Forum software update

ben

ben

Administrator
Ukraine
Hi folks,

I'm planning on upgrading our forum software to the latest version this coming weekend. The site will be down at some stage for an hour or two. If anyone is interested in exactly what the new software will give us, have a look here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=268833

I'll be looking to move our existing image gallery into the new out-of-the-box image gallery - this might happen at a later stage though.

Ben
 
Hi,

The new forum software is now in place. Some of the new features of interest include user social groups, inline spam management, thread tagging, thread prefixes, public messaging between users, user image galleries, image attachment improvements, post edit history and thread bookmarking.

I haven't created any new themes yet - this'll probably have to be a Christmas task...

There may be issues/missing images - if so send me a PM or reply here and I'll fix it.

Note the googlemap and image galleries need to be ported - I'll try and do this over the rest of the weekend.

Ben.
 
ben said:
I've doubled it to 8 - let me know if you think you need more...
Click to expand...

Good work Ben - just logged on so haven't noticed the new features yet but the normal functions are working just fine.

Is there any way the size of images shown within the thread can be limited in width and height. Recently some pics have been posted that one cannot see in their entirety as they run off the right hand edge.

I appreciate that this might a little difficult if it's dependent on what screen resolution users have set.
 
Hi,

If the image is added as an attachment, then it should work as the attached image. If someone simply includes an external image inline, then it's not as easy to enforce. I'll have another look at the plugin that Erstens recommended previously for doing client-side rescaling of inline images... (I was hoping the new version of the software would do this).

Ben
 
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So does this mean that the front page will be revised? As posts from 2006 for flyers and window stickers pages are very stale and out of date.

Something new would be nice:rolleyes:

Rolling gallery images so every time you refresh the home page a differnet gallery image appears, club news, social events, anything to be honest is better that 2 year old messages...
 
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Fair point. I've capped the Announcements forum to the last 3 months and added the Social forum to the list of news items to display on the front page. I'll also try to monitor threads and move them into socials/announcements where appropriate. I'll reintroduce the random gallery images too (although I'll need to rewrite this as we changed gallery software last year).

Update: image re-sizer now in place - let me know if you experience any problems. Note that as it is a function of your web-browser to resize the images - they'll initially appear full size until all of the image is loaded - only then will it be auto re-sized. You'll soon understand what I mean when you see a page load...

Ben.
 
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Hi Ben, Thanks for the seamless upgrade, great job, just a quick question, if I click on your avatar and go to your page there are a few of red X 's as if it has failed to download an image. It also happens on the bookmarks at the foot of the page, neither are problematic to the use and enjoyment of the site, :p, just observations
 
ben said:
Update: image re-sizer now in place
Click to expand...

many thanks Ben for swift action - I'll lookout for the changes.

Re the front page, to be honest I don't like the big images etc on the front page, meaning I have to page down to find the "» Recent Threads", especially if the content changes infrequently. The first thing I do when logging on is to see what are the recent threads.

What do others think?
 
Hi Alan,

The only reason those images are there are because they exist in a post in the Socials forum.

We have three options:

1) Strip images out of front-page forum posts.

2) Have a moderated announcements forum that is included on the home page - one of us can then check that the post is appropriate.

3) Loose the news & socials sections from the front page altogether - just have Recent threads - after all this is where most of the activity occurs.

I'll see if I can neaten things up. I'll also check out the broken image references and get them back in line.


Update - I've thinned down the news display and stripped out any images from the front page - remember you can always collapse the entire news section using the little icon on the right hand side. It'll remember its settings between logins too.
Ben
 
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ben said:
Update - I've thinned down the news display and stripped out any images from the front page - remember you can always collapse the entire news section using the little icon on the right hand side. It'll remember its settings between logins too.
Ben
Click to expand...

Hi Ben, front page is much better now. The 4 small gallery pictures are not overwhelming yet provide a quick view of potentially interesting pics. Also might encourage more people to upload. And I hadn't spotted the little icon in the top right corner of the pane. Most useful.

Many thanks for such quick action.
 
Great job on the new upgrade Ben
the home page looks refreshed and
some nice new features ....Nice One !!!!
 
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