Upgraded TDIClub forums

[VW Derf]

Hi Everyone,

The long overdue forum updates are now done and we are now running on a forum system called XenForo. While some may still long for the older look of the old software, we had been using different versions of vBulletin since November of 2005. For a digression and stroll down memory lane we started out with a GeoCities site and those posts that have been archived here. The first real forums (UBB.Classic) started was in 1999 and in 2003 we upgraded to UBB.threads. So this is our 5th platform in 24 years! If you want to look at some screen shots of how that all looked, follow this link to the pictures.

Anyways, the migration went reasonably well. There were of course a few unplanned issues, but in spite of them, everything seems to have migrated well. Here are some comments about the migration:

1. All the user accounts, posts, and PMs dating back too 1999 have all be migrated into the new system.
2. All graphics images (ie gif, jpg, png, etc) have been migrated from the old PhotoPost system into the media section of the new systems.
3. All the old links will either redirect you into the new system, or reference old images. From my testing this time and previously, nothing has been lost.
4. PDFs, word files, were NOT migrated to the old system. While you can still access them with the old system, the new location for them is now the 'Resources" section. I may still be able to automate inserting the ~1900 files that did not get migrated into the new system so they are included in forum searches. If not I'll manually add the top requested/used ones.
5. TapaTalk is NOT enabled at this point. I am still evaluating installing this on the new system as noted in this TapaTalk thread. I will decide in the coming week if it will come back as it seems the notifications is one of the key reasons people use the software on their portable devices.
6. Passwords: Now that we are no longer using vBulletin and PhotoPost, I highly recommend you change your password. It is also a good practice not to re-use passwords between sites.
7. There are a lot of new features, many of which are long overdue. Things like a better editor where you can format things easier, a link when posting to insert items from the media gallery, and better mobile support.

Anyways, I will let you guys explore. Please report any issues you may find.

thanks,

Fred

 

[VW Derf]

Outstanding issues:

• fixing links to old pics.tdiclub.com items - FIXED
• home page not linked to forums correctly. - FIXED
• remove number of unread messages from tab description. - FIXED
• Fix issue with editing signatures - FIXED
• Add more details under avatar, i.e. location, TDI and fuel economy - - FIXED on desktop view.
• make sticky threads more visible. Currently it looks as if the threads are not done according to date.

Known issues currently that won't be fixed, primarily migration issues:

• Images that were contained inside signatures were not migrated. The best plan of attack is to fix this individually and link in a new image. Please see the instructions on this page if you are unfamiliar with how the new Media system works.
• PDFs, word files, were NOT migrated directly into the new system system. While you can still access them with the old URL as before, but non changes can be done. I am looking for volunteers to help migrate the critical ones over to the new 'resources' section where they can be maintained moving forward. This will also enable them to be found in forum searches as the old ones only show up when in someone else's link.

 

[VW Derf]

Outstanding requests and items to be investigated:

• Investigate issue whit RSS feed showing deleted spam.
• Investigate options to customize the number of messages per page.
• Possible re-introducing TapaTalk. I still have concerns about the app itself, but can see how some users find the notifications useful. Details in this thread.
• Enhancing search options:
  • Older than X date.
  • Increase search results to more than 100. Now testing 500 results.
  • Possible move to use Elastic Search
• Quick forum jump feature lost from vBulletin.
• PM/Conversations limited to 20 messages per page. Increasing the limit.
• Daily email summarizing that day's posting for specific forums
• Theme related issues:
  • Investigate possibility of other themes. ie darker, more condensed. This must be leveraged with the additional work to update some requests as well as the work during future updates.
  • Less unused space on the sides (this seems to be a trend in applications that I wish would go away...)
  • Automatic resize of threads.
• Automatically resizing the pictures
• enable searching of 3 character items, ie engine codes.
  
  
  

 

[scooperhsd]

Is there a way that you can set the number of posts per page ? This was a quick scan and I didn't find one, but I may have missed it.

 

[Nuje]

First off - congrats, Fred! Great update. Making this mobile-friendly is a huge step forward.

One request: Is there a way to allow users to set the number of posts per page? Default here is 20, and doesn't seem to be adjustable in PREFERENCES; I liked having 100/page in the old system so I wouldn't have to keep paging through in reading a long thread.

Also, not sure if this is due to first encountering the page from a Google result, but I came upon this situation;
When I first saw the new UI, I clicked on the link in the "Welcome to the new TDICLUB....read more in this thread" banner, and got the scary "not secure" warning, and when I said clicked "yes, allow anyway", I got (and continue to get) a 404 page.

 

[VW Derf]

First off - congrats, Fred! Great update. Making this mobile-friendly is a huge step forward.

One request: Is there a way to allow users to set the number of posts per page? Default here is 20, and doesn't seem to be adjustable in PREFERENCES; I liked having 100/page in the old system so I wouldn't have to keep paging through in reading a long thread.

Also, not sure if this is due to first encountering the page from a Google result, but I came upon this situation;
When I first saw the new UI, I clicked on the link in the "Welcome to the new TDICLUB....read more in this thread" banner, and got the scary "not secure" warning, and when I said clicked "yes, allow anyway", I got (and continue to get) a 404 page.

Can you send me the URL that you were referred to? PM is fine. I'm trying to fix all those pages that may not have gotten caught with the main set of fixes.

Let me see about number of posts per page.

 

[VW Derf]

Nuje, I think I fixed that issue you noted. As for the number of posts per page, I think that may need to be something added on as it is not there out of the box. Please keep items like this coming.

 

[Nero Morg]

Not sure if it's because I'm using an ad blocker or not, but Nuje your sig says page not found

Also, found out viewing page as desktop on mobile, the button appears for going to the last page of a thread. Neat.

 

[Nuje]

Nero Morg - I don't think it's the adblocker.
In both Safari and Firefox, both running ad-blockers, my (and other users' - including yours) signature shows up fine.

 

[Nuje]

On the old system, when I clicked on NEW POSTS and got the list of threads that had been posted to recently, there was a link that allowed me to jump directly to "first unread" (so, in a mega-thread like "what did you do today..." instead of landing at the most recent one, I'd land 5-20posts back - where I left off a day or whatever ago).

Unless I'm missing it, all I see now is the name of the thread (which lands me at first post)link to the most recent post) and the link to the most recent post. Is there a way to have a link from the list of threads that lands me at "first unread"?

 

[Nuje]

I don't want the *LAST* post, I want the *first UNREAD" post.

The JUMP TO NEW hyperlink at the top right of the page gets me there, but my typical browsing is to go to "NEW POSTS", then middle click (open in new tab, but keep me on this page) on all of the threads that look interesting, and land me at the first unread post of each thread.

Unless that's in there somehow (?).

Another request: can we (or you) disable the unread notifications badge ("58" in the image) that shows up in the browser's tab bar? At least, that's what I think the 58 is. I tried to mark all of my PMs as "read", but that didn't move the number.

 

[Rrusse11]

Thanks for keeping this great site going!

 

[Beaker80]

Nice update.

 

[NachtRitter]

Very nice update!

Note that the link from https://www.tdiclub.com/ to forum page (https://forums.tdiclub.com//categories.php) raises error "The requested page could not be found."

 

[hskrdu]

Fred- Thanks to you and the others for the work to keep things updated. I'll try to buy some more Club items this year to help out.

 

[JETaah]

Very Nice!

 

[adjat84th]

Liking it so far!

 

[TDIGAZ]

Fred - Came on to update my avatar, but noticed before logging in, I wasn't seeing any post signatures.
After logging in, the signatures were now there but any posts that had images, including mine, just showed the script [SIGPIC}{/SIGPIC}.
I went into my profile and choose my original signature picture.
Now my signature picture is on my posts, but also displays the image filename, my username, and when the signature was updated.
It might just be setting somewhere in my profile, or is the new "look"?

 

[JM Popaleetus]

How do we view previous posts? Clicking on my content only shows my previous threads.

Also, is it possible to add a slightly darker theme?

 

[Gothmolly]

New format wastes a LOT of screen real estate.

 

[1Kpertank]

Looks great !.
Just ordered a fresh TDI club hat
Thanks !

 

[PB_NB]

Looks great! Nice choice for an update.

 

[AndyBees]

Reserved .. (Fred, I am sure the conversion was a major endeavor and we all appreciate you keeping the Club going.)

I agree with what Wonneber said, "You can't throw surprises at old people." I've spent about two hours "learning" the new format. I suspect after a few more visits the old format in my mind will fade into the past.

Over the last several months, I've given this "getting old thing" a lot of thought. So, I went thru my very long Conversion Project and added a link to find things by Category for those who come after me. Photos is a big thing in that Thread. The old adage that a "Picture is worth a thousand words" is quite evident in the Thread. In the old format, I could see the exact number of views the Thread had. I finally found how to check that number in the new format. It has had over 365,000 views. That is why I categorized the major events and added links to them. I knew others wanting to install a TDI in their Vanagon was using my Thread quite frequently. Anyway, I started the Thread using PhotoBucket, but I knew that I needed to learn how uploading photos in the TDI Club worked. So, I learned the photo trick and replaced all the PhotoBucket pics by using the TDI Club Photo process. Doing the categorization and changing the photos was a very long undertaking. But, as I previously stated, I did it for those who will come after me.

So, can anyone tell me how to use the new system with respect to uploading photos? <<< Solved
How do I find my Albums without having to play Russian Roulette? (randomly clicking on a photo to see which Album it might be in)
How do I create a new Album? <<< Solved

 

[wonneber]

New format wastes a LOT of screen real estate.

I do like the new format, would have liked a warning before hand.
You can't throw surprises at old people.
I have to agree with the above quote.
A quick patch is holding the Ctrl key & tap the + or - on the right side of the numeric pad.
A MAJOR plus is I no longer get the 'TDI Forum Unsafe' in Microsoft Edge browser.
I do realize this was a major undertaking.
Is there any read-me about the changes?

 

[VW Derf]

Sorry, this was a surprise to some of you. While I had posted notes and banners about the migration date and had volunteers test drive the new system over the past several weeks, I guess I'm not a marketing guy.

Yes, this is a change. Some things are better and some features will be missed as well. I also miss some things from the old system, especially since it had been in place for so many years. Unfortunately, it was time to move on as we couldn't stay with the old systems. No amount of work could fix it anymore as it wasn't an ALH.

Please note that the KEY priority with this migration for me was ensuring we did not lose any data. I did evaluate several different software systems and one of the reasons I picked this one is that it was the closest to the old one and in my testing the data loss was minimal and this includes ensuring all the old links. While this looks different, I think after a while, it will be easier to work with and we should be able to tweak it for the better over time.

Anyways, Over the coming days/weeks I will be:

• Addressing little tweaks and fixes as they come up
• Possibly some additional themes so those that like it darker or more compressed have options.
• Creating a few how-to pages and FAQ, once I figure it out myself. For that, I'm always looking for volunteers. Here is one I just started on posting pictures.
• Migrating over the commonly downloaded PDFs and documents into the resources section. I may need help on this as well, especially prioritizing which documents are most important to be directly searchable here from what was on the picture server.
• Tweaking the layout, or at least giving options to give more contrast and perhaps compressing things a bit more.

So keep posting your issues, concerns, and broken items, and I'll investigate solutions and fixing things. I'll also roll up a summary into the second post. I probably won't be able to address them all, but if it makes things better, I'm all for it.

 

[Jedadiah]

None of the pictures that I had linked from Imgur are showing up in the how to threads I've made. Is there a quick fix, or will I need to go back sometime and add them again? Or do we have more storage for our albums now, so that I could host them here. I would have in the past, but they would've exceeded my limit. Once I konw the best path, I'll get them back up when I can. Danke im Voraus.

 

[RexNICO]

Thanks for keeping this forum alive.

I'm sure in a few weeks/months most will forget the old layout.

Thanks again!

 

[BobnOH]

Nice work!
I updated my Avatar, but I no longer see my location.

 

[AndyBees]

Nice work!
I updated my Avatar, but I no longer see my location.

Hover your cursor over your New Beetle avatar pic..... then you should be able to see location, etc.

 

[BobnOH]

Hover your cursor over your New Beetle avatar pic..... then you should be able to see location, etc.

Works for me, thanks!