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SoapBox gets a makeover

By David Lao

SoapBox has given its anonymous idea-sharing platform a complete makeover, remodelling the entire software from scratch.

The new program went online for Ryerson students to use on Feb. 3.

“It has been redesigned with a completely different infrastructure. We’ve completely built it in a different development process than we normally would use,” said Susan Tran, SoapBox’s client success manager. “Everything has changed in the last 12 months.”

SoapBox was first launched for Ryerson in August 2012. The platform is accessed through the my.ryerson portal and allows students to voice their concerns or ideas over a specific topic. The idea is then looked over and resolved if the concern is found to be a popular one among other users.

Some of the new features that Ryerson students can now take advantage of are mentioning individuals by typing “@” before their name, as well as seeing what peers are voting and commenting on through public profi les.

Leaderboards of who has the most ideas and offi cial responses will also be functional. Users will be able to follow ideas and people to stay updated on specific proposals.

“Most of our new features our clients love right now because it’s a direct build from something they told us they wanted,” said Tran.

SoapBox’s prior technology lacked scalability – a program’s ability to handle updates and adjust to growing system demands.

According to Tran, SoapBox’s scalability, or lack there of, was one of the main reasons why the changes were being implemented.

More updates are planned to be released accordingly.

“There’s a lot more features coming out, and next year you’re going to see a lot of new things pushed, tons of new features” said Tran. “That’s the future of Soap Box.”

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