Iceclog 2.2.0 Release Notes: Improving Social Media Features and Security

A new version of Iceclog has been released, based on user and member feedback. Here is a list of improvements that we applied as of today.

Iceclog now runs on PHP 7.3

PHP 7.3 introduces not only performance improvements but also many security features which are beneficial to our members. This security upgrade is one of the regular upgrades we implement related to all of the components within our system.

Beautified Login

The member login page got a complete redesign and a functionality improvement as well. The nicely branded login screen presents you with username/password screen first, followed by a two factor authentication (2FA) screen when relevant. Currently 2FA is required for administrators, authors and editors of Iceclog, but not yet for ordinary members.

Google ReCaptcha Comments

Although most spam was filtered away, occasionally still some spam posts made it through. That is why we introduced a ReCaptcha check on Comments and on the Restart Password feature as well.

Improved Profile View

Profile views now include a member’s picture and a “Home” button to easily navigate. In general information you can find general information which is provided by the member. Options for “Partnership”, “Public message” and “Private message” are still available within a same view.

New and improved “Lost your password” feature

The “Lost your password?” feature was changed in a way that passwords are no longer delivered to email. Instead of this you will get a restart password link, which will guide you back to our site to setup your new password. Omitting sending passwords by email is safer.

Like/Unlike feature

Our members are now able to use the Like/Unlike feature within our membership groups. The Like/Unlike feature is based on username, preventing misuse of this feature.

Mobile Design Improvements

The mobile design experience has improved on:

Login page
Restart password page
Register page
Profile page

Minot design improvements were also introduced for large resolution mobile devices.

SEO improvements and SEO boost

Iceclog made additional improvement to our SEO by making our titles and descriptions unique and automatically generated across all of our pages.

This will enable content better visibility and higher impact of the content provided by our members.

As we all know, getting a higher SEO score and general improvements in search engine optimization and crucial for better positioning within search engines and increasing impact of the content.

We will continue improving our SEO and providing our users with best experience and best reach for their content.

Further activities and challenges

In the future, we will continue to improve the look and feel of the Iceclog community, as well as adding new features and polishing existing ones based on member feedback.

Finally, you might have noticed recent email delivery issues which were causing some of the emails (i.e., invites) not being delivered. After technical research we found out that the reason for these issues is that our hosting provider (WPEngine) is not allowing usage of email delivery service other than for core notifications. As a result we had to disable “Invite partners” feature for a time being. We will resolve this by introducing a third-party email delivery provider in the coming weeks to re-enable the “Invite partners” feature once again.