Forum Upgrades: November 13, 2004

As some of you may have noticed we upgraded the software on Saturday. There are still a few things I'm working on resolving. One of them is further updates to the search engine as there are a few more optimizations that can be done.

Most of the software changes were backend, but a few to note are:
* Quick reply
* Change to Active Topics
* Restrictions to the number of searches in a specified time
* An option for "TDIClub Avatars". If you have some you want me to add to this generic list, send em over.
* Restrictions on the number of PMs. The current number is subject to change in the future, but a goal would be to keep this number below 500.
* RSS feeds will be coming soon. Probably for just the news section and the potential 911 Section
* Faster Searches
* Reduction in slowdowns

Fixed issues:
* Home page is messed up.
* Highlighting of new messages (unread/read status).
* Email notifications including text of post
* Redone Search Engine.
* Less search time restrictions. Anytime of the day now, just 30 seconds apart for logged in members.
* "show all my posts" link from "my home"

Known issues:
* Active topics missing some posts or showing the first post only
* Logon is issues for a few
* Others? Let me know.

Items to try if you are having problems:
* Clear your cookies: Go to "My Home" and click on "My Cookies". Once a new page loads, click on the "Expire Cookies" button.
* "Mark all read" (found under "My Home")

Cheers,

Fred

PS, if you are having problems, go to "My Home" and click on "My Cookies". Once a new page loads, click on the "Expire Cookies" button.

PM's restricted to 500 what? A day. 500 saved PM's. Daily allowance (first come, first served?). Just curious.

500 total in your inbox. I know some are way over that limit, so I'm not enforecing that (yet), but I have no idea how anyone can sort through 1000+ messages on a screen. (but then I don't use it as much as some do).

I miss the number of new replies that used to be in brackets next to the amount of total replies. Can that be re-enabled?

BTW, I am guilty of having almost 1000 PM's, I will go through them now and delete a bunch

Before you delete them, let me know the reason for having these amounts? Just as a record, too lazzy to delete, etc. Perhaps some sort of archive is needed?

As for the numbers, they should be back on now.

My read/unread status no longer seems to show unread topics in bold. Is this a take-back from the older versions of the software?

Perhaps this is a side effect of the upgrade but before when I browsed a forum it would "shade" or "darken" topics that I haven't read any of the replies to yet. Maybe this is close to the same thing Wingnut is referring to above.

Keep up the good work. I know how upgrading never goes smoothly.

Cheers,

Fred

Alex, are you refering to the shading as well?

I'll look into this.

Just deleted 30 or so PM's. Just not really had a reason to delete them until someone gives a nudge.

Alex, are you refering to the shading as well?

I'll look into this.

Click to expand...

Seems I missed this change in my testing. For now the shows if there is a new post (versus the image). I do agree the shading was more effective and will see what I can do.

Fred

Have you modified the E Mail notification system. When I get a PM I used to get it E Mailed to me also. Now I just get an E Mail telling me I have a PM. It was useful to read them without having to log in etc.

I always go to a TDI Club bookmark in my browser that links here:
http://forums.tdiclub.com/dosearch.php?C...ttsubmit=Submit

Now it turns up a page that's a little disconcerting - I think it's the separation line between the topic title and the text that makes it harder to scan through the topics.

I thought it was just the Active Topics page, but that doesn't give you the start of the most recent post, which was always very useful.

Before you delete them, let me know the reason for having these amounts? Just as a record, too lazzy to delete, etc. Perhaps some sort of archive is needed?

As for the numbers, they should be back on now.

Click to expand...

Yep, too lazy I guess. But I have had a few occasions where I have had to go through them to find something.

What about having a time limit on them? Say one month and it gets automatically deleted? But have an option to save if you wish. That way, the responsibility is on the user to save them. If they are too lazy to do that, that is their problem.

I would also like to be able to have a continuation of the conversation in each PM. Like the ones on the Vortex with each persons reply included in each PM. Instead of saving individual PM's, we could save complete conversations. It would be one file instead of potentially dozens? It is sometimes hard to remember what the subject of a PM is unless the person quotes the preceeding message. It would be handy to have it all on one page, like an e-mail with each respponse included. Once each PM is sent, the previous one would be automaticall deleted since the body of that PM is now included in the new reply.

I don't know if that makes sense or how hard it would be to do, but it would certainly make PMing a lot easier.

Have you modified the E Mail notification system. When I get a PM I used to get it E Mailed to me also. Now I just get an E Mail telling me I have a PM. It was useful to read them without having to log in etc.

Click to expand...

Let me know if this one is back to normal.

Fred,

Please post a note in the TDI 101 forum prior to the next upgrade. I browse that forum every time I'm at the site and won't be caught by suprise next time.

I was actually on the site when you did the upgrade and started thinking that I was having internet problems until I figured it out.

Just a quick thanks.

And if I had just one wish that didn't involve college cheerleaders, it would be to have the smiles available in a quick reply.

But if you can hook me up with those college cheerleaders, that would be cool as well.

That's a great suggestion. I noticed that there is room to the right of the text area in the quick reply section.

Fred,

Please post a note in the TDI 101 forum prior to the next upgrade. I browse that forum every time I'm at the site and won't be caught by suprise next time.

I was actually on the site when you did the upgrade and started thinking that I was having internet problems until I figured it out.

Click to expand...

Sorry about that. I had notes posted this morning about the times we would be down, but in the process of the upgrade those notes got lost.

Fred, will you be returning the "show all my posts" link?

It is really helpful.

Fred, thanks for your endless efforts to make this board even better than it already is. One thing I noticed after this change is that the "Main Index" button has been moved from the first position to the second position in the group of links just under where you place the various announcements like "Changes to signature and avatar rules". Just a suggestion but if you could line the different buttons in a row, instead of stacked as they are now, it may save some frustration when people accidentally press the wrong link. If they were all lined up and spaced out a bit more, they would be more accessable. Thanks again.

Fred, will you be returning the "show all my posts" link?

It is really helpful.

Click to expand...

The should be back now.

Fred, will you be returning the "show all my posts" link?

It is really helpful.

Click to expand...

The should be back now.

Click to expand...

I've cleared my cookies, but this option tells me "you must be logged in."

I am logged in.., I logged in

cleared cookies again..., loggoed out.., logged in..

same results

My read/unread status no longer seems to show unread topics in bold. Is this a take-back from the older versions of the software?

Click to expand...

Fixed

Fred, will you be returning the "show all my posts" link?

It is really helpful.

Click to expand...

The should be back now.

Click to expand...

I've cleared my cookies, but this option tells me "you must be logged in."

I am logged in.., I logged in

cleared cookies again..., loggoed out.., logged in..

same results

Click to expand...

How about now?

I love the next page double arrows! Is there an option for previous page double arrows? If so please enable them.

Wow! That was fast. The gray highlighting is back!!!! Thanks!!!!

Fred, will you be returning the "show all my posts" link?

It is really helpful.

Click to expand...

The should be back now.

Click to expand...

I've cleared my cookies, but this option tells me "you must be logged in."

I am logged in.., I logged in

cleared cookies again..., loggoed out.., logged in..

same results

Click to expand...

How about now?

Click to expand...

Sort off... now it's performing it's search but displays posts of different users

Could be most previous posts?? not sure, but definately not my posts.

When I click the "Show my posts" button in "My home" I get taken to the Active Topics page (old style). When I click "Active Topics" I go to Active Topics (new style) but the two lists aren't the same.

The E Mail notification is still not working as before.

When I click "View recent posts -> 24 hrs" I do not seem to get the latest posts. This is the method that I tend to use to see what topics are 'hot...' thanks for all the hard work, this sight is an amazing collection of people and knowledge !!

Thanks, Fred. I especially like how you can now do a quicklink in the quick reply box.