Product release notes: 13 September, 2023

Read the full changelog here →

We’ve been working on making Outverse more accessible to search engines – meaning discussions and documentation within your Outverse space will be more accessible via organic search.

This release changes the way we render content in Outverse. Ultimately, this now means that individual pages can be indexed by search engines. This begins with public forums, with knowledge base doc indexing coming shortly.

We’ve also given URLs an update so they’re easier for humans and search engines to read: Outverse content now uses clean URLs that include the forum name and the thread title. If you’re an Outverse admin, you don’t need to do anything: all URLs will automatically redirect to their new location. We’ve also improved the way we handle title tags for individual threads so they now reflect the contents of discussions.

Video embeds

Video files can now be natively embedded within Outverse forums. Forums will accept all major video file types up to 1GB in size. To add a video embed, simply select the video embed option from the / formatting menu when creating a thread or reply.

Improvements & fixes

• Improved performance within forums

• [Accessibility] Alt attribute is now mandatory for all images

• Fixed an alignment issue re image preview on small devices

• Fixed a bug to enable all labels to be removed from a space

• Fixed a bug where users could occasionally not click through within the search modal

• Fixed an issue with button disabling within the create channel modal

• Fixed a browser shortcut clash when copying a reply URL

• Fixed a visual issue with the date/time input field

• Fixed a bug where the Home forum activity feed was topping at 50 threads

• Fixed a bug where content library images where loading with incorrect aspect ration on certain browsers

Product release notes: 02 August, 2023

Read the full changelog here →

Forum labelling

Labels are now available within all community spaces and can be used to organize, filter and search within forums. You can create new labels in your community settings and can specify whether forums have labels active within your channel settings. Within forums (and the home index view) you can now filter be able to filter by labels. We'll be adding further functionality soon, including:

• Specifying specific labels to specific forums

• Adding the ability to gate the labelling permission within forums to particular roles/users
  

Per-user channel permissions

Channel permissions can now be set at the user level (in addition to the custom role level). This includes:

• Gating channel access & visibility to specific users

• Gating intra-forum permissions (e.g. thread creation, reply creation) to specific users

• Private channels will display users who have access in the top bar for easy visibility

Thread keyboard navigation

We’ve improved keyboard navigation on the thread view within Outverse forums. Additional keyboard shortcuts/actions:

• Up / Down: navigates through replies (if none focused, will focus first reply)

• Enter: open reply side panel

• C: copy link of reply

• E: edit reply (if author of reply)

• ⇧R: open reply modal to reply to thread (i.e. create a reply)

• R: open reply modal to reply to a reply (i.e. create a nested reply)

• ⇧T: toggle visibility of nested replies (if any)

Improvements & fixes

• Fixed a bug where search was not functional within the forum switcher dropdown when composing a thread

• Fixed a bug where items in doc contents where not truncating

• Improved label UI on mobile

• Fixed a big where admins where not showing in member directory search results

• Fixed a big where advanced blocks where occasionally accessible in the thread composer

Product release notes: 14 July, 2023

Read the full changelog here →

Keyboard navigation on forums

Outverse forums are now keyboard navigable, with increased keyboard shortcuts. When on a forum (including the Home view), you can now hit the down arrow on your keyboard to navigate through threads. Hit enter to navigate directly to the thread, C to copy the link, or E to edit (if you have the required permission to do so). Stay tuned for more on this soon.

Mor granular timestamps

We've added more granular timestamps across Outverse objects for improved line-of-sight and reporting. Hovering over any timestamp in Outverse will now display a detailed date/time.

Improvements & fixes

• Fixed a search-related bug in the # dropdown menu

• Added ⇧J shortcut for joining a community

• Improved handling of expired session tokens

Leveraging LLMs is a core part of the Outverse vision in building knowledge rich ecosystems for software communities. Our team has been hard at work over the past months working on a number of knowledge retrieval and team workflow features, powered by AI.

Our latest AI release means that all knowledge items within Outverse (including forum OPs, replies, and docs) now show other semantically related items in their right-hand side panel.

To view any object's semantic relations – simply open the right-hand side panel using the expand <> collapse icon or ⇧P.

Multiple objects from the same discussion will be grouped together to help with context management and orientation as you surf Outverse spaces.

More on the way...

Product release notes: 10 July, 2023

Read the full changelog here →

Cross-forum index view

We've evolved the space home view to be a cross-forum index. Team and community members can now view all forum activity and apply cross-forum filters and other display options directly from the Home view.

Improved syntax highlighting

We've updated embedded code blocks to supporr more types of rich syntax highlighting. Type ``` followed by the language utilise this markdown block.

const express = require("express");
const bodyParser = require("body-parser");
const app = express();
const port = 3000;

// Parse the request body
app.use(bodyParser.json());

Improvements & fixes

• Fixed a bug where doc titles were occasionally double-updating

• Added lightbox modal to images and GIFs within forums and docs

• Updated member gallery card UI

• Added shortcut to expand<>collapse the right-hand side panel (⇧P)

• Improved performance on the member gallery view

• Fixed a perpetual loading state issue on notifications tabs

Product release notes: 16 June, 2023

Read the full changelog here →

Custom domains

Custom subdomains are now live – community spaces can now exist at your own subdomain e.g. community.domain.com – with custom root domains arriving later this year. To set up a custom domain – send us an email at hello@outverse.com with your community name and requested custom subdomain.

Once you've requested a subdomain, you'll need to go to your domain host’s platform (e.g. Google Domains, Cloudflare) and set up a new CNAME record. When adding a CNAME record, transfer the exact Host/Name and Target/Value information copied from your community’s custom domain settings and paste it into the CNAME record editor to avoid errors.

You can read more about custom domains in our support doc here: .

Server-side-rendering (SSR)

We're rolling out SSR across the Outverse app in preparation for our optimized SEO indexing functionality that is arriving soon. The recent SSR changes have improved performance across key parts of the Outverse app and also introduced micro-features including custom favicons and page titles.

Improvements & fixes

• Fixed a bug where edited thread posts where not rendering updated markdown

• Fixed a bug where custom role permission toggles were non-operational

• Improved search behavior in multi-select dropdowns across the app

• Fixed a bug within knowledge base docs where occasionally doc editor markdown headings were not editable

• Improved icon button accessibility across the app

Product release notes: 30 May, 2023

Read the full changelog here →

Knowledge bases documentation

v1 of the native Outverse documentation suite is now live. Teams can now set up a knowledge base within their Outverse community – which is comprehensively searchable and reference-able from anywhere within Outverse. Enabling a knowledge base is done via your Community Settings > Knowledge Base – from which teams can specify enable and name their Knowledge Base.

Once enabled, teams are able to create folders and documents whilst also specifying document access, permissions and authors. Documents can be easily referenced/mentioned within community channels by hitting # followed by selecting the document they'd like to mention.

Here's an example of some Outverse documents in action: or .

Improved thread nesting

We've updated the way in which nested replies within threads display in community forums.

User favorites

All users (both community members and teams) can now pin their own favorites to their sidebar. This enables you to have quick access to items that you frequently use or are particularly interested in tracking the progress of. Currently, the following items can be added as a favorite:

• Forum channels

• Threads (both discussion and Q&A)

• Documents

To add an item to your favorites, use one of the More actions dropdown menus associated with the item and select the Favorite item option. Favorites can be removed by following this same process.

Internal team badges

Users with a community team role (such as Admins) will now display a community team icon next to their name – helping better identify them within forums and other community channels.

Improvements & fixes

• Fixed a bug where the community color was being incorrectly referenced

• Improved community creation experience

• New communities are now created with a default template to assist with onboarding

• Improved tooltip accessibility across the app

• Fixed a bug where images where occasionally not be rendered in thread OPs

Product release notes: 23 Jan, 2023

Read the full changelog here →

Switching forums during composition

You can now change the forum you are posting to when composing a thread via the forum switcher component within the reply composer. This can also be used by community admins to change the forum that a thread sits in for moderation purposes.

Customizable text colors & highlighting

Text within forums and documents can now be colored and/or highlighted using the text formatting menu. Custom text styling is automatically optimized for both light & dark modes.

Improvements & fixes

• Fixed a bug were auto-scrolling within thread pages was occasionally not operational

• Fixed minor content overflow issue in the member peek panel

• Fixed a visual bug where the 'Admin' role badge was not automatically showing in permissions lists (visual only)

• Fixed a visual backdrop-blur issue on Firefox browser

Product release notes: 05 Jan, 2023

Read the full changelog here →

Member profile peeks

Version one of member profile peeks are now available in Outverse. Click a community member’s name to bring up the profile peek – within which you can view their recent activity along with additional member information & links. You can also filter member activity based on the forum or thread you are viewing. We’ve got more functionality coming to profile peeks over the coming weeks so stay tuned.

Community CTA

Communities can now add a call to action to their community sidebar via their community settings. When adding a community CTA, you’ll have the option to set a tag, image and URL.

Author badges

Replies within threads from original thread author (OP) will now show an “Author” badge for easier identification and contest management within threads.

Improvements & fixes

• Added lock icon identifier next to private spaces in community sidebar

• Polished styling of ‘Reply’ buttons on thread interface

• Polished styling of thread badges

• Fixed a bug where lock, pin, hide thread options were not displaying in the thread dropdown on the thread page

• Fixed a bug where focus mode was occasionally not loading when composing a reply

• Polished styling of all dark-mode modals

• Improved loading state for all embed blocks within the text editor

• Improved accessibility on forum interface compact view

• Fixed a bug where member profile peek was incorrectly ordering recent activity list

Private forums & spaces

Private spaces let you create channels visible to select members in your community (based on their community role). The space and all of its content will only be visible to specified community roles (admins will always have access).

You can also specify permissions within a channel, including which roles can create threads and replies within each forum.

Admins and any roles with the manage-community permission in the community can create new private channels or make an existing channels private.

Configuration

To create a new private channel, open the Create channel modal and Select the ‘Private’ visibility option. You can then specify which roles will be able to see and access the channel.

To make an existing channel private or vice versa, go to Edit channel **and update visibility settings.

Hiding threads

Community admins can now hide threads within forums instead of deleting them. This gives admins another moderation tool within forums. To hide a thread as an admin, simply click the "..." on a thread and select the 'Hide thread' option.

Updated community switcher

We’ve removed the sidebar and replaced it with our new community switcher.

Improvements & fixes

• Improved space creation flow

• Fixed a bug where unnamed custom roles were being hidden

• Improved mobile layout for space creation UI

• Updated community cover image placement

• Updated icon designs across the app

• Updated top bar format & design within communities

• Updated design for space mentions/embeds

• Fixed a bug where community cover images could not be removed by admins