New forum software (v3.7.0) - comments, questions & problems

[John Stone]

The new hardware and software upgrades have been completed!

This thread is specifically for comments, questions & problems related to the new forum software.

Any questions or comments about the new hardware or general comments that are not directly related to the forum software should go in the existing JSF Upgrade Thread.

There are large number of new features in this version of the forum software. I encourage you to look around, play with settings, explore and have fun.

If you get stuck or want to bone up on the new features, please read the following:

- Help with General Forum Usage, User Profile Features, Reading Messages and Posting Messages
- Help with blogs


Most features are available to all users, however some features are enhanced for members with upgraded accounts. A few features are only available to paying members. Please see the next post for details on this subject.

Thanks, have fun and enjoy!

[John Stone]

One of the things I had to do was figure out if any of the new features should be for paying members only.

Obviously without the paying members none of this would have been possible, so that was one consideration.

Another consideration is my number one goal is to keep this forum as conducive as possible to allowing ALL members/visitors--paying or not--to reach their goals.

With those two thoughts in mind, I think I've struck a nice balance. Those who don't want to upgrade their membership will not be missing out on any features that I feel would be useful for reaching their goals, and the paying members will get some cool perks as a way of saying "thanks".

In short:

-- All members will be able to create blogs. I feel this is something that is important, and I don't feel comfortable "charging" for it.

-- All members will be able to create customized profiles and their own photo galleries. Paying members will be allowed to post far more pictures than non-paying members, however.

-- Bronze+ members can create their own social groups, and will also therefore become moderators of these groups. I need to be able to trust that the creators of social groups will moderate them in accordance with the JSF rules. Restricting who can create the groups by membership level is a fairly reasonable filter.

-- Bronze+ members will now be able to use animated avatars, profile pictures and signature photos.

Of course all this is in addition to the current supporting member packages. For complete details, please see this page.

There may be additional features added for paying members as I better learn the features of the new software.

[dkmahkee]

looks cool so far! Thanks for doing such a great job with the site John!

[bigmex44]

Great job John! Thanks for all the updates! For most part pretty smooth. When I "Reply" to a message, the window is slow opening up.

Also, before we used to have a "HOME" option when in the Forums. It looks like it got replaced by "BLOG". Is there another way to get to the Home forums page once I am in thread?

[docutech]

Originally Posted by bigmex44

Great job John! Thanks for all the updates! For most part pretty smooth. When I "Reply" to a message, the window is slow opening up.

Also, before we used to have a "HOME" option when in the Forums. It looks like it got replaced by "BLOG". Is there another way to get to the Home forums page once I am in thread?

X2

Cant go "home"

[Ectomorphic]

New toys, awesome.

Ever since you mentioned the social groups thing I've been thinking about a "By Skinny Bastards, For Skinny Bastards" group. I feel like the small fish in the big pond with all these big, buff meso and endo people walking around. We skinny people are an endangered species and need out our little wildlife refuge. But seriously, it'd be awesome to be able to collect them into one easily identifiable group.

For the other guys, try clicking on the logo at the top of every page. That's what I do. It goes back to the index page for the forums.

[dkmahkee]

Originally Posted by docutech

X2

Cant go "home"

I noticed that too, I got used to clicking on "Home"

However, if you just click on the logo for the site it does the same thing

[badgolfer]

Originally Posted by bigmex44

Also, before we used to have a "HOME" option when in the Forums. It looks like it got replaced by "BLOG". Is there another way to get to the Home forums page once I am in thread?

I used that button a lot as well. I started clicking the "tree" at the top of every thread to get back to the forum front page. It may be confusing for some people.

[John Stone]

Originally Posted by dkmahkee

However, if you just click on the logo for the site it does the same thing

Yep, much bigger target, too.

You'll get used to it.

[woodan]

Can we get the "new posts" button back?

[John Stone]

Originally Posted by woodan

Can we get the "new posts" button back?

It's there, they moved it to the "search" button.

[woodan]

Originally Posted by John Stone

It's there, they moved it to the "search" button.

Aha! Those sneaky devils.

[digitalnebula]

Good stuff John. You really take care of us!

I'm proud to be a platinum supporter!

This fall...lifetime baby!

[Seltzer]

Thanks John!

[Archistrategos]

BTW if anyone's smiley buttons, etc. stopped working, you need to allow scripts from yui.yahooapis.com

See here:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showp...7&postcount=20


Forums load noticeably faster from my end, John!

[guava]

It looks the same as before. I'm so relieved.

Originally Posted by John Stone

It's there, they moved it to the "search" button.

There's a link for Quicklinks > View Today's Posts
but if I hit it, it says I must wait 30 seconds if I try to click on it.

Is this some kind of cookies/refresh issue?

Edit: Also, the one under "search" is doing the same thing for me right now.

I skimmed through the help files, but I couldn't find an answer.
Is there a difference between a contact and a friend.

Computer illiterate.

[John Stone]

Originally Posted by guava

There's a link for Quicklinks > View Today's Posts
but if I hit it, it says I must wait 30 seconds if I try to click on it.

Is this some kind of cookies/refresh issue?

Computer illiterate.

The forum requires that you wait 30 seconds between searches, so that's what's happening there (all those "today's posts" and "new posts" type-links are really just predefined searches).

Actually, that is a leftover setting from the old system. Searches are very CPU-intensive, and they were starting to really kill overall performance on the old hardware.

Based on what I'm seeing now (the web server is practically asleep even with 600+ people on ), I can probably safely decrease that timeout to 10 seconds. Consider it done.

[John Stone]

It's wonderful to read so many positive comments about the upgrades. This has been one heck of a large undertaking, and there were a lot of hurdles to overcome. It's very satisfying to see my plans finally come to fruition.

Thanks to all of you who made this possible.

[guava]

Originally Posted by John Stone

Based on what I'm seeing now (the web server is practically asleep even with 600+ people on ), I can probably safely decrease that timeout to 10 seconds. Consider it done.

Nice!

But it's been about 10 minutes since my last search, and I'm still getting the warning.

This forum requires that you wait 10 seconds between searches. Please try again in 10 seconds.

both from under the Quicklinks Today's Posts link (which still appears), and under the search bar (which has Today's Posts and New Posts options).

(However, I have a link on a self-created home page on my computer, and whatever link is in there works fine. )

[geopro]

Yes!! I agree!! I would love the "New Posts" button back too!!