A Quantum Update
Last weekend we added a few improvements to our mixxt system. If you look closely, you might have already noticed it:
- The public RSS-lifestream does not need http-authentication any longer.
- Invitation mails to new members can now be stored as templates.
- If the networks founder allows it, moderators and/or administrators may now moderate or delete other members’ blog posts.
- After accepting or declining the attendance of an event, the user is informed about his new status via pop-up notification.
In addition to these, we took our community’s feedback and tweets to heart, fixed some tiny bugs and made some wishes come true ;)
New options for design and moderation
Last night we added a another piece of harmony to our recent mixxt version.
Design & CSS
In addition to six new standard designs (with such nifty names as Blue Sky, Heaven, Shine or Winter), we optimised the custom CSS mode. CSS stands for “Cascading Style Sheets” and allows the administrator to customise the network design (such as fonts, colours or layout) individually. Yes, good catch, the custom CSS has already been implemented before this update, but is now much more comfortable to handle :) Another news: You can now upload images for using them in the CSS, e.g. as a background image.
Let’s get creative!
Moderation in networks
To make mixxt even better for collaborative work, we added some moderation settings. Administrators can now adjust the users’ rights to edit content more precisely. If the administrator defines it in the privacy settings, members holding a moderator status may now edit or delete other members’ events, forum posts or images. Shortly, this feature will also be available for blog posts.
This is particularly useful for networks which require an increased effort in moderation. The admin can assign some of his duties to the moderators and let them fully perform their respective tasks. If a member uploads an image which violates the owner’s copyright or writes a forum post which doesn’t comply with the community rules, the moderator can react independently and edit or delete this content.
And that’s not all: Keep your eyes and ears open, there will be another update in the course of this week! This update comes along with to be continued…
More harmony for our users
Last night we launched another update. Besides some bugfixes we added some nice features to our version called “harmony”.
Mulit Image Uploader
With our new multi image uploader, you can now upload several images to your photo albums at the same time. That’s comfortable if you for example took a bunch of great photos at an event and want to share them with your network without much effort.
Lifestream via RSS
All the network news and activities can now comfortably be subscribed via RSS. You may now easily integrate the stream into your daily Online-reading and remain up to date about what’s going on in your community. In addition, you might be glad to hear that we are working on the user activities lifestream as well and will launch this feature soon.
Invitation mails
Many users asked to improve the handling of the network invitation mails. We have taken this to heart: After sending these invitations to potential new members of your community an invitation screen will be prompted to show a summary of the recipients and the validity of the entered mixxt IDs.
New notification
We have also worked on the notification mails and made them a bit more fancy. The harmony of mixxt can now be directly transfered from your networks into your mailboxes :)
And again: Your feedback is welcome! Your desires and suggestions help us to make mixxt even better. Thank you!
mixxt brings harmony
This week, mixxt has brought harmony to all our users, partners and friends by releasing a new update! Based on a proposal of our Country Manager Turkey, Şekip Can Gökalp, version 0.14 of our Social Network kit now bears the name “harmony”.
What’s new?
In order to fulfil the desires of our users we implemented the option to stay “logged in” on our system for 14 days. We just wanted to make our users feel even more comfortable with handling mixxt and with managing their user profiles. Another news: Users of nickname networks may now change their own nicknames on their profile page. Of course, there is no such option in real name networks.
Lifestream
We continued to optimise our lifestream: Network admins may now add blog posts to appear in the stream. Via the menu builder, they can also put the lifestream on a separate tab in the menu bar.
Design
We also got creative on the themes and added six new ones to our repertoire! They let you arrange and design your networks in the basic way or even give them a personal touch by individually configuring their appearance.
Help and navigation
Everyone who knows the fairytale of Hansel and Gretel must have heard of the breadcrumbs story. These little crumbs provide orientation and indicate the correct path. In our forum module, we have now implemented the so called “breadcrumb navigation“. On the one hand, it lets you keep track of your location in the forum, on the other hand it leads you through the forum navigation by linking to the superordinate levels.
In addition, we improved various help texts and added more internal linking to facilitate navigation and operation in the Social Networks for both admins and network members.
And now: Experience a harmonious Social Networking with mixxt!
New: Blogs within mixxt-networks
In the course of our current update, we finally integrated the feature, which many of our users have been waiting for: the blog module! Using a blog on your network makes it easier for the network founders to communicate with their peer group, to keep them up to date about what’s going on around their respective topic and to receive feedback via comments. Administrators can activate this module in the network settings and configure it individually.
To enable your own blog just click on “create blog” in the blog module and get started. Think of a fancy name for your blog and describe it in a few words to let your readers know what it’s all about. After that you can determine whether only your friends or all members are allowed to see your entries. If you like to play with or test the blog features first, you can (temporarily) switch off the visibility. In addition you can specify if incoming comments must be approved by you before going online.
Read more »
New mixxt-Update: violet
Last night we updated mixxt to version 0.13.x. Apart from technical optimisations the new version called “violet” comes along with many new and exciting features.
Blog module
From now on you can use mixxt as a blogging-tool as well. Network founders may activate and configure this feature and open new communication channels for their community. In our blogpost “New: Blogs within mixxt-networks” you’ll find more infos on this.
News feed
The news feed which was already integrated for each user in our last update is now available for each network separately. At a glance, members can now see what’s up in their respective network, which important dates are to come and whether new members joined or what they are up to. By filtering the entries, users may also decide which activities they’d like to be displayed.
mixxt updated to version “witamy”
Last week mixxt came up with a new version called “witamy”, the Polish word for “welcome”. Our update to version 0.12.X includes many exciting features, innovations and surprises.
The new starting page
We have completely revised and redesigned the starting page to provide our users with useful information. At a glance you can now see what mixxt is all about, what mixxt offers and for which occasions mixxt can be used. We have made the effort to describe various applications, but of course the sky is the limit to your imagination! To make it instantly apparent what your new online community can get up to with mixxt, the important features are briefly presented as well. In addition, you can search for existing networks or get inspired by the references (tag cloud) and recommended networks.
First mixxt badges out now: network and member info
The first mixxt badges have just been implemented into our productive system. If you like to let your visitors know which networks you are a member of or promote your network on your website, give them a hint by using our widgets. You still cannot reach them directly over the networks, but if you know the code, you can be one of the first to use them. Of course, users can object their profile being used in widgets, as well as admins can deactivate badges. Your privacy really matters to us. So here we go: How do you get such a badge for your website or blog? Let me explain this on basis of a BarCamp Berlin 2-badge:
This is the badge “memberinfo”, which shows a part of the member profile:
Just use the following code to embed the badge into your website or blog:
The “networkinfo” badge presents some key data of a network:
You can embed this badge by using the following code:
Please note that this is still an alpha version of the badges. If you like to have another network shown in the badge, you can configure the embed code by using another network’s domain. There is a difference between nickname and real name networks: In nickname networks, parameters have to be set like this for the correct nickname: “?member=oliver” or, if you imagine “spongebob” being a member of the network “?member=spongebob”. In real name networks, the memberinfo badge refers to the user’s mixxt ID. And now: have fun with our badges.
No creation tokens needed anymore!
We have updated mixxt and there are a few minor changes as well as a major one. You do not need any kind of invite or creation token to start your own network anymore! So you can get going, straight away.
Go for it :)
We have added a new access control system to our framework. As a result you can very soon administer your members very easily in our new member admin panel. Want to add new administrators to you network? You will be able to do that in a jiffy.
Event module changes
You can create a new event by copying an old existing one. This makes recurring events a lot easier to handle. You don’t have to type it in more than once! This great idea came from Mr. Pl0gbar, who organises many web2.0 meet ups in Germany. Thanks Florian!
Events easy and fast
We are also improving usability and navigation in the networks. The member status box on the right hand side will have a wide set of links and features, starting off with a link to the admin panel. There is a lot more coming up.
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