Software upgrade.. New features, plus your "read" flags have been reset

[NSX Prime]

I performed a forum software upgrade this evening.

During the upgrade everyone's flags for whether threads/forums have been "read" were reset. The new system is much more accurate and actually stores the information for each thread in the database (up to 30 days - if you take a long break it will just consider stuff read). The old system was based on cookies and session activity which had a number of drawbacks.

There are also a bunch of cool new features, several of which are tied to profiles and which you can see from your User Control Panel page: http://www.nsxprime.com/forums/usercp.php

Two notes:

1) Don't get too attached to the album pictures in your profile yet, I may not keep it turned on since we have the Photopost gallery software.

2) iTrader scores are not linked from profile pages anymore - I'll work on that this week. They are still under everyone's name on every post and the iTrader system still works the same way, I just haven't decided how to best present scores on the profile page since profile layouts changed pretty significantly in the new version of software.

You will notice some other new features and minor changes as you use other parts of the system. If you have questions or figure out something cool, post post here!

Have fun.

 

[Moses]

eveything looks good, thanks

 

[The Kid]

Sounds good, appreciate the Upgrade Lud:wink:

 

[DrVolkl]

So the "read" flags have been reset...but I logged on last night, read a bunch of stuff, etc etc.

Come back today and everything is reset again...as if I have never read anything..ever.

Do I need to change something on my CP?

 

[NSX Prime]

I think you may be misunderstanding the way it works now...

It used to be that if you logged out in the evening, went to bed, and came back the next day, only things posted since your last activity were considered unread.

Now it considers everything you haven't read to be... unread. And any forum with any unread messages shows as unread. It won't consider them read until either you read them or they are 30 days old. It used to do that after just a few hours because it was based on your session. Now it actually tracks them in the database and the 30 day timeout is just to keep the database size manageable.

If you want to start with a "clean slate" every day, hit the "mark forums read" link at the bottom of the main forum list. You can also mark individual forums "read" from within each forum.

If you use the "new posts" search it differentiates between what is actually new since your last visit and what is just unread.

 

[heySkippy]

You might find the "Mark All Read" option in the Quick Links menu is more useful now than it was before.

 

[Aiken Drum]

Ahh, that's good. I hate the get-distracted-for-too-long-and-lose-track method of marking posts read. I really prefer the manual marking.

 

[DrVolkl]

Ahhh...got it, thanks!

 

[da3dalus]

Love the upgrade, my only gripe is that there is no longer a "quick reply" box at the bottom of each page... Really makes quick posting much easier. Small, but put it in the wish list!

Thanks for all your continued hard work!

 

[da3dalus]

and for some reason i'm unable to edit posts that i've made... unless they moved the link?

 

[sicarius82]

+1 on the quick reply, i found that function fast and easy, but honestly, this is fine too.

 

[Osiris_x11]

chit-chat...

NSXPrime, any thoughts on adding a chat interface/script on the forums index page that shows how-many/which users are in the chat-room?

 

[NSX Prime]

Re: chit-chat...

Love the upgrade, my only gripe is that there is no longer a "quick reply" box at the bottom of each page... Really makes quick posting much easier. Small, but put it in the wish list!

I can turn the quick reply box back on. I turned it off because it was getting "crowded" at the bottom of the threads with thew new social bookmarking links and the tags and I thought (perhaps wrongly) that it wasn't used very often. If people miss it I'll re-enable it.

and for some reason i'm unable to edit posts that i've made... unless they moved the link?

That shouldn't be. The graphic for the "edit" button looks like was updated but it's still in the same place. So you are saying when you look back at your previous post in this thread you do not see an "edit" button right next to the "quote" button?! I know people have been editing threads since the upgrade because I've seen the time/date stamps in the "last edited by..." footers, so it's not totally broken. If you aren't seeing it there may be some specific user (or user group) security setting got funky.

NSXPrime, any thoughts on adding a chat interface/script on the forums index page that shows how-many/which users are in the chat-room?

I don't think there is any easy way to do that with the current FlashChat system. If we switched to something more like one of the "shoutbox" vBulletin add-ons it would be possible since they integrate directly into the vBulletin software and show up from the forum view. I've never seen one that had any useful conversations going on in a forum "shoutbox" though.

 

[da3dalus]

Thanks for the reply...

If there is a Edit button, i sure can't find it... Heres a screenshot of what i see.

Using Firefox 3.0

Heres the link... posting the screenshot is way to massive!

http://i28.tinypic.com/vcwe88.jpg

Cheers!

 

[UnhuZ]

well... i never saw an "edit" buttons on posts i did on this forum... i believe Lud has disabled it for this forum in particularly...

 

[Osiris_x11]

gab'...

I don't think there is any easy way to do that with the current FlashChat system. If we switched to something more like one of the "shoutbox" vBulletin add-ons it would be possible since they integrate directly into the vBulletin software and show up from the forum view. I've never seen one that had any useful conversations going on in a forum "shoutbox" though.

No, please don't introduce a "shoutbox"/chatbox to NSXPrime... it'll become spam'central!

What I was hoping was for "FlashChat v4.7.12" which I've seen used on other forums (www.tufat.com/script2.htm).

It will appear like this:
____________________________________________
Members currently using chat: 1

The most chatters online in one day was 1, 06-27-2008.
osiris_x11
____________________________________________


Sample layout...

Only reason I'm advocating this is that I believe seeing who/how-many people are in chat on the main forum's page will increase interaction of NSX Prime members as well as perhaps being very helpful/insightful in a real-time type of manner.

 

[da3dalus]

well... i never saw an "edit" buttons on posts i did on this forum... i believe Lud has disabled it for this forum in particularly...

Bingo... you hit the nail on the head. In all other forums its still there and works just dandy. Thanks!

 

[Aiken Drum]

Is there any way for a user to disable the bookmark list at the bottom?

It's only a minor thing, but I will never, ever use them, so it just seems like wasted bandwidth at the server end, and a little bit of extra time waiting for every page at my end.

 

[NSX Prime]

well... i never saw an "edit" buttons on posts i did on this forum... i believe Lud has disabled it for this forum in particularly...

Ah hah... Editing was disabled in this forum. That was not really my intention. I just fixed it so you should be able to edit messages in this section the same as any other now.

What I was hoping was for "FlashChat v4.7.12" which I've seen used on other forums (www.tufat.com/script2.htm).

Cool, I didn't know the new version had that integration. But I remember from the last time I had to upgrade flashchat that it's a real headache to deal with. I'll work on it some time when I have plenty of spare time.

Is there any way for a user to disable the bookmark list at the bottom?

It's only a minor thing, but I will never, ever use them, so it just seems like wasted bandwidth at the server end, and a little bit of extra time waiting for every page at my end.

As far as I know there is no way for a user to turn it off. It would certainly make sense and maybe they will add that in a future release.

 

[NSXrebel]

Lud, please turn on quick reply!! :biggrin::wink:
also, can you make it to where you don't have to "activate" the quick reply box by clicking on one of those button/links? I'm on offtopic.com and it seems like it's just easier/quicker to just go ahead and type a quick reply.


Thanks!
Herman

 

[Osiris_x11]

it's all good!

Cool, I didn't know the new version had that integration. But I remember from the last time I had to upgrade flashchat that it's a real headache to deal with. I'll work on it some time when I have plenty of spare time.

Thanks for looking into it. As always, take your time and just address it when you have time at your disposal.


For reference...

Integrating FlashChat:

http://www.tufat.com/docs/flashchat/integration.html

Adding FlashChat to the CMS Interface:

http://www.tufat.com/docs/flashchat/vbulletin.html

 

[NSX Prime]

Re: it's all good!

Lud, please turn on quick reply!! :biggrin::wink:
also, can you make it to where you don't have to "activate" the quick reply box by clicking on one of those button/links? I'm on offtopic.com and it seems like it's just easier/quicker to just go ahead and type a quick reply.

I can, but doing so breaks the "threaded mode" view. It's sort of one or the other - if I turn on no-click quick reply, I need to disabled threaded and hybrid methods of reading threads. Unfortunately I don't know how many people use those modes.

Thanks for looking into it. As always, take your time and just address it when you have time at your disposal.


For reference...

Integrating FlashChat:

http://www.tufat.com/docs/flashchat/integration.html

I will simply say that... in my experience it is not that easy. :wink:

Adding FlashChat to the CMS Interface:

http://www.tufat.com/docs/flashchat/vbulletin.html

I hate modifying templates, but at least it's a simple mod.

 

[NSXrebel]

Re: it's all good!

I can, but doing so breaks the "threaded mode" view. It's sort of one or the other - if I turn on no-click quick reply, I need to disabled threaded and hybrid methods of reading threads. Unfortunately I don't know how many people use those modes.




I will simply say that... in my experience it is not that easy. :wink:



I hate modifying templates, but at least it's a simple mod.

Well if you figure something out, make sure you hook us up! Quick reply is great, specially for us that surf from our iPhone/mobile phones. It's much quicker than loading a whole new page to reply.

 

[lunchman]

I assume the "automatic view of thumbnails by holding the cursor over them" is a new feature. Anyway to turn it off on a per user basis? I suppose I could get used to it but as I sometimes scroll past a thumbnail I get the hourglass cursor as the forum s/w thinks I want to view the expanded picture.

Of course, the first time I got the expanded view I didn't realize it, hit the back button and wound up leaving the thread. :frown:

If there's no way to turn it off I can just live with it.

 

[nsxtasy]

I assume the "automatic view of thumbnails by holding the cursor over them" is a new feature. Anyway to turn it off on a per user basis? I suppose I could get used to it but as I sometimes scroll past a thumbnail I get the hourglass cursor as the forum s/w thinks I want to view the expanded picture.

Of course, the first time I got the expanded view I didn't realize it, hit the back button and wound up leaving the thread. :frown:

Wow, it just did that to me a little while ago, and I had no idea what happened, either.

I'm getting used to the upgrade. It really affects the "New Posts" view. There are some good things, some not so good...

- If I post to a topic, it won't be listed in "New Posts" unless someone posts after I do. Bad news: Makes it somewhat difficult to find if you think of an edit you want to make, after you've posted, or if you want to go back and re-read it. Good news: In most cases you don't want to see it again until someone else posts.

- Bad news: It always displays 250 topics, not just those that have been updated since the last time you logged on. Good news: It delineates between those that have been updated since then and those that haven't, with a note to that effect at the start of the older ones.