Today, we rolled out a software update for Hoop.la, UBB Forum, and QuestionShark that focuses on improvements for the premium membership features, though there are some other changes as well.

Highlights of the release:

1. Premium Membership Transaction-Related Emails Now Co-Branded

Previously, most of the transaction-related emails a purchaser received from our FeePod system were issued outside of your website and ONLY had FeePod branding.  Now, we have co-branded these email so that you can include your own site logo in the emails (in addition to the FeePod logo), which will make it easier for your premium memberships to associate the transactions with your site. 

In addition, you have more control over the content of the emails because you can actually customize the wording via the Wordlets control panel.  You can also preview each email type that is sent in a new "Emails" section in your Premium Membership settings. 

Admins canget copies of all of these emails to stay on top of their premium members. Note that real names and addresses are excluded in the copies we send you to protect this information (since it is confidential).  You can enable/disable these notification in your Notification Settings.

 2.  Premium Membership Promo Now Customizable

One option you have as an admin is to promote your premium membership via a promo that appears when users visit your site.  Previously, that promo was hard-coded though and you could not change the look and feel or content of the promo. Now, you can completely replace the stock promo with whatever HTML content you like.  You can do this in your Premium Membership settings. (You can also preview your custom promo there as well.)

3. Premium Membership Reporting

Admins can now download CSV reports for any time period. These reports list all transactions for the designated period.  This is a new submenu page under the Premium Membership section of your Admin Control Panel.

4. Community Logo

Previously, we required that you upload a Community Logo if you enabled Groups or Portfolios for your account, because that image was displayed in the group/portfolio headers.  We are expanding the use of the Community Logo, however, so that it can be displayed on Sign In, Registration, and Premium Membership Order pages, allowing you to utilize your branding more prominently, if desired.  This logo is only required, however, if you enable Groups or Portfolios.   This Community Logo is set in Display Settings in your Admin Control Panel.

5. Paid-Through Date Added To Member Data CSV

If you are using premium memberships, you'll be pleased to know that when you download your Member Data (via the Manage Members page in your Admin Control Panel) we now include the Paid-Through Date for each member.

6. Improved Premium Membership Management Options

We've improved the process for giving out complimentary premium memberships.  Just go to your Premium Membership settings, click on the Members tab, and then click on the "Add Complimentary Premium Memberships" link.  

You can also now cancel any premium  membership yourself, also on that same page, just be clicking the trashcan icon next to the premium member's name on that list.  

Finally, we are displaying more information about each premium member, including each member's status and renewal date.

7. Minimum Premium Membership Fee You Charge Reduced

We've lowered the minimum fee that you can charge for premium memberships. Now you can charge as little as $5 for any supported time period (monthly, quarterly, or annual).

8. Inline Image Moderation Supported

We've added a new Content Moderation rule that allows you to moderate content that contains any kind of embeddedmedia, including images, videos, iframes, etc. This is not the same as attachments (which was already supported).  This can be really useful if your site caters to minors, forinstance, so that you can review each post that has an image, for instance to make sure it is appropriate for the audience.  Look for the "With Inline Media" option under Special Condition when creating your content moderation rule.

9.  New Manage Members Filter Allows You To Exclude Specific Permissions Circles

We've added a new search parameter in the Manage Members control panel that allows you to exclude a specific permissioncircle (or your premium members) when performing the search. For example, this could be useful for finding all members who are NOT premium members already (and then perhaps sending an email to those folks.

As usual, there are many other minor changes, bug fixes and improvements.  

Happy Holidays!