So, by now you’ve probably noticed a few new features that I’ve deployed site-wide.
The first one is probably one of the more cooler updates…
You’ll notice now a few things with this presence update.
1. Real Time View of Those Online and ACTIVE in The Pub!
We now will have a real-time view of who’s online in THE PUB when you arrive. This motivation behind this significant update is that you feel like you’re walking into a real, live pub, a place where folks are hanging out and enjoying themselves, learning and growing together.
We hope you enjoy it!
2. “Folks Around the Table” View
You’ll also notice that you can see who’s typing and who’s engaging in the conversation as you reply. This gives you the sense that there are other folks, around the table, who are engaging with the content and thoughtfully crafting a response.
3. Who’s Here (or Not)?
Finally, you can now get a visual clue as to who’s online by seeing a green halo around their avatar:
Anyone who has that is actively on the site. Anyone not has no green ring:
Our hope is that you can really begin to get a sense of how deeply personal this place is, for you and for us as the creators. This is exactly the type of place we want to be and it’s the next-best-thing to hanging out in a real pub, chatting about bitcoin, cryptocurrency, blockchain technology, and 
.
4. Reply via Email!
You can now REPLY via EMAIL if you so choose. Depending on your notification settings found in your personal preferences, you will receive email notifications as usual… but now, you can reply directly to the thread in your email inbox!
If you do that, you’ll notice that the response will poll the server and show up in due time. An icon will appear next to your response signifying that you did, in fact, respond via email:
Thanks to @asharp @mwlang @Entropy for helping me test this new addition and feature.
Oh, and if you do this, you’ll get a new Reply by Email Badge!
5. IRL Events and Meetups!
It’s always been our plan to help folks meet, in-person, and to get to know each other better. To that end, we’ve added a whole new way to do this in the #events:irl Category:
Here, you’ll be able to click a few links that’ll be of interest, the first is AGENDA which showcases all of the existing events that are coming up as well as MAP which will show you geographically where the upcoming events are happening:
Feel free to add local events that you plan on attending and start meeting up with other folks! We’re not entirely sure how this section will scale and grow, but, we’re willing to try!
For those interested, I’m using the MapZen API for data.
6. Big Technical Architecture Upgrades: UPGRADE ALL THE THINGS!
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, I’ve made two major updates to the server and architecture that should provide profound scaling affects for The Pub:
- A global Content Delivery Network for faster page-loads EVERYWHERE! If you see some “wonky-ness” please don’t hesitate to LMK in #meta:bugs and I’ll sort through it. The content is currently being deployed to nodes worldwide so this is to be expected.
- Additional
Containersto create a better software development lifecycle so that we do not ever experience downtime on new deploys (a staging and production setup).
This is more behind-the-scenes but is in fact one of the more important and more technically-difficult things that @peter and I have been working on for the past 3 weeks.
There are many more updates coming, but, we hope you enjoy!
Please Consider Supporting The Pub!
We have been working tirelessly to create the best place for you to chat and discuss, learn and grow regarding the topics of Bitcoin, Cryptocurrency, Blockchain, and more.
This is quickly becoming massive community and we couldn’t be more happy about the progress and growth and we would hate to see it all disappear.
Please consider supporting us via Patreon, the best way to keep The Pub alive:
- thank you all for your support. We’re building the infrastructure. We’re moving at light speed.
