New Forums - Your Say!

Guys, I realise (as an admin!) that this is not the site section however this is the most viewed forum on here so this is why I am posting this here.

We have had the new forum software up and running for a little over a month now and over this time James and the administration team have managed the migration and managed to setup everything to a basic state with some nice toys thrown in (such as tapatalk).

We were wondering what YOU GUYS/GIRLS think though so we can improve it. There are some things we have not enabled fully yet such as deeper Facebook integration, photo albums etc but we would like to know where you think we should be going?

So spill it, what do you like, not like, want changed, want explaining? Would you like a help/user guide to teach you how this new software works or maybe a test forum where you can post stuff and just play and see how what works?

Fire away folks.

Dave

I quite liked the change of colours according to the amounts of posts made. I was looking forward to turning invisible next. :)

Otherwise I am getting used to the new way now, did not like it at first though.

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Originally Posted by Conehead

I quite liked the change of colours according to the amounts of posts made. I was looking forward to turning invisible next. :)

Otherwise I am getting used to the new way now, did not like it at first though.

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A perfect example! This is something we can implement easily enough and is the reason I started this thread so we can see what people want. I shall look into it.

Can we have a video link button please? It's there when you post on the persons profile page but not on the main forum

Honestly, I'm struggling with the new forum. I'm trying to get used to it but it just doesn't seem as user friendly as the old one. I haven't even worked out how to put smilies in posts - I did try but am doing something wrong. I preferred the "Last 50 posts" option on the last version as it was a really quick way of getting up to speed with whats going on without having to open the whole thread. I appreciate the reasons for the switch over and I will carry on with the new one but for me its proving less user friendly. Sorry.

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Originally Posted by Swanny

Can we have a video link button please? It's there when you post on the persons profile page but not on the main forum

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To enable you to do this?

http://www.wiltshirebikers.co.uk/mis...code#videocode

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Originally Posted by Swanny

Can we have a video link button please? It's there when you post on the persons profile page but not on the main forum

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I have enabled now the ability to embed video in posts on specific forums where I think its a valid use (which is most of them to be honest) There should now be a button to embed video in posts.

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Originally Posted by Snowy

Honestly, I'm struggling with the new forum. I'm trying to get used to it but it just doesn't seem as user friendly as the old one. I haven't even worked out how to put smilies in posts - I did try but am doing something wrong. I preferred the "Last 50 posts" option on the last version as it was a really quick way of getting up to speed with whats going on without having to open the whole thread. I appreciate the reasons for the switch over and I will carry on with the new one but for me its proving less user friendly. Sorry.

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Snowy, I checked you user settings and I noticed it was set to the basic post editor. I set it to the standard one and you should now see a row of icons one of which is the smilie options. If this helps let me know as it will be worth making a post for everyone else who is having this issue.

So you know there is a quick reply button and an advanced reply. Quick reply will pop up under the post you clicked on and advanced will load a dedicated "full fat" reply page with more options. Have a play whilst replying to this post I am making and see how it looks.

Also to find all posts which were made since you last visited, at the top left it says "New Posts" if you click that it will show only new things to happen since you visited last.

Thanks Dave
Any chance of a members list??

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Originally Posted by Snowy

Honestly, I'm struggling with the new forum. I'm trying to get used to it but it just doesn't seem as user friendly as the old one. I haven't even worked out how to put smilies in posts - I did try but am doing something wrong. I preferred the "Last 50 posts" option on the last version as it was a really quick way of getting up to speed with whats going on without having to open the whole thread. I appreciate the reasons for the switch over and I will carry on with the new one but for me its proving less user friendly. Sorry.

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Snowy you need to go to General settings
Then click this
Miscellaneous Options

Message Editor Interface:

• Enhanced Interface - Full WYSIWYG Editing

this will let you show smilies and all sorts of other stuff

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Originally Posted by Swanny

Thanks Dave
Any chance of a members list??

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Up the top. "Quick Links" menu/drop down, I added it in there for you.

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Originally Posted by Swanny

Thanks Dave
Any chance of a members list??




Snowy you need to go to General settings
Then click this
Miscellaneous Options

Message Editor Interface:

• Enhanced Interface - Full WYSIWYG Editing

this will let you show smilies and all sorts of other stuff

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Thanks for that Swanny!! I got smilies!! :D

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Originally Posted by Uber Dave

Up the top. "Quick Links" menu/drop down, I added it in there for you.

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Thanks :)


No worries Toph

I'm just a newbie on here, but I don't believe a post should be counted if a member just chooses a smiley or something similar.

Now it has Tapatalk I actually visit/post on the forum a lot more than recently as it's just so easy to use! Haven't actually used the forum outside of this.

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Originally Posted by Toph

Thanks for that Swanny!! I got smilies!! :D

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x2 :cool:

It seems I'm a luddite.......:confused:

:cool: not :( as many smilies as before but ;) we have them :)

Apart from finding out -

1. You have included a total of 5 images in your message. The maximum number that you may include is 4. Please correct the problem and then continue again.
   
   Images include use of smilies, the BB code [img] tag, and HTML <img> tags. The use of these is all subject to them being enabled by the administrator.

What only 4 smilies allowed!! it's an outrage (Ican't add a smilie to show whether I'm joking or serious!)

My friend spike can't get on here. Has emailed you few times he said but no reply

:confused: :o Whats 'tapatalk?

A forum app - can get on iPhone and some (if not all) tablets. Easy peasy to view forum through.

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Originally Posted by Jacde

:cool: not :( as many smilies as before but ;) we have them :)

Apart from finding out -

1. You have included a total of 5 images in your message. The maximum number that you may include is 4. Please correct the problem and then continue again.
   
   Images include use of smilies, the BB code [img] tag, and HTML <img> tags. The use of these is all subject to them being enabled by the administrator.

What only 4 smilies allowed!! it's an outrage (Ican't add a smilie to show whether I'm joking or serious!)

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Fixed, you should be able to add as many as you want now. As for amount of them the ones we have are the default ones, shall look for a smilies pack of which there are loads and that we increase the amount of them.

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Originally Posted by bubblylittleme

My friend spike can't get on here. Has emailed you few times he said but no reply

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Its possible he was caught out by the spam protection on his emails when he signed up. Ask him to try again and if it doesn't work can you PM both me and Dabz and we can create an account for him ourselves.

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Originally Posted by redken1

:confused: :o Whats 'tapatalk?

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Device specific details here http://www.tapatalk.com but it's basically an app for phones and tablets which let you access the forums quicker.

Thanks Dave

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Originally Posted by gibbo

I'm just a newbie on here, but I don't believe a post should be counted if a member just chooses a smiley or something similar.

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Sorry, I missed your post I wasn't ignoring you. At the moment if a post is below a specific character length it is not counted. Also no posts in the muppets forum are counted at all for the reason you mentioned above.

Why do people worry about post counts?? :confused:

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Originally Posted by Swanny

Why do people worry about post counts?? :confused:

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Muppet forum doesn't count as the word association thread was mental. Under specific character setting is a default and I don't see why it needs changing, deters people who do care from making single smilie posts to up their count.

Personally I think quality over quantity is the way forward but I have been on forums years ago where people did care when they got to tens of thousands of posts over years. Each to their own.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk HD

Thanks for being our Geek Dave

Nice one for sorting it all out Dave :)

Personally I don't see the point in having post counts, I don't give a monkeys how many posts a person has next to their name.
Some sort of self invented ego trip I guess. :confused:

Yes, I'm always panicking about you lot overtaking me :p

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Originally Posted by Swanny

Personally I don't see the point in having post counts, I don't give a monkeys how many posts a person has next to their name.
Some sort of self invented ego trip I guess. :confused:

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Originally Posted by Toph

Thanks for that Swanny!! I got smilies!! :D

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:cool: I've got smilies too :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Snowy

Honestly, I'm struggling with the new forum. I'm trying to get used to it but it just doesn't seem as user friendly as the old one. I haven't even worked out how to put smilies in posts - I did try but am doing something wrong. I preferred the "Last 50 posts" option on the last version as it was a really quick way of getting up to speed with whats going on without having to open the whole thread. I appreciate the reasons for the switch over and I will carry on with the new one but for me its proving less user friendly. Sorry.

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Im with Snowy Im afraid - struggling with the new forum - I can't even work out how to put up my avatar or signature - writing posts I can't work out smilies etc... I appreciate the efforts, but I preferred the old one, sorry!

Thanks to Dave for sorting out these little niggles!

It may be an opportunity to explain why we made the change in the first place to those who don't know. Our old software was great, but unsupported and due to be dropped by the development team. This meant we were getting 500+ spammers clogging the system up daily which meant us admins we're spending literally hours each week removing them. On top of that there was little opportunity to back up the forums properly, so we were at risk.

We chose to move to the current forum software because its the most popular forum software in the world, fully supported by a support and development team, and allows lots of modern features and security.

I likely the current moans to Facebook - remember when everyone was going to stop using it because they hates the new news feed? 99% of people will have forgotten that, even though it was only 5 months ago. People hate change but in most cases, change is for the better :)

Bear with it :)

I like this format of forum. I did ditch FB but not because of the look but privacy issues

Not a huge fan of the new forum, I find it real hard going.

Saved by tapatalk.

Update - 11/07/13

First update have done this afternoon and added the ranks back. You will all notice now that you have some purple stars under your name on each post. These go up with increments of post count as follows.

0-49
50-499
500-999
1000-1999
2000-4999
5000-10000

The moderators now all have 6 yellow stars and all administrators have 6 red stars.

Next on the list is to add some more smilies for you.

***Edit***
Doh!!!! Didn't read the bit about more smiles coming :p

Image upload settings have been tweaked so you can now upload files to 1mb in size with no limit on their dimensions.

Any problems PM me.

Swanny, smilies are coming dont worry ;-)

Hehe you read my mind :cool:

Smilies Rock :D

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Originally Posted by Uber Dave

Swanny, smilies are coming dont worry ;-)

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I'm getting worried ;-)

I like it :-)

I reckon the new smilies are going to be the best ever ;)