My KVR Relaunched (+New Look & Avatars)

As you may have noticed, KVR has had a bit of a change today. The first in a series of changes that will happen over the next few months (including the long-awaited forum update).

Apart from the general look of the site, the most significant change is the revamp and relaunch of My KVR. It has been completely rethought and rewritten so whilst it should work as expected some things may have been missed in testing. Hence, we're calling it My KVR Beta, and welcome any problem reports and/or suggestions from the KVR community in the My KVR Beta Forum.

What is My KVR?

My KVR enables you to organise your DAW, plug-ins, apps, soundware, etc., collectively referred to as "Products", into "Groups" - a live record of your personal plug-in, app and soundware universe! If it's in the KVR Product Database you can add it to My KVR.

You can keep track of version updates, news items, user reviews, comments, videos, uploads and #KVRDeals related to products within a group and be notified when a product is updated, a news item posted, etc. You can add products to KVR defined groups, such as "Favourites" and you can create your own groups and add them to those. Groups can be restricted to specific Operating Systems so you won't get notified if a product is updated for an OS that you don't use (you can globally exclude an OS, too).

If a product is in the KVR product database it can be added to a group. If a product you want to add isn't there, please ask the developer of the product to add it! If they have access to the Developer Control Area at KVR they can do it themselves. If they don't they should apply for access. If they are unwilling to do this, shame on them ;), email us the product information and we'll do our best to add it.

My KVR Explained

Getting Started

Whether you've used the old My KVR or not, the first step is to "activate" My KVR Beta.

If you've never used My KVR before the summary page will be pretty empty (with just the default groups available). If you've previously used My KVR all your existing products and groups should have been migrated. NOTE: The old Favourite Developers and Watched Developers groups have been combined and are now "Favourite Developers".

Groups

The basis of My KVR is "Groups". You add products to these groups.

There are five default groups: Favorites, I Own This, I Want This, My Perfect Studio and My Actual Studio. Any of these default groups (excluding Favorites) can be deactivated so you won't see them if you don't want to use them. Favorites is a special case and cannot be deactivated (think of it as KVR's version of a "Like" button, if you like).

Of course you can create your own groups too (e.g. "My Laptop", "Reverbs", "Plug-ins to Check Later", etc.).

Group Options

By default, groups offer Global Version Control and accept all Operating Systems for any product added to it. These can both be overridden and groups can be set to ignore versioning (in case you just want to keep a log of products but don't care to be notified of version updates).

Version Control:

• Global Version Control (Default): This means that if you have a product in, say, four different groups that are all set to the default of "global" versions, if you update "your" version number it will be reflected across all those groups.
• Unique Version Control: Any group can be set to unique versions by clicking its "Unique" option. This group will then have its versions set independently of any other group. This allows you to manage, for example, a desktop with one group and a laptop with another group.

Operating Systems:

• All Operating Systems (Default): By default, if a product is available for Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc. the group will show entries for all relevant Operating Systems and you will be notified when any of them is changed in the KVR database.
• Restrict To Operating System(s): Groups can be restricted to one or more specific Operating Systems so the group will only show entries for the selected Operating System(s) and you will be notified only when one of those is changed in the KVR database.

Globally Exclude Operating Systems:

• In My KVR's Global Options you can exclude an Operating System globally, so you don't have to set it in every group. You can still override the global exclusion on a per group basis if you have a group where you wish to enable the excluded Operating System(s).

For example, you could globally exclude Windows but you could then create a group (called "Windows Laptop", for example) that you override the "no Windows" rule and allow Windows products in that. Note that if you override a group it means that group will only display products from the OS(es) explicitly selected for that group.

Ignored Groups:

• You can set a group to "Ignored", which will prevent it from notifying you of version updates. You may wish to do this if you are creating it to make a public group page for discussion, so you may not care about version numbers, for example.

The My KVR Button

Most product names / boxes now have a My KVR button near or in them – this offers direct access to group management for the product. Click this button and an interface will pop-up allowing you to add or remove the product from your groups. In most cases, next to the My KVR button is a star – this offers direct Favourite / Unfavourite functionality – if it's greyed out the product is not in your Favourites group; if it's yellow it is in your Favourites group.

The My KVR button is blue if the product is in ANY of your groups. If not, it is white.

Product Versions

For any product that is in any of your groups you can view its latest version number and "your" version number on the product's page at KVR, in the associated My KVR pop-up and, of course, in the main My KVR area. If you have not set a version number it will show a "?".

To edit your version number simply click it and enter a new one. Or, you can sync it to the current version by clicking the sync button.

NOTE: At KVR we try to keep product version numbers in the KVR database up to date and accurate. But, for complete accuracy and speed, we encourage developers to do it themselves – several hundred already do this! Thanks! We encourage those who have not yet taken advantage of this feature to sign up and take control here.

Direct Downloads

If a direct download for the latest version / update is available, a Download button should be present next to the version numbers (Developers, to make this button appear please ensure you enter the URL to the download in the relevant OS Direct Download link in your Developer Control Area).

Favourite Developers

When you add a product to a group, the product's developer is automatically "favourited" in a special "Favourite Developers" group. You can manually add or remove a developer from this group by clicking the star icon next to the developer's name (in various parts of KVR).

Favourited Developers can also have email notifications, similar to groups (see below). The default when a developer is favourited is "As It Happens": "News About", "Comment Posted" and "Video Posted".

When a developer is favourited you open up a potential communication channel with the developer. If the developer has registered for access to the KVR Developer Control area of KVR, where they can manage their product listings, add videos, submit news items, etc., you will be able to send direct messages to them via the My KVR Messages section and they will be able to respond directly.

The same developer will also be able to see stats on their products added to My KVR groups by KVR members. They will be able to see KVR usernames of anyone who has added one of their products to a group.

They may also use this to send direct messages to you regarding promotions for their products.

NOTE: Once you unfavourite a developer they will not be automagically re-favourited if you subsequently add another of their product's to a group – it will respect that you've decided to unfavourite them. You can of course manually re-favourite them.

Notifications (Groups)

You can be notified of updates when you visit KVR and also by email.

• Email: You can set email notifications for your groups. Favourites is set to email you by default. You can change this. You can set the frequency of emails (As It Happens, Daily Summary and Weekly Summary) and you can choose what you want to be notified about:
  • News About.
  • News (sounds for product).
  • Version Update.
  • Bank Upload.
  • Review Posted.
  • Comment Posted.
  • Video Posted.
• In Page: Any group that isn't ignored will notify you when you visit KVR. The member bar (near the top right on every page) will show if there are any updates available for your products / groups.

Group Pages (Public)

[NOTE: The Group Pages referred to below are not yet live – they will be back again ASAP]

It is possible to set a group you've created as "Public", which allows any KVR visitor to see what is in that group via its Group Page. You can create the description for the group – perhaps to explain why you created the group and why it contains what it does - "the best reverbs for drums" for example. This is another reason why you may want to ignore versions in a group – if you are creating it to make a public group page for discussion you may not care about version numbers, for example.

KVR members will be able to clone the group, or add all items within it to one of their groups should they wish to (this won't affect your group of course). KVR members can also comment on / discuss the group.

NOTE: The KVR default groups are public and cannot be changed to private – their public page simply shows a summary of what's in them. So, the "Favourites" group is essentially the most popular products at KVR. The "I Want This" group is essentially the Most Wanted at KVR, etc.

Avatar

One final feature is the ability to upload an avatar image. It will appear in various places on the KVR website, including your profile, your My KVR Messages, any public group pages you create, under your name in any post you make in the KVR forum, next to your name in any comment you post below a product or developer listing, etc. Click the faceless KVR guy on the My KVR page to upload yours.

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Start using My KVR Now.

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All aspects of My KVR can be discussed in the My KVR Beta Forum. If you have issues please explain them clearly and detail which web browser and OS you are using. My KVR has been tested with the latest Firefox, Chrome and Safari releases and IE10. IE9 should be OK, IE8, probably. IE7, not a chance.

Please be aware that there is "work in progress" and things may be tweaked, fixed, added or removed over the next few weeks as everything shakes out. The avatar images, for example, do not currently appear everywhere they should (e.g. profile pages)...