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NGC Journals migrated!

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  • Administrator

All journals that were originally created on NGC Collectors Society have been migrated into the Journals feature on the NGC Chat Boards. This means that all Collectors Society Journals are now available in one place, in the same area where new journals can be created ^^
 

Go to the NGC Journals now to read journals by other collectors or to start your own Journal!

 

Background / More Info:

Prior to this migration, some Collectors Society Journals were only available as threads in the obsolete journals forum. Any CS journal that wasn't cross-posted to the old Chat Boards has been unavailable for many months, which is one of the main things we aimed to solve with this migration.

We wanted to make it easy for users to navigate from the old/obsolete threads to the equivalent new journal, so we added a post in old threads which links to the corresponding new journal. Mapping old threads to the new journal requires manual review, so to save time we've only added that post to old threads if they received replies in the last 18 months or so.

 

Tips for navigating and using the new journals:

1. You can navigate to journals via the main menu, and you can preview the most recent journal activity in the sidebar on any page (see images below). Journal activity will also be listed on the All Activity page and in activity streams.

1.png    3.png

 

2. A key difference with the new Journals is that each member can have one journal, and an unlimited number of "journal entries" within that journal. For example, my journal titled "Scott's Thoughts :D" currently consists of two journal entries: A poll about journals and test journal

Journal.png

 

3. The "Latest Entries" and "By Author" options in the main menu bring you to roughly the same content, but presented differently. Both pages are a list of journal entries in the order they were created. The difference is that the latter is grouped by author. In the "By Author" view, you can quickly see other entries posted by that author and stats for their journal (entries, comments, views).

4. Journals are NOT sorted to the top when someone comments in them. In that way, both formats of the new journals encourage you to create new/separate journal entries rather than one entry with a never-ending chain of replies.

5. The "Recent Journal Entries & Replies" sidebar panel in the journals section is a great place to find journals with recent comments. That panel shows the journals that have been created/edited/commented most recently, sorted on recency of activity. You can click a title (ex: A poll about journals) to read that journal entry, or you can click a journal name (ex: Scott's Thoughts) to go to that journal.

2.png

 

There is no fee to participate on the NGC Message Boards, only a free NGC membership is required.

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  • Administrator

Important notes about this migration:

  1. Threads in the obsolete journals forum have been locked to replies. 
  2. Replies from old threads have NOT been migrated to the new journals area. Only the initial post was migrated, along with a link to the replies in the old area. This is obviously less than ideal, and we knew it would be a pain point. Unfortunately, we couldn't migrate the replies ourselves because they're stored in a database we can't access, and the chat boards vendor was unwilling and/or unable to help us :cry:. The initial journal/post was preserved in a separate database that we control, which is why we could migrate the OP.
  3. Threads that were created directly in the old journals area (as opposed to created on Collectors Society) have NOT been migrated to the new area due to the situation described in the previous comment. We never intended to allow threads to be created there directly, but for a period of time a bug in the settings allowed it.
  4. We also couldn't migrate your journal to the new area if you originally posted it on Collectors Society and cross posted it to the Chat Boards, but later deleted the journal from Collectors Society.

Situations 3/4 above are very rare, but may affect a few people.

If you want us to unlock your old journals thread: we'll move your thread to an unlocked section of the Chat Boards. Simply send a private message to @dena and @Scott =) including the URL of your thread, and we'll move it to the US, World, & Ancient Coins forum for you and make sure it's unlocked.

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  • Administrator

Here are a few cool features of the new journals:

  1. You can control who can see your journal / journal entries. You can make your journal visible to everyone, visible to specific user(s), or only visible to you.
  2. You can moderate comments in your journal / journal entries - by request only
    • If you want moderator access to your journal, send a private message to @denaand @Scott =) and we'll set you up.
  3. You can create journal entries in advance and schedule them to be published at a specific date/time in the future.
  4. You can choose to receive notifications when people comment on your journal or journal entries, and you can control when and how you're notified.
  5. You can choose to follow someone else's journal to receive notifications when they post new content.
  6. You can add a cover photo to Journals and Journal entries.
  7. Using the search features to find journals is more intuitive. It's also easier to find someone's journal activity via their profile page - just click "Journal Entries" or "Journal Comments" on the left of that page.

Whenever we upgrade to the latest version of the chat boards (this happens about once a month, typically), we may also discover that cool new features have been added. For example, I wouldn't be surprised if the boards vendor eventually adds a feature that lets you block specific members from viewing your journals, instead of only letting you specify who CAN see them. 

Please reply below if you have any questions or comments, or want to suggest a feature for the new journals!

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  • Administrator

If you'd like to create more than one "Journal" for some reason, send a private message to @dena and @Scott =) and say a little bit about why you want more than one. Limiting members to one journal (with unlimited entries) by default should help keep the journals section neatly organized, but I'm sure there are great reasons someone would need more than one. As long as your explanation makes sense, we'll accommodate you.

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