TESTOSTERONE NATION | New Feature: My T-Nation

New Feature: My T-Nation

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LowfatMatt
Moderator, Admin, Designer

Join date: Dec 2000
Location: Error City, USA
Posts: 3512

New feature: My T-Nation
"How do I..." and other basic stuff

We added a new suite of features to the site today that we have dubbed "My T-Nation." It replaces your old public profile that users see when they click on your username next to posts you submit. But it much more than just your basic old profile.

To access your My T-Nation page, click on the "My T-Nation" link either at the top of the page (below the PM notification link) or within the Your Account menu group in the left navigation hub. When you get there you will notice something that vaguely resembles the old public profile page. But there are a lot more goodies.

For starters, on the main About page, you'll see an EDIT link. Click it and this will give you a place to enter some info about yourself. Don't be shy. Give us some insight.

You'll also see a navigation set running along the top of this section. Click Blog. This is a place for your rants. Whatever you want to talk about (within our very loose boundaries of taste, etc). Your very own little soap box, if you will. Workout logs, stuff that pisses you off, toot your own horn, etc. Click on the Post New Blog link to get started.

Additionally, people you add to your Friends list can comment on your Blogs. As new comments are added to your Blogs, the Comments indicator below each Blog will reflect how many there are. Click on that link to check out what others think about your Blog. (We'll talk about Friends in a little bit.)

On to the next section. Click on the Comments link at the top. In this area, your Friends can come and leave comments about you. Pretty straight forward.

The Photos section is next. In this area you can post as many photos as you'd like. (For the time being at least. We may have to limit this at some point. But for now, knock yourself out.)

Click on the Upload Photo link to open the upload form. You can add a caption for each, but it is not required. When you have a few uploaded, you will see thumbnails for each. Clicking on a thumbnail will open a larger version. Clicking it again will go back to the thumbnails.

(NOTE: If you upload pornographic images, your account will be deactivated. Sexy stuff is okay, but not blatant porn.)

The last section is Favorites. This is a place to share some of the stuff you like on T-Nation. Specifically, Products, Articles, Forum Topics, and Authors.

Throughout the site, you will now notice a small icon that reads FAV+. You'll find this at the top of articles, forum topics, on the Store page (next to each product), and when you view an author's list of articles. When you click on this link, it will add that item to your Favorites list under the appropriate group.

To remove any of these once they are added, click the Edit Favorites link at the bottom. Click Save Favorites when you are done making your changes.

Now let's talk about the left-hand side stuff. Pretty basic info about yourself including username, location, join date, avatar, ways to contact you, and a link for others to add you as a friend. Remember this point for later; this is how you will add others to your friend list later.

Below all of that is your Top Eight Friends section and a link to view all your Friends. While you are viewing all of the Friends you have added, select Sort Friends. When this is activated, your can physically grab your Friends in the main section and arrange them in the order you prefer. Obviously, the first eight will show on the left side once saved and reloaded.

There is also a Remove link below all of your Friends while in Sort mode. Click on that to delete any of the Friends you no longer wish to have in your list.

To access others' My T-Nation profiles, simply click on the username that appears next to any of their posts. You can also utilize the Member Search to get there, which is accessible via the site search link at the top of the page or from within the Your Account menu group in the navigation hub on the left side of the site.

So what does it mean to be a Friend anyway? Glad you asked. When you add someone to your Friends list, they can post comments on your Blog and Comments sections. So if a user is not on your Friends list, they cannot post on your profile. And vice versa.

When you add a person to your Friends list, the person you added will receive a PM notifying them that they have been added to your list. This PM will also contain a link for them to add you immediately and another to view your profile prior to adding you. Sense make? Clear as mud? Good.

This may go without saying, but what this means is just because you add a person to your list, that does not necessarily mean they added you to theirs. The same goes with removing Friends from your list. This allows you to keep as large or as small a Friends list as you like.

We should probably also mention that we built this suite using some fairly cutting-edge technology. (For you geeks out there, lots of Web 2.0 stuff including lots of CSS, AJAX, and intensive Javascript.) We have tested it on many browsers and it should be fine for the vast majority of our users. (We used our stats to determine that we could use the term "vast majority" with impunity.)

By-in-large, if you can't use these new features, you most likely can't use a lot of the other features on our site already. We have been employing a good number of these technologies in different magnitudes for some time.

If you fit into the small group of people that cannot use My T-Nation or our navigation hub, we suggest updating to the latest version of Firefox, Camino, Safari, Internet Explorer, etc, etc, etc.

That about covers it. Go have some fun. If you have any questions we didn't cover here, let us know!