If you were up (for whatever reason) around 1:30AM last night, you might've noticed that a new feature stealthily dropped and hit the home screen. That feature is the frequently requested Private Messaging system! But wait, there's more!
Piggybacking on the private messaging upgrade is a brand new notification system. Now when a user replies to one of your comments or one of your blog posts, you'll receive a private message from the system that indicates this and provides a link for you to follow. Furthermore, the site will now notify you when someone you are following posts a blog.
While not as noticeable, I've made a few other small tweaks around the site in an effort to tune things up. One of the more noticeable upgrades is the ability to hit the Enter key to log in. This has always annoyed me and the other staff members, so I have to imagine it annoyed some of you as well.
In any event, if you'd like to begin using the PM system, it's as easy as visiting a user's profile page and clicking the envelope link found there. You can also easily reply to PMs you receive by clicking the icon in the upper right hand corner on the UI where you view private messages.
As always, if you have any questions about the upgrades or would like to make suggestions, feel free to do so in the comments below OR go ahead and send me a private message!
I noticed it this morning, good work man!
Actually...
Is there anyway to delete the incoming stuff in bulk? I don't mind clicking the X's on the right, but if there were someway to trigger a mass-delete, that'd be awesome!
I can definitely add that feature. I figured that I'd unleash it upon the world rather than continue to iterate upon it in a vacuum. I will add this to the list of work items.
Thanks Nick!
I definitely appreciate the new system, but clicking to delete each one may become a bit tedious if the messages come in quickly!
Awesome. I always thought it strange that there was no PM system, and notifications will make keeping up with everything so much easier. And yeah, the first couple times I logged in I hit the Enter key and then sat there...waiting...
Haha, sorry about that. I've done it myself a few times, especially when I'm working in my development environment. Angelo Grant mentioned it to me again the other day and I thought to myself, man, I need to fix that. It was pretty easy to do and I probably should've just done it to begin with. Oh well.
yay! the notifications are VERY helpful. Thanks a lot, Nick!
Squeee! That's as close as I come to sounding girly.
Dude, thanks for adding the notification feature. Now I can keep up with my friends blogs more efficiently.
Excellent. Thanks Nick this is very helpful. Now what else can I bitch about? :)
So glad to have the PM system now, it will be way easier to keep up with blogs and comments now as well as be able to message people. Thank you!
Friggin' sweet job, Nick!
Requests:
What Yargz suggested about deleting in bulk
Maybe have separate buttons for notifications and messages
Ability to toggle notifications on/off once separate.
But as it is, this site is already vastly improving in a very short time span and it was already great! Notifications actually puts it a peg above 1up's system already, in my opinion. Great job, Nick!
Edit: Actually, how do I send a PM?
If you go to a user's profile, there's a little envelope there. Click that and it will bring you to a screen for you to type out a private message and send it. It's a little clunky ATM, but I'll be improving that in the future.
Ah, gotcha. Now to find this page that doesn't exist. lol
Ha, nice! I need to play Portal when I get a chance.
I was wondering why I had messages when I logged in today. That's a very nice addition and makes it so much easier to track everything. I'm not sure what's going on with the log-in, though; I tried hitting Enter, but nothing happened. I still need to tab over to the Log In button and hit Enter there. Then again, it could just be me. I run NoScript and Ghostery, so I might be blocking a few important bits.
It submits with javascript, so that's probably the issue. All of the fancy bits of the site mostly use javascript, so you might see some intermittent issues as a result of running NoScript. Not sure what Ghostery does, but I'm pretty sure NoScript is the issue.
There's also a possibility that your browser has the script cached and it'll work after a refresh of the front page. Hard to say.
I'll fiddle around with NoScript's options to see which script it requires. But, even if I cannot get it to work, it's not all that difficult to hit Tab and Enter to log in. It's still a great deal simpler (and far more convenient) than 1up's system where we needed to go to a seperate page each time we wanted to log in.
Just to let you know, I found the script that triggers that function: jquery. Now that I've activated it, I can hit Enter while in the password box to log in.
Excellent! I figured that was it. Actually, the site should be doing all sorts of neat stuff now that you have jQuery activated. Most of the dynamic widgets on the site are built using that technology, though there's a fair helping of plain old javascript too.
I just tried to check a message after forgetting I was logged out. That "I Am Error" message is a nice touch. God, I love this site.
Haha, that was one of the other improvements I made. A little easter egg, if you will.
There's another one like it, but you might just have to find a page that doesn't exist 
Thanks,mate! It's been increasingly helpful so far. Appreciate the hard work,Nick!
Cool! I must say that making navigation easier is always a nice thing. Thanks dude :)
Awesome. Just what the site needed. Btw, my list of favorite games in my bio page doesn't show up even though it's still saved there. Do I have too many listed maybe?
I'll look into it for you.
Okay. Thank you.
*sings* Have I tooooold you lately... that I love you?
I just have one small suggestion. I got a message that said "____ replied to your comment!"
I have no idea what comment- there's nothing listed. It'd be handy to have a link back to at least the original post if possible. x)
Even when you click on that message?
That baby must be inspiring you, Nick. Lots of love coming from your end. Love it. Can you feel it? I love this alert system. What a nice surprise when I logged in earlier. You're the man now, dog.