New Forum layout April 2018

[3DStudent]

Is there a way to disable "Show only: Unread" when you click New Posts, or do you always have to click it to remove it?

Also, on the old forum, when you clicked on the last number page of a thread it would take you down to the last post. But the new forum seems to place you at the top of the thread. Is there a way to change that? I'm just using end and page up at the moment to get used to it.

 

[Jacques]

Is there a way to disable "Show only: Unread" when you click New Posts, or do you always have to click it to remove it?

Yes there is. On you right you should see "Filters". Click on it and choose what you want and save as default.

 

[Palinurus]

I've encountered a few quirks which I find quite annoying:

#1. When not logged in, a refresh of the first page of New Posts doesn't refresh the listed posts. I have to close the existing tab and open a brand new one to get a view of the latest additions since the previous time I watched that page. On SOTT on the other hand this problem is non-existent. Refreshing the home page (or any other for that matter) automatically displays any and all new additions in all categories immediately.

#2. While copy/pasting texts from other sites, I cannot rely on the cursor being held within the quote boxes at all times. The result sometimes is a truncated quote with part of its text rendered as plain text, as if it were my own. This happens mostly while suggesting an article for SOTT from somewhere else, especially when the source consists of text and illustrations that interrupt the article, and I only need the text and not the illustrations. In such cases I have to copy/paste in chunks and then I ran into this cursor problem.

#3. Clicking a thread title doesn't automatically open it in a new tab. It uses the existing tab to display the desired topic. This can be avoided by first right-clicking a thread title and then choose Open in New Tab but I have trouble remembering that preferred sequence and thus get annoyed (with myself in the first place) repeatedly.

Otherwise, I'm quite satisfied with all the new features as I get to know them.

 

[3DStudent]

#1. When not logged in, a refresh of the first page of New Posts doesn't refresh the listed posts. I have to close the existing tab and open a brand new one to get a view of the latest additions since the previous time I watched that page.

I think it does that when logged in too. It seems like sometimes I just have to click a new tab of New Posts.

#3. Clicking a thread title doesn't automatically open it in a new tab. It uses the existing tab to display the desired topic. This can be avoided by first right-clicking a thread title and then choose Open in New Tab but I have trouble remembering that preferred sequence and thus get annoyed (with myself in the first place) repeatedly.

Have you tried middle/wheel clicking the title?

 

[Possibility of Being]

#3. Clicking a thread title doesn't automatically open it in a new tab. It uses the existing tab to display the desired topic. This can be avoided by first right-clicking a thread title and then choose Open in New Tab but I have trouble remembering that preferred sequence and thus get annoyed (with myself in the first place) repeatedly.

I know quite a few people who hate settings that open a new tab for them since they know how to do it if they wish it this way. It's impossible to please everyone!

 

[Deleted member 11729]

Oops! Fixed now. Thanks for letting me know.

Fun Facts:
- 11 user groups
- 98 permissions per user group
- 97 total boards on forum (not all public, obviously)
That works out to 11 * 98 * 97 = 104,566 individual permissions. That's a lot of checkboxes...

Current UPAR (Upgrade Permission Accuracy Rating): 99.999%



I think this is because the old forum just plopped the image you gave it on the server, and displayed it resized via CSS if necessary.

The new server actually makes multiple sizes of the image, optimizes it, and saves those versions. Usually, that means animated GIFs become single-frame GIFs.

The preview works probably because it's just using the local image file from your puter and displaying it via JavaScript. This is more or less what the SOTT image uploader does. IOW, the user-friendly aspect ("Yay! I see my image!") does not always correspond to the behind-the-scenes stuff the server is doing.





Well, strictly speaking, we could achieve knowledge transfer with everything written down on papyrus or something.

The "short" version is that the old forum software was too old. It didn't fully support newer versions of PHP, and thus we would be in trouble. PHP 5.6 is only officially supported until the end of this year.

So then I went on the SMF forum, and I found that the developers were bickering with each other and basically acting like little kids. The probability that SMF would release their new version seemed to drop to 0.

Plus, the old forum didn't support mobile devices. This was not easy to do myself. On SOTT, 50% of readers are on smartphones or tablets. NOT supporting mobile devices fully is a bad idea in this day and age.

Just to get HTTPS working on the old forum, I had to hack it. I had to hack a lot of things to keep it running nicely because it wasn't being kept up-to-date by the developers.

Then, there were many problems with the old forum, technically speaking. It was a hodge-podge of different chunks of code trying to work together. It did work, but the problem was that any change usually caused trouble. For example, the ban system on the old forum was poorly done, so it caused a high server load. So, SMF said, "Here, have a Warning system!" But that system itself was also poorly done, and it had its own problems. So the only solution was rewrite everything from scratch. But, as I said, the SMF people can't seem to do that because they're busy fighting amongst themselves.

There are many other considerations... For example, support for the utf8mb4 character set - which doesn't just give emojis, but fully supports various languages and characters and that sort of thing. That's the new standard.

Or: The old forum's database structure was piss-poor. There are better ways to do stuff these days. The old forum's search was poorly done, but the new forum search works a lot better. And with an appropriate amount of money and at least one extra server, it can be made to work even better. Room to grow!

The old forum required 6GB of disk space to store attachments and avatars, whereas the new forum only needs 4GB. When you have multiple backups on multiple servers for multiple web sites that we pay for via donations, storage space counts! Or how about the new forum being far better at keeping spammers out, which means less work for mods to keep the house clean, and more time for posting good stuff?

Finally, SMF was free, which was nice. XenForo (this forum) is paid. Their support community is very good, even tho documentation is sparse at the moment because they're busy fixing bugs after the initial November 2017 release of XF 2.0.0. XF 1.5 was basically world-famous (in the online forum world) for being the only forum software out there that didn't suck horribly in one way or another.

Now, I realize most people probably don't care at all about any of that, and that's perfectly fine, because they don't have to. But I do!

So, rest assured that I don't like change any more than anyone else. I just don't like it for very different reasons...

And Finally...

It seems we simply must have some more themes... Altho at this point, I cannot give a time frame.

Once the forum is stable, my next Big Project is a help system for SOTT editors. No one can ever remember all the things it can do because it simply does too much! I have a solution for that...

Probably intermixed with that project, I'll crank out some themes when my brain needs a rest...

Thank you Scottie this all you wrote really make sense, and YES! on my 2nd eturn i find it to be better as alerts where straight on visible up in the coroner, and I did like it and find it useful very much ... so sure I will keep exploring ... THANK YOU and big hello from beautiful Bled Lake @ Slovenia ...

 

[Deleted member 11729]

Or, a great opportunity to leave our comfort zones and learn something new - delayed gratification . Because, as experience shows, once you get the hang of something new and learn how to use it effectively, everything will be better than it used to be. We just have to make the initial effort.



Or, you could follow this thread and learn and share with all of us. Knowledge transfer and all that

Luc you are totally right it help us on a way to get out of comfort zone ;) ... even though I am on the ednge of mine non stop ;) ... and Scottie explanaiton really makes functional sense ... I'll keep reading and folowing and sharing ...

 

[Deleted member 11729]

Hi solarmind, first off, I'd like to point out that your critical post quite literally drowns in a sea of positive feedback Scottie and the team have received for the hard work they have done on the new forum.

Due to the nature of my profession I deal with change management, especially the behavioural aspect of it, daily. The most basic rule is that the default response to change is resistance (to varying degrees), which I suspect is a part of us being machines. Not to mention that the more we dislike change the easier it is for our STS controllers to keep us where we are. Commercial companies take it upon themselves to manage people through the process of change because it simply makes them more money and brings Return on Investment quicker.

This forum on the other hand empowers people to manage themselves through that process. It's called the Work. Working towards changing ourselves, our automatic responses and limitations to become better human beings. Is it therefore reasonable to expect Laura, Scottie and the Crew to take managing your resistance to change upon themselves?

Have you read any of the assigned books? If embracing the change of the forum layout is such an issue, how are you going to work towards changing the thinking errors of Samenow's criminal mind for example? (Which by the way shine through your post a bit)

Also, to the best of my knowledge, this forum is based on the principle of networking and sharing information. Is that not what the C's described as being an STO thing to do? This entire thread is packed with information gathered and shared using that principle. It is therefore a tutorial you asked for but developed using the forum's principles. A lot of your questions have been answered earlier in this thread.

Sorry Ant22 to long to read ... I skip throughh fast and funny though that you are "guruing" me, what you wrote and how you tone it is like you get the promotion here to be ambassador to give sticks to notty pupils .. ;) ... but check my profile for the answers if you are interesing in "what I know" etc ... but thanks for the effor ... and Scottie explain exactly on what I was asking for, and I know why I was asking it for, as I really wanted to know why it is changed, as design change without really any functional need is not a good thing to do if you want to keep the information visible ... :)

 

[Palinurus]

I think it does that when logged in too. It seems like sometimes I just have to click a new tab of New Posts.

I didn't know that for sure as I mostly view the forum while not logged in. So I left that one out. Thanks for adding it now.

Have you tried middle/wheel clicking the title?

I haven't as I was not aware of this possibility. I just tested this suggestion and it works perfectly. It's more easy to remember as well. So thank you for educating me.

I know quite a few people who hate settings that open a new tab for them since they know how to do it if they wish it this way. It's impossible to please everyone!

I know that too, therefore I stated clearly I'm especially annoyed with myself in this respect.

 

[Jacques]

#3. Clicking a thread title doesn't automatically open it in a new tab. It uses the existing tab to display the desired topic. This can be avoided by first right-clicking a thread title and then choose Open in New Tab but I have trouble remembering that preferred sequence and thus get annoyed (with myself in the first place) repeatedly.

I haven't as I was not aware of this possibility. I just tested this suggestion and it works perfectly. It's more easy to remember as well. So thank you for educating me.

Or maybe you can change the settings of your browser to automatically open a link in a new tab.

 

[Beau]

Sorry Ant22 to long to read ... I skip throughh fast and funny though that you are "guruing" me, what you wrote and how you tone it is like you get the promotion here to be ambassador to give sticks to notty pupils .. ;)

That is a rather condescending reply solarmind. A few paragraphs is too long to read? Are you sure you're in the right place? No one is trying to "guru" you, just trying to help you see how your writing comes across. It seems you really don't care for honest feedback. Maybe you're in the

 

[mabar]

Found how to do it, was at the preview putting the cursor at the line of the link and appear the little box link, although it does not work for everyone and for the time being I did it with "..."

---again, it works just while being in the Preview of editing, would there be another way in order to not post it and then clik to edit it, to arrange that little issue?

 

[Mikey]

Just want to say that overall I'm very happy with the new forum software. Can't think of any real disadvantage. It's smart and effective.

 

[Deleted member 4320]

I think that place like this definitely deserves to be neat and modern. All should be happy! I think now forum more inclining reader to read and generally use the forum.

 

[BHelmet]

Very spiffy. One minor beef: the font is one of those with a lot of space between the lines so, on a phone with a small screen, there is a fair amount of wasted space. But it's all good.