New Forum - Observations, Comments, and Questions?

[Zach]

Please share your insight below.

[Steve Morris]

Zach,

I registered per your invite to test the new forum. Thanks for the opportunity to poke around. History has proven that if something on a forum can be broken, I'm likely to do just that...

A little background: I've been a moderator (and on a few occasions, admin) on forums using vBulletin, phpBB, XenForo, SMF, Forum, and probably more over the past few decades, and some BBS sites prior. This will be my first foray into the current iteration of vBulletin, so excuse me while I stumble around..

First thing that popped up was the "New Topics" button. It appears to only display a list of posts from today's date. The live TearJerkers forum offers an option to "View Unread Posts", and most other forums have a "New Posts" button that returns a list of all new posts since your last visit. There doesn't appear to be a method to see what posts are new prior to today other than opening each subforum to look. Is that as intended, or can an equivalent to "View New Posts Since Last Visit" be added?

Also posting to test signature formatting. [EDIT] Copy/paste of my current signature format into the new forum worked flawlessly.

Thanks for the opportunity to trip over the furniture!
Steve

[Zach]

Stumble away! (That's what you're here for )

The "New Topics" link is the equivalent to "Unread Posts", but I can see how the name could be misleading. I believe I can change that, and I agree that may be more clear.

As far as the signatures go, the one drawback I've found is that the number of images is limited. Not a big deal for most, but I know some who like to have a bunch of images and badges and gathering logos. As with a few other things I've stumbled across, I think the pro's for the masses outweigh the cons of the few.

[Steve Morris]

I understood what the "New Topics" button was for. It just didn't return what I was expecting. It only showed unread posts from today. None of the dozens of unread posts prior to today showed up.

An additional feature request; On the list of "New Topics", it would be nice to have a button to "Mark all as Read" Currently to mark all threads as read, you need to return to the home page and scroll to the bottom to click on the appropriate button.

There seems to be a disconnect between the search tool and the member profile. For instance, you currently show as having 40 posts under your join date in the previous post, and in the Member List. When clicking on "Find All Posts" in your profile, search returns a list of 14 items, and clicking on "Show All Content" on your profile returns 23.

Oh, you're quick! "New Topics" is now "Unread Posts". Is the functionality the same?Or will it show any old unread posts, regardless of the date?

Thanks,
Steve

[Steve Morris]

The Chapter Map is a nice addition! I didn't notice that it was there when previously exploring the Chapters tab. It wasn't until reading your post in the Christmas Comes Early thread that I accidentally moused over the link on my way to the Home button and it changed colors. Maybe something to emphasize that there's a link there to the map? Now I'm mousing over all emboldened text to see if there are any similar links.

[Zach]

I understood what the "New Topics" button was for. It just didn't return what I was expecting. It only showed unread posts from today. None of the dozens of unread posts prior to today showed up.

An additional feature request; On the list of "New Topics", it would be nice to have a button to "Mark all as Read" Currently to mark all threads as read, you need to return to the home page and scroll to the bottom to click on the appropriate button.

There seems to be a disconnect between the search tool and the member profile. For instance, you currently show as having 40 posts under your join date in the previous post, and in the Member List. When clicking on "Find All Posts" in your profile, search returns a list of 14 items, and clicking on "Show All Content" on your profile returns 23.

Oh, you're quick! "New Topics" is now "Unread Posts". Is the functionality the same?Or will it show any old unread posts, regardless of the date?

Thanks,
Steve

All I did was change the description of the link to Unread Posts, but it still functions the same. I believe it defaults to the most recent unread posts for a preset time frame, which I think by default is anything unread in the previous 10 days. I think anything outside of 10 days is marked as 'read' by default. I'll look into this further.

I had to resync the post count because I deleted a lot of posts during the development period. I think this is a function of design to maintain post counts even when things are deleted (such as classified posts).

I know PHPBB kept track of the post count the same way - automatically added posts, but you had to resync if a bunch were deleted.

[Zach]

The Chapter Map is a nice addition! I didn't notice that it was there when previously exploring the Chapters tab. It wasn't until reading your post in the Christmas Comes Early thread that I accidentally moused over the link on my way to the Home button and it changed colors. Maybe something to emphasize that there's a link there to the map? Now I'm mousing over all emboldened text to see if there are any similar links.

The chapter map still needs updated with the new forum chapter URL's, but I didn't want to go through that trouble until we migrate to the permanent website address. Those are all absolute links rather than relative links, so just by remapping our subdomain from 'testforum' would break them all and I'd have to do it again anyway, and I'm lazy

I'm still trying to figure out why the Chapter Map is popping out into its own window. I have even added link attribute to target the same window but its not listening.

*edit* fixed the pop-out issue. Had a brain fart, but it passed.

[Steve Morris]

An additional feature request; On the list of "New Topics", it would be nice to have a button to "Mark all as Read" Currently to mark all threads as read, you need to return to the home page and scroll to the bottom to click on the appropriate button.

Zach,

Now that the forum is active, adding a button on the results page for Unread Posts would be a handy feature.

Thanks,
Steve

[Zach]

Steve, you should see a link on the Home page, below the blue navigation bar. Let me know if you do not. Thanks!

[Steve Morris]

Yep, I know that is where it is. I was asking if we could add one on e list that is generated when listing new posts. Several other forum have this and it is a handy feature.

thanks

[Zach]

I don't follow what you mean. Unread posts is a list of topics that contains unread posts. What list are you referring to?

[Paul]

I'm getting an error from google trying to view the gatherings map "This page can't load Google Maps correctly." and then teh map images is overlayed with "For development purposes only" watermarks and no actual content.

[Zach]

I'm getting an error from google trying to view the gatherings map "This page can't load Google Maps correctly." and then teh map images is overlayed with "For development purposes only" watermarks and no actual content.

Yeah, that broke this afternoon. There's an issue with the Google API. Just when I thought things were working well......

[Paul]

Is the drop down list for for contact information fixed? It seems a bit dated since some of those services are no longer running or have been re-branded but I'm thinking Instagram, Linked-in, snapchat or anything else people are using might be nice to include.

Also, any chance at a Dark theme for the site being made available?

[TearJerkers]

I wasn't aware that there was an issue with the contact information. Some of these things are OOTB with the software, and need vetted. Thank you for pointing that out. I'll look into it further.

Right now this is the only theme available, but I was starting to build a dark theme.

[Paul]

"fixed" might not have been the right word - maybe "static" would have been a better choice. The list works, and I assume adding entries is working though I haven;t used any of the available services in many years so was thinking more along the line of adding to the options users have to choose from.

[Zach]

Found out that stuff is hard-coded into the software, and is basically left over from a previous version. The developers have it on the agenda to overhaul that section but have not yet. For the time being, I was able to hide it. I'll see if there are any social media modifications that would be a better fit than what was there.

[Steve Morris]

I don't follow what you mean. Unread posts is a list of topics that contains unread posts. What list are you referring to?

Sorry for any confusion. If it is not an available option, don't worry about it. I asked because it ha been available in previous versions of vBulletin.

My typical use of any forum is when I first open the page, I click on "Unread Posts" (or "new posts since last visit", "view unread posts", etc. depending on software.) As noted, this opens a page listing all of the threads that have new posts since my last visit. I go down the list and right-click "open link in new tab (or Command-click on a Mac) to open in a new tab any of the threads that I want to read. Then I'll click on "Mark all threads as read",which is usually at the top or bottom of the page, to clear the remainder. It just flows nicely, and is convenient.

On the previous TearJerkers software and on the new vBulletin software, the "Mark all threads as read" button is only available on the home page at the bottom (or top on the old software) of the list of forums. Now I certainly understand that it isn't a chore to simply click on the home button, scroll to the bottom, and click on the button. But it would be more convenient and obvious if the "Mark all threads as read" button were on the generated list of new posts.

I'm not complaining, and don't want you to have to cobble anything together to change things. I'm simply offering a suggestion that I personally find convenient.

Thanks for listening,
Steve

Here's where it is on the only other vBulletin forum I still visit.

[Zach]

Ooooh! It was not clear to me what your were asking for. You are looking for a link to "Mark All Channels Read"(channel = forum). Another member was looking for this as well.

The software default is to have this link at the bottom of every forum (channel), and by default there is no global option. I'm looking into adding that. The software defaults to marking all post older than 30 days as read, regardless of whether they actually have been. This keeps people from getting drowned under 'unread posts' if they don't log in often.

[Zach]

Ye ask, and ye receive. 😎 I've also added a quick link, just to view 'today's posts'.

[Steve Morris]

Ye ask, and ye receive. 😎 I've also added a quick link, just to view 'today's posts'.

Thank you, sir! It didn't sink in that this version of vBulletin calls the sub-forums "channels". If I'd have been paying better attention, my request would have been more clear. I appreciate the change!

Steve

[Charles]

Where is the “setting” to block from being “tagged”?

[Zach]

Looks like you've already figured out how to edit your signature - by clicking on your user name in the top right corner then > User Settings -> Account

Photos are uploaded by clicking the camera icon, and then the 'Upload' button below the text box.

There is a "Contact Us" link at the very bottom of every page, whether you're logged in or a guest, with selectable options for 'Registstion Issues", etc.

As far as tagging goes, all it does is send a notification. You can turn off email notifications in > User Settings -> Notifications

[Steve Morris]

Zach , another suggestion. Somewhere on the Home page, can you add a link to the old forum for archival reference?

Thank you,
Steve

[Charles]

Zach, good of you to cover some basics for all TearJerker's members.

[Charles]

Zach, can you make the avatar pictures bigger?

And how can we see more than 12 chapter "members"?

Thank you,
Charles

[Zach]

I looked into that.... its actually quite a bit of work, and can cause display issues. Right now, its not worth the hassle.


In the Chapters, where there are only the first 12 members shown - this is a known issue that we're looking further in to.

[Zach]

Zach, good of you to cover some basics for all TearJerker's members.

Will we get email notifications that new entries got posted in the treads we posted in?
I do not get any, yet have all notifications turned ON.

In User Settings, under the Notifications tab, there is an option for "Email Notifications". Make sure that is set to your desired setting. And make sure to add siteadmin@tearjerkers.net to your address book or approved senders list.