New design options, forum access controls and more

Expanded design options, a new recent activity section, forum-level access controls, and other enhancements and fixes are now available.

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.