We’ve been working for some weeks on a new version of the Forums. It’s been close to 6 years since releasing the last major upgrade, and our platform provider, Discourse, has offered up some changes since then that we’re ready to release to you.
The upgrade does a lot behind the scenes, with many of the nuts and bolts that keep the Forums running getting updated and made more efficient, along with some major enhancements made to the visual and interactive features that you’re used to and probably use during every visit.
So let’s go over some of those changes and then benefits we see them providing your user experience.
The BIG ONE - Homepage sidebar
The sidebar gives community members more control over their experience. Each member can now add categories of their liking or go with the default set, plus you have the ability to add additional internal and external links in your own custom sections.
And the sidebar can be hidden.
Sidebar Personal Links
The sidebar can be updated with links to other pages within Babypips.com, like
- the Economic Calendar,
- or a the School of Pipsology lesson on Japanese candlesticks including a cheat sheet.
Add whatever you like to personalize your sidebar experience.
Sidebar Customizable Categories
We have a ton of categories, some of which you may not find as beneficial as others. With the upgrade, you can either let our system display the 5 most active categories (which change dynamically), or you can personalize the categories that you see. Easily switch between the two options with single click. We will show just the 5 most active categories by default.
View of many categories added to the sidebar
Private messages access right from the sidebar
Get to your messages quicker, right from the left side of the screen, instead of having to go to your profile.
Redesigned notification menu (avatar drop-down menu)
Meu navigation has moved to the right edge, with notifications getting the focus on the left side of menu. You now have access to different types of notifications, replies, likes, personal messages, bookmarks list, and your profile.
Updated Homepage Views
We’ve added the ability to change views (latest, new, top, etc.) specific to a single category or still apply that across all categories, and we added a view for your bookmarks right from the main navigation.
New members get get to learn with user tips
New user will benefit from feature tips at various points along their
Share your status with the community
The new User Status feature allows users to set a custom status emoji and message that is displayed across the app. Once set, the message will be shown next to your avatar on posts and on your user card so you can let everyone know you’re 
in deep focus mode, 
on vacation , or 
how you’re currently feeling.
Fewer ads
We removed a handful of ads from the right sidebar, which should help display additional content and benefit page load speed.
And there’s more in store for the coming months. This upgrade will give us the flexibility to add additional features and security updates much quicker than before.
We’ll be rolling out the changes tomorrow, starting at 2 PM ET/NYC. As we’re working with a large set of data, the upgrade will take anywhere from 1 hour to several hours, so we thank you for your patience.
As always, we look to the community to give us feedback, both good and bad. Tell us what you like about the new features, tell us what needs working on, and give us any suggestions that come to mind.
Pipstradamus
I think it’s great to see a lot of interesting new features, like the status and the sidebar options! 
Might take a bit of getting used to, but exciting still!