It’s been a while since we’ve written a blog post for a site update. We’ve been busy fixing bugs, adding a couple of new features and, as always, improving the performance of PurplePort.

Since our last site update in August 2020, we’ve made almost 400 changes across PurplePort, including lots of bug fixes and performance improvements. We’ve also welcomed back one of our Development Team, Lexi Brush, from maternity leave.

New Features

Added a new collection “images by people near me”

A new page that shows recent images from any member within 30 miles of your location.

The “Images from people near me” image collection is on the Images home page (under the heading Collections for you). You can find the Images home page on the homepage via the grey cog (top right) under the heading Images.  

Merged “Images between members” and “tagged images” 

These two pages have always been quite similar, and we have now merged them together into one page called Image Search. This means you can now search for images specific members have been tagged in, or images tagged with specific keyword tags, or both of these options at the same time. 

Image Search can be found on the homepage via the grey cog (top right) under the heading Images. It can also on the Images home page under the heading Image related tools. 

Added “Tag Teams” 

Tag Teams allows you to create a “team” of members who you frequently tag in images. This means you can now tag the whole “team” of members in an image with just a few clicks instead of having to tag each individual member every time.

Link previews for Twitter / Instagram

When you create an article, casting call, event, group post, or a post on The PurplePort Blog* and you add a link to Twitter or Instagram to that post, it will now provide a preview of the content inside your post. 

* If you would like to create your own posts in The Purple Blog, check out How To Submit Your Own Content To The PurplePort Blog - Open To Everyone!

Extra search option for shoot styles

When you’re choosing shoot styles to search for using the Search feature, you can now use the new dropdown options to make your search stricter. These dropdown options allow you to toggle between searching for members who have any of the shoot styles selected or searching for members who have all of those shoot styles selected.

More options for message templates

We’ve replaced the “‘New message’ template” option with ‘Manage message templates’ which can be used to create (and edit) templates for new messages and replies to existing messages. If you had an existing template using the “‘New message’ template” option, you’ll be able to find that in the templates list.

The ‘Manage message templates’ tool can be found on your Inbox page via the grey (top right).

Bug Fixes

  • Search improvements to make the search results more inclusive
  • Fixed bug where portfolio notes page didn’t display a summary correctly
  • Fixed password reset to bring it in line with current password requirements
  • Fixed the image count on credited photos
  • Fixed bug where @ tagging would still work even if there is a block in place
  • A handful of sneaky typos

Improvements

  • Re-built some pages, making them faster to load
  • Changed some error messages to be more user friendly
  • Changed the way group member lists are fetched, making the list faster to retrieve
  • Added “you voted on this image” to the finished competition page
  • Improved the account stats performance
  • Added an on-site notification for when someone likes your comment using the new comment system
  • The creator of a group post will now be notified via onsite notification when their post is moved
  • Lots of other small performance improvements

Site performance issues resolved

Some good news! Many of you will be aware of an issue that was causing regular site performance problems around 6am (UTC+1). The Development Team investigated this exhaustively and (after many early mornings and painstaking hours) finally found the source of the slow down - Hooray! It was simple in the end. There were a bunch of server processes happening in the early hours, and we shuffled them around to prevent the slow down happening again.

Let us know...

If you spot an error or think of something that will improve PurplePort, you can let us know by either creating a support ticket or creating a post in the Bugs, Errors, and Suggestions group. Doing so helps us and every member of the PurplePort community.

What is PurplePort

PurplePort is a modelling website that brings models, photographers and other creatives together with one fantastic service. We provide the tools and help you need to get together and create amazing photos.

Established in 2010, PurplePort has grown from strength to strength and now has 40,000+ active members worldwide. With features such as integrated messaging, calendar, shoot plans, image albums, references, credited photos, busy member forums, hundreds of articles, and dedicated full-time staff to help you, it's easy finding the perfect creatives you need for your next photography project. It's a fresh, fast, and feature-rich alternative to ModelMayhem.

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