the video image didn't appear when sharing post on LinkedIn.
• Fixed a bug that caused files with a "#" in the name to give an error when downloading. 

To make easier to find new community activity, topics you've read are now remembered and unbolded. Filter by unread to see just what's new, including new replies to topics since you last viewed them. 

In discussion topics with nested replies, it can be hard to locate all of the new replies located in different sub-threads. The new reply navigator 🗺️ sorts this out and guides you through all new replies since your last visit to the topic, one sub-thread at a time. 

Read more...

All topics view

The new All topics view provides easy access to the latest activity in your community by bringing together posts from all categories into a single list.

Read more...

Post topics in multiple categories

Articles (topics) can now be configured to appear in more than one category. This can help users find relevant content. For example, users may be looking for information about how to create their account in either a "FAQs" category or a "Getting Started" category. You can now configure the article to appear in both places, while only having to maintain a single article.

Read more...

Copy topic improvements

Creating a copy of a topic now provides the option to edit the copy before publishing it. This provides the ability to use a topic as a template and quickly create similar events.

Read more... 

More emojis!   🥳 🎉

The emoji picker has been expanded to include 50+ new emojis. All emojis from the latest Emoji version 11 set are now included. At last! Teddy bears! 🧸🧸🧸

The option to select an emoji image style for your community is now available. You can select from the following styles: 

• Native emojis (the default)
• Twemoji emojis
• EmojiOne emojis

Read more...

When new members join your community, you can now configure a friendly email to be automatically sent to welcome them into the community. To enable this option, go to Admin > Settings > Welcome email. You can edit the content of the message, and add links and images.

Search Metrics API

A new search metrics API is now available. (Enterprise only) It provides a report of all searches conducted, and you can use this to analyze top searched terms and understand the search success rate for your community. You can also discover searches returning no results, which may be an indication of areas that need additional content added. If you are an Enterprise client and would like to access this API please contact us.

You can now customize your community Privacy Policy and Terms of Use pages.

• The option is available in Admin > Settings > Policy. Use the text editor to add and edit the content of your policy pages.
• If your Privacy Policy and Terms of Use are already hosted on your website and you would prefer for members to be directed there, just enter the links to those pages here.

Expanded member consent options

If you have updated your Privacy Policy or Terms of Use, you can now require existing members to review the policies and re-grant their consent. On their next access, users will be intercepted by your message and be prompted to re-grant their consent. 

We’ve updated the member signup process to help you stay compliant with this law.

• You can now enable a checkbox for opt-in consent and edit the message to explain how and why you are using data. 
• You can view and export member consent status

How to configure the explicit consent option → 

In addition, these new features are now available:

• The user data export now includes the last accessed date for each user.
• Additional UI labels are now available for translation.

Bug fixes:

• When sending invitations, users who have already joined will not receive an invite.

We have released a feature update today that includes support for usernames, a.k.a "handles." Usernames are unique for each member in the community, and help in mentioning and messaging to ensure you are selecting the correct member.

Both the member full name and username appear on posts and profile pages. Usernames are prefixed by '@'.

Usernames on profile cards:

Usernames are shown next to full names when searching for members for @mentioning and messaging:

Once you select the user from the list to mention, their full name will appear in the post. 

How are usernames created?

When a user joins the community, their username is created automatically based on their name. If another member has the same name, it will ensure it is unique by appending a number.

How can you change your username?

Change your username in Edit Profile > Account tab.

Usernames can be between 3 and 24 characters long, and can contain letters, numbers and underscores. 

A new color and highlight formatting is now available in the topic editor. Select the text to format, click the 3-dots icon to expand the toolbar options and access the text color icon:

Insert Option 

When a Table of Contents or other block element is added to the top of an article, a new 'Insert Line' option is now shown above it, making it easier to insert content above the item. 

Mentioning Users on Mobile

Adding mentions on mobile has been made easier and clearer! After typing "@", a dialog appears that allows you to search and select the user to mention. 

Key Features

• Block free email providers: Automatically prevent sign-ups from over 3,000 free email domains including Gmail, Yahoo, and Hotmail
• Custom domain blocking: Define specific domains you want to block from signing up
• Moderation options: Alternatively, require moderator approval for sign-ups from free email providers or specific domains

Use Cases

This feature is perfect for:

• Creating company-specific communities that require corporate email addresses
• Reducing spam by limiting free email providers
• Adding an extra layer of moderation for certain email domains

How to Enable

These settings can be configured in Admin > Settings > Moderation

For detailed instructions and examples, please see controlling member sign-ups by email domain.

Partial Word Search

You can now conduct a search using the partial spelling of words. Results update instantly as you type and return matches that start with the letters entered.

Categories & Events in Search Results

Search results now include Categories that match the search phrase. 

Events are now returned in a dedicated "Upcoming Events" section. 

Exact Phrase and Excludes

To search for an exact (literal) phrase, enter your search query in quotes. 

• Example: "photography workshop"

To exclude results that contain certain words, prefix the word with a dash.

• Example: -training

Enable Nested Replies 

Enable nested replies in Admin > Settings > Posts: 

Organize Nested Replies

Moderators can change the nesting of replies. To nest replies that were previously added at the top level, click the cog icon on the reply and a drag handle will appear at the top of the reply. Drag and drop the reply onto another reply to nest it:

Un-nest replies in a similar way, clicking on the outdent icon:

Direct links to replies

You can now link directly to specific replies in a conversation. Click the link icon on the reply to copy the link to the clipboard. You can then paste this link in another discussion or share via email or social media. When someone clicks the link they will go directly to the highlighted reply. 

Embed videos in content

With the new embed inline video feature, you can add videos inline, within the text of the post. This is useful if you need to add intro text or content between videos. To embed a video inline, click the link icon and paste a link to a YouTube or Vimeo video. The video will be added below the link. (You can delete the link afterwards if you wish, and the video will remain embedded.)

Post-editing improvements for members

• Members can now access post-related actions, such as Edit, Remove, and Report, in a new "kabob" menu:
  
  
   
• The member editing timeout window is now configurable. The default timeout is 1 hour for topics, 15 minutes for replies. The timeout length can be modified or be made unlimited. Contact support@forumbee.com to have this setting changed for your community.
   
• Members now have the option to delete their own topics. Topics can be deleted within the editing timeout window and when there are no replies.
   
• When moderator approvals are enabled, members are now able to edit their post while it is in "Pending approval" status. (The editing timeout window still applies.)

When replying, you can now add quotes from other replies in the discussion.  This is a great way to respond directly to a specific person in the thread. To add a quote, select the text and click the Quote button. The quote is added to your reply. You can add additional quotes into your reply by selecting and quoting other replies. Each quote is added into the reply box. Quoted text includes the name of its author and is linked to the original reply.

Live Reply Updates

When viewing a topic, you are automatically updated if new replies are being posted to the topic. If you are at the bottom of the topic, new replies will automatically scroll into view as they are added. If you're higher up on the page, you'll see an on-screen notification.

Improved Replies

When replying, the reply box slides up from the bottom, allowing you to keep your place while you type. You can continue to scroll the page to see and quote other replies while having the reply box in view.

To edit the status lists, go to Admin > Settings > Status labels:

Click the cog icon on a post to apply a status:

New Topic Classification for Issues

With the new Issues topic type, you can provide a channel in your community for customers to report bugs or problems. You can create a dedicated Issues category and also classify individual topics as Issues. Issues have their own customizable set of statuses, including: 

• Acknowledged
• Confirmed
• Known issue
• Fix pending
• Solved
• Fixed
• No fix planned

Access this option by creating a new topic or editing a topic in the Admin > Moderate area. In the side column under Author, search by name and then select the user. Click Save. Your topic author has now been set!

Front ( frontapp.com ) is an inbox for teams. It brings all of your external messages, including emails to support@ or sales@, plus Twitter, Facebook, chat, and SMS, into one unified inbox.

How does it work?

Our new plugin for Front gives you access to your Forumbee knowledge base directly from within the Front. You can search for articles and posts and send them to customers when you are responding to their messages in Front.
 

Related posts

How to configure Front integration 

Emojis

Say it with pictures! You can now select from the full set of emojis to add to your posts.

Headings and Table of Contents

Headings and a table of contents can now be added to posts. Click the more icon in the formatting toolbar to reveal the options.

Click the  icons to format heading text.

Click the  icon to add a table of contents. It will build a TOC based on the headings you have formatted with H2 and H3. To update your TOC, select it and click the update icon:

Article Sort Order Control

The new Manual sort option gives you control over the order of articles in your Knowledgebase or FAQ. To set a category to the Manual sort order, go to Category Settings > More Options > Default sort order > and select Manual:

To change the position of a topic in a manually sorted category, go to Moderate > Edit topic and set the order position in the side column.

Copy Topics

Moderators can now create a copy of a topic. This is useful for when there are multiple separate sub-communities and you need to create a copy of the topic in each category.

Simplified User Group Assignment 

It's now easier to add individual users to groups via the expanded user panel in the Admin > Users area:

Set User Label via Single Sign-On

The User Label can now be updated via SSO. In the parameter labelId pass a value of 1 through 10, which corresponds to the user labels defined in Admin/Settings. The labelId 1 maps to the first label, and so on. To remove a label for a user, pass a value of 0.  

We 💚 iOS and Android users! The mobile interface has been upgraded to include much requested features:

• You can now add images and file attachments to topics and replies from your mobile device.
• @Mentions are now available in mobile devices. Start typing the @ symbol and name of the person you would like to mention and the menu of users will appear.
• Many UX improvements were applied throughout the mobile interface.

Video in Replies

The option to add videos to replies is now available. Click the video icon and paste a link to your video on Youtube, Vimeo, or Wistia.

You can now require moderator approval for any post that contains images, video, or file attachments. This option is available in Admin > Settings > Moderation: 

Configurable category options

The following options are now configurable for all category types:

• Default topic sort order
• Option to turn on/off the option to reply to topics in the category

Other new features

• The Add New post button can now be added globally, including on the community home page or main navigation. This is an Enterprise customization available on request. 
• More tags can be assigned to a topic (up to 10)

Moderation of posts with keywords

You can define a set of keywords that will trigger a post to require moderator approval. When members add a post containing a matching keyword, the post will be set to "Pending Review" and placed in the moderation queue. In addition to exact matches, the system uses a stemming algorithm to find word inflections and variations. The keyword list can be updated by administrators at any time. 

Moderators can approve or remove posts in the queue. Only approved posts will be published to the community.

Profanity filter

When enabled, all new posts will be checked against a list of over 1,000 common profanity words. Posts containing profanity will be placed in the queue for moderator review.

SEO enhancements

• Topic page titles now include the category name. The title structure is Topic title - Category Name - Community Name
• Added a canonical link to the topic URL that contains the slug
• Added rel="nofollow" to category filter pages and all pages except page 1 in topic listings

• Move replies to a new topic (split topic): This option creates a new topic with the selected replies. The reply author becomes the author of the new topic. If multiple replies are selected, they are carried over as replies to the new topic.
   
• Move replies to existing topic: This option moves the replies into the topic you select, and the reply authors are set to follow the destination topic.
   

How to Move Replies

To move one reply select "Move" from the Cog menu next to the reply:

To move multiple replies at once, click the "check" icon at the top of the reply list, select the replies, then click "Move."

Select the Move option and follow the steps to move to a New Topic or an Existing Topic:

Click the link to view the destination topic:

Tags are included in search results. Tags that match the search term appear at the top of the results. 

 

Members can browse tags and follow tags of interest.

To create tags,  go to Admin > Categories > Tags.

Click the edit icon to access tag settings:

A tag can have a description and category assignments. A tag can be used in all categories or restricted for use in only certain categories. For example, tags that are only relevant for your Knowledgebase articles can be assigned to those categories.

Tickets contain the full post and link directly to the community where the agent can post a response.

With Forumbee Rule Sets you can customize how tickets are created and assigned. For example, if you have community categories organized by product, you can send activity from each product category to a different product specialist group in Zendesk:

After the agent answers a question in the community, customers may reply with additional questions in the same thread. New replies are automatically added to the Zendesk ticket, keeping the conversation together, and reopening the ticket if it was closed. 

The ticketing process helps you track community activity and ensure questions are answered. It is helpful to note that Zendesk ticket notification emails are not sent to the customer who posted in the community. Customers will only receive email updates from the community when their question is answered, according to their community notification preferences.

Related topics:

How to configure Zendesk integration
 

A new option is available to allow users to "Request to Join" your private community. This option is available Admin > Settings > Moderation: 

When enabled, users can request access by entering their details, including any required custom profile fields you have defined.

Moderators are notified and can approve or reject (block) users:

Member Sign Up Approvals in Public Communities

For public communities, a new option is available to approve new member sign ups. 

• Approve all new members: Requires moderator approval for all new members.
• Approve members with these email domains:  Users who sign up with specific email domains require moderator approval.

Moderators are notified when users request to join and can approve or reject (block) users.

This option is available Admin > Settings > Moderation: 

Expanded User Details 

Additional information about users is now available in Admin > Users. Click the expander icon to show details. Full profile data is shown including any custom profile fields you have defined. Recent access history is available under Device Info, including IP address, location, and browser details. This information is useful to review when determining whether to approve a user who has requested to join. 

You can customize the types of activity sent to Slack, across your entire community or within specific categories. Activities include: 

• Topics
• Replies
• Posts waiting approval
• Posts flagged
• Spam
• New member joins

Enable Slack integration in Admin > Integrations:

Click Add Channel, then authorize the Forumbee app:

Click Add rule:

Select the activity and optional category. Multiple rules and Slack channels may be added:

You're all set! Activity from your community will be sent to Slack in real-time.
 

• Results are displayed instantly as you type and show the context of your search term.
• Search results now include members in addition to topics, replies and events. (Members are only included when Member Search is enabled in your community.)
• Updated search algorithm to improve the relevancy of results.
• The search field is now built into the navigation bar for quick access.

Member Directory Update

The member search URL now updates to reflect your search, so you can bookmark or copy the link to post elsewhere. For example, you can link directly to a list of your community moderators or employees, by linking to a member search of the user label.

New email invite template picker

Previous email invitation text is automatically saved and you can reuse it for future invites. 

Manage invitation batches

You can now manage previous invite batches and send a reminder to anyone who has not joined, or remove all pending users  

In the Users tab, filter by Pending. Under “Date added” you’ll see a list of all previously added user batches by date with the count of pending users (users who have not joined).  

Select a batch and look for the new options in the right column to send a reminder or remove pending users.

Going forward, the system will track how many invites you have sent to a user. It will show a count under their name:

Events Calendar Module

The new events calendar feature makes it easy to plan, organize and register for events with your community. You can add multiple event calendars to your community, as well as enable events within other category types such as Discussions and Articles. 

Key capabilities include:

• Tools for creating and managing events
• Calendar view to see upcoming events at a glance
• RSVP to events and see who else is attending
• View events you are attending
• Google map integration with intelligent place search and map view
• Visibility in recent activity streams and community search
• Support for all community features including commenting, notifications, moderation, images, videos and file attachments
• Events dates are displayed in user’s time zone
• ‘Add to calendar’ feature for adding events to Outlook, Mail and other calendaring systems

Add an Events category to your community by going to Admin > Categories > Add Category and selecting “Events.” Or add the calendar feature to an existing category by going to Category Settings.

Member Directory

With the new member directory you can discover and connect with other members. Search across any profile field to find users by tagline, location, interest, or custom profile fields. See who is most active or just joined. Send a private message to a member or follow members with similar interests.

Enable this feature in Admin > Settings > Member Search.

Member Group Categories

Designed for project teams, special interest groups, or other subgroups within a community, this new capability provides a place for groups to collaborate. Users can be pre-assigned or elect to join a member category. Members can browse the category member directory and automatically get notified of new posts. 

Enable this option for a category in Admin > Categories. Select a category, then expand More Options and enable the join option.

New image lightbox viewer

Improved the viewing experience of images in topics and replies. New lightbox viewer provides image zoom, next/previous navigation through multiple images, keyboard support and options to zoom and download images.

New "Mark as answered" option on Questions

Users who post questions now have the option to mark their question as “Answered” when they have received a satisfactory response. Previously, only Moderators had the ability to set the Answered status.

Like replies

One of our most popular requested features, we are super excited to now support the ability to “Like” replies!

Infinite scrolling for recent activity

The Recent Activity widget is no longer limited to 10 posts. You can now scroll back through time to see earlier posts.

Reply labels

Reply labeling is now independent of reply pinning. A reply can be labeled as the best answer or highlighted as an official response without being pinned.

Moderation in the community

Posts can be moderated directly in the community. The full moderate menu (cog icon) is now available on topics and replies on community pages.

Other improvements

• SSO support for custom fields
• Control profile field visibility and order on profile cards
• Analytics member count now reflects the number of members who have joined. The count no longer includes pending invites
• Emoji character support in topics, replies, and messages

• Site-wide design improvements, including a new default web-font, improved profile pages, recent activity, and optimized topic directories
• Design and usability enhancements for topic voting and following
• Mobile layout improvements to branding, navigation, and posts
• Simplified community CSS theme customization through our new BEM-based CSS structure
• Move topic: category moderators can now move topics to any category they have access to
• For clarity, "Category Groups" have been renamed to "Sections”

In the SSO forums parameter, specify Group assignments by using the Group ID. As before, you can can continue to specify private Category assignments by using the Category code. The comma separated list can include both Group IDs and Category codes.

You can now set up your community so that all posts can be reviewed by a moderator before they are published. This is useful if you want to ensure conversations stay on topic or meet your community guidelines.

Enable this feature in Admin > Settings > Moderation. You can choose to moderate topics and/or replies.

When moderation is enabled, users who add a post will see their post in a “Pending Review” status. Pending posts are not visible to other community members:

Approving posts

Moderators will receive an email notification of a new post pending review. They can visit the Queue to review and take action on pending posts:

Access this area in Admin > Queue. To take action click one of the following:

• Approve, which publishes the post
• Discard, which removes the post

Spam Filter

All posts in public communities are now checked by a spam filter powered by Akismet. Suspicious topics or replies are sent to the Spam Queue for review by moderators prior to being published to the community. Users with a post marked as spam will not be allowed to post again until their post has been released.

Moderators will receive an email notification of posts pending review with a link to the Spam Queue. To access this area, go to Admin > Queue > Spam:

To take action click one of the following:

• Spam, which removes the post. However the user will still be able to post again. If they are clearly not a legitimate user, then choose the next option…
• Block user, which removes the post and removes the user from the community. They will no longer be able to log in or post again.
• Not spam, which publishes the post and allows the member to continue posting.

All member profiles include these fields by default:

• Name
• Profile picture
• Tagline
• Location
• About me
• Web URL

Custom fields can be used to collect additional information that is relevant to you or other members of your community. Some examples include Company Name, Department, Industry, or Level of Expertise.

You can choose when to display custom fields and whether they are required. Options include:

• Include custom fields in the sign up process
• Display custom fields in Edit Profile
• Display or hide custom fields on the Member Profile

This feature is available in Enterprise level accounts. We are happy to assist you in adding custom profile fields. Please contact us at support@forumbee.com.

You may already be familiar with @Mentions through Facebook or Twitter. Our @Mentions are similar. While you're creating a post, type "@" followed by the name of the person you would like to mention. After you begin typing a name, a drop down list will appear from which you can select the correct person. Anyone you @Mention will be notified by email.

To enable this feature for your community, check the option in Admin > Settings > Messaging:

When Messaging is enabled, the option to send a message will display on member Profile Cards and Profile Pages:

If you receive a message while you are online, a chat window will open where you can continue the conversation in chat mode:

If you receive messages while you are offline, you’ll be notified by email.

In the community, the new message indicator will display a count of your new messages:

Click a message to view it:

Click View all Messages to access the Messaging area. The Messaging area provides access to all of your conversations, with the option to archive. You can also send new messages from here.

Opt out and Blocking options

• Members can opt out of receiving private messages in their Notification Settings area.
• Members can choose to no longer receive messages from another member by blocking them. The block option is available in the chat window and on the user profile page.

Block a user from a chat window:

Block a user on their profile page:

 

As an administrator, you can disable the private messaging feature for a specific member. Go to Admin > Users and click a user row to expand the options panel. Under Permissions, check Disable private messaging.

The export includes the user name, email, tagline, join date, email notification preference, and custom profile field data (if applicable).

The joined column contains the date/time the user became a member of the community with a verified email address. Users that are invited but not yet joined will have a blank in the joined column.

The notify.doNotSend column contains the email notification preference of the user. A value of 0 indicates the user is receiving email notifications. A value of 1 indicates the user has opted out of receiving email notifications from the community.

To schedule a post, go to the Moderate area and click Add Topic.

Edit your post and select a category. In the right column, click to expand Publish Date.

Select a future date to publish your post. Then click Schedule.

Scheduled posts appear in the “Scheduled” tab. You can edit the post, change the scheduled date, as well as unschedule it.

New category access controls on categories allow you to restrict access to specific users. For example, you can create an employee-only area or a private category for specific clients.

This option can be found under Categories > Settings.

The updated user management area includes the ability to audit and manage member category access. In Admin > Users, select Permissions from the cog menu to change settings for a user.

Category Moderators

Moderators can be assigned to specific categories. Category moderators have the ability to manage postings within the category and get notified by email of new category activity. For example, you can add product line specialists to moderate categories related to their area of expertise. This option can be found under Categories > Settings.

Category moderator access can also be assigned in the Users area. Go to Admin > Users, and select Permissions from the cog menu for the user.

Subcategories

Your community can be organized into categories and multiple subcategories. This provides greater flexibility for community structure.

User labels

Custom user labels can now be assigned to members as well as moderators. To edit custom user labels, go to Settings > User Labels. To apply a label to a user, go to Users and select the label from the cog menu.

Profile Cards

Get more details about a member in context of their post. Hover over an avatar to see the member profile card with activity stats and other details.

Tagline

The Short bio profile field is now Tagline.  User Taglines are now displayed next to posts in conversations. You can update your Tagline in Edit Profile.

Other New Features

• Private communities now have the option to display the logo/header on the login page. To enable this, go to Admin > Header > Settings and check the option Show header on private community login page.
• You can now add additional email addresses to your account. We'll send notifications to the one you choose as your primary email address. You may log in with any verified email address listed on your account.
• Topic slideshow navigation: Added left and right arrows to step through images.
• Added zoom icon to images in postings to view original size.
• Portrait oriented images are now added in full size.
• Usability improvements for posting images, video, and file attachments.
• Domain alias is now locked in your community. This ensures all users are directed to your custom domain even if they access the Forumbee URL.
• Retina image support applied to all areas. For content editors, ability to upload 2x images for use in the community.

Single Sign-On Enhancements

• Added new tagline parameter to set the user Tagline.
• New URL Validator is now available in the Developer Test Tool to test the validity of your SSO URLs.
• If a user uploads an avatar, it will not be overwritten by default when the user next logs in with SSO.
• New overwrite parameter provides ability to force an update to the name, avatar, or tagline through SSO.

Fixes

• Proper thumbnail previews are now created when adding private Vimeo videos.
• Fixed text-editing issues encountered on the Safari browser.

Changes

• Increased security in the Administration area. All Admin pages now run in SSL.
• In the Admin area, Forums are now referred to as Categories.
• The Admin > Users area has been streamlined. Changes include:
  • The Blocked users tab has been removed and replaced with a filter on the Users tab. Filter the list by Blocked to find all blocked users.
  • The Invitees tab has been removed and replaced with a filter on the Users tab. Filter the list by Pending to find all invited users who have not yet joined and users who have signed up but not verified their email address.
• For private communities, the ability to specify email domains with access has been moved to its new location in Settings > Email Domains.

You can access these features when you create and edit Articles from within the Moderate area.

Save Draft

You can now create and save Articles in draft mode. Draft Articles can be viewed and edited by Moderators and Admins, but are not visible to members. Drafts appear within the context of the actual forum for those who have sufficient rights, making it easy to preview exactly as they will appear once published.

For example, if you are preparing for a new product release, you can queue up a set of articles in advance and post to the forum in draft mode. Other team members can review the drafts. You can continue to edit and save changes to article drafts. When you are ready to publish, just click the Publish button.

Custom Article URL

You can now create descriptive article URLs which are human-friendly and SEO-optimized.

Publish Date

Article publish dates are now editable.

The administration area has a new design to make it easier to use. The community settings, user management, and moderation areas are now accessible through a unified, consistent interface that is fully responsive.
 

New management dashboard

Get a quick pulse of your community with the new management dashboard. View a map of the most recent visitors, recent postings, new members, and activity graphs.
 

Refined smartphone and tablet experience

Many layout and navigation improvements have been made for both members and moderators on smartphones and tablets.

• The redesigned admin interface is responsive and optimized for mobile devices. All community settings, theme design, and account management are fully accessible on smartphones and tablets.
• The community design has been improved for clarity and readability on small screens.
• Community-wide navigation is now at your fingertips from any page via the slide-out menu in the upper left.
   

Community analytics enhancements

The analytics area now has a fresh new look and new capabilities that deliver deeper insights.

• Page views over time: See the trend of traffic to your community and compare to previous periods.
• Feedback status: Track how you are responding to customer feedback with a visualization of ideas by status.
   

New forum notifications settings

For each forum, you can now provide notification options to your members.

• Forum follow:  members can subscribe to receive email when a new topic is posted
• RSS: members can subscribe to the RSS feed which includes topics and replies

These settings are off by default and can be enabled in forum settings.
 

Email notifications

Previously as a moderator you received separate notifications for your moderator report and items you were following individually. We’ve streamlined the notification system, bringing all of your notifications together in a single email at your chosen frequency. Less email is good!

Need to be notified more often? Set your notifications to be sent every 15 or 30 minutes with the new frequency options.
 

Theme improvements

All theme designs have been improved to increase readability and navigation.

Two new themes are now available with a flat design style, air and black.

A new themes area has been added to administration, bringing together all design-related settings into a single screen with a live preview.
 

More goodies

• Bigger image and video thumbnails in topic listings
• Upgraded web servers for more capacity and improved performance
   

We hope you will benefit from these improvements. Please share your feedback!

Single sign-on (SSO)

• SSO test tool: When domain aliasing is enabled, the SSO test tool now generates links that include the domain alias. When SSL is enabled, the SSO test tool now generates links with HTTPS.
• SSO user avatars: Previously, setting an avatar for an SSO user required the image be passed from the remote system through SSO. We added the ability for SSO users to upload their own avatars into their profile. This is helpful for cases in which the SSO remote system does not have avatar support.

Text editing improvements

• Added support for horizontal rules in topics.
• Improved styling for quoted text.
• Improved pretty-print styling for source code.
• In the Moderate area, HTML source option is now available for replies as well as topics.
• Auto-link conversion is now smarter about detecting URLs in text.
• Improved support for text editing IE8.
• Improved pasting from Word and web pages into replies.

Community navigator

If you own or participate in multiple communities, you now have easier access to your communities. Log in to forumbee.com and click your name to access a navigation menu that provides quick links to all of your communities.

• Support for RSS: Visitors can subscribe to forum RSS feeds that include new topics and replies in the forum.
• Follow forums: Members can subscribe via email to receive a daily digest of new topics added to a forum.
• Follow people: Members can follow people in the forum and receive a daily digest of their community activity.

Notification preferences

We've added more options for controlling the frequency of your email notifications. Go to your Profile ▸ Notifications. You can now choose from:

• Weekly
• Daily
• 4 hours
• Real-time (if enabled for your account)

Real-time notifications for moderators

With real-time notifications, moderators have the option to receive notifications instantly. This is especially useful for support agents looking to decrease response time to questions posted in the community.

All of these new features are available in the Premium plan and are enabled by request for your account. Please contact us at support@forumbee.com.

Additional enhancements:

Notification email updates

• The “From” name in all email notifications is now your community name.
• The “Reply-to” email address used for email notifications is now customizable in Admin ▸ Settings ▸ Content.

File attachments

• File attachments are now available for Premium accounts. Click the paperclip icon to attach files of any type to topics or replies.

Single sign-on

With single sign-on (SSO) you can provide your users seamless access to the community from your company intranet, enterprise system, application or web site. Users only need to log in once to your application and they can cross over to your community without having to log in again. 

We provide SSO through an HTTP-encoded token containing user credentials. From within your application, you construct a unique URL login link for the user. This URL link includes a base64-encoded JSON object containing the user fields and a message digest ensuring the validity of the data. User accounts are created or updated using the information that you provide, including name, email address, and avatar image URL.

Implementation of SSO requires technical development skills. If you would like to implement SSO for your community, please contact us to enable this for your account.

Private label

With the private label option, Forumbee branding can be removed from your community and the admin interface. If you are interested in a private label community contact us for more information.

Spell check

Most modern browsers now support spell-checking as you type. All fields have been enhanced to take advantage of this great feature. Now, when you add topics or replies you can rest assured that spelling errors are a thing of the past. 

Easier community access

Prior to this release, closing your browser would log you out of your community. We want to reduce friction wherever possible, so we changed this. Now you will stay logged in until you click log out.

New design options

• Community intro: Images, links, text formatting, and custom HTML can be added. Or the intro can be turned off completely.
  
• List of forums on the community home page: Additional options to show forum icons, intro text, recent topics, and display in 1 or 2 columns.
  
• Message box in the side column: Images, links, text formatting, and custom HTML can be added.
• Search box: The search box can be turned off and replaced with a search link in the user navigation bar.
• Heading: More options for logo and text display.

New recent activity section

Display the latest activity across all forums. Turn on recent activity in Settings ▸ Community ▸ Side column ▸ Recent activity.

Moderator notifications

Moderators are now notified when new replies are added to any topic in the community. This can be disabled in your profile notifications area.

Topics are easier to follow

When someone adds a reply to a topic, a new checkbox makes it easy to automatically follow updates to that topic.

Forum-level access controls

You can require users to register prior to viewing a forum. In addition, you can protect a forum with a secret access code.

Private communities

The Facebook login option is now available for private communities. Enable this option in Settings ▸ Community ▸ Advanced.

Fixes

• Facebook login is now supported for sites using domain aliasing. Please contact support to enable this for your community if you are using domain aliasing.
• Editing a topic no longer changes its active date. You can now edit a topic without changing its order in the forum.
• Forums with long names can be deleted.