Site update: New dashboard, alert counter
A site update was release Friday night (6/6) that included bug fixes, minor design changes and the following new(ish) features.
New member dashboard
Clicking your name at the top of page now takes you to a new member dashboard.
This dashboard shows you the number of new PMs and a list of your posts that have received new Thumbs Up comments. There are two lists...the top list will link you to your posts that have received new comments. The second list will link you to posts that you left a comment on but that then others have left comments on, now called a "conversation" - in short, your dashboard now shows you when someone left you a Thumbs Up comment.
The new dashboard is pretty basic but this update is the first of many as the dashboard will slowly become a hub for all site activity related to you.
Alert bar counter
The number next to your name at the top of every page has been updated to show you the total number of new Thumbs Up comments and the number of unread PMs. This counter will continue to evolve and be a general notice to let you know new things have happened.
Feedback appreciated, please report problems
As usual, your feedback is encouraged and appreciated. And more importantly, if you have any problems or see something that doesn't look right, please PM me, make a post or send email.
Discussion
The alert counter is still having issues and not very reliable for counting thumbs up comments. It should be accurate for PMs though. A fix will be applied soon.
The recent 5.1.2 update includes changes that will hopefully fix the alert counter at the top of the site. It should now more accurately reflect the number of PMs and comments.
It is updated when you login and then every 5 minutes while you're still logged in. Depending on your logged in status when the update was made, your dashboard may show you a ton of comments - they are not all new. Just log out and then log back in to reset your counter. Some people may have gotten caught mid-updated and that's why it's showing up that.
The alert counter isn't instant, there is a delay of a few minutes.