KickApps Version 2.1 Release Notes

On the morning of Friday, May 18, we’re launching a new release of the KickApps platform designed to make your community easier to manage and to make your members’ experiences more fun. Here’s what we’ve done:

1. Most of your member-facing pages have been completely redesigned so they look better, are easier to customize, and are organized more intuitively. We reworked these pages down to their underlying HTML and CSS, stripping out their old, table-based structure.

If you’ve added custom CSS styles to your KickApps-powered pages, consult the CSS transition guide to understand the steps you’ll need to take before the update goes live on the 18th. If you’ve already made these changes using the Advanced version of the guide, please re-read it for notes concerning a recent bug fix.

2. You’ll also notice improved page usability and navigation.
   • In the “My Home” section (formerly known as “Edit My Profile”), we’ve switched to a horizontal navigation scheme, added icons to important links, and made the interfaces more consistent from page to page.
   • We’ve placed new “Add media” links in every media category, so members are always one click away from uploading a new video.
   • We’ve moved the old login mini-form out of the navigation bar and given it room to breathe and be seen in a popup div, similar to the “Flag as inappropriate” functionality.
   • If you’ve activated the KickApps-powered home page, a consistent navigation design appears on every other page in your community.

3. We’ve also updated your message boards so users can share text and videos with ease. At the risk of losing our Web 2.0 membership card, we’ve foregone AJAX and moved discussions into their own pages. We’ve also tightened up the overall page layouts so your members can access more information at a glance.

4. We’ve improved your site’s performance through a series of back-end changes including a new pagination model that returns results significantly quicker than before.

5. In response to your feedback, we’ve simplified your pages’ banner ads by removing the left Skyscraper ad slots on all pages and adding slots on the right side for IAB standard Skyscraper ads. We’ve also changed the default ad controls: new affiliates get the Right Skyscraper on every page, and we’ve added a new IAB Medium Rectangle to the Play page. As always, if you want control of the ads on your KickApps community, contact us at info@kickapps.com

In addition, we’ve also debugged and updated plenty of smaller issues. See anything else you like? Have questions, complaints, or requests for our upcoming releases? We’re looking forward to reading them on the KickWebmaster message board!

Thanks for choosing KickApps to run your community,

The KickApps Team