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Forum Move

Started by w3bz, 10 July, 2009, 06:16:45 PM

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VinceBot

#120
My god w3bz, did you go outside at all this weekend? There was plenty of sun to warm up your cold metal exterior.

Hello everyone, my name is VinceBot and I'll be your forum/website coder for the duration of this visit.
Sorry for some of the issues you're experiencing, we wanted to get this new forum online pretty sharpish, though in retrospect rolling this out on a Friday afternoon may have been a miscalculation. Dividing by zero and all that.

To address some of your posts thus far...


Unread Posts

Quote from: The Cosh on 12 July, 2009, 11:25:19 PM
Is there some sort of timing issue with the "Unread posts"? I ask because I'm getting no results from it, yet when I go into the subforums there are a number of "NEW" posts in each one.

This seem to be related to the migration and how SMF tracks unread posts. When viewing the "View Unread Posts" page you'll see no new posts, but when viewing individual subforums you'll see all threads as having new posts.
The simplest solution would be for me to add the appropriate database entries to reset everyones "unread posts" values, but I'll see if I can come up with a slightly better solution which doesn't involve modifying data for people who aren't experience the issue.


Quote from: Uncle Umpty on 12 July, 2009, 01:43:06 AM
Quote from: w3bz on 11 July, 2009, 11:23:19 AM
Uncle - it's up the top below the logo called "View unread posts"
But is that not just for replies to my posts?

I want to see all new posts.

That is what it does. You might be experiencing the issue I described above.


Automatic URL parsing

Quote from: The Cosh on 12 July, 2009, 11:25:19 PM
Also, when you've got a spare minute, I notice that URLs aren't differentiated from standard text. Fine if you've just pasted the address but not when you've cleverly/irritatingly (delete according to taste) integrated it into a sentence.

I assume this in reference to the auto-parsing or URLs in posts, whereby any url detected, for instance google.com, will be parsed into a linked equivilent? Is the complaint that the URL is parsed, or that it is not parsed?

In my brief testing, writing "google.com" does nothing, but "www.google.com" creates the expected link and is less likely to create false positives where badly constructed sentences may get converted into bad URLs.


Editing old posts

Quote from: dandontdare on 12 July, 2009, 06:11:10 PM
I've just found I can edit posts from over a year ago, even ones that have been replied to. The old time limit was a bit short, but is this unlimited edit a good thing? Do we want the power to rewrite history to this extent?

I believe theres an option for this laying around in the admin panel. Anyone care to suggest a duration? Only one or two suggestions please.


Rofl Raffle

Quote from: Roger Godpleton on 12 July, 2009, 09:40:26 PM
I think that every week there should be a draw where the winner gets 3 hours in which they have the power to edit everyone else's posts.

And I like ponies. A lot.

The winner is me every week on a Saturday evening around last orders.


New Theme Issues

Quote from: .Woolly on 12 July, 2009, 01:52:18 PM
Ugh! The sites gone all ugly!

No offence to whoever built it, it's certainly better than anything i could do, but it still looks horrible.

Sorry to be Mr Negative...  :(

I'm not a huge fan of the PhpBB3 style much myself either, despite the supposed usability theory behind it. We decided to use this theme however as it makes the place look less like a generic SMF forum and should reduce the teething problems for you guys when you're expecting things to look one way but infact are entirely different.

Any issues you come across with themes should be directed at w3bz as he's the one in charge of that barrel of laughs.


Logins, Forgotten passwords, Emails

Quote from: vzzbux on 11 July, 2009, 09:25:42 PM
since the new look I have only just managed to log back in, the new look preventing me from auto log in >:(. Having forgot my password I just spent ages looking for where I noted it down. The auto response for forgotten password not replying to my email address.

Sorry to hear of your plight, we had no idea the emails weren't firing off. Unfortunately the "keep me logged in" data is wildly different between PhpBB and SMF, so theres nothing we can do but force people to log back in.
Fortunately its more than just a new look, so you will eventually see enhanced features and security brought to the new forums.


BBC and Spoiler Tags

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 11 July, 2009, 02:20:21 PM
QuoteYou can use [spoiler]some text[/spoiler] for now (by doing ["spoiler"]some text["/spoiler"] without the quotes, will add a button Monday

Double w00t!

Did this fix all the BBCode issues related to spolier tags? Are there any other BBCode tags which the old forum had but aren't implemented at the moment?


Ignoring specific posters

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 11 July, 2009, 02:20:21 PM
I used to be able to click on a poster's profile and select "Ignore Posts From This User" ... I'm pretty sure there are a few people who used this feature on me.

I'll have a look for a mod for this as I'd be suprised if one didn't exist, then I can start using it on people who make feature requests.


Moderator functions and privileges

Quote from: ukdane on 10 July, 2009, 09:06:20 PM
Some of the moderator functions don't seem to be available.
There were (already) some pornographic posts - which I managed to remove, however I couldn't ban the user from posting again.

Sorry about that - is this still the issue? I was unsure of what privileges Moderators had on the old board. Can you clarify on what appears to be missing?


Spam Filtering

Quote from: Emperor on 10 July, 2009, 07:29:59 PM
Good stuff - I looked at a lot of forums a while back and SMF was head and shoulders the best of the bunch. Crank the captcha code up to maximum and it really cuts the spammers down to a trickle. I mentioned the Stop Forum Spam plugin on the spam thread and there is one for SMF too - if the user details get a hit from the SFS database it requires the account to need activation - which should cut the spammers right down.

This sounds like a great idea. I'll have a look for that mod and see about getting it applied.


Ranks

Quote from: dandontdare on 12 July, 2009, 11:07:42 AM
And have the rankings been adjusted? Not that I'm complaining mind, since I'm now a posting machine, but I could've sworn I was a sentient tea-bot last week!

Yeah sorry, this was me. I noticed a few users had breached the 10,000 posts mark and our rankings only went up to 5000, so I tried to both stretch it out and make the first rank change a little lower to encourage new users.

To clarify the current ranks without spoiling the names:













Posts RequiredMembers in bracket
047651
10443
100108
25054
50044
100056
200010
250031
500018
100002

If people think its a good idea I may redo the rankins with some new names that would hopefully reflect their post count a little better.


Migration reasons

Quote from: peterwolf on 11 July, 2009, 11:55:19 AM
I think that this is an inprovement nonetheless as before it used to take an age to refresh and upload a post wheras now its very very fast.

This was one of the big reasons for upgrading - PhpBB3 around the 200,000 posts mark becomes sluggish to produce pages. When we hit 400,000 posts on here the database was 400mb.
Thus far, SMF has been pretty snappy with 400,000 posts, and the databases size has been halfed.


Elusive "View Active Topics" Page

Everyone seems up in arms over the loss of this feature, and while it'll probably be a little time conusming to implement it'll hopefully be worth it, right? right?

Quote from: The Cosh on 11 July, 2009, 01:42:42 PM
"View Active Topics" = show all topics which have been posted on within x days (I think it was a week) irrespective of whether I've read it or not. Useful for going back to check out something you read a couple of hours/days ago because we've all gotten used to doing it that way so have no idea which sub-forum anything's posted on.

To clarify then, you're saying the Active Topics list consists of:

  • Thread must have a post made within the last X days
  • Thread list ordered by whichever had the most recent reply
  • List is unaffected by if you've read the thread/post or not


Remember kids; be cool, stay in school.
Unless you're thinking about university in which case stop using up all my tax money.

Jim_Campbell

QuoteTo clarify then, you're saying the Active Topics list consists of:
Thread must have a post made within the last X days
Thread list ordered by whichever had the most recent reply
List is unaffected by if you've read the thread/post or not

This is it in a nutshell.

I think a significant number of us had the "Active Topics" search bookmarked as the default start point for this board (I know I did) and so never gave any thought to which of the sub-forums any of the threads actually occupied. This means that -- without the Active Topics button -- it's a bit of a pain re-visiting a thread you know that you've posted to if no-one else has posted to it after you have.

Seven days would seem to be a workable value for x, unless anyone disagrees?

Cheers

Jim
Stupidly Busy Letterer: Samples. | Blog
Less-Awesome-Artist: Scribbles.

Proudhuff

Ditto what Jim says, that function gives you a easy quick view of what's been posted and by who, please bring it on home
DDT did a job on me

VinceBot

#123
Thanks guys, I'll see what I can do.

13/07/09 Changelist


  • Avatar maximum dimentions raised to 128x128 pixels from 64x64.
  • Changed the "Edit Post" timeout period from no timeout to 5 minutes.
  • Removed a few of the more sensitive BBCode tags from the allowed list.

TordelBack

VinceBot, I don't know if it's fixable at all, but I note that at least some of the spoiler tags in pre-move posts are no longer working. 

VinceBot

Quote from: TordelBack on 13 July, 2009, 09:49:45 AM
VinceBot, I don't know if it's fixable at all, but I note that at least some of the spoiler tags in pre-move posts are no longer working.  

Can you provide me with a link to one of the threads/posts where this is occuring?

TordelBack


w3bz

...was just about to say that...

Groan...no didn't get any sun...anyone got any WD40?

I'll be working on a theme that looks like the previous forum if anyone needs me...


zzz....

VinceBot

Quote from: TordelBack on 13 July, 2009, 10:25:17 AM
http://2000adonline.com/forum/index.php/topic,25399.0.html

Egads, ancient tag formatting!

I'll have a think and get back to you on that. I get a feeling I'll have to take the forum offline and regex them out of the database.
Tell me if you come across any other tags suffering from this problem and I'll try to do those at the same time.

w3bz

^ translating the above he meant to say "I'll have a think and fix it"  :-*

I, Cosh

Quote from: VinceBot on 13 July, 2009, 01:45:39 AM
Quote from: The Cosh on 12 July, 2009, 11:25:19 PM
Also, when you've got a spare minute, I notice that URLs aren't differentiated from standard text. Fine if you've just pasted the address but not when you've cleverly/irritatingly (delete according to taste) integrated it into a sentence.

I assume this in reference to the auto-parsing or URLs in posts, whereby any url detected, for instance google.com, will be parsed into a linked equivilent? Is the complaint that the URL is parsed, or that it is not parsed?

In my brief testing, writing "google.com" does nothing, but "www.google.com" creates the expected link and is less likely to create false positives where badly constructed sentences may get converted into bad URLs.
No, I'm unaware of any auto-parsing. Previously, any text entered between URL tags would display as blue to differentiate it from the text around it. Now the link text appears identical to the surrounding text. See two posts above this for an example.
We never really die.

VinceBot

#131
Oh right, that makes more sense.

13-07-09 (PM) Changelist


  • Blue'd all the links I could to make finding links easier
  • Added "Ignore User" interface
About the Ignore User interface

To ignore someone you can simply click on the Ignore User icon which appears underneath a posters avatar.
To un-ignore someone, click the Unignore User icon.
No, you can't ignore forum staff.

When you ignore someone, the space for their post will still appear with a "show/hide" option if you wish to actually view their post and take a look without having to unignore them.

There also exists an "Ignore User Options" page in your profile which will allow you to view or modify your ignore list.

I had to make some changes to the mod which handles ignoring users as it was out of date and incompatible with this theme, so please tell me if you run into any problems with it.

TordelBack

Sorry, did someone say something?  ;)

Wake

Quote from: Jim_Campbell on 13 July, 2009, 08:19:23 AMSeven days would seem to be a workable value for x, unless anyone disagrees?

It was the smaller of 7 days or 500 posts on the original incarnation of this message board, but the max post number was only because all the active topics were on a single page.

VinceBot

Hey Wake, for a moment there your permissions weren't showing up, but I think I've fixed it now.

Give me a shout if anythings not working for you.