Forum Upgrade

[Ian]

There's a big upgrade available for the forum software we're using, which brings some really handy new features and improvements. It looks very similar, but has better support for media embedding and push notifications. The current version we're using will no longer be supported in ~6 months time, so it is a good time to upgrade .

I've done a test upgrade and it all worked well, so all being well I'll make the full upgrade when it's quiet this weekend. It should mean the forums are offline (or unstyled) for around 30-60 mins. I'll update this thread with some more info once we make some progress .

 

[muckshifter]

Downtime is less than all the games I play that have to reboot Windows.

 

[nivrip]

Crikey !! Seems no time at all since the last upgrade.

Time really does flow faster the older you get.

 

[Abraham Andres Luna]

I'm excited to explore the new forum features.

 

[floppybootstomp]

Groovy

 

[V_R]

No pain no gain. Do it!

 

[Taffycat]

Hope it all goes smoothly for you Ian.

 

[Ian]

We're back and upgraded .

I'm still making tweaks to the site, but it's 95% finished now.

I still need to code the WCG script, but I hope that can be done before tomorrow .

I've enabled the "push" notifications option, which allows you to be instantly alerted to replies/PMs etc... within your browser/phone (you have control over what you want to be alerted to). You may see a bar at the bottom of the screen asking about this when you first log in. There's a "close" button to the right of the screen which will let you disable this if you don't wish to use this feature.

 

[nivrip]

Just switched on and immediately noticed that things were different .

But not different enough to get absolutely lost.

One thing - the list of smilies disappears after one is inserted and you have to click on the smilie icon if you want another at a later time. Just me being niggly? Or do you want to know these things, Ian?

 

[Ian]

You can always ask as many questions as you want @nivrip

The smilies box stays open for me (in Chrome) - which OS/Browser combo are you using?

 

[Urmas]

 

[nivrip]

The smilies box stays open for me (in Chrome) - which OS/Browser combo are you using?

Ahhh…… that may be the problem. I'm still using IE. Will give it a try on Edge and report back.

 

[Taffycat]

Looking good @Ian, I like the new gizmo's and doobries

 

[Ian]

Ahhh…… that may be the problem. I'm still using IE. Will give it a try on Edge and report back.

Thanks, hopefully that will sort it . I'd strongly recommend moving away from IE, as it's not being considered a "compatibility tool" rather than a browser - even by MS:

Microsoft security chief: IE is not a browser, so stop using it as your default

Internet Explorer is a 'compatibility solution' and should only be used selectively, warns Microsoft exec.

www.zdnet.com

Edge is pretty good, although MS are even making some substantial changes to that (essentially making it use the same rendering engine as Chrome).

Looking good @Ian, I like the new gizmo's and doobries

My pleasure! There are new reactions to posts now too... (I've used on one your post above, if you hover over the like button you'll get new options). "doobries" really made me laugh .

 

[Taffycat]

My pleasure! There are new reactions to posts now too... "doobries" really made me laugh .

Yes, I'm just trying out the new notifications. They give the forum a very "interactive" feel.

Yeah, "doobries" is such a useful term... I often use it to convey a unit of measurement, which others claim to find confusing, however, it usually works perfectly for me.

 

[EvanDavis]

I got this around 10am. I take it had something to do with the uprgrade ?

 

[Ian]

I got this around 10am. I take it had something to do with the uprgrade ?

Yep, that's right - it was down for around 40 mins, but should be fully operational now . Thanks for screenshoting it!

 

[nivrip]

No, just the same. The display of smilies partially covers the text area unlike before when they appeared, and stayed, below the text area.

 

[Ian]

Ah yes, the smilies editor does disappear once the text editor is made active again - I thought it disappeared once the smilie was clicked. I get you now .

Unfortunately, that's how the new editor works and isn't something I'm able to change. However, it looks like quite a few other people on the developer forums aren't 100% happy with how the new system works, so it could well be tweaked soon enough to revert back to the old way.

 

[muckshifter]