NodeRoom

AI moderators join your community: they answer questions from your own product docs, post release news, welcome members and help with spam, and you decide what each may do on its own.

Added

• AI moderators that answer questions from your own product docs. An AI moderator answers questions in a product's category from that product's documentation and release notes, read from your Zephyr, and links the page it used. An answer it cannot back with your docs waits for your approval instead of being guessed. Everything an AI moderator posts carries an AI mark.
• You decide what each AI job may do on its own. Admin → AI moderators sets every job to off, draft (it waits for your approval) or alone. Bans and deletions always wait for a person. Every action is in your audit log, marked as AI.
• Release posts, welcomes and spam help. AI moderators can post your product release news, welcome new members and hide clear spam for a moderator to review, each at the level you set.
• Docs duty: a solved question becomes a help-article draft. When a question gets an accepted answer, an AI moderator drafts a help article from it, credits the person who answered and links back to the thread, for you to publish.
• Several AI agents on Auto Duty. Run more than one AI agent, each with its own account, its own jobs, a daily limit and an on-duty switch.

Upgrading

The AI moderators use the AI provider set in Admin → Integrations and, for product answers, the Zephyr connection in Admin → Connectors. With no AI provider set they do nothing.

Spam check stops only spam and queues it for a moderator; private messages can be reached

Added

• Members who sign in with your own account system skip the spam check. Admin → Sign-in has a new setting on each sign-in service, "Trust members who sign in with this service". It is on by default for your own account system (OpenID Connect and SAML) and off for public services such as Google or GitHub.

Fixed

• The spam check no longer turns away genuine posts. A new member's short reply, such as a thank-you, could be refused as low effort. The check now stops only real spam (ads, scams, unrelated links, abuse), and even then the post isn't refused: it waits for a moderator to approve it, with the reason shown to the moderator. Admins and moderators are never checked.
• Private messages can be opened from their notification, and Messages is in the account menu. A notification about a private message now opens the conversation; before, it led back to the notifications page. Messages, with the number of unread conversations, is now in the menu behind your avatar.

Built-in avatars: members pick one of thirty Nodes robots

Added

• Members can pick a built-in avatar: thirty friendly little robots. Settings → Profile now offers "Use a built-in avatar" beside uploading a picture, Gravatar and initials. Each robot is different and easy to recognise even at the small size beside a post. Nothing to set up.

A sign-in service's picture (SVG included) becomes the member's avatar; never a broken image

Fixed

• Pictures from your sign-in service now show as the member's avatar, including SVG pictures. A member who signed in with a service whose profile picture is an SVG drawing (such as the built-in avatars of some account systems) saw a broken image. The picture is now kept and shown safely. If a picture ever can't be used, the member gets their initials instead of a broken image, and a member left with a broken avatar is fixed the next time they sign in.

The forum's address is set in one place, the Branding page is easier to work through, admin and profile pages work on a phone, and about thirty smaller rough edges from a full page review are fixed.

Changed

• The forum's address is set in one place: Admin → Branding → Forum address. The "Community host" field under Settings is gone; Settings links to Branding instead. Links in emails, search engines and your security.txt all use this address. The second field is now called "Company domain (for contact email addresses)".
• The Branding page is easier to work through. Links to each section at the top, a save button that stays on screen, colour swatches next to the colour values, custom CSS folded away until you need it, and help text in plain words.
• Admin → Members fits a phone. Each member is one short row: name, then role, status and join date. Ordinary members show "Member" instead of a blank role.
• Profiles read more clearly. A Home / Members breadcrumb, the join date written out and shown once, and no repeated "Summary" title. In your own profile settings you see your current avatar and your real profile address.
• Sign-in and sign-up pages are tidier. No extra Sign in button in the top bar on those pages, the forgot-password page uses the same full-page layout, and every sign-up button says "Join the community".
• Empty pages say what will appear there. Tags and What's new explain what comes there and link to the latest discussions; What's new hides its filters until there is something to filter.

Fixed

• Profile tabs and search work better on a phone. Profile tabs scroll in one row instead of wrapping, and the search box, filters and button are the same height.
• Visitors no longer see an empty strip under every post.
• Smaller fixes across the site. Legal and help pages share one width; search says "answers" for questions; Start a discussion says it is step 1 of 2; the footer no longer leaves a stray dot where it wraps; the cookies table keeps names on one line; Messages and Following have breadcrumbs; Browse has a heading.
• Smaller admin fixes. Updates makes "Check now" the main button and hides empty licence details; Sign-in only lets you choose "providers only" once a provider is on; Reports is titled "Reported posts"; dashboard cards fit their content.

Upgrading

If you had set "Community host" under Admin → Settings, put the same address in Admin → Branding → Forum address (with https://). The old value is still read as a fallback until you do.

Why

A review of every page, on a phone and on a wide screen, found settings that said the same thing in three places, pages that looked unfinished when empty, and lists that were hard to use on a phone.

The admin pages for categories and invites put the list first, staff get one "Topic tools" button instead of a row of controls, and the top bar stays on one row on laptop-sized screens.

Changed

• Admin → Categories shows the list first. "Add category" and "Remove selected" are at the top, each category's key and description sit under its name, and Remove is in red, apart from Save. On a phone you see the name, kind and actions.
• Staff see one "Topic tools" button under a topic's title. Pin, lock, move to ideas, publish as an article, moderate and the rest open from it; Delete topic is last, in red. Members keep their Watching choice as before.
• Admin → Invites shows your invitations first. "Create an invite" and "Invite many people" open their forms from the top of the list.

Fixed

• The top bar stays on one row on laptop-sized screens. Between phone width and 1180 px the menu shows its icons and the search box is narrower, so search, notifications and your account no longer drop to a second row.

Why

These came from a full review of every page: admins had to scroll past long forms to see what they manage, and a topic seen by staff had more than a dozen controls above the first post.

Sign-up and sign-in are now proper pages that tell people what they get by joining, and a long list of small things members and admins kept bumping into is fixed.

Changed

• Sign-up and sign-in are full pages that say what members get. Sign-up opens with "Join" and your community's name, a line on why, and four short points: trusted answers, following what you use, shaping what comes next, being notified. Email and password sit side by side on a wide screen. Change any of the words in Admin → Look → Site text.
• A post shows Reply, Quote and Accept; the rest is under ⋯. Share, Save, Edit, Delete, Report and the moderator actions are one click away in the menu at the end of the row, so posts are calm to read.

Fixed

• The "I accept the guidelines" sentence reads as one line. It was broken into ragged columns on the sign-up and invitation forms.
• Starting a discussion never picks a category for you. You choose where it goes, and the chosen category is highlighted.
• The floating Answer button no longer covers posts. It sits in the corner of the window.
• Phones: settings tabs and notification filters are one row you can swipe. With bigger tap targets, and the settings cards no longer run into each other. Delete account is now last on the Privacy page.
• Dangerous admin buttons look dangerous. Deleting old cookie records and asking everyone again are red. The review queue shows Start reviewing only when something waits.
• Smaller things in the light theme and search. A recent topic's time is no longer red, search highlights follow the theme, and the first post's label is a small tag.

Why

The sign-up page was a small box in an empty screen that never said why to join. A full review of every page, at phone and desktop width in both themes, found the rest.

Moderation in the admin menu now opens inside the admin console, and the review queue, moderator log and IP lookup keep the admin menu when you open them as an admin.

Fixed

• Moderation in the admin menu stays in the admin console. It opens the first moderation page inside the console (Screening). The review queue, the moderator log and IP lookup show the admin menu at the top when an admin opens them; moderators see them as before.

Why

Clicking Moderation took admins out of the console to a page that looked like the public forum, with no way back but the browser.

A page opened just while your forum restarts for an update now gets its styles back by itself, instead of showing plain unstyled text until you reload.

Fixed

• Pages opened during an update keep their look. If the page's styles fail to load while the forum restarts, the page waits until the forum answers again and loads them, with no reload and no flash. It gives up after about a minute, so a real outage never loops.

Why

Every update restarts the forum for a few seconds. A page that loaded in that moment could lose its look until the reader reloaded it.

Your community now has a guidelines page that every member accepts: when they join, and again whenever you make a change that matters. Pasting your AdSense publisher ID as AdSense shows it works too.

Added

• A Community guidelines page with numbered rules. It is linked from every page's footer, the report form and moderator warnings. Until you write your own, seven built-in rules show in each member's language.
• Members accept the guidelines when they join. The sign-up and invitation forms show the key rules, a link to all of them and a box to tick, for the guidelines, the Terms and the Privacy policy. Who accepted which version, and when, is recorded.
• Admin → Moderation → Guidelines. Write the key rules and the full text, see how many members accepted the current version, and mark a change that matters so everyone accepts again before their next post. Small wording fixes ask nobody.

Fixed

• The AdSense publisher ID can be pasted as AdSense shows it. Both pub-… and ca-pub-… are accepted in Admin → Content → Adverts.

Upgrading

• Every member who joined before this update is asked once to accept the guidelines before their next post. Reading is never blocked, and what they were writing is kept. To switch this off, untick "Members must accept the guidelines before they post" in Admin → Moderation → Guidelines.
• Until you write your own, the page shows seven built-in rules in your members' languages. Write yours in Admin → Moderation → Guidelines and number them so moderators can point to them.

Why

Moderators can point to written rules that every member agreed to, with a record of who accepted which version, and new members see the key rules before they post anything.

Members now sign in with their email and password, new members confirm their address once, and invitations arrive as a link that takes people straight in. Starting a discussion from the home page works, and the demo banner explains the demo.

Added

• New members choose a password and confirm their address once. The confirmation email finishes the account; the member then signs in with the password they chose.
• "Forgot your password?" emails a link to set a new one. The link works once, for 30 minutes. Setting a new password signs the member out everywhere else.
• Invitations are emailed from the single-invite form too, and the list shows sent, opened and joined. Resend sends a fresh link; New link replaces one you shared by hand.

Changed

• Members sign in with their email and password. Sign-in links by email are gone. Two-step sign-in, passkeys and sign-in with another service work as before.
• An invitation is a single link that takes the person straight in. It names who invited them; they enter a name and a password and they are a member. The role, groups and categories you chose now apply in every sign-up mode, including open sign-up.
• The home page button for the newest topics reads "Latest discussions". "What's new" now always means product updates.

Fixed

• "Start a discussion" on the home page opens the form to write one. You pick the category first; with only one to choose from, it goes straight there. The box on the Recent page works on every forum, not only ones with a category called General.
• "Learn more" on the demo banner opens a page about the demo. It says what is sample content, what visitors can try and what stays when the demo ends.

Upgrading

• Members who always signed in with an emailed link have no password yet. The first time they try to sign in after the update, they are emailed a link to set one; they can also use "Forgot your password?" on the sign-in page. You may want to tell them before you update.
• Invitation emails go out only when your forum's public address is set (Admin → Look → Branding). The system check shows it.
• If you reworded the "Sign-in link" email under Admin → Look → Emails, that email is no longer sent. The new "Confirm address" and "Set a password" emails use the built-in wording until you change them.
• Invite codes made before the update still work: the person opens /invite/ followed by the code.

Why

Signing in no longer depends on an email arriving in time, and inviting someone is one step for you and one link for them, with the role and groups you chose applied however your forum takes new members.

vir-forum 1.0.9 completes the social release. Members can sign in with Apple. Your forum's social accounts show on the home page too, and shared profile links show the member's picture.

Added

• Sign in with Apple. Add it in Admin → Sign-in next to the other accounts. Members who hide their email with Apple's private relay can still sign in, and Apple shares a member's name on their first sign-in.
• Your social accounts on the home page. The accounts you set in Admin → Look → Branding → Social accounts now also show under the buttons on the home page, not only at the bottom of each page.
• Profile link previews. A profile link shared on X, LinkedIn or in a chat app shows the member's picture beside their name and bio.

Upgrading

• Apply from Admin → Updates, or with your host's Update button.
• To offer Sign in with Apple, open Admin → Sign-in → Apple. You need an Apple Developer account. Create a Services ID with Sign in with Apple, add your forum's domain and the callback address shown on the form, then create a key and paste the whole .p8 file with its Team ID and Key ID.

Why

Sign in with Apple was part of the social plan but missing from 1.0.8. 1.0.8 also showed the forum's social accounts only at the bottom of each page, and shared profile links had no picture.

vir-forum 1.0.8 connects your forum to social networks. Members can sign in with Facebook, X, Discord or LinkedIn and share any topic or post in two taps. Shared links show a picture of the category and your logo. Your forum's social accounts appear in the footer, and members can list theirs on their profile.

Added

• Sign in with Facebook, X, Discord or LinkedIn. Add any of them in Admin → Sign-in next to Google, GitHub, Microsoft, OpenID Connect and SAML. A member is signed in only with an email address the service has verified.
• Share buttons. Every topic has a Share button, and each post has Share in its menu. On a phone it opens the phone's own share sheet. Elsewhere it opens a menu: Copy link, X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Reddit, WhatsApp, Telegram and Email.
• Link previews with a picture. A topic or category link shared on X, LinkedIn, Facebook, Slack or in a chat app shows its title, its first lines and a picture with the category's logo and your forum's logo. Private topics and categories get no picture, so nothing private shows up in a preview.
• Your forum's social accounts in the footer. Admin → Look → Branding → Social accounts: X, LinkedIn, YouTube, GitHub, Discord, Mastodon, Bluesky, Facebook and Instagram. Each shows as an icon at the bottom of every page.
• More links on member profiles. Members can add Mastodon, Bluesky, YouTube and a website alongside LinkedIn, GitHub and X. Their profile shows each one with its icon.

Changed

• Lighter pages. The forum's icons and default logo are sent once per page. A long topic stays light even with the new Share buttons.

Security

• Only web addresses in social links. Profile and footer links must start with http:// or https://. Anything else is dropped when it is saved.

Upgrading

• Apply from Admin → Updates, or with your host's Update button.
• To offer a new sign-in, open Admin → Sign-in and add Facebook, X, Discord or LinkedIn. Each form shows where to create the app and which callback address to give it. Members need a verified email address with that service.
• Add your forum's accounts in Admin → Look → Branding → Social accounts.
• Link previews use the same address search engines see: the canonical host in Admin → SEO, else the community address in Branding, else the address the page was opened on.

Why

Forum owners asked for social sign-in and sharing. Links pasted into X, LinkedIn or a chat showed no picture. And there was nowhere to show the forum's own social accounts.

vir-forum 1.0.7 makes reactions clear and adds adverts. Members see what each reaction means and who used it, you choose the forum's reactions, and you can place your own adverts or Google AdSense units around the forum.

Added

• Reactions with names. A post shows the reactions people used, with their counts, and a React button. React opens every reaction with its name, and below them who reacted. On a phone it opens as a sheet from the bottom of the screen.
• Choose your forum's reactions. Admin → Content → Reactions: up to eight from fourteen, in your order, with your own names, and which ones count as likes for profiles, trust levels and notifications. A reaction you stop using is hidden, not deleted.
• Adverts. Admin → Content → Adverts places your own adverts (an image or text, with a link) in the side column, between topics in lists, after a topic's first post, or as a banner. Choose categories, dates and weights, and see how often each was shown and clicked. Every advert is marked Sponsored.
• Google AdSense. Add AdSense units by their ad unit ID. Google's scripts are allowed on your pages only while a unit is running, and /ads.txt is served for your publisher ID.
• Choose who sees adverts. None for staff (the default), for members from a trust level up, or for everyone signed in.

Changed

• Your small logo is the tab icon. With a small logo uploaded in Admin → Look → Branding, browsers show it in the tab and phones use it on the home screen.

Fixed

• One logo on a desktop. With a small logo uploaded, desktops showed it beside the full logo.

Upgrading

• Apply from Admin → Updates, or with your host's Update button.
• The default reactions become Like, Love, Helpful, Works for me, Thanks, Congrats, Funny and Wow. Change them in Admin → Content → Reactions; reactions already given keep their counts.
• For Google AdSense: enter your publisher ID in Admin → Content → Adverts, then add a unit per place with its ad unit ID. The forum serves /ads.txt for you.

Why

Five unnamed emoji sat under every post, and on a phone nobody could tell what they meant. Forum owners also asked where adverts would go, and wanted Google AdSense first.

vir-forum 1.0.6 lets your hosting panel check for a new version straight away instead of waiting for the forum's next scheduled check.

Added

• Your host can check for updates on demand. A hosting panel's Check again now makes the forum ask for the latest release right away, using the same update API key as its Update button. To keep the update service fast for everyone, the forum asks at most once every 30 seconds; a second press inside that time shows the answer it just got. If the update service can't be reached, the panel is told why, and the last version the forum found stays on show.

Changed

• Update checks say how fresh they are. The update API now reports when the forum last checked, so your panel can show "checked just now" or "checked 20 minutes ago" truthfully.

Upgrading

• Apply from Admin → Updates, or with your host's Update button.
• Nothing to configure: the API key your host already uses for updates works for the new check.

Why

Before this release, a hosting panel's "Check again" button got the result of the forum's last scheduled check, which runs every 30 minutes. A new release could stay hidden for up to half an hour, and the only way to see it sooner was to open Admin → Updates and press Check now.

vir-forum 1.0.5 uses wide screens properly and tidies the phone. Readers can switch the page to full width, the side column moves into the empty space on large screens, and topics read better on a phone.

Added

• Full width or standard. A button in the top bar switches the page between the standard column and the full width of the screen. Each reader's choice is remembered; Admin → Look → Branding → Page width sets the forum's default.

Changed

• The side column uses the empty space. On wide screens Live activity and a profile's badges sit beside the page instead of narrowing the topics.
• The label beside your logo leans. The "Community" label tilts slightly, like the product card on the home page.
• Topics read better on a phone. Posts use more of the screen, Reply and Quote sit together with the menu on the right, and reactions nobody has used yet are drawn as plain emoji.

Fixed

• Phone tap targets. Reactions, the select box moderators use on topic lists, the formatting buttons and the card dismiss button are big enough to tap.
• Small layout fixes. A moderator's select box no longer covers the date on a topic row, category cards keep "5d ago" on one line, and an announcement no longer says Announcements twice.

Upgrading

• Apply from Admin → Updates, or with your host's Update button.
• To make full width the default for everyone, choose it in Admin → Look → Branding → Page width.

Why

On a large monitor the forum sat in a narrow column with empty space either side, and the side column took width from the topics. On a phone, posts had more padding than text, and five reaction buttons crowded every post.

vir-forum 1.0.4 helps a new forum look lived-in. Categories can carry their own logos, a demo pack fills the forum with real categories and a demo community in one upload, and profiles look the same on every tab.

Added

• Category logos. Admin → Categories → Add logo puts your own image (SVG, PNG or WebP) on a category's card in place of the stock icon.
• Demo packs. Admin → Demo imports one JSON file with your categories (and their logos), products, and a demo community: members, topics, replies, likes, accepted answers and idea votes. Demo members cannot sign in, and importing the same pack again adds nothing twice.

Changed

• Demo content on every forum. Admin → Demo and the demo banner are no longer limited to the security edition. Remove demo content keeps your categories and products.

Fixed

• A profile looks the same on every tab. Topics, Replies, Solutions and the other tabs keep the profile card the Summary has, with Follow.
• Profiles use the full width. A member without badges no longer gets an empty side column that squeezed their summary on a wide screen.

Upgrading

• Apply from Admin → Updates, or with your host's Update button.
• To fill the forum, go to Admin → Demo and import a demo pack. When real members arrive, Remove demo content takes the demo members and their topics away; your categories and products stay.

Why

A new forum is empty, which makes it hard to show, try or judge. A product forum also wants each product's own mark on its category rather than a stock icon. And a member's profile lost its card as soon as you opened their Topics or Replies.

vir-forum 1.0.3 gives the forum a proper header on every screen. Members can sign out from any page, your logo and name no longer repeat each other, phones get a tidy one-row bar with your small logo, and new members say what to call them when they join.

Added

• Sign out from any page. The avatar opens a menu with your profile, settings, Admin for admins, and Sign out.
• A label beside the logo. Admin → Look → Branding → "Label beside the logo" shows a short pill such as "Community" after your logo.
• Show the logo without the name. Untick "Show the forum name beside the logo" when your logo already spells it, so the name does not appear twice.
• A small logo for phones. Upload a square mark in Admin → Look → Branding; phones show it in place of the full logo.
• New members give their name when they join. The welcome step asks for a first name, last name and username, then takes the member where they were going. Members who join through a sign-in provider keep the name it gives.

Changed

• A one-row header on phones. Menu, logo, search, notifications and your account sit in one row. The links and the light/dark switch open from the menu button, and search opens under the bar.

Fixed

• No more "add your name" banner for members who have one. A first name, or a name from a sign-in provider, is enough.

Upgrading

• Apply from Admin → Updates, or with your host's Update button. Coming from 1.0.0 or 1.0.1, close your forum tabs first (see 1.0.2).
• Then, in Admin → Look → Branding: add a label such as "Community" if you want one, untick "Show the forum name beside the logo" if your logo spells the name, and upload a small logo for phones.

Why

On a phone the header stacked the logo, search and every link on top of the page, there was no way to sign out, and a logo that already spells the forum's name was followed by the name again. New members who joined by email were never asked for a name, so every page asked them for one.

vir-forum 1.0.2 makes updates reliable. An update no longer gets stuck when members have the forum open in a browser tab.

Fixed

• Updates no longer get stuck with forum tabs open. Live updates (new posts, the notification dot) kept a connection open that the stopping server waited for indefinitely. The server now closes those connections first and always exits within 10 seconds.
• The updater makes sure the old version has stopped. If the running version does not stop within 20 seconds, the updater stops it, so the new version always starts.
• A rollback that cannot bring the forum back says so. Admin → Updates tells you to restart the forum from your host's panel instead of reporting a clean rollback.

Upgrading

• Coming from 1.0.0 or 1.0.1: the version you are on is the one that has to stop, so close your forum tabs and start the update from your host's Update button. If the update still hangs at "probing", restart the forum from your host's panel; it comes back on the new version.
• Updates after 1.0.2 need none of this.

Why

On 1.0.0 and 1.0.1, any open forum tab could keep the old version from stopping during an update. The update then rolled back and the forum stayed unavailable until the host restarted it. From 1.0.2 on, the forum always stops and restarts cleanly, whoever is reading.

vir-forum 1.0.1 checks itself and looks right on a phone.

• A new system check shows what the forum needs and what is wrong.
• Sign-in emails link to the forum's own address.
• Dozens of screens were fixed after a full visual review on desktop and phone.

Added

• System check. Admin → Dashboard → System check tests each of these and says what to do about any problem:

  • the database and background workers;
  • the forum address and outgoing email;
  • backups and disk space;
  • the licence and updates;
  • search indexing and server errors.

  The admin sidebar shows the real state instead of always "System OK", and the dashboard lists what needs attention.

Changed

• Emails use your brand. Emails use your brand colour and logo, and their layout fits a phone. Each button says where it goes: Sign in, Read the reply, Accept the invitation.
• Profiles show one level. A plain forum shows the member's trust level by name ("Basic") and writes out "reputation" in full, with no second level system beside it.

Fixed

• Sign-in emails link to the forum's own address. Forums without a COMMUNITY_BASE_URL setting sent sign-in links pointing at localhost. The link now uses the address set in the admin, and the email arrives in the forum's design with a Sign in button.
• The email editor shows the email. Admin → Look → Emails shows a working preview, with the built-in wording to start from. The activity summary preview has a subject.
• Pages fit a phone. Wide admin tables become labelled cards, and fields and selects line up with their buttons. The search box shows a short placeholder.
• The reply box no longer covers the topic on a phone. A saved draft no longer opens the reply box over half the screen. The Reply button shows a dot when a draft is waiting.
• The header search icon sits inside the box.
• Fields and selects match the dark theme everywhere. Review filters, log filters and the site-text search no longer show light grey browser controls.
• Lists are easier to read. Notifications and saved items are no longer underlined end to end, and the numbers on a profile sit in an even grid.
• The sign-in page and footer are simpler. The sign-in page has one password button and shorter invite wording. In the footer, the language changes as soon as you pick one.
• Category and Browse pages are clearer. Category pages no longer have a second row of filters repeating Unanswered and Solved, and an empty category has one Sign in button. The empty Browse page links to sign in or to the categories.
• Settings pages fit a phone. Notification settings headings no longer overlap, and Watching shows the whole level. Signed-in sessions are named by browser.
• Posting rules apply everywhere. Moving or renaming a topic, proposing an idea and restoring an edit follow the same rules as posting: silence, locked topics and watched words. Authors cannot undo a moderator's edit.
• Bookmarks, mentions and reminders work as expected. Reminders never name a topic you cannot open. A mention such as @name at the end of a sentence now notifies. Broken old bookmarks are skipped.

Upgrading

• Apply the update from Admin → Updates, or with your host's Update button.
• If the System check says the forum's address is missing, set it in Admin → Look → Branding. Sign-in emails and every other email use it.

Why

Admins see at a glance whether email, background jobs, backups, disk space and updates are working, instead of finding out from members. Members on phones get pages that fit, readable tables and a reply box that does not cover the topic.

vir-forum 1.0 is a complete community platform:

• reading that keeps your place;
• a composer with preview, uploads and polls;
• private messages, groups and private categories;
• one review queue for moderators;
• a grouped admin console with a dashboard and backups;
• support tools that answer questions before they become tickets;
• a full API.

It updates itself from 0.4.0 like every release.

Added

• Reading keeps your place. Unread and new counts, /new and /unread, a jump to the first unread post, and a "since your last visit" marker.
• Replies, new topics and the notification count appear live, without reloading.
• Every list has Latest, New, Unread, Top (day to all time), Unanswered and Solved views, with paging.
• Long topics have a timeline and load as you scroll; press ? for keyboard shortcuts.
• Bookmarks can have a name and a reminder.
• The composer shows a live preview and saves drafts on the server; /drafts lists them.
• Add images and files by picker, paste or drag-and-drop. Photos are resized and their location data removed.
• Posts can have polls, emoji, link previews, tables, task lists and strikethrough.
• Every edit is kept; authors and staff can compare versions and roll back.
• Quote a selection, reply to a specific post, and @mention a group.
• Private messages between members and to group inboxes. Staff cannot read a message unless it is reported.
• Groups with open, request or invitation membership, and automatic membership by email domain.
• Private categories and subcategories, with a permission trace that explains who can do what.
• Trust levels that unlock privileges, plus badges, richer profiles with activity tabs, a member directory and leaderboards.
• A notifications page with filters; watch levels on topics, categories and tags; muting.
• Install the forum as an app on phones and desktops, with push notifications.
• One-click unsubscribe, an activity summary email, and reply by email.
• One review queue for moderators. Reports, posts waiting for approval, new members and automatic flags.
• Approval for new members' first posts or per category; warnings, silence and suspension with appeals.
• Moderators can move, merge and split posts, close a topic as a duplicate, and set slow mode, timers, whispers and a site banner.
• Spam tools. Watched words, a reversible spam cleaner, IP lookup, and StopForumSpam and disposable-email checks.
• Automation rules: when something happens, tag, move, hold, reply, message, add to a group or escalate.
• An admin dashboard with activity, solved rate and response times, plus a first-run checklist.
• Members admin with filters, bulk actions, view as member, anonymise, delete and merge.
• Edit every text on the site and every email, and set your own colours, corners and fonts.
• Backups of the database and uploads, on a schedule, with S3-compatible storage and restore.
• Logs of staff actions, searches, email and errors; block lists for emails, domains and IP ranges.
• More ways to sign in. Several OpenID Connect providers, SAML, Google, GitHub or Microsoft; two-step sign-in with an app or a passkey; an SSO-only mode.
• Escalate a topic to Zendesk, Freshdesk, Jira, Zephyr or a webhook, by hand or by rule. The ticket status is shown on the topic.
• AI answers drawn only from your solved topics and docs, with sources, in search and on new questions.
• AI triage sends risky posts and profiles to the review queue; it never bans anyone.
• A public roadmap, internal idea statuses, idea merging, and product updates on What's new.
• Docs with sections per product, "Was this helpful?", versions, and related articles while you write.
• A help widget for your own site that suggests answers before a ticket is filed, with deflection counts.
• Support analytics. Deflection, time to first answer and to solution, and staff and community answers.
• An MCP server, so your AI agents can search, answer and moderate with scoped keys.
• A full REST API with an OpenAPI document, keys with scopes and expiry, and usage logs.
• Importers for Discourse, Flarum, phpBB, XenForo and NodeBB, with old links redirected.
• Comments under your blog or docs pages, and a topic list widget.
• The forum in English, German, French and Spanish, chosen by each member, plus AI translation of posts on request.
• A full data export: every table plus uploads.
• Members can withdraw a request to join a group; @group mentions link to the group page.
• Custom badges can be edited after they are created.

Changed

• The admin console is grouped and searchable. Groups: Dashboard, Setup, Look, Members, Content, Moderation, Integrations and Logs. Settings search finds every page and setting, and every staff action shows in the staff log.
• Posting limits count new topics and replies separately, and what you typed is kept when a limit is hit.
• Pages are lighter, faster and sent compressed. Visitors' pages are cached and kept up to date as people post. Each page names its canonical address, so search engines index it once.
• Every page works with a keyboard and a screen reader, with readable contrast in all three looks, light and dark.
• Category moderators also moderate subcategories. They can also use bulk actions in their categories and be assigned review items there.
• API documentation has one page per section.
• Old posts pick up the new formatting by themselves after the update.

Fixed

• Private categories stay private everywhere. Only what the reader may see shows in live updates, counts, search, feeds, the sitemap, the API, emails, notifications, profiles and moderators' tools.
• Hidden content stays hidden behind direct links. Members who cannot see whispers, hidden posts or topics waiting for review can no longer read, report or reply to them through a direct link.
• Every way of posting follows the same rules. Replies by email, through the API, through AI agents, proposing an idea and renaming a topic all respect access, silence, slow mode, watched words, limits and approval.
• A member can no longer move a topic into a staff-only category or undo a moderator's edit.
• A forum-wide API key works as its own "Forum API" account, not as the admin who made it.
• The data export leaves out webhook signing secrets, like every other secret.
• Browse tabs, paging and reply counts are correct.
• Reply and Quote work on every page of a topic, and post actions fit a phone screen. An open reply box no longer pushes the topic off a phone screen.
• Removed posts read "removed by a moderator", and a hidden first post hides the topic.
• There is no Report link on your own posts, and members-only pages send visitors to sign in.
• Admin fixes. Bad addresses show the not-found page, admins cannot deactivate themselves, and member search takes % and _ literally. The audit log is paged, and session details have sign-out.
• Security-pack leftovers no longer show on a plain forum.
• Removing a category moves its topics instead of orphaning them.
• Running setup again keeps the admin's password.
• Excerpts no longer show raw poll markup or emoji codes.

Upgrading

• Apply the update from Admin → Updates, or with your host's Update button. Database changes only add; nothing is removed.
• If your default categories Help & Support, Feedback and Announcements are still plain discussions, they become Questions, Ideas and Announcements. A kind you chose yourself stays.
• Link previews, reminders, scheduled backups and automation rules need the background workers. They are on by default (START_WORKERS=1).
• New-topic drafts saved before the update come back only for replies.
• Page addresses use the forum address set in Admin → Setup. If none is set and your own web server sits in front of the forum, have it pass the X-Forwarded-Proto header so addresses use https.

Why

Members find what is new and pick up where they left off. Moderators handle everything from one queue. Admins run the forum without a command line. Support teams answer once and let the community and AI answers do the rest. Your data stays yours: a full export, and no per-pageview charges.

Your community now answers questions, collects ideas, keeps answers current and tells you what your customers are saying.

Added

• Questions with accepted answers. In a Questions category the asker, a moderator or staff marks the answer that solved it. It appears right under the question with a Solved mark, lists can show only unsolved questions, and the person who answered earns reputation. Members vote answers up or down, and the best answers come first.
• An ideas board with votes and statuses. In an Ideas category every topic is an idea. Members vote once each, and you set a status (planned, in progress, shipped, declined) with a note and the version it shipped in. Everyone who voted hears about it. Any discussion can be proposed as an idea in one click.
• Answers stay accurate as your product changes. Topics can name the product and version they are about. When you release a new version, older answers are marked "may be out of date" until someone confirms they still work.
• Turn solved threads into docs. Publish a solved question as an article at /docs, filled in from the question and the accepted answer and crediting the member who answered. Articles appear in search and in the sitemap.
• Similar topics while writing, tags, and better search. While someone types a title, the forum shows similar topics, solved ones first, so they find the answer, or the idea to vote for, before posting a duplicate. Topics take up to three tags. Search ranks solved topics higher, highlights matches, and filters by category, tag, product and solved state.
• Reports and moderators per category. Members report posts for spam, abuse or being off-topic. Moderators work one queue: hide the post, dismiss the report or warn the author. A post reported by three trusted members is hidden until someone reviews it. Each category can have its own moderators, who can pin, lock, edit and solve there.
• Watch topics and categories. Watch a topic to hear about every reply, or mute it to hear nothing. Watch a category to hear about every new topic. You start watching what you post in. Each kind of notification has its own on-site and email switch.
• Webhooks and a member activity API. Send signed events (new topics and posts, solved questions, idea votes and statuses, reports, new articles, new members) to any address, with retries and a delivery log. A CRM can read a member's community activity and mood with an API token.
• Connect Zephyr. With the Zephyr connector, ideas become feature requests with votes counted once and statuses coming back from Zephyr, staff open support tickets from a topic, and the customer record can show community activity. The forum works fully without it.
• Weekly insight from your community. With an AI provider set, admins get a weekly digest per product: satisfaction trend, top requests, pain points and new issues. Every item links the topics it came from, and anything the conversations do not support is left out. You also see similar requests grouped together and members who sound unhappy. A monthly budget keeps AI costs in check.
• Thread summaries. When an AI provider is set, members can get a short summary of a long thread. It is saved and refreshed as the thread grows.
• Your own Terms, Privacy and logo. Write your Terms of Service and Privacy Policy in Admin → Legal, and upload your logo in Admin → Branding.

Changed

• Long topics are split into pages of 30 posts. Links to a single post open the right page.
• Removed posts can be restored. Members see [removed] in their place, and moderators can still see and restore them.

Fixed

• Editing a post works on new installs.
• Sign-in pages no longer promise email sign-in before email is set up.
• Smaller fixes. The home page uses the description from Admin → SEO. Members without a username no longer show a placeholder handle. The footer wraps neatly at medium widths. Only admins see the build version. The choice of who can join is in one place (Security). Hero chips are easier to read in light mode. Checkbox lists such as tags and webhook events save every choice. Old versions are cleaned up after an update, keeping the running one and the two before it.

Upgrading

After the update, open Admin → Categories and set each category's kind: Questions for help, Ideas for feedback, Announcements for news. Add your products and versions in Admin → Products, and tags in Admin → Tags. Webhooks, Connectors (Zephyr), Insights and Legal are new pages in Admin. Every feature is optional; the forum works as before until you turn something on.

Why

Questions get a marked answer that stays accurate as your product changes. Ideas get votes and a status that voters hear about. Moderation spreads across your team. You see what customers ask for each week, backed by the conversations themselves.

Your forum installs its own updates wherever it is hosted, and the sign-in page stays honest when email isn't set up yet.

Added

• Install updates from Admin → Updates, also when your forum runs on a hosting platform. The forum downloads the new version, checks its signature, installs it beside the running one, switches over and checks it is healthy. If anything goes wrong, it goes back to the version you had.
• A hosting platform's Update button can start the update for you. Create an API token with the update scope in Admin → API tokens. Your host can then show the forum's update status and start an update with one click. The forum still does the installing.

Changed

• Without email set up, the sign-in page offers password sign-in instead of email links. Before, members were told to check an email that was never sent. Now the page explains it, and admins see a reminder on every page until email is set up in Admin → Integrations.

Upgrading

Install it from Admin → Updates, or let the daily update do it. If your hosting platform installed the forum and Admin → Updates says the forum can't write its own folder, ask your host to give the forum's user that folder.

Why

Updates come straight from lbreeze to your forum, checked and verified by the forum itself, whether you host it yourself or on a hosting platform. And members are never told to check for an email that will never arrive.

An important fix for editing your home page, and a cleaner look across the admin pages.

Changed

• Admin pages show only what your forum uses. Modules and background jobs from add-ons your licence doesn't include are no longer listed, status labels are easier to read, and the activity chart names its lines.

Fixed

• Saving the home page layout keeps every section. Before, Save layout in Admin → Home kept only the first section and removed the rest. Your edits to every section are now saved.
• Checkboxes and form fields match your forum's light or dark look. On computers set to dark mode, empty checkboxes and some fields appeared black on the light look.
• Release notes in Admin → Updates are shown as formatted text. Headings and lists in the notes are no longer shown as raw symbols.
• Clearer wording and layout in several places. The empty-category message is centred, the sign-in field for another service is full width, the Sign in button no longer wraps on phones, and the option to hide sign-in badges appears only if you have linked an account.

Upgrading

Install it from Admin → Updates, or let the daily update do it. If you saved the home page layout before this release, check Admin → Home and add back any section that went missing.

Why

Saving the home page layout could remove sections you had added. This release fixes that and tidies up forms, labels and wording throughout.

Cleaner admin forms: the formatting toolbar only appears where you write formatted text.

Fixed

• The bold, italic and link buttons no longer appear above plain-text admin fields. Custom CSS, robots.txt, footer links, hero chips and sign-in labels are plain boxes again. Posts, replies and the Home page's text section keep the toolbar.

Upgrading

Install it from Admin → Updates, or let the daily update do it. Nothing else to do.