New Forum

Just trying to get over a few teething problems with the new forum software...

Stick with me!! I'll get it cracked ::)

As Private Messages could not be transferred, anyone who needs access to them from the old forum should let me know, and I'll arrange access to them for you.

Sorry for all the hassle, but if it wasnt for hackers none of this would be necessary!

[Pulsarblu]

Hi Hi,

I logged in this morning and saw that the forum was closed......cold sweat broke out and then I realised that ahhhh...New forum!!

Nice surprise :D

[MotherBear]

Nice surprise :D

Yes, but for the wrong reason. ?I'll bet Taffy wasn't too happy at having all this extra work piled on him without warning.

Bah! to all hackers. ? ?

[MotherBear]

So, here it is, the new forum, albeit forced on us by adverse circumstances. ?What are your thoughts and comments on it so far?

Here?s mine. ?My comments are intended to be constructive rather than just whingeing before you start slinging bricks at me ?. ?Some of my points may be resolved simply with a timely bit of advice.

Negatives:

I find it a bit inconvenient that I have to sign in for every little action e.g. I sign into the forum, then have to sign in if I want to modify (edit) my post or change something in Profile. ?I appreciate that this gives an element of protection, but is rather time consuming, labour intensive and like having to unlock various gates to get where I?m going.

Not able to click on Reply when not logged in. ?On the old forum I didn?t use the automatic login facility (not sure if there is one on here) but, if I read a post and wanted to answer it, I could just click Reply and it would take me to the login screen and then set up the message box ready for me to reply. ?Now I have to hunt around for the login button and go through the rigmarole of finding the post I want to reply to again.

Can?t edit old posts any more (i.e. ones before ?armageddon?).

Restriction on size of post but, in its favour, there is a counter at the bottom of the message box to let you know how many characters you've left to post. ?The limit in size is fairly generous, except to those of us who are inclined to be particularly prolific at times. ? :-[ ?

I find I?m having to edit my new posts more because I see quite a few indentations at the edge of the text and it doesn?t look neat. ?This forum doesn?t appear to self-adjust it?s text like the old one and spaces between sentences seem to be critical.

Having to remember to tick a box at the end of each post to state whether you wish to be notified of replies is a major pain and I?m not sure it works, as I haven?t received any notifications so far.

The ITA and WHV threads worked better underneath the EOI one. ?

The inevitable spammers are back in again after all Taffy?s endeavours to weed them out at registration. ?This is only to be expected until Taffy gets round to clamping them again.

The timings of recent posts seem to fluctuate between Today and Yesterday and back again. ?

Positives:

Pleasing appearance although not as smart and original-looking as the previous forum. ?Something badly needs to be done about the top banner, so that people looking in know exactly what site they?re on. ?No doubt Taffy will be working on this, given time.

If you?re in a hurry it?s good to be able to bring up the last 10 posts with a single mouse click. ?Not always suitable for thorough browsing though, as there could be more than 10 on occasions.

Extra nifty facilities for adding special touches to your messages e.g. ?moving, grids, greater choice of font size and style, coloured text is easier to use etc.

Being able to move from one topic to the next without going back to the menu.

Today?s and yesterday?s threads with new posts are marked for easier browsing.

Previously had a counter to show the greatest number of members looking in on a given day. ?Now we have that for guests as well, which is good, although I?m not sure if it?s working correctly yet, going by the low figure and the figures don?t add up. ?Pity there?s not a monitor to count how many members and guests look in each day. ?Would be interesting.

That?s it so far. ?Still coming to grips with the new format. ?Really hope something can be done about the tagging that spoils most of the previous old posts and makes them very difficult to read for new members (and old) looking back over a wealth of information.

Thanks to Taffy for his endeavours to get things up and running again in difficult circumstances. ? [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

Arrrgh! My edit shows up even though no one's posted under me. Gone from no visible editing to totally visible editing. :-/

[MotherBear]

Just been trying to come to grips with the Search facility. ?Can't fathom it out at all. ?Before you could put in a word or a poster's name and it would find it for you. ?This one just doesn't want to know.

>:( :P ::) :-?

Been a rollercoaster ride getting here, but I think we're finally on the level again!

Fingers and toes crossed, and all that stuff!

Hopefully 90% of all the odd looking tags have been removed from posts now. I'll work on the rest, but doubt it will be possible due to the random numbers that seem to be with some of them.

Happy reading!

[MotherBear]

I visited the forum yesterday and there was the old format! :-? And there were no new posts from early August. Was so freaked I had to make a hot cup of Milo to calm my nerves.

Now, now, Glenda . You know I'm always the one who's seeing things that aren't there, like ghost forums. Are you trying to push me off the post of Chief Nutter on here?

[MotherBear]

For anyone browsing the old posts and wondering what this Mother Bear person is doing skulking around editing a lot of the posts, I've just begun tidying up some of the remaining non-compatible text on them. ?Unfortunately, in doing so, it has left my mark behind. ?I haven't completely cleared the odd few defunct smileys, as it was a bit time consuming to do everything and it didn't make the posts look too bad if I left them there for the moment.

I've started bringing the photos back up again as I wanted to make sure we hadn't lost them. ?Still a lot to do, but I'll get there.