Topic: New forum software

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Too much lavender or whatever that background color is.  My eyes start watering after a few minutes.  Can you darken it a bit?

[Andrew Wiskow]

heheh... boy Lance, you know we will nitpick this for awhile too   I hope our gripes are welcome and dont sound too whiny.

I don't want to come off sounding like I'm nitpicking...  It's just constructive criticism, and I'm sure Lance will take it that way.  In all, I like the new layout.  I gave it a "Yes" on the poll. 

Too much lavender or whatever that background color is.  My eyes start watering after a few minutes.  Can you darken it a bit?

Here here!  Dark!  Make it dark!  buahahahahahahaha 

-Andrew

[Blacklord]

Yeah, yeah - it'll all be fixed

[Blacklord]

On the old system, I had it set with a very dark theme with a black background.  There doesn't seem to be any way to do this now, unless I'm missing something?

No - I'm yet to install other themes.

Also...  No more country flags?  I thought that was a nice addition. 

Flag mod installed - add it in your profile.

cheers,

Lance

[jt-3d]

Thus far I like it. It could be a case of just liking it better than the old one. Of course I wasn't at the old one very long so there's not really anything for me to get used to here since I wasn't used to the old one.

[Andrew Wiskow]

Flag mod installed - add it in your profile.

Yippie! 

BTW - I noticed that we don't have the clickable smilies above the message editor anymore.  Is there a list somewhere of available smilies?  For example, I wanted to put the smilie with the devil horns next to my "buahahahaha" above, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.  On Lemon64, it's "::twisted::", but that didn't work here.

-Andrew

[Blacklord]

Flag mod installed - add it in your profile.

Yippie! 

BTW - I noticed that we don't have the clickable smilies above the message editor anymore.  Is there a list somewhere of available smilies?  For example, I wanted to put the smilie with the devil horns next to my "buahahahaha" above, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.  On Lemon64, it's "::twisted::", but that didn't work here.

-Andrew

I'll add the mod in.

cheers,

Lance

[Blacklord]

BTW - I noticed that we don't have the clickable smilies above the message editor anymore.  Is there a list somewhere of available smilies?  For example, I wanted to put the smilie with the devil horns next to my "buahahahaha" above, but I couldn't figure out how to do it.  On Lemon64, it's "::twisted::", but that didn't work here.

-Andrew

Restored - but I need to add more sets.

Lance

[OzOne]

Bloody hell Lance! What a change! I like it though!

[gklinger]

My thoughts on the new forum software:

1. The forum now displays real names rather than logins and it is proving more difficult to adjust to than I expected.

2. Avatars are down below all the other user information and that whole sidebar is way too busy.

3. Still no access to our old PMs.

4. The "Preview" function is borked. It shows a single line of the post and there's no scrollbar on the box so I can't see the rest of my post without clicking in the preview box and manually scrolling. Ugh.

Unfortunately I don't have anything positive to report as the above are tainting my experience.

[Blacklord]

My thoughts on the new forum software:

1. The forum now displays real names rather than logins and it is proving more difficult to adjust to than I expected.

Go into your profile & change your display name to fix this one.

2. Avatars are down below all the other user information and that whole sidebar is way too busy.

Noted - will work on this.

3. Still no access to our old PMs.

I can export these, as PM's weren't part of the 'core' PunBB installation they didn't come across on the import. This is a manual job, but can do & PM the flat text file across to you.

4. The "Preview" function is borked. It shows a single line of the post and there's no scrollbar on the box so I can't see the rest of my post without clicking in the preview box and manually scrolling. Ugh.

This one's odd, I'm not experiencing it on FF 2, anyone else having this problem ?

cheers,

Lance

[gklinger]

Go into your profile & change your display name to fix this one.

I know who I am.

I can export these, as PM's weren't part of the 'core' PunBB installation they didn't come across on the import. This is a manual job, but can do & PM the flat text file across to you.

That would be appreciated. I had a few I hadn't gotten around to replying to.

This one's odd, I'm not experiencing it on FF 2, anyone else having this problem ?

I'm running Safari v3.0.4.

[Blacklord]

Actually, you can retrieve 'em yourselves - the old forum is still here.

I've simply locked all the boards so no posting can be done.

cheers,

Lance

[BigDumbDinosaur]

Actually, you can retrieve 'em yourselves - the old forum is still here.

I've simply locked all the boards so no posting can be done.

cheers,

Lance

After using this for a few days I've decided that it isn't to my liking.  The colors are difficult for me (I have blue-green color blindness), the arrangement of the messages is confiusing, especially with scroll bars for longer messages, after a post I find myself  up one level from where I was, which means I have to renavigate to the subforum into which I had posted, the editing window for posting is too small -- there are other problems as well.  As far as I'm concerned, if this is going to be the forum software for the future I won't come back.

[Blacklord]

After using this for a few days I've decided that it isn't to my liking.  The colors are difficult for me (I have blue-green color blindness)

There are other themes that can be used (go to profile > look & layout preferences > current theme > change) - they can be previewed before changing. There will be others added.

As to the future, yes, I'll be using this software for a few reasons:

PunBB had a couple of major security holes that haven't been corrected (the old forum was hacked at least twice in the last month - no user details were taken I should point out).

This software allows easy mod integration & warns if one mod will conflict with another - PunBB  will happily break installed mods.

PunBB is shortly about to become closed-source.

As far as the editing window is concerned, I'm in partial agreement with you. However, this has a wider windows & punBB has a deeper window. I'll look at dropping in fckeditor (which is what I had added to PunBB) to restore the 'old' editor feel.

cheers,

Lance

[Blacklord]

after a post I find myself  up one level from where I was, which means I have to renavigate to the subforum into which I had posted

This is changeable in your profile :

Profile > Look & Layout > Return to topic after posting (unselect checkbox).

cheers,

Lance

[gklinger]

There are other themes that can be used (go to profile > look & layout preferences > current theme > change) - they can be previewed before changing. There will be others added.

I tried all the other themes and I found that functionality was lost. For example, most of the top links like members and downloads etc. weren't there. The themes appear to be more than just window dressing.
 
I'm not loving the new forum software at this point either but I think it's premature to judge because it always takes time to adjust to change. In Lance's defence, he's still getting things configured and the change was necessary. Besides, most of my objections are superficial. The people and the discussions are the same and that's what I'm here for.

[Blacklord]

There are other themes that can be used (go to profile > look & layout preferences > current theme > change) - they can be previewed before changing. There will be others added.

I tried all the other themes and I found that functionality was lost. For example, most of the top links like members and downloads etc. weren't there. The themes appear to be more than just window dressing.
 
I'm not loving the new forum software at this point either but I think it's premature to judge because it always takes time to adjust to change. In Lance's defence, he's still getting things configured and the change was necessary. Besides, most of my objections are superficial. The people and the discussions are the same and that's what I'm here for.

Yep, I need to add the 'extras' in to the other themes - there's a tool to do this so that'll be done shortly.

cheers,

Lance

[xlar54]

Ok, I'll toss mine into the ring... because I have a softspot in my heart for the arts   ... will we be seeing the C=128 banners returning soon?  The banner rotation script was pretty cool as well. At your convenience of course - im sure thats way down on a to-do list somewhere.

[Blacklord]

Ok, I'll toss mine into the ring... because I have a softspot in my heart for the arts   ... will we be seeing the C=128 banners returning soon?  The banner rotation script was pretty cool as well. At your convenience of course - im sure thats way down on a to-do list somewhere.

Yup, rotating banners will be back.

Lance

[Andrew Wiskow]

Yep, I need to add the 'extras' in to the other themes - there's a tool to do this so that'll be done shortly.

I'm sure you'll get it all sorted out...  But just remember:  You can't please everyone all the time. 

BTW - I haven't had much trouble adjusting...  Probably because this software is already being used on the Vintage Computing and Gaming Forum, so I've already used it... 

-Andrew

[Blacklord]

What's happening this weekend:

1) Complete all the file categories & sub-categories & start adding the files in (via the Download) link on the menu bar
2) Modify the secondary theme templates to include the mods added to the main theme
3) Install Debian onto the (new) database machine (currently running Windows Server 2003 is running on the db host machine)

[wte]

Whew! Hard work!

[Hydrophilic]

I like most of it.  And since it improves admin and security it's a definite win.  The only complaint I have is the code blocks in posts.  The font-size is too small.  I have good eyesight but I find it very difficult to read!  If you could fix that one thing it would be perfect.  I do like the monospace font and the convient 'copy text' link so don't change that, ok?

P.S. I haven't tried different styles so maybe one of those has a larger code font?

Edit
I tried updating my profile as suggested earlier in this thread.  Now at the top of the page it states "If you aren't comfortable with sharing some information, simply skip it - nothing here is required. "  I changed only one thing, the "Custom Title" just to see what it would and after I click submit (err, Change Profile) I get the error "You must select the country that you visit us from."  So some things are required!

They never let me do QA because a product would never ship   I can find bugs everywhere!  Maybe that's Microsoft's philosophy?

I tried the "English Steel" theme and the code font is larger but its not monospace Plus the entire layout is not as wide (wide is good) and lot of the icons are missing/invalid.  Oh well, maybe someday...

Anyway, just want to say again I like most it and understand these things take time to iron out.
/Edit

[Blacklord]

I tried updating my profile as suggested earlier in this thread.  Now at the top of the page it states "If you aren't comfortable with sharing some information, simply skip it - nothing here is required. "  I changed only one thing, the "Custom Title" just to see what it would and after I click submit (err, Change Profile) I get the error "You must select the country that you visit us from."  So some things are required!

That's actually an external modification, so is 'exempt' from the board rules.

Lance