FORUMS UPGRADES

[TheRebricker]

All, I plan to be running upgrades to the forums tonight. If you come along and they are down, it should be for less than an hour. Things will look a little different, but all in all should be the same. If you have problems with the upgrades, or notice a problem send me a PM. I expect a couple growing pains, but the benefits will far outweigh the challenges as we grow.

I appreciate your patience as we work out the kinks...

[TheRebricker]

I'll be captain obvious here: Upgrade is complete. I expect there to be some tweaking of settings etc, but everything should be intact.

Use this thread to note any issues you notice, questions you have or features you just wish existed. I'll keep an eye on it and address them as best I can.

[Bricksky]

What are the benefits exactly?

[TheRebricker]

I'll list the more obvious ones here:

• This is the latest version of the system and thus has the latest security measures available in place.
• When a new user registers for the forums they will first be vetted for past spamming infractions through StopForumSpam.com
• When a new user registers they will be asked what themes they collect or enjoy building. This will help us weed out the bots from the people.
• When clicking on a link in a post, if it's not on our site, it will open in a new window. (YAY) If you don't like this though you can choose to change it by going to you User Control Panel -> Board Preferences -> Edit Global Settigns -> At the bottom, set open link in new window to no.
• If you post in a forum and you later post again (within 3 hours) and no one has posted since, your posts will be merged and a note will automatically state when the additional post was added.
• A calendar component is now embedded in the site and events will be listed at the top such as meeting dates, shows, AFOL days etc. RSVP'ing for these events will be MUCH easier.
• The site now sizes down for mobile devices better.
• Ability to CENTER text in a forum post using BBCode.
• New BBCode

  Code: Select all

  [LegoSet]42009-1[/LegoSet]

  will allow you to display the image of a set and a link to it's BrickSet page.
• New BBCode

  Code: Select all

  [LegoPart]4200[/LegoPart]

  will allow you to display a part with an automatic link to BrickLink part info.
• New BBCode

  Code: Select all

  [LegoElement]663626[/LegoElement]

  will allow you to display an exact Lego element (color specific) if you know the element ID
• New BBCode

  Code: Select all

  [YouTube]https://youtu.be/videoID[/YouTube]

  will display an inframe YouTube video. Use this wisely or it will be disabled.

Less obvious ones:

• Adding new functionality is much easier.
• This gives us a chance to clean up old code and free up server space (not that it's an issue yet)
• Cleaned up permissions and groups. Making it easier for future administration

[Lettuce]

Looks good so far!

[asfourfa]

Excellent! Many thanks for the upgrade :)

Question: Is there a shortcut for our bookmarks?

[chump]

Not really keen on red as the unread (ah... maybe that's why you chose it) post colour. It's a little jarring. Of course, that's a very unpatriotic thing to say on Canada Day.

[jeffrose]

Congrats on the successful upgrade Jason.

Takes a bit of getting used to, but overall I think it's a much needed improvement. And the ability to easily update as things change in the future will make your life a lot easier.

[TheRebricker]

Trying out another change. When you are in Public facing forums the theme will be Green. At this time the remaining forums will remain blue. Let me know if that helps differentiate when posting.

Added in 6 minutes 10 seconds:
There was a request to be able to center some text.

That functionality now exists.

It was mostly for prettier formatting for meeting minutes etc, so use it appropriately please.

[Kyler]

Fantastic job on all the upgrades!!

[TheRebricker]

Thanks Kyler, Jeff, John, Fadi and Lettuce!

Still tweaking the system though. So keep the wishlist coming and I will see what I can do.

Added in 2 minutes 35 seconds:

Excellent! Many thanks for the upgrade

Question: Is there a shortcut for our bookmarks?

I assume you are looking for the proper shortcut so you can bookmark the forums? that would be http://vlc.ca/forums

[Bricksky]

Trying out another change. When you are in Public facing forums the theme will be Green. At this time the remaining forums will remain blue. Let me know if that helps differentiate when posting.

*note: not sure why my quote above is not showing properly... hmmm...

I like it. Is it also possible to then make the 'Public Announcements' and 'Public Forums' title bars on the Board Index page the same green? Then I feel it will have a more consist feel, as the color will follow viewers as they click into these areas.

[TheRebricker]

Trying out another change. When you are in Public facing forums the theme will be Green. At this time the remaining forums will remain blue. Let me know if that helps differentiate when posting.

*note: not sure why my quote above is not showing properly... hmmm...

I like it. Is it also possible to then make the 'Public Announcements' and 'Public Forums' title bars on the Board Index page the same green? Then I feel it will have a more consist feel, as the color will follow viewers as they click into these areas.

I'd love to, but there doesn't appear to be a way at this time. I will keep digging into it though as I agree with your reasoning.

Added in 3 minutes 38 seconds:
Why your quote wasn't working:

There is a checkbox when posting that says "Disable BBCode" That will prevent things like "Quote" from parsing into a proper quote. I cleaned that up for you.

Added in 41 minutes 34 seconds:
Also BrickSky, I have been trying to change the date format in the header calendar but I can't seem to be able to modify it. I even modified the source code and it still shows day month year, so I'm not sure what's going on there... will keep at it.

[Bricksky]

[quote="TheRebricker"]There is a checkbox when posting that says "Disable BBCode" That will prevent things like "Quote" from parsing into a proper quote. I cleaned that up for you. :)[/quote]

I dont see any checkbox for BBCode. I do see a statement to the right of my text edit box indicating "BBCode is OFF", but I have no way to enable it. It also says "Smilies are OFF" :(

No checkbox for me.

[TheRebricker]

Try one more time.... I think it should be fixed now. Seems the forum permissions were messed up. I might just re-deploy permissions and clean up the hierarchy soon.

Added in 51 minutes 39 seconds:
It seems there was a major problem with our permissions in the forums. I have been working to properly restore them. If you are missing access to something you should have access to, please PM me.

[Bricksky]

Try one more time.... I think it should be fixed now. Seems the forum permissions were messed up. I might just re-deploy permissions and clean up the hierarchy soon.

Yayy! Whatever you did worked, I can see that BBCode is ON and I have my Smilies back!

[TheRebricker]

Oh good! Let me know if anything else seems awry.

[Bricksky]

Didn't their use to be an option to show active forum topics? Can we get that back?

Note: This is different from the button that shows just NEW POSTS, which also appears to only show posts where users have unread or recently read entries.

[TheRebricker]

Yes, in the top left corner (left of "home") there is a button with 3 horizontal lines, it's in there.

"New Posts" are posts that are new since you last logged in.
"Unread Posts" (found in the menu) are posts that you have not read and will always show up until you read them or mark them read.
"Active Topics" (found in the menu) are threads that are deemed active.

Hopefully this helps. You are not the first to ask about this.

[TheRebricker]

Also BrickSky, I have been trying to change the date format in the header calendar but I can't seem to be able to modify it. I even modified the source code and it still shows day month year, so I'm not sure what's going on there... will keep at it.

So we have success. Dates in the calendar above are now Month.Day.Year!

I hope that helps. I was looking into having month written out, but that can cause spacing issues. I will look at what other options I have. Perhaps: 4 Jul 16 or something might also work. (Shorten year to 2 digits to get space)

Ideas? Or good the way it is?

[Bricksky]

I was looking into having month written out, but that can cause spacing issues. I will look at what other options I have. Perhaps: 4 Jul 16 or something might also work. (Shorten year to 2 digits to get space)

Ideas? Or good the way it is?

Thanks. It looks good, I can get my head around it now, with no confusion. The short format you suggested would work too.

[Kyler]

Also BrickSky, I have been trying to change the date format in the header calendar but I can't seem to be able to modify it. I even modified the source code and it still shows day month year, so I'm not sure what's going on there... will keep at it.

So we have success. Dates in the calendar above are now Month.Day.Year!

I hope that helps. I was looking into having month written out, but that can cause spacing issues. I will look at what other options I have. Perhaps: 4 Jul 16 or something might also work. (Shorten year to 2 digits to get space)

Ideas? Or good the way it is?

Ack, why the change? (I searched 'date' in this thread and didn't see any requests for such.)

As a programmer, I'd have figured you'd be all over the yyyy.mm.dd format that sorts automatically.
I've never understood how mm.dd.yyyy can be so popular in North America when it can lead to so much confusion (when the day is 12 or less).
mm.ddd.yyyy is a completely different story and also perfectly acceptable (because it's clear which number is the day).

So I vote for yyyy.mm.dd or dd.mmm.yyyy
Just my two cents.

[TheRebricker]

Ack, why the change? (I searched 'date' in this thread and didn't see any requests for such.)

As a programmer, I'd have figured you'd be all over the yyyy.mm.dd format that sorts automatically.
I've never understood how mm.dd.yyyy can be so popular in North America when it can lead to so much confusion (when the day is 12 or less).
mm.ddd.yyyy is a completely different story and also perfectly acceptable (because it's clear which number is the day).

So I vote for yyyy.mm.dd or dd.mmm.yyyy
Just my two cents.

Oh I agree! Perhaps that is why Americans didn't build the pyramids. Largest should always come first. Anyways, since this calendar is not something I developed, I can only make minor modifications before I break it. That said, I've now changed the date to eliminate all ambiguity. This should prevent confusion from all capable users.

Note: We have nothing booked bast the year 2100 and nothing from the past is being show here so the short year can be assumed it is from today and up to 99 years in the future.

[Kyler]

Oh I agree! Perhaps that is why Americans didn't build the pyramids.

Note: We have nothing booked bast the year 2100 and nothing from the past is being show here so the short year can be assumed it is from today and up to 99 years in the future.

Yeah, that'll probably help for those viewing on mobile devices (where space is limited).

[timtosino]

For some reason whenever I come to the forums I'm never auto-logged in. I always click it every time I login to auto-login next time but it never works. Is it something with Chrome?