Forum Update Today
- Thread starter ben
- Start date
andrewparkeruk
A2OC Donor
Thanks @ben: I know how to spell it: unfortunately I can't control other people's browser settings.
Seriously though, another forum I use had a commercial difficulty with a company which was exploiting the forum's copyright. The forum software which that site uses transcribes the offending company's name "Airflo" to "Barstool"
Andrew
ajsellors
A2OC Donor
Hi,
in the old software there used to be an "attachment manager" which showed all the files (i.e. pictures) I had uploaded and attached to posts. That allowed me to include the same image in more than one post if I needed to reply to a thread referencing a picture I had already uploaded. I have just posted to a thread and wanted to include a picture I had previously posted but could not find how to select an existing picture uploaded (in the old software) so I had to upload it again.
I have seen that there is "Your media" but that only seems to show pictures in the gallery and not pictures attached to posts. Is there a way to re-use pictures attached to posts or do they have to be uploaded new each time they are used?
regards
Andrew
in the old software there used to be an "attachment manager" which showed all the files (i.e. pictures) I had uploaded and attached to posts. That allowed me to include the same image in more than one post if I needed to reply to a thread referencing a picture I had already uploaded. I have just posted to a thread and wanted to include a picture I had previously posted but could not find how to select an existing picture uploaded (in the old software) so I had to upload it again.
I have seen that there is "Your media" but that only seems to show pictures in the gallery and not pictures attached to posts. Is there a way to re-use pictures attached to posts or do they have to be uploaded new each time they are used?
regards
Andrew
ben
Administrator
You would have to upload all your content to the Media section. Then use the embed Media option. I’ll see if anyone had made an add-on to address this.
PS. Seems this is a common request:
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/view-pictures-across-site-on-media-gallery.86871/page-3
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ben
Administrator
I don’t think the Signature editor allows this. You need to know the URL when using images. Or use the Embed option as described in previous post to embed from your own Media.
Suggest users create their own categories and tags of their media to simplify such management.
ben
Administrator
Evening. I've updated the forum software to the latest release. See here for release notes:
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-2-0-2-released.142133/
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-media-gallery-2-0-2-released.142139/
Let me know if you spot any issues.
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-2-0-2-released.142133/
https://xenforo.com/community/threads/xenforo-media-gallery-2-0-2-released.142139/
Let me know if you spot any issues.
Birchall
Dick Chown Award 2016
Hi Ben,
Lately I have been using google (or similar) to search for A2 related entries and when I find one that has a link to the archive, I am getting "not found" messages?
Is this going to be the case now that we have moved the data? The link states "Archive" and so I would have thought it would work?
It is great finding a link that will help, but when that link is no longer working it can be disappointing.
Is there anything we can do please?
For example google gives me the following link Intermittent fault [Archive] - Audi A2 Owners' Club
I click on it and I get
Lately I have been using google (or similar) to search for A2 related entries and when I find one that has a link to the archive, I am getting "not found" messages?
Is this going to be the case now that we have moved the data? The link states "Archive" and so I would have thought it would work?
It is great finding a link that will help, but when that link is no longer working it can be disappointing.
Is there anything we can do please?
For example google gives me the following link Intermittent fault [Archive] - Audi A2 Owners' Club
I click on it and I get
ben
Administrator
I've added redirects for these legacy archive locations.
timmus
A2OC Donor
Hi Ben,
First of all, many thanks for the ridiculous amounts of effort you must have invested in migrating the forum software. I can't begin to imagine all the technical challenges involved. All in all, things appear to have gone smoothly with minimal inconvenience to anyone; very well done and big thanks again.
Now that I've had a little time to play with the new platform, there are many things that I like about it. The PMs system is so much better - we can have group conversations, attachments are easy, etc, etc. I also find the public forum very intuitive, all the options are easy to find, etc. I also love that it's almost impossible to accidentally lose what you've just typed but not yet submitted. Whilst typing this, I can click on a link, hit 'back' and find all my drafted text just sitting there. Excellent!
However, whilst I wish there wasn't a 'but', there are a few areas that perhaps still need some thought...
1) A lot of my posts are linked together, and a lot of those links no longer work. As an example, Post 51 of the TDI120 thread (found here: https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/tdi120-my-new-engine.32986/page-3#post-281761) contains a link to the all-alloy intercooler thread. The link, of course, is to the URL of the old vB forum (www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?33015). This no longer works.
Another example is this post: https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/service-offered-colour-dis.32161/page-3#post-289153
It also contains links to other posts within the same thread, and to posts within other threads. Again, these links no longer work.
Whilst I'm not overly bothered about those particular links, my 5000ish posts frequently contain links to other threads and posts by myself and other members. These links were placed to help stitch information together. It seems the forum is now riddled with broken links and dead ends, which is a great shame for anyone who tries to research a particular topic. Is there anything that can be done to automate the recovery of such links, or must they all be manually restored? The problem is that, with a broken link, it's almost impossible to know what they once pointed to.
2) Searching with Google seems to have gone from being the best way to navigate the forum to being fairly useless.
For example, if you search Google for 'A2OC MFSW Fitted', you should find a thread by our member Typ 8Z that discusses the conversion from a standard 4-spoke steering wheel to an equivalent multifunction wheel (this thread: https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/mfsw-fitted.26888/). Surely enough, Google appears to finds the thread I'm looking for, but clicking the links take me elsewhere. One link goes to a thread about knocking suspension and the other goes to a thread about roof bars. Again, how can this be fixed?
Similiarly, if you search Google for 'A2OC CCCU Replacement', Google returns a link to my thread about this topic ...except the link is dead and returns a 'the requested document was not found on this server' error.
I'm concerned that, for a lot of average people who use Google to help resolve problems with their A2, A2OC is no longer the easily accessible database that it used to be. I realise that all the examples I've used so far relate to my threads and, in some cases, my services, but they're just the examples known to me. My CCCU replacement thread details all the problems that arise from a failed CCCU - interior lights, boot/fuel release, alarm, central locking, electric windows, etc - and then spells out clearly what the problems is. I know it's helped people in Romania, in Italy, in Spain, in Finland, etc to banish the demons from their A2. They found the thread by Googling their car's symptoms. Yes, the thread then proceeds to outline the details of my service, but I care most of all about this information being accessible to everyone and keeping A2s on the road. Do we know what's happened here?
3) Whilst this seems like a minor issue, we appear to have lost almost all the 'likes' from posts made prior to the forum software upgrade. Is it possible for these to be carried across? I know some people won't care, but I used to get a great sense of satsifaction from posting something that was heavily 'liked', even if it didn't garner much written response; it was nice to know that my contribution was appreciated.
Sorry to raise my head out of nowhere and appear to be whinging, but I'm not; I just want to help to get things right following a major step change.
Warm regards,
Tom
First of all, many thanks for the ridiculous amounts of effort you must have invested in migrating the forum software. I can't begin to imagine all the technical challenges involved. All in all, things appear to have gone smoothly with minimal inconvenience to anyone; very well done and big thanks again.
Now that I've had a little time to play with the new platform, there are many things that I like about it. The PMs system is so much better - we can have group conversations, attachments are easy, etc, etc. I also find the public forum very intuitive, all the options are easy to find, etc. I also love that it's almost impossible to accidentally lose what you've just typed but not yet submitted. Whilst typing this, I can click on a link, hit 'back' and find all my drafted text just sitting there. Excellent!
However, whilst I wish there wasn't a 'but', there are a few areas that perhaps still need some thought...
1) A lot of my posts are linked together, and a lot of those links no longer work. As an example, Post 51 of the TDI120 thread (found here: https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/tdi120-my-new-engine.32986/page-3#post-281761) contains a link to the all-alloy intercooler thread. The link, of course, is to the URL of the old vB forum (www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?33015). This no longer works.
Another example is this post: https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/service-offered-colour-dis.32161/page-3#post-289153
It also contains links to other posts within the same thread, and to posts within other threads. Again, these links no longer work.
Whilst I'm not overly bothered about those particular links, my 5000ish posts frequently contain links to other threads and posts by myself and other members. These links were placed to help stitch information together. It seems the forum is now riddled with broken links and dead ends, which is a great shame for anyone who tries to research a particular topic. Is there anything that can be done to automate the recovery of such links, or must they all be manually restored? The problem is that, with a broken link, it's almost impossible to know what they once pointed to.
2) Searching with Google seems to have gone from being the best way to navigate the forum to being fairly useless.
For example, if you search Google for 'A2OC MFSW Fitted', you should find a thread by our member Typ 8Z that discusses the conversion from a standard 4-spoke steering wheel to an equivalent multifunction wheel (this thread: https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/mfsw-fitted.26888/). Surely enough, Google appears to finds the thread I'm looking for, but clicking the links take me elsewhere. One link goes to a thread about knocking suspension and the other goes to a thread about roof bars. Again, how can this be fixed?
Similiarly, if you search Google for 'A2OC CCCU Replacement', Google returns a link to my thread about this topic ...except the link is dead and returns a 'the requested document was not found on this server' error.
I'm concerned that, for a lot of average people who use Google to help resolve problems with their A2, A2OC is no longer the easily accessible database that it used to be. I realise that all the examples I've used so far relate to my threads and, in some cases, my services, but they're just the examples known to me. My CCCU replacement thread details all the problems that arise from a failed CCCU - interior lights, boot/fuel release, alarm, central locking, electric windows, etc - and then spells out clearly what the problems is. I know it's helped people in Romania, in Italy, in Spain, in Finland, etc to banish the demons from their A2. They found the thread by Googling their car's symptoms. Yes, the thread then proceeds to outline the details of my service, but I care most of all about this information being accessible to everyone and keeping A2s on the road. Do we know what's happened here?
3) Whilst this seems like a minor issue, we appear to have lost almost all the 'likes' from posts made prior to the forum software upgrade. Is it possible for these to be carried across? I know some people won't care, but I used to get a great sense of satsifaction from posting something that was heavily 'liked', even if it didn't garner much written response; it was nice to know that my contribution was appreciated.
Sorry to raise my head out of nowhere and appear to be whinging, but I'm not; I just want to help to get things right following a major step change.
Warm regards,
Tom
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Hi Tom and welcome back mate.
I'm sure Ben will reply to your points, but in the interim I recall 'Likes' from the pre-updated software, point 3, are on the To-Do list. Ben has rightly focussed on stabilisation and snagging first and foremost and is working his way through things.
Cheers,
Darren
I'm sure Ben will reply to your points, but in the interim I recall 'Likes' from the pre-updated software, point 3, are on the To-Do list. Ben has rightly focussed on stabilisation and snagging first and foremost and is working his way through things.
Cheers,
Darren
Birchall
Dick Chown Award 2016
We are not carrying over “likes” from the old forum are we? I think it is much better to let everyone start at zero as we have done. That seems fair surely?
Steve B
I recall it was on Ben's list. I'm not sure I understand your point regarding fairness Steve.
Edit: see photo of post 3.
ben
Administrator
Hey Tom. Thanks for the feedback.
- I should be able to sort out the link redirects from the old site. I’ll use your examples to help.
- The above fix should sort out the Google links. However one of the side effects of the new user upgrade policy is that Google bots probably won’t have access to new content. I’ll need to investigate further to determine if we can enable read only access to the bots. But may be a reason to discuss with the admin team.
- All the old likes are still available, but I need to write a tool to migrate them to the new software. Unfortunately the previous like mechanism was not core vBulletin functionality. So, the content importer didn’t pull them in. And the way the new software stores likes is encoded on each DB post entry. It’ll have to wait until I have a spare afternoon. I’m travelling to Kiev next week, so have a couple of 4 hour flights to do some work.
ajsellors
A2OC Donor
Hi,
I noticed the Google oddity too. Looking at the example above "MFSW Fitted!", the Google cache looks like it has the page from the new site with the correct content for the search hit:
The date of the snapshot is 23rd December last year. Going to the URL however gives a different page. The reason for this is that the forum software is doing a redirect to a different page URL containing a different thread:
The forum software is going by the thread number as a priority to the human readable text. When it sees thread 25622, it shows that thread, which happens to be about roof bars not steering wheels.
The problem looks like that initially, the content in the new software was incorrect with the wrong thread numbers. The MFSW thread should be number 26888. This was the number in the old forum software and now today is the same number in the new. Google however indexed the page when the thread number was wrong and although this has now been corrected, it doesn't think the page has changed and so holds invalid information. The problem lies with Google's.
MFSW thread in old forum software, number 26888:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170922085243/www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?26888-MFSW-fitted!
The same thread in the new software:
https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/mfsw-fitted.26888/
When Google corrects the search index the problem will go away.
regards
Andrew
I noticed the Google oddity too. Looking at the example above "MFSW Fitted!", the Google cache looks like it has the page from the new site with the correct content for the search hit:
The date of the snapshot is 23rd December last year. Going to the URL however gives a different page. The reason for this is that the forum software is doing a redirect to a different page URL containing a different thread:
The forum software is going by the thread number as a priority to the human readable text. When it sees thread 25622, it shows that thread, which happens to be about roof bars not steering wheels.
The problem looks like that initially, the content in the new software was incorrect with the wrong thread numbers. The MFSW thread should be number 26888. This was the number in the old forum software and now today is the same number in the new. Google however indexed the page when the thread number was wrong and although this has now been corrected, it doesn't think the page has changed and so holds invalid information. The problem lies with Google's.
MFSW thread in old forum software, number 26888:
https://web.archive.org/web/20170922085243/www.a2oc.net/forum/showthread.php?26888-MFSW-fitted!
The same thread in the new software:
https://www.a2oc.net/community/index.php?threads/mfsw-fitted.26888/
When Google corrects the search index the problem will go away.
regards
Andrew
Birchall
Dick Chown Award 2016
We have plenty of new members so starting from zero doesn’t seem to be bad in any way? and even though the “likes” don’t count for much (other than it is nice to get one) I am not sure why historical ones matter much.
I see the “like” option as a polite “thank you”. So I am not sure what purpose the number of likes serve?
Steve B