SAS Support Communities: Updates are here!

[ChrisHemedinger]

[updated this post on 26-March]

Thank you for all of your visits and contributions to the SAS Support Communities.  As you might know we’ve been working on a project to give the community site a more modern style and some new features.

The first phase of this project “went live” late Tuesday/early Wednesday (17-18 March).  Here’s what you can expect:

• The main page of the community will look quite different – but all of the content will still be there!
• All content and URLs will stay the same – your browser bookmarks will still work.
• The main navigation menu will have a new look.  Here’s a preview:

• The Search function will have a new look and some new features, including the ability to find categories/boards, not just topics.  So if you can’t find what you’re looking for, try the Search field.
• The community site will have a responsive web design, which means that it will look nicer and work better on mobile devices.
• Writing posts, replies and articles will be more fun, as you can drag-and-drop images and attachments instead of uploading.  (But upload still works too.)
• You can now "at mention" content.  Want to include a link to a specific article or solution? Use the '@' key to trigger a search to add it.  Example: 

That said, we expect some bumps.  We’ve tested what we can, but as we apply this new design to a community with hundreds of thousands of members and topics, you will certainly notice some things that we missed.  We’ll identify and fix these as quickly as we can over the coming days.  You can help by letting us know about issues – just send a message to communities@sas.com.

Thank you,

Your SAS Community team

P.S.

If you want a preview of what things will be like, visit our friends at the JMP Community.  We’ve cribbed heavily from their proven work.

[ChrisHemedinger]

@PaigeMiller - I've fixed the issue with the checkmark overlapping the options menu.  Thanks for pointing it out.

[ShelleySessoms]

Hi @Patrick,

Sorry for the delayed response. You asked: What's menu Community/My Groups for? I'm getting an access denied when clicking on it.

My Groups refers to private or closed regional groups that have limited membership (typically based on email domain). You will only have access to that if you are a member of a private or closed group.

[PaigeMiller]

When I click on the lovely Paige Miller icon, and then click on "My Profile", I see the page shown in the screen capture. First is a list of recent drafts that I have made but not published. Which brings up my first question ... why is this so prominent (first place) in the "My Profile", couldn't it be somewhere else like down at the bottom? Next question, how can I bulk delete all of them, rather than one at a time? Obviously,drafts from even a week ago are of no use to me, and I suspect no use to anyone in the SAS communities.

Can the section "Topics I've Participated In" be moved up on the page? This is the information on this page that is the most useful for me, seeing which topics I have participated in recently that have further comments.

[BeverlyBrown]

Hi @PaigeMiller, all those drafts go away if we turn off the autodrafts feature. But it's on for now while Khoros, our platform provider, looks into a related problem that prevents some article authors from opening/editing their articles. Hoping for a resolution soon. Meanwhile, drafts are now in the side bar instead of the activity view.

[PaigeMiller]

@BeverlyBrown says:

Thanks for the constructive input, @novinosrin, @PaigeMiller and @KurtBremser. Newly registered users receive "how to ask a question" content in their welcome/conboarding email. While it also appears on the reply editor (under the Post button...see photo), maybe there's a way to make it more conspicuous. Do you see ways to make this article more clear? The absence of clear signage (on roads and websites) annoys me as much as it does you. Thanks for helping us improve!

In fact, the article linked here, "How to get fast helpful answers" would be a superior article to show beginners in their welcome e-mail, rather than a similar article "How to ask a good question and receive a fast reply" which was indicated by @ShelleySessoms . So which is it? Which article is sent to new users?

[ShelleySessoms]

Hi @PaigeMiller,

The onboarding campaign/email includes a link to  "How to ask a good question and receive a fast reply", which was written before Bev's article. I can change the link to reference https://communities.sas.com/t5/Getting-Started/How-to-get-fast-helpful-answers/ta-p/226133 instead. Though it may be a few weeks before that kicks in. 

[PaigeMiller]

I would prefer the intro e-mail link to "How to get fast, helpful answers" rather than "How to ask a good question and receive a fast reply", but maybe others have a different opinion.

[Kurt_Bremser]

Second what @PaigeMiller said.

[novinosrin]

Hello @ Managers and to whom it may concern, It appears there is an ongoing attempt to a get the code to display with colors. I'm assuming the process is still on the works and it's not final yet. If not, can you consider the code to display with colors akin to what we are used to in SAS EG/PC SAS which is rather pleasing to the eyes than having to see some red font display in places like functions/statements. Since Red signifies "error"/"stop" and  that can be helped?