New Forum Upgrade Guide: What's New, and How to Navigate

[Tammy_G]

It's great to get the SBR Forum out of the Dark Ages and into the Modern Era! With the upgrade, you will find that most functions are relatively similar and easy to use, but there are some things that will feel and work differently than the "old" forum. So we've put together this guide to help walk you through the changes, and how to navigate the new features.

Click through this Table of Contents to go through each feature. Bookmark or subscribe to this thread for easy reference. Feel free to ask questions in this thread about the items that we highlight here, but please use these other threads designated for:


Bugs and Issues Thread

Overall Feedback Thread


What's New
In addition to the slicker look and feel there are a number of upgrades. Click the links to learn more about each item (or keep scrolling - all items are contained within this thread).

• New Forum Layout and Main Forum Features
• Notifications & New Message Center
• Improved Member Profiles
• Ability to Subscribe to Members
• Post Reactions/Likes
• Calendar

• Coming Soon! New member user titles!

Using the Forum
In addition to exploring the new features above, some of the regular functionality of the forum is a little different, due to the updated design. We wanted to make sure we have you covered on how to use them, so that there are no surprises. Click the links to go straight to the how-to/explanation post.

• Creating a New Topic or Post
• Quoting more than one post in a reply / About Quote Tags
• How to Add an Image to your Post
• How to Add a Poll to your Topic
• All About User Settings: How to change your profile settings to your liking and maximize your forum experience. This includes notifications and email settings, and account details.

Note: Some features that you see that carried over from the old version may not work (things like SBR TV, etc.). We will be working to remove some of these features, including some redundant ones in the coming weeks, as well as adding new features.

We hope you enjoy the new forum as much as we do! Please leave your feedback in the thread linked above. We learn how to do better when you speak up! Additionally, if you notice anything that seems off, not quite right, or just plain broken, please use the bugs thread to report that (also linked above).

[Tammy_G]

Main Forum Layout
Navigation Bar
There is little that has changed on the Nav Bar here at the top of the page:

What has Changed?

• The "Forum" tab no longer contains a dropdown with access to a few forums.
• Players Talk is now linked directly at the top

New Tabs

• Who's Online: Clicking this tab will show you all users currently using the site.
• Member List: Just like it sounds: A list of all registered users on the SBR Forum. Click on Member Name, Join Date, Posts, or Last Visit to toggle/filter the lists:

• Calendar: We will post forum events and promos here. Click here for more info about the calendar.

Forum Categories
You will find the forum categories are laid out in much the same order as before, with some minor position changes under the Sports Betting & Handicapping Forums. Here's what is noticeably different:

Sub-forums: These look slightly different, but function in the same way before the upgrade:



What's New?
On the right margin you will see inserts for the latest SBR Contests, Top-Rated Sportsbooks and other promos, as well as an easy reference point for Latest and Trending Topics. Find the hottest topics that SBR users are talking about at a glance!





Latest Activity & My Subscriptions Tabs
You may have noticed these other two tabs near the top of the forum main page. Click on these tabs to see all the Latest Activity, and view all the latest on the threads and users you are subscribed to! (Click here to learn how to subscribe to users.)

[Tammy_G]

Notifications & Message Center


Right at the top of the page, you will see your Notifications bell icon. Clicking the arrow drops a menu down where you can click to either to go to Notifications or Go to Message Center. They are basically the same page, just slightly different depending on what you choose. We'll go over both below:




Notifications Page
Here you will see all notifications in green on the right. Notifications include new posts to threads you're subscribed to, reactions to posts you have made, and other subscription items. (On the left you will see the Message Center, but we'll cover that next.)



Filter
You can filter your notifications according to the categories available in the filter feature:


You might notice that you can pull up dismissed notifications using the filter above. Something worth noting if you "Dismiss All" or "Dismiss Page" and want to bring up the notifications again.

Dismissing Notifications and Notification Settings

Above your notifications you will see these buttons. Let's go over what they do:

Settings: This is exclusive to your notifications and subscriptions settings, including on-site and email notifications, when and how you will receive notifications, etc.
Dismiss Page: Clicking this will clear ALL notifications on this page, including any new notifications in your Message Center in the left margin.

Dismiss All: Clicking here will dismiss all your green notifications, or, you can click the Dismiss button next to each individual notification (as pictured above).

You can view your dismissed notifications by using the Filter and selecting "Dismissed Only" under the New/Missed Column (see pic above).


Message Center Page
The Message Center page is nearly identical to the Notifications Page, except that you have a few preview panels for your Inbox, Requests, and Notifications at the top of the page:



Under each of those headings new messages, requests (to be discussed later), and notifications would be listed.

Message Center
In the left margin is the control panel for your Message Center. It is a lot like the "old" control panel from your private message inbox, but now with a fresh look and cool upgrades:



From here you find your standard private message options (inbox, sent folder, option to create new folders to organize your messages, etc.) and below that, some cool new features:

Requests: When another member subscribes to your profile, you will get an approval request here. Click Requests to see them and approve (or not! ).

Notifications: This is covered above. Just another way for you to get to your notifications page.

SUBSCRIPTIONS
Under this section you will see notifications for new posts in threads you are subscribe to (under the "Posts" section), and posts/activity by users/members you are subscribed to (click "Users" to see these notifications).

You can also access your Messages and Message Center by clicking the "Messages" dropdown at the top of the page:




You will also see a preview list of your most recent messages and chats, as well as the option to send a new message and a path to the Message Center. When you choose to "Send New Message" from this menu, a chat-like window will open up:


This opens a separate "chat style" window, but you will also be able to access this in your private messages inbox in the Message Center.

The rest is self-explanatory as it relates to sending new messages, etc. But please feel free to post here with any questions you might have.

[Tammy_G]

Member Profiles
Our member profiles are definitely new and improved over the old version of the forum! Let's go over them now.

Accessing your Profile
You can access your profile a couple of ways. The first being at the top right of the page.


My Profile: Click here to go straight to your user profile.
My Recent Posts: Click to access your latest posts.
User Settings: You will also be able to access this in your profile.
Log Out: Click here to sign-out from the forum.

You can also access your or any other user's profile by clicking their username in a thread.
________________________________________ _______________


User Profile Features
Let's take a look at the features that are available in your profile on the newly upgraded platform!



1. There are four tabs at the top of your profile, that are pretty straight-forward:

Activities: Click here to view all your latest activities (posts, reactions, etc.)
Subscribed: View all threads and user activities that you are subscribed to
About: "About You" - you can edit this in User Settings. This tab will show the information that you input in your profile, as well as other info like join date, activity, total posts, etc.
Media: View all media/pics your have posted on the forum here. You can also add media to your profile here.

2. You can access your recent Activities by clicking the prompts under each post listed under the Activities tab.

3. Click here to Edit Avatar

4. Subscriptions & Subscribers: You can edit your thread subscriptions and subscribers here. Click here to learn how to subscribe to members!

5. Edit Settings: Self-explanatory (We'll go over Settings below).

[Tammy_G]

User Settings
Let's go over User Settings. Your User Settings is where you go to change info in your profile, account info such as log-in password and email address, Privacy Settings, and Notifications Settings. We'll walk you through them here.

Accessing your User Settings
You can access them in one of two ways.

1. Top of page, click on your username, select "User Settings"




2. From your Profile, click on "Edit Settings"




From your User Settings page, you will see these tabs available to you (see below). You will find a brief overview of each tab, but we encourage you to go through and explore all your options. Make sure to click "Save Changes" any time you make amendments to any of these tabs.


Profile: Under the Profile tab, you will find fields to update information about yourself. These things are displayed under the "About" tab in your profile. Things like Date of Birth, Biography, Interests, Occupation, etc. All optional information for you to share (or not!); it is totally up to you what you put here. This is also where you will find the option to opt-in or opt-out of promotional SBR emails:


_________________________


Account Tab
This is where you can adjust things having to do with your account overall. Some settings you will find here:

• Password Changes
• Email Changes
• Private message authorizations
• Date & Time Options: Set your time zone, etc. here.
• Ignore List: Manage your Ignore List here (see below):

_______________


Privacy Tab
Under the Privacy Tab you will find settings on Subscribers and Profile visibility settings.

Subscribers: Choose whether to auto-accept subscriber requests or not. If you choose auto-accept, you will not have the option to decline their ability to subscribe to your profile.
Profile: Determine who can view specific aspects of your profile. See the image below to understand what you can adjust visibility for:



___________________________________


Notifications Tab
This tab is about all things notifications and subscriptions. Set whether or not to receive notifications for things like: when someone mentions you in a post, subscribes to you, reacts to your posts, quotes you, etc. Likewise, you can set whether or not you automatically subscribe to a thread when you post in it.

Here's a look at the options:


Make sure to uncheck any items that you DO NOT want any sort of notification for.

This is also where you will set your Email Notifications. Let's go over the available options:


Off, through my Message Center only: You will not receive any email notifications for the items selected on this page. All notifications will show on-site, under your notifications at the top of the page, or in the Message Center Notifications page.
On: You will receive an email for every new action that is selected under your Notifications tab in your User Settings, every time they happen.
On, daily: You will receive a daily email with all your new notifications.
On, weekly: You will receive a weekly email with a summary of all selected notifications.

You will also have the opportunity to decide whether you wish to receive email notification of new private messages, and whether or not you would like to receive emails from Administrators:


Please Note: Unticking the box to receive email from Administrators does not stop you from receiving private messages from Admins and Moderators.

[Tammy_G]

Creating a New Thread or Posting a Reply

This is very similar to the "old" forum, with some differences. You will find that a lot of the old options are there, along with new features or new ways of uploading images. Here we will go through the anatomy of the editor and creating a new topic or post, with links to more in-depth instructions on certain features (like uploading images, etc.).
The screenshot shows what you will see when you create a new topic, but most of this is the same when posting a reply in and existing thread (minus the #4 poll option, and thread title field).

1. Thread Title: Just like the old version, you will of course need to enter a thread title before posting.

2. Share Photos: Use this option to Upload photos from your device, or reshare photos that you have already posted on the forum. For more on uploading or sharing photos, click here.
3. Add a link: You can use this feature to embed URLs in your posts/threads. It really isn't needed, however, since most URLs will automatically do this simply by pasting the URL in your post. We would advise to not use this feature, as it will likely be removed in the future as a redundancy.

4. Insert a Poll (new topic only): With the new upgrade you have the option to add a poll to your new thread. Click here to see how to do it.


5. Upload Attachments: Similar to #2 above, you can use this icon to upload images and media. Click the link in #2 above for a breakdown of this option.

6. Toggle Advanced Editor: Click here to open the extended editor toolbar for more post-formatting options. Here is where you will be able to change your font, size, color, text alignment, hyperlink text, add tables, and more. To hide this toolbar, simply click the X in the upper right corner:



Keep in mind that some of these features that worked on the older version will not now, and will likely be removed in the near future.

7. Open Smilies Menu: Click the smiley face icon to open your Smilies. Here you will find your "old friends" waiting for you... Just click the X to close this panel.


8. Resize editor window/field: You can use these little dots to resize your editor composing window, to give you more "room to breathe" when creating new threads and post. Simply click on the dots and drag to your desired text field size:

You can use the buttons at the bottom (shown in main screenshot above) to cancel, preview, or post your content. If you Preview your post, a window will pop-up to show you what your post will look like. You can close this window, or post it directly from here as well:

[Tammy_G]

Adding Images to Posts

Adding images works a little differently on the new upgraded forum. I will walk you through them here.

There are a couple of ways you can do this. One option also allows you to reshare pics that you have previously shared on the forum, but saving them in a Photo Album.

Option #1: Upload or Select from Photo Album
You will find this option by clicking the camera icon as shown here:

Clicking this icon will open this panel under your editor box, where you will see your sharing options:



Upload: Choose media from your device files by clicking here. This works like anything else that you might use to upload photos or files.

Select from Photo Album: Use this option when you want to reshare pics/media that you already have shared elsewhere on the forum.
Each time you upload a pic to a forum post or message, the software stores this media in an album for you. You can access all your upload media in your profile on the Media tab. Click here for more info on your profile.

When you choose this option, your SBR Photo Album (Media) will pop up and allow you to select photos:

Select your images, by ticket the boxes next to them, then click Continue:


Once you click Continue, you will have the option to drag pics to the order you want them to post in your publication, deleted them, and you can upload more images if you want. You also have the option to caption your image here. When you are satisfied with your selections, click Continue again.



________________________

Upload Attachments Options
This option allows you another way to upload images from your device, or images that are hosted elsewhere, that have a URL.



Upload Attachments
When you click this option, you'll be taken to your file folder on your device to choose which file you would like to upload. Allowed Filetypes: jpg, jpeg, png, gif, webp

Upload from URL
This option allows you to insert an image link from a hosting site like Imgur, Giphy, Gyazo, Imgbb, etc.


Copy the image link and paste it in the field above, then click "OK". Make sure your URL includes the file extension of the image (.jpg, .jpeg, .png, .gif) at the end of the URL, or the image will not load. Most sites include this in their URL, but it's good to double check.


Other info:
For now, there is also a way to insert an image from the editor advance toolbar, but it is outdated, and we don't recommend using this method. Instead, use the options above.

[Tammy_G]

Adding a Poll to a Topic
Follow these instructions for adding a poll to a new topic.


Click "+New Topic" to start your thread. Click the "Poll" icon:




Your screen will now have these options. We'll break down each bit below the image:



1. Enter Poll Question: Your thread title now becomes your Poll Question.

2. Elaborate on your poll: Write any background or other thoughts about your poll here.

3. Input your poll answer choices/answers here.
3a. Click Remove for any options that you don't need.
3b. Click "Add another answer" if you need more fields.

4. Poll Options: Select any additional options here.
Set poll timeout: This allows you close a poll at a date and time of your choosing.
All multiple choice: Ticking this option allows voters to make more than one choice.
Make votes public: This allows users to see who voted for what.

[Tammy_G]

Subscribe to a User

You know have the option to subscribe to your favorite SBR forum users! This allows you to catch all their posts and activity in your Message Center, under Subscriptions, as well as the My Subscriptions tab on the forum.

To Subscribe to a User:

1. Go to the user's profile.
2. Click "Subscribe"

You may have to wait for the user to approve your subscription request, depending on their user settings.

[Tammy_G]

New Post Likes & Reactions!

Now you can actually like and react to posts on the forum, without sparking a new thread to be created in the "Nominations" forum.

At the bottom of each post you will see this icon:


Click it to open up these reaction options:


Keep in mind we may adjust which reactions are available, so your options may not match what is pictured above.

[Tammy_G]

Events Calendar

At the top of the Forum main page you will see a link to our new Calendar!




We will be using this to schedule events and promos. It will be something you can use to view the latest happenings on the forum at a glance. More to come on this as we get situated with our new features.

[SBR Andy]

Huge thanks to Tammy for putting this together! A comprehensive guide for navigating the new forum.

[Chiefs83]

Is there a Last Post button to click when you open a thread so I don’t have to keep scrolling to the very end of the thread?

[SBR Andy]

Is there a Last Post button to click when you open a thread so I don’t have to keep scrolling to the very end of the thread?

When on the forum listing page, if you click the double arrow icon, it will take you to the last post of the thread:




If you are already in the thread, you can toggle from 'Posts' to 'Latest Activity' to show the most recent posts.





Hope that helps! Let me know if you need a hand with anything else.

[darrell74]

View new posts, where is it?

[darrell74]

How do you post YouTube videos?

[Optional]

How do you post YouTube videos?

Click this icon in the post box;



And then paste the video URL into the box that pops up

[Optional]

View new posts, where is it?

On the front page of the forum click the Latest Activity link to see a list of all new posts.





Or if you are just wanting the new posts from Players Talk for example, go to main page of that sub-forum and click the same looking Latest Activity link from there.

[Ian]

Thanks for the detailed manual, Tammy. The new site looks great.

[Zeus1988]

Thanks for walking through.
New looks of the site looks clean and has intuitive layout

[ChuckyTheGoat]

OK. WTF happened to this Forum?

[Optional]

OK. WTF happened to this Forum?

We "upgraded" Chucky!

The old version was heavily modified over the years, when trying to bring that old data into the new software produced some unexpected results when we went live. It's proving more painful than expected to get it tweaked but devs are busy on it and I think it will feel better and more useable pretty fast from here.

if you can't work out how to do anything you used to do, shout and maybe I can point out how or when you will be able to again.

[unde0087]

So what is the deal. When I am looking at threads I have noticed that the member who posted last isn't even the member who it shows as the last post. It is just someone that posted in the thread at a certain time. What is the deal with that?

[Optional]

So what is the deal. When I am looking at threads I have noticed that the member who posted last isn't even the member who it shows as the last post. It is just someone that posted in the thread at a certain time. What is the deal with that?

The caching is refreshing slow. That should be sorted very soon too. It's just a display delay but it makes it tough to navigate via the main Players Talk page. If you hit "Latest Activity at the top of Players Talk forum you will get an easier to use list of new posts for now.

[pavyracer]

It took me a couple years to learn how to post with SBR old format about 18 years ago so I'd suspect it will take the same time to get used to the new format. So far I have only one question. What is the meaning of the "Stars" over the Join Date? Looks like some people have more stars than others.

[Mr KLC]

Progress sucks for old people like me, but I'll give it a go.

[davidsosei]

spam

[Getch13]

It took me a couple years to learn how to post with SBR old format about 18 years ago so I'd suspect it will take the same time to get used to the new format. So far I have only one question. What is the meaning of the "Stars" over the Join Date? Looks like some people have more stars than others.

Was wondering the same thing about the stars??

[Debi]

It took me a couple years to learn how to post with SBR old format about 18 years ago so I'd suspect it will take the same time to get used to the new format. So far I have only one question. What is the meaning of the "Stars" over the Join Date? Looks like some people have more stars than others.

It is related to the reputation feature which we are not using. They will be removed soon.

[DwightShrute]

is it possible post an embeded video or post from X?

[Goat Milk]

New features look good. I like the old actual thread style though, because it felt like more banter. This feels more like a messaging board, which I know it is, but the other one had more white space, was wider, and felt like more rapid fire messaging, was more inviting to participate. This feels more serious.

[NoDraMa4YoMaMa]

Is there a way to change the layout back to the grid format the old forum had?

[SBR Andy]

is it possible post an embeded video or post from X?

We have that flagged as a feature to be restored. Will keep you posted once that is available.

[SBR Andy]

Is there a way to change the layout back to the grid format the old forum had?

Sorry, there is no way to change the format. I know it will take some time to get used to. Let us know if you need a hand finding anything.

[DwightShrute]

We have that flagged as a feature to be restored. Will keep you posted once that is available.

thanks Andy. also the feature to post YouTube links is gone it seems. Can you confirm this or am I losing it?