Release notes: Dialogue v1.7.2

In this latest release, we've made Dialogue run much faster for you and your users through a complete back-end restructure and a number of general performance improvements.

Not only that, but we've also made the following additional enhancements:

For your users:

Easier access to discussions

It's now faster and easier for your users to get to a discussion if you only have one discussion open in Dialogue.

The discussion will automatically become Dialogue's homepage – unless you choose otherwise in the settings by un-ticking the box shown in the image below.

You can also now use this function to direct users to a particular discussion, perhaps if you want to focus on it at a critical point.

Finally, we’ve made it far easier for new users to get stuck into the conversation. When they register they will be sent back to the page they last visited, rather than the homepage. This means they can immediately start adding ideas and commenting without having to find their way back to the discussion.

Easier access to private discussions

The improvements to discussion commenting also mean it's easier for users to participate in private discussions.

After a user registers they will immediately be sent to the main page for the private discussion they had accessed, meaning they don't need to find the link a second time.

For administrators:

Customise your demographics questions

You can now add and edit your own demographics questions on the registration page, this removes the need for us to do this for you.

To add or edit demographics questions, simply go to the Control Panel and select Discussions Management. here you can create any questions you need, as shown in the image below.

Improved protection against spam

We’re continually improving our defences against spambots, which can issue thousands of pieces of spam an hour.

In this release we've added the ability to use a CAPTCHA form as part of the registration process.

What is CAPTCHA? It stands for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.In other words – it is a technique for protecting you against programs that pretend to be human in order to enter spam into your dialogues and waste your time.

We’ve left CAPTCHA turned off by default, as a side effect is the extra barrier it raises can reduce engagement by real people. However we can turn it on for you, just email us at support@delib.net

Improved moderation workflow

Moderators now have a link directly to their moderation queue, making it faster to moderate ideas and comments and saving you time and effort in the process.

Clearer search results

Your search results will now show which discussion each idea belongs to, making it much easier to understand and use.

Integrate Dialogue with your websites

The much-improved API allows third-party applications to perform all the main end-user interactions with Dialogue (logging in, creating ideas, commenting, tagging, rating, searching etc). Please note that moderation and administration of the dialogue are currently not supported through the API.

General improvements

We've fixed plenty of bugs, which would have affected those using certain browsers and screen readers - these wouldn't have stopped you consulting, but may have made it harder to do so.