New Release: 6.3.0.0

PeepSo 6.3.0.0 is a major version update that brings fixes for PHP 8.3 deprecation notices, improvements for video display, and better compatibility with WPAdverts stream posts for expired ads. Most importantly, it introduces our first dynamic widget! It was a great learning experience for all of us, and hopefully in the future we can bring you more widgets like this.

PeepSo Widgets History

As you may (or may not) know, widgets for PeepSo and add-on plugins were built almost a decade ago – yes, we are that old and still going strong. Back then we didn’t really have much choice in the matter, so all of our widgets are mostly static. For example, Latest Community Photos widget will only display the latest images uploaded to your community. The same goes for Latest Community Videos widget, and Latest Members widget will only show the latest members registered on your website. It was fine at that time, but it is still a static content that mostly doesn’t change, especially if your community is open and public.

Introducing Our First Dynamic Widget

We’ve been planning to do something about Groups add-on widgets – or more precisely, the lack of them – for a very long time. That said, it was only logical for our first dynamic widget to be built for this add-on, so Groups plugin is absolutely required to be installed first.

Once you have Groups add-on installed and activated, a new Popular Group Posts widget will be available to you.
Place it in any position within your theme. We recommend a wide position, but sidebars will work just fine as well.

In your settings, you can change the name of the widget and the limit of posts that will show up in it. But it’s the frontend where all the magic happens.

The widget will now consider all groups that the user is permitted to see or interact with while browsing the site, and then create a list of the most popular posts from that pool of groups. If you have a lot of active members and a lot of group posts, this in turn will mean that every user will see different content in this widget, tailored for them. In other words, we are bringing your content discovery to a whole new level.

Meanwhile, everyone can influence the “popularity” of posts, so the more users engage with your Group content, the more popular that content becomes, bumping its position in the widget.

How Does Popularity Calculation Work?

This is the feature that has been implemented into PeepSo activity stream items for a very long time, but it was never properly used until now.

Database structure that handles activity stream posts has a ranking table for each individual activity stream item. The “popularity” rating of items is increased by adding reactions, comments and view counts, each having different value which totals to a number. We also implemented the “decay” mechanics which will prevent very old posts from years ago suddenly becoming popular. Widget will only consider posts made in the last 100 days.

What Else Is New?

We have fixed annoying notices and warnings that would display if you upgraded to PHP 8.3 and have error reporting enabled. Also, WPAdverts plugin will no longer display activity stream items for expired ads.

As always, for the full list of changes, take a look at our changelog.

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Brought to you by Siniša Krišan

I am experienced in various social networks and platforms. Among other things, I’m the guy you turn to for figuring out the feature’s details and resolving issues. I hail from Novi Sad, Serbia. My journey with Open Source had taken me across the globe to Bali, Indonesia, where I had spent several years working & evolving with the base PeepSo Team. I was involved with planning and development of very early versions of PeepSo and helped pushing the product forward. Although I tend to engage full workaholic mode, I am essentially a laid back person. I’m also a hardcore gamer and I enjoy playing video games with my girlfriend whenever I catch precious little spare time. I enjoy traveling and learning about new cultures and surroundings.