New forum software - need your help testing & input

[Steve St.Laurent]

<center><a href="http://www.dieselregistry.com/forums"><font size="6"><b>CLICK HERE FOR THE TEST FORUM<b></font></a></center>



I've hinted at this over the last few weeks and the time has arrived - we are moving to V3 of vBulletin. We are on V2. 2 right now and there are a lot of cool features in the new software that we think you'll enjoy. The software has been out in production long enough now and looks to be stable.



I've been working overtime (a bunch of LONG sleepless nights) getting it ready for our use. I had made a number of modifications to vB for our specific use over the years and many of those mods had to be completely rewritten to work with the new software. The moderators and staff have tested it and the only issue I'm aware of right now is Opera renders the pull down menu's incorrectly - I am looking into that. Right now there is no spell check - I will add that after it's been up and running in production for a while to be sure that the spell check isn't causing problems.



I need you guys/gals to take a look at the new software - go ahead and try to break it . Give us your input on what you like/what you don't like. Make a bunch of posts, do some searches, fiddle around with your settings. I really want to give this a workout before I convert all the current data to it - there will be no going back at that point. Not moving to the new version isn't an option, btw - for reasons I'll reveal later.



Keep in mind that the software is running on this same server with the regular software right now - so it's doing double duty. I did this to make sure to work it out. Also, there is a cache that will take a week or two for it to be fully functioning - so things will speed up once it's in production after a week or so.



Enjoy the new software and I'll be anxiously awaiting your thoughts. Please post any questions, concerns, problems, suggestions, etc here and NOT on the new site. Also, keep in mind that ANYTHING that you do on the new site WILL be deleted when I put it into production - everything done over there is just a test.



<center><a href="http://www.dieselregistry.com/forums"><font size="6"><b>CLICK HERE FOR THE TEST FORUM<b></font></a></center>



-Steve St. Laurent

Webmaster

 

[guava]

Cool when someone says 'try to break it'... . I'll just go try now.

 

[catoiler]

Way cool Steve!Has a lot of nice features. Don't know about puttin the name under the handle.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

That's a mistake - it used to be on here too and I removed it from the template. Forgot to take it out of the new templates - good catch. Fixed.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

BTW, I am aware that the clock is off. It's because vB2 and vB3 handle the clock differently - it'll be correct once we move over.

 

[EEngel]

New Site

Steve, looks very nice. Very easy on the eyes.



You are doing good work, thanx for all the long hours.

 

[moel]

is there a quick method to return to list (the one i was in) after i post a reply so i can pick up perusing where i left off?

 

[nickleinonen]

what exactally changed? i have not noticed any difference as of yet...

 

[Dane]

Steve - the template for the pages is awful, especially the red. I really like the current cause it's easy on the eyes.

 

[socal_rattler]

I agree with Dane, the red is terrible. The 'look and feel' of the existing forums is much cleaner looking.

 

[KBennett]

Very nice. I am on http://forums.1911forum.com quite a bit and it looks like similar software. The ability to view your post "live" while writing it in the enhanced mode and the way it handles PM's are nice features. I agree with Dane on the red, it's bright. Maybe shading the borders would help?

It seems to run slower. Is this due to the test site or is it updating files on my machine... cookies, etc?

Keep up the good work!

 

[AKAMAC]

Originally posted by Dane

Steve - the template for the pages is awful, especially the red. I really like the current cause it's easy on the eyes.

Ditto that! Instant headache.

 

[paccool]

Steve, when I looked at the main forum page it sized itself to fit the screen. When I went to the individual forums such as the first gen section, the display was too big to fit the screen and about 20% of the page was clipped off on the right hand side. I know this is something that is easy to fix IF one knows what the hell they are doing with a computer, but for me it is a mystery.



Stan

 

[LandShark]

Yes, skip the red. It's awful. Couldn't spend much time looking at new features because it made my eyes go out of focus.

 

[GIT-R-DONE]

Steve, I like the set-up. I also agree with the color, but then I thought before the color was also bright. Maybe find someting a little easier on the eyes.



As I have also said before, thanks for all the time you have put into this site.



GIT-R-DONE

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Originally posted by moel

is there a quick method to return to list (the one i was in) after i post a reply so i can pick up perusing where i left off?

That depends on which list you were on. If you were doing a search then you need to either hit the back button twice or hit the down arrow next to your back button and click on the 2nd link - just like now. If you were in a forum then you can do the same (click on back) or you can click on the forum name in the nav bar and it will take you back there.

Originally posted by KBennett

Very nice. I am on http://forums.1911forum.com quite a bit and it looks like similar software. The ability to view your post "live" while writing it in the enhanced mode and the way it handles PM's are nice features. I agree with Dane on the red, it's bright. Maybe shading the borders would help?

It seems to run slower. Is this due to the test site or is it updating files on my machine... cookies, etc?

Keep up the good work!

As I said above, the pages will be getting loaded into a cache that will take about a week to populate which will speed things up. It will be somewhat slower than the current page because there is so much more content on a page. There are a lot more options, menus, etc. It probably won't be very noticeable to users on high speed connections but dial up users will notice it.

Originally posted by paccool

Steve, when I looked at the main forum page it sized itself to fit the screen. When I went to the individual forums such as the first gen section, the display was too big to fit the screen and about 20% of the page was clipped off on the right hand side. I know this is something that is easy to fix IF one knows what the hell they are doing with a computer, but for me it is a mystery.



Stan

What resolution are you running stan? If you go to your control panel and then display and then click on settings you will see what resolution you are on. Also, which text size are you using in your browser? Click on the view menu, pull it down to text size and then you'll see which one you have selected. This will help me troubleshoot what's going on for you.



We're taking the color opinions into account - thanks for the input, it's appreciated. We tried a number of different colors and had a lot of people look at it and this was what we came up with for now. Keep the input coming!!



BTW, don't forget that posts you make over there WILL be lost.

 

[DOUGMartin]

Steve i think its pretty cool. I need a class on getting pics on threads It is too much for my little mind lol.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Originally posted by nickleinonen

what exactally changed? i have not noticed any difference as of yet...

Did you click on the link to the test forum in the first post or are you looking for the changes here? Because there is a LOT of new stuff in the new version of the software and the look is completely different.

 

[Steve St.Laurent]

Originally posted by DOUGMartin

Steve i think its pretty cool. I need a class on getting pics on threads It is too much for my little mind lol.

Click on the website FAQ right here in this forum and there is a class on it in there . With the new software I'll be able to turn up the picture size on uploads once I go live with the software. There's a conversion process I have to go through to make a change in how the files are stored and I didn't want to do that until it went live. Just converting the files for the test page took 5 hours and building the search database took 6 DAYS!

 

[onestackdram]

Yeah i will have to vote against the red background, that really isn't very easy on the eyes.