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New Features of the 1715 Fleet Website and a Note about Your Tech
Hi everyone, Craig here – web admin for the Fleet Society.
I wanted to post a quick note for members about the new features of the site because we recently rolled out the biggest update since the site first went live in 2015.
To start, let’s recap the new features. I’ll post links so you can click and they’ll open in a new tab while this tab stays open.
New Page Designs
- Home Page – the home page has been redesigned. Colors and theme are consistent, but a slight change in layout and ease of use. We took a look at the posts and pages the members visit the most and made them accessible and more prominent on the home page.
- News Page – The news page has a slightly new look, with less clutter per post, and a drop down so you can quickly filter the posts by category. Using the category drop down filters the list of posts in place for less clicking through pagination.
- Membership – We added regions to the member table which is sortable and searchable. Also, we did more work to the internal membership tracker which allows private access to the site for members and access to our forum system which is detailed below.
New Features
The new features of the site stem from building out a member system and private forum for increasing engagement by and among Society members. We moved away from the comment system on posts and into a forum system which acts like a private social network. This is a more secure system and makes our site infrastructure more resilient and sustainable. Here are a few of the new features:
- Profiles – Each member now has a profile page that details some information about them. You can add your region, images, avatars, and more. You can create folder for your personal pictures and documents. If you click your profile icon on the top right you’ll be taken directly to your profile where you can add or edit information about yourself that other people can see. Member profiles are private and cannot be seen by the public. To view your own profile or the profile of other members you must be logged in to the site.
- Forums – This is the most significant update of the new site – a private forum for members. Technically, the forum is publicly viewable – which means anyone can see the posts, but only members can comment and reply and engage in the conversation. This helps spread news about the Fleet across the world, but keeps engagement within members only. This will increase demand for membership and help bring funds into the nonprofit. The forums are structured with 9 main areas. These are the main categories for discussion and follow the more popular categories of posts on the site.
- Discussion – Within each forum are discussions. Think of discussions as conversations on a specific topic. Members who want to discuss the most recent treasure of the month can post in the forum dedicated for discussions on treasures of the month. Want to debate the provenance of a specific coin, that’s a discussion. Want to discuss in more detail a specific element of that coin – that’s a discussion. Want to have a conversation about a recent discovery – that’s a discussion in the New Discoveries forum. We created a forum just for Conference discussions. This will allow us to community more frequently with members about the conferences without having to send emails which can get caught in spam filters or accidentally deleted. Finally, you’ll see a forum for Non-Fleet News which is where you can post questions, comments, or other discussions about things that are not directly related to Fleet topics like coins, artifacts, or treasure in general.
- Messages – Now that we have a private area just for members, that means members can communicate with each other through private messaging on the site. Find another member you know from the Member List and connect with them. Once you’re “connected’ you can send private messages directly through the site. Messages you receive will show in an inbox icon in the header along with a number denoting how many new messages you have. Clicking on that icon will take you to your message inbox where you can view all your messages and respond to other members.
- Activity Feed – Any activity on the site is recorded on the Activity Feed. If someone posts a new discussion or a reply or comment to a discussion it gets shown on the activity feed. Think of it as a running wall of posts and comments on the site. The Activity Feed is private – it’s not shown to the public. To view the activity feed you must be logged in. As you connect with more members, the Activity Feed will show you updates from those with which you are closely connected. You can comment and reply to discussions directly from the Activity Feed. You’ll also see links to other areas of the site like members, recent topics and discussions, a forum listing, and recent blog posts in the official Fleet Newsletter.
- Notifications – Any time there is activity on the site where you are mentioned or tagged it will show in your notifications. There is a new bell icon in the header which will show a number corresponding to the number of new notifications that you have. Click on that bell and a dropdown window appears showing you all your notifications and providing a link where you can go to that specific post or discussion.
- Menus/Header – The header system is all new. It shows the familiar menu items for site navigation and includes links to your inbox to view messages, notifications, a cart for transactions, and your profile. I’ll cover editing your profile in another discussion. When you click on your profile in the top right of the header menu bar, you’ll see a drop down window of all the features accessible to you in the new private member system,
- Footer – We edited the footer to include our new social channels. Please take a moment to visit us on Facebook, Instagram, and X. Remember to follow us there as well. As we grow our social networks, we’ll be able to reach even more people around the world who might be interested in Fleet-related stories.
Technology
I wanted to take a moment and discuss technology. Over the years, I’ve fielded hundreds of questions about accessibility and functionality of the site and the most common culprit when something doesn’t work as intended is the type of technology employed by the user. Computers are complicated, and the software used by computers is even more complicated. Software like windows or MacOS and technology like internet browsers MUST be kept up to date. Not updating your technology is a security risk and one of the biggest reasons people’s computers get hacked.
This is most prominent with users on the Microsoft System. For instance, here are a few important notes related to Microsoft software:
- As of the writing of this discussion, Windows 11 is the current version of Microsoft software. If you’re running a PC, this is the most recent version of the software. it is the most up to date, the most secure, and the most efficient version of the Microsoft ecosystem.
- Windows 7 is no longer supported as of January 14, 2020. If you are still using Windows 7, you will not be receiving updates. That means the software on your computer, including your browser is out of date and a security risk.
- Windows 8 went out of production on January 10, 2023. It is no longer updated and is a security risk.
- Windows 10 will go out of production on October 14, 2025. It is still being updated, but not as frequently as the new Windows 11.
If you’re using Windows with a number less than 10, your system is severely out of date. That means you might see things on the Fleet Society website in a way that was not intended. The browsers on those old Windows versions are not up to date. That means they dont work the way modern browsers work and they may display things in ways that are not intended. They may also not include modern functionality that we take advantage of on our site.
If you are experiencing issues with the new website, it may be because your technology is older and not supported anymore. Because of the sheer number of operating systems around and still in use, we can’t design for them all. We design for the latest, most stable systems using good design practices with as much backward compatibility as possible, but users on the old systems may not get all the features as intended.
For those using Macs, the most recent software is Sequoia, or macOS 15. MacOS 13 (Ventura) is the last operating system that is still receiving updates. Anything before that and you’re no longer receiving updates. That doesn’t mean your Mac won’t work – it just means your software is not getting updated. In my experience, older versions of Mac perform much more consistently and display fewer problems when browsing the internet on Safari or other browsers, but you still run a security risk by using older versions of software.
To view the end of life for all computer softwares and. mobile devices, there’s a cool site called EndofLife.date which shows the type of computer software and the date it went out of service. Here’s a list of the more popular devices and operating systems with links to the status of their software:
Now, to be clear, I’m not suggesting that everyone go out and buy a new computer or operating system. What I’m suggesting is that you make sure your current operating system is up to date. Turn on auto-updates. Every system has that feature. That’s the easiest way to make sure things are up to date. If you do have a system that is at end of life, you might consider upgrading. I recognize that not everyone can go out and buy a new computer every three years, but you must recognize that using old systems represent a security risk for you. This is the reason I don’t open emails from my mom anymore. Bless her heart, she still sends me forwarded emails about princes that will give me $1 million dollars for helping them come to America, and asks that I forward her email to 10 friends or I’ll receive bad luck for 7 years. Unfortunately, she does not understand these emails are scams, and many of them have bad code within the images that you open causing breeches in your system. Modern operating systems catch these threats and quickly block them. Old systems don’t, which is why they get infected and your information is stolen and shared across the web.
Okay, enough doom and gloom about technology.
Give the new site a whirl. Try out some new features. Make a most in the discussions area of any one of our 9 new forums, and start connecting with other members.
If you have any questions or run into any issues, post a question as a reply here by clicking the yellow reply button at the top of this page, or a new discussion in the General Forum or contact us here.
Thanks for being a part of the Fleet Society and we’ll see you online!
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