New Forum's Software Upgrade...

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok folks the upgrade is done!

Let us know your thoughts, questions, concerns or problems that you may have!

We hope you enjoy this upgrade!

[Mike123abc]

Well I lost IE one time while reading posts today. I do not know what happened, clicked on the post, page was loading then poof the browser was gone. Came back and could not duplicate it. (Latest IE on WinXPpro).

[Mark Lamutt]

Scott, still need lable links for all of the arrows in the upper right corner of the main forum list.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Mark is you point at them, you will see in a second or 2 what they are.

And if you notice they are listed as temporary.

I can't really label those. It's a VB3 thing.

[Nick]

Why do I have five stars?

[platinum]

will you be adding the threads to the side of the page again and the auto reload

[Darkman]

hmm - interesting Software Upgrade (for the forum)...

Looks different (and more powerfull, etc) :pride:

[Darkman]

I think - you gotto twick it (fix it) somewhat or something...
Instead of "New Posts" Icon - forum just makes it and shows "You are Subscribed" Icon instead

And above i clicked on American Pride Smilie, but forum made it "what is shown above instead" :)
:p (i guess cuz that followed by "ride" :)

[W1CPO]

While viewing new posts, be sure and check out the five temporary buttons just to the right of the welcome "user" bar... Open Buddy List, Vew New Posts, Mark All Forums Read, Log Out, and Simple Search.

[W1CPO]

Will you be bringing back the "number of new threads/messages since your last visit" to the home page?

[Darkman]

I think "New Posts" fixed now..

EDIT - nope new posts, new threads are not fixed yet..
went back to "Subscribed" icon..

And Users browsing the forums are on the Bottom of page now..
I think it is better to have 'em on top of page :)

[Scott Greczkowski]

To answer the questions about the stars...

Stars are like a ranking system based on your number of posts.

1 - 9 Posts gets 5 white stars
10 - 75 Posts gets 1 Gold Star (4 White Stars)
76 - 300 Posts gets 2 Gold Stars (3 White Stars)
301 - 999 Posts gets 3 Gold Stars (2 White Stars)
1000- 1999 Posts gets 4 Gold Stars (1 White Star)
2000 or more posts earns you 5 gold stars!

[platinum]

don't i get an answer?

[Darkman]

Or now it is new (the post) only 1 time...? (and after reading it, and going back to the Forum's main page - the "New" icon immidiately goes away)?

[Mike123abc]

I do not like the star system. It looks like a post rating system. I like the titles, they do not look like much of a rating system, just fun titles.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Nope it's not a post rating system, there is one built in to VB3 called the User Reputation System which lets users grade other users posts.

We have for now decided not to use the reputation system

[Scott Greczkowski]

I have merged the two forum software threads together and placed them in the admin area.

Thanks for your feedback guys I will check into some of your commets now

[Scott Greczkowski]

On the main homepage there is now a new option to see the last 5 threads posted.

Because it is javascript based it will not work within the homepage, which explains why it is it's own popup window.

I will work on this some more, so that the thread titles and usernames are actual url's which will take you to those posts or the users information page.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Or now it is new (the post) only 1 time...? (and after reading it, and going back to the Forum's main page - the "New" icon immidiately goes away)?

This is correct once you read the post the new icon goes away.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Will you be bringing back the "number of new threads/messages since your last visit" to the home page?
Eventually YES we will, however at the database is totally new and I need to figure out what the new name for the information is and how to extract it. :)

Hang in there. :)

[IndyMichael]

I get a lot of red x's, where icons should be.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Indy are you using the New DBSTalk Look?

If you are I suggest changing your style to a different style for the moment as that style is not 100% compatable with the new software.

[firephoto]

Scott, the image (i guess it's an image, xmtracker.php) of what you're listening too (in your sig) is all fuzzy till I open it in it's own window. This might be browser related though (Opera on Linux). I'm using the dark colors.

Everything else that's finished looks good and works fast. The main page looks different than the rest though and doesn't ID the user yet (the bottom of the page says it's the old software still so I'm guessing it's getting worked on. I like the wider quick reply window and I see there are some other handy view features too.

edit------ The xmtracker.php looks the same with Mozilla and Galeon too till it's in its own window.

[Kerry High]

Could you put the forum jump back at the top of the page like it was in the old version?

[Scott Greczkowski]

Kerry I will check into it. :)

[Chris Blount]

And Users browsing the forums are on the Bottom of page now..
I think it is better to have 'em on top of page :)I'm not sure what you mean by that. The users browsing the forums have always been at the bottom.

[Jacob S]

Do you still have the information that was on the old software version such as Notepad, bookmarks, etc.? I thought it was going to be later this weekend before this software change was going to take place and did not get the Notepad and bookmarks (Notepad more important).

[Scott Greczkowski]

It's been a long day. :) So what I am saying might be wrong.

The old software did not tell you what users were in the forum which you are reading.

The new software does, and from what I see it puts it in the bottom. of the forups posts list.

I don't know if this can be changed or not yet. But we will look into it.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Nope notepad and bookmark information are now gone.

[firephoto]

When you were in a forum looking at the thread subjects, it used to say towards the top which users were in the current forum. I remember because I was surprised to see who was on in the wee hours of the night sometimes. ;)

You're doing great work too guys!

[Jacob S]

I also remember it saying who was in which forums then if you go to the list of all the forums it would give a list of all the people that were in all the forums.

[TerryC]

Where's the arcade? To paraphrase Dr. Evil, "I want my frickin' arcade, man".

Did I overlook the link?

[Scott Greczkowski]

Arcade is gone for now, it will be back when we can bring it back.

(Basically the author has to write a new version for VB3 (which he is already working on)

[Darkman]

This is correct once you read the post the new icon goes away.

before it was somewhat different - before after reading the post and going back, New Icon stayed for a while before going away...

LOL - i kinda got used to the old Forum's format - oh well ;)

[TerryC]

Arcade is gone for now, it will be back when we can bring it back.

(Basically the author has to write a new version for VB3 (which he is already working on)
Great news, Scott.

BTW, I was too busy complaining to say how much I like the new software. Great job. :righton:

[Jacob S]

The scores and rankings will be lost on the arcade when it comes back wont it?

[Scott Greczkowski]

I dont honestly know, the arcade database is still there, it depends on what they change to make it work with v3

[platinum]

On the main homepage there is now a new option to see the last 5 threads posted.

Because it is javascript based it will not work within the homepage, which explains why it is it's own popup window.

I will work on this some more, so that the thread titles and usernames are actual url's which will take you to those posts or the users information page.

Thanks Scott, I wasn't thrilled with the popup window to see the threads. I liked the old page where the threads were on the right and the page autoloaded.

[raj2001]

Scott, nice work on the upgrade. However, the "welcome" animated GIF makes the board look a bit cheesy. That's just IMO of course.

[Mike Richardson]

The appearance of post pages sucks because of the blue bar between each post. This causes the page not to "flow" but to rather kind of stop your eyes hard between each post. It would be better if you got rid of all the stupid blue bars.

PS: Old software was running fine. New software isin't any faster and just causes headaches.

[TerryC]

LOL - Having a bad day, Mike?

[IndyMichael]

Indy are you using the New DBSTalk Look?

If you are I suggest changing your style to a different style for the moment as that style is not 100% compatable with the new software.

I was using the New DBSTalk Look, but it automatically switched me to this more generic look when I came back, and everything works fine.

[Richard King]

Seems much faster on my Starband connection. Good work guys. :D

[firephoto]

The last 5 messages popup doesn't seem to be working with non-IE browsers but I can't confirm this with a mozilla flavor on windows. It worked fine with IE6 but Opera gives a ({.) or something like that (win and linux), and Konqueror has a blank below the title. Mozilla flavors with linux have the same output as Opera so it could be a sun java thing. No biggie really.

[Jacob S]

The appearance of post pages sucks because of the blue bar between each post. This causes the page not to "flow" but to rather kind of stop your eyes hard between each post. It would be better if you got rid of all the stupid blue bars.

That is probably because the blue bars does not match the gray color well but at the same time makes it easier to distinguish each seperate post.

[Mike Richardson]

That is probably because the blue bars does not match the gray color well but at the same time makes it easier to distinguish each seperate post.
Can't you make separate themes? I'll PayPal a bunch of money if you make a new theme with no blue bars and put the forum jump at the top of the page (I hate it at the bottom!)

[Mike123abc]

Can't you make separate themes? I'll PayPal a bunch of money if you make a new theme with no blue bars and put the forum jump at the top of the page (I hate it at the bottom!)

New DBStalk revenue idea, put annoying things in just so people pay to have them removed!

I did not really notice the blue bars until someone complained about them.

[Jacob S]

The forum jump box used to be at both the top and bottom of the thread if I remember correctly.

[music_beans]

The last 5 messages popup doesn't seem to be working with non-IE browsers but I can't confirm this with a mozilla flavor on windows. It worked fine with IE6 but Opera gives a ({.) or something like that (win and linux), and Konqueror has a blank below the title. Mozilla flavors with linux have the same output as Opera so it could be a sun java thing. No biggie really.

Works in Mozilla 1.4 RC2. The front page doesn't seem to load right today though. :nono:

[firephoto]

Ok the 5 last messages does work with Mozilla 1.3.1 Linux i686
With everything else I get this...
"); }
instead of the 5 posts.
I tested my java with the various test pages on the net and they all seem to work fine with Opera so I'm not sure whats causing it. I'll do some more playing with it.

The main page doesn't ID me the user, and the color isn't my color till I go somewhere else within the site. Using the dark colors. It's is a lot faster though. :)

[TNGTony]

And now lets ask Mr. Horse what he thinks of the new software....
"Mr. Horse. What do you think of the new software?"

"Hmmmmmmm..............Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
"No sir. I don't like it!"

-Ren & Stimpy

Guys, I really appreciate the efforts you all make to make this place one of the premier sites on the internet.

I honestly don't understand why the change. I don't see ONE single advantage to the so-called upgrade. I see many, many disadvantages. The front page, the lay-out of the board, games, links, page markers on the "new posts" list, first unread post from search mode, jump to forum from the top of the screen and I'm sure a lot of other small stuff that I haven't had a chance to discover I miss yet are gone for no good reason other than it was felt that we had to have the newest, shiniest, out-of-the-box software we could get just because its new.

I'm sure I'll get used to the new way of things, But when you guys plan the next upgrade, please be sure it has EVERYTHING the old version had AND some new things. Otherwise, it is NOT an upgrade. It's a downgrade with a higher version number.

See ya
Tony

[IndyMichael]

Not as good as the "New DBStalk Look," but I like the dark look, much better than the generic looking very light one.

[scooper]

Scott - the new software is acting really wierd with Netscape 7 (and don't tell me to switch !) - it's like the cookie with my login information is not being saved / accessed between sessions.

[JBKing]

Am I missing where you can add a custom avatar? I see where you can change to the default, but I don't see where you can add a custom.

[Darkman]

Well - i guess it is only a Forum, and software is a software...
And new software, be it better or worse then the old one, looks like a smart, software etc...

However - so far - i kinda like the old software better (maybe i ll get used to this one too some day)...
IMHO - the old one looked better and simpler all around... (It's hard to exactly explain where, etc) :)

Let's downgrade one step back (just kidding) :)

BTW - One question - Any way to make it somehow, so "Currently Active Users in this Forum" are seen on top of the Forum, rather then on the bottom...? (as it was before the upgrade)
P.S. - Looks like this one was a quite Drastic upgrade, cuz as i recall - previous upgrade (or upgrades) didn't change the Forum so much or "made as many waves" as this current one did - lol

Hehe - old saying comes to mind: "If it ain't broke - do not Fix it!" :)

[Darkman]

Am I missing where you can add a custom avatar? I see where you can change to the default, but I don't see where you can add a custom.

Ya - same here...

Avatar selection page is either screwed up, or too complecated for such an "average bear" as me - Hehe :)

Moderators Please check it out, and if possible - fix it,
Cuz we like to change 'em avatars on the occasion...
But the way it is now - it's either we stuck with this one Forever, or if we choose to delete this one, then maybe we'll end up with "nothing" at all. I didn't want to go that far trying that option there...
Just in case i figured - It's better to have this current Avatar, then None at all :)

[Dmitriy]

I'm sorry if someone already asked this before but where did our numbers go? I was number 36, one of the first ones registered here. I was proud of my number :).

[UpOnTheMountain]

Dmitriy,
Me too. I was number 24!
Can we have that one back guys ?
:-)

[Chris Blount]

You should be able to change your avatar now.

I'm working on getting your user number back.

[JBKing]

Thanks Chris. :)

[Chris Blount]

I'm sure I'll get used to the new way of things, But when you guys plan the next upgrade, please be sure it has EVERYTHING the old version had AND some new things. Otherwise, it is NOT an upgrade. It's a downgrade with a higher version number.

See ya
Tony
Tony,

I understand how you feel but the upgrade was necessary to plug some very wide security holes that hackers were starting to exploit. We could have upgraded to 2.3 (we were at 2.2) without losing any features but it just would have meant upgrading again to version 3.0 in 2 or 3 months. I made the choice to upgrade now and get it over with because the upgrade process is very time consuming and Scott and I have lives outside of DBSTalk. :)

Eventually, we will install all of the features we had before and then some. You see, by upgrading to 3.0 now, we can start thinking about future upgrades that were not possible before under 2.X.

I know it seems like a "downgrade" right now but like what was said in another thread, sometimes you have to take a step back to take 2 steps forward. :)

[Scott Greczkowski]

Everyone thank you for your comments on our software upgrade. You all have some very valid points in your postings.

I am sorry I did not answer anyones messages here or in my PM's yesterday, I was out of town and did not return home to close to 11:30pm.

It seems many people do not understand why we switched software, and I can now say we the real reasons why we upgraded, the main reason we needed to switch was because of security concerns. With our old software someone could have posted malicious HTML code which could have crashed the board, deleted the board and or downloaded our database. In order to keep ourselves safe we did some changes to our database structure which only Chris and I knew about, in order to hack the board the hacker would have had to know the perimeters we changed to get access to things.

Another reason for the change was because of the behind the scenes aspects of the new server, as DBSTalk grows we must keep an eye on server usage and the server loads, with our new software we have cut the server load by close to 70% from where the usage was before, this is quite an improvement.

Many dial members have commented that the board is much faster while our broadband members say they have not noticed much of an increase. My theory on this is that I believe that out web server caps the speed of html files being sent out, so while the page generation is a lot faster for everyone the max speed it is sent is being capped, thus dial-up users see the speed difference while broadband users don't really see too much of a difference. (Again this is just my theory I could be wrong.)

Now on to the loss of some of the features. We weighed the pros and cons of the software upgrade and felt that the upgrade was necessary, we knew that the loss of any features would be temporary which helped making our decision easier.

I was very happy that many of the features we said would not be available upon upgrade were actually available on completion of the upgrade. Things like the Spell Check, Custom DBSTalk Homepage, and your weather forecast. It took a lot of programming last week to get those features in and working. (I am still very happy that we got the spell check working, Vbulletin has said that Spell Check would NOT work in version 3, obviously I have proven them wrong) :)

The DBSTalk.COM Custom homepage was custom written by myself, in an effort to make the site feel the same I have tried to make a look alike page which contains many of the features you had before. Because of the massive database changes I have not figured out yet how to add all the features we had before, however I am working hard to bring ALL the features that were on the old homepage back for everyone. It is going to take some time however I am confident I can do it.

Today I will take some time to try to fix many of the problem you have mentioned in this thread, you have been heard! I will also do my best to get some kind of DBSTalk.COM arcade online TODAY! It may not have full score keeping, however all your favorite game will be available for play.

DBSTalk was made successful by listening to your comments and suggestions, and we are listening and working to give you exactly what you want and need. We thank you for your patience and understanding as we work to bring you one of the best forums on the Internet.

Thank you for your support!

[Chris Blount]

I'm sorry if someone already asked this before but where did our numbers go? I was number 36, one of the first ones registered here. I was proud of my number :).You're wish is my command. The user numbers are now displayed. Thanks for the feedback.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok the last 5 posts feature on the homepage has been updated!
(I tried it on IE, Netscape and Opera with no problems)

You can now click on the thread title to see the thread.

Now on to the next project. :)

[Chris Blount]

The appearance of post pages sucks because of the blue bar between each post. This causes the page not to "flow" but to rather kind of stop your eyes hard between each post. It would be better if you got rid of all the stupid blue bars.I've reduced the width of the bar in between messages and have tightened things up a little on all screens. If things look too crowded, then please let me know. Thanks

[Darkman]

I'm sorry if someone already asked this before but where did our numbers go? I was number 36, one of the first ones registered here. I was proud of my number :).

Dmitriy - It's right there - on the left side - below your location...
( Everyone elses is OK too now - maybe it was fixed by Mods - do not know - cuz i wasn't really even paying attention at that before.. :) )

Update - yes it was fixed i guess - cuz Chris said he was working on it :)

Chris - Thanks for avatar BTW - i guess i ll go check it out sometimes (on how it works)

[Darkman]

Yup the blue bar had been tightened :)

[Scott Greczkowski]

Ok there are now forumjumps on the tops of the pages.

Another feature added by your requests. :)

[Darkman]

Kewl - Forum Jumps!!!! :)

Were they missing or somthing? (forgot about 'em)
Or were they at the bottom of Pages?

Chris - How about users browsing the Forums - on Top of the page, rather then the bottom?

( Or even an option to choose in "Options" one or the other - in case some might like it at the bottom :) )

[Chris Blount]

Thanks for the feedback everyone! Scott and I are slowly chipping away at the changes so please bare with us.

One thing to consider. Since this is a major upgrade we were very lucky to be able to transfer the entire database (user info, passwords, posts, etc) over to the new software. The code was completely re-written from scratch so porting all of the info was quite a challenge. Things could have been a lot worse. We could have lost the entire database so everyone would have had to re-register and all posts would have started from zero.

So, that's two major upgrades in the last 2 years without losing a single post (of course I have pruned some older posts off to save space). Scott and I make daily backups of everything so rest assured, we make every effort to avoid a major catastrophe. :)

Thanks again to everyone for the feedback.

[Jacob S]

I dont know about others but I like the new software better than the old. I know that we do not have all the features yet but I know they will eventually be here with more to come. It just takes time to get them all added. As long as the board is still here is what matters most. At least the post count did not get lost like had happened when dbsdish went to dbsforums but that was an unfortunate occurance that could not be helped.

[Chris Blount]

Chris - How about users browsing the Forums - on Top of the page, rather then the bottom?


Users browsing forums are now at the top of the page.

[Rick_EE]

Is version 3 a beta? Their website says the current version is 2.3. I hope we do better than dishplayer owners on that front.

[Scott Greczkowski]

Yes it is a beta, however it has been out for awhile now and has been running quite well on other forums.

BTW the arcade is coming along. :)

[UpOnTheMountain]

Chris,
Thanks ! That was fast !!
oh it's nice to be twenty four again! lol

[Darkman]

Chris - thanks - users ARE on TOP of the page now :)

[Chris Blount]

FYI - I've placed a "Mark All Forums Read" link at the bottom of the search pages. Works great for long search page results and avoids you having to scroll back to the top to mark everything read.

[Nick]

another tweak suggestion:

Return "Report Post | IP: Logged" back to the lower right corner. Where it is now looks like it is part of the post like "Last edited by"

[Scott Greczkowski]

Your wish is my command. :)

[Darkman]

To tweak or not to tweak - that is the question :)

[Mark Lamutt]

You should know us well enough by now, Darkman, to know that the answer is ALWAYS to tweak... :D

[Darkman]

That's right...
And why not - We live ONLY once :rotfl:

[AntAltMike]

Since your software upgrade, the size of your fonts on my dislay has been smaller than it had been previously and I can no longer adjust it with my mouse wheel and control key as I had been able to before. I can still choose 5 different sizes at AVSForums and DBSForums. Is it my Windows 98 and 400Mz klunker, or are other people experiencing this as well?

[BobMurdoch]

You should know us well enough by now, Darkman, to know that the answer is ALWAYS to tweak... :D

Anyone know where I can get Tweak from South Park in an avatar? (My dream theater avatar is getting dull)

[firephoto]

I noticed that the "Last 5 DBSTalk.COM Posts" pop up window reloads every 20 seconds but it doesn't update itself to show the new posts. It's showing this now.

My Favorite Popcorn (Nick)
Pizza Hut hawks DVDs to sell pizzas (Nick)
Tax for satellite TV but not cable in Ohio (BobMurdoch)
Important - Forum Font Sizes (Scott Greczkowski)
Got Tattoos, keep out of South Korea... (gcutler)

Looks like the last 5 posts from when I came to the site the last time maybe?

[TNGTony]

New interesting issue with the new software:

At work I use an "I-Mac" (YECH!). It's running MSIE for Mac (sorry, don't know which version). All the pages size themselves properly to fit in the window EXCEPT the message pages (like this one). That page is about 110-125% of the total screen size of the computer in width. There is no way to get it to shrink to fit the window.

Also the buttons across the top of the page (User CP, Calendar, etc) are all lined up except "Home". That one is about a button hieght above the others, but horizontally in the correct spot.

Thought you may want to know.

See ya
Tony

[Scott Greczkowski]

I noticed that the "Last 5 DBSTalk.COM Posts" pop up window reloads every 20 seconds but it doesn't update itself to show the new posts.

Looks like the last 5 posts from when I came to the site the last time maybe?

No what you are seeing is the cache from your browser, for some reason its not pulling the latest data, instead its just pulling the cache.

The VB guys have been alerted to this problem and are working to add a no cache option inside their new java code service.

Hang in there. :)

[Scott Greczkowski]

New interesting issue with the new software:

At work I use an "I-Mac" (YECH!). It's running MSIE for Mac (sorry, don't know which version). All the pages size themselves properly to fit in the window EXCEPT the message pages (like this one). That page is about 110-125% of the total screen size of the computer in width. There is no way to get it to shrink to fit the window.

I am not sure if thats a bug in MSIE for the mac of with the forum software.

The old forum software used html to create all the pages, and while the new software uses html it does it via CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and I must admit I am not the most knowledgable on CCS yet, but I am quickly learning. :)

I have just been alerted that a new beta version of our software is coming out on Friday, however I think I will wait a few weeks before I upgrade to it, I want to make it's stable like the version we are running now is. This update may infact fix the problem your seeing.

Hang in there. :)

[TNGTony]

Thanks Scott.

I'm at work now (shhh...don't tell anyone :)) I think I see the issue. The "Quick reply box goes all the way from one end of the page to the other and does not resize when the window is altered. This is unlike my PC which has the quick reply box centered and about 80% of the page width and does resize.

Also, the top part of this page (User CB buttons and above) are resizing when I alter the window width. But the forum messages (from the "blue box" down)are not.

Just for the record...I'm using MSIE for Mac version 5.1

See ya
Tony

[Chris Blount]

The appearance of post pages sucks because of the blue bar between each post. This causes the page not to "flow" but to rather kind of stop your eyes hard between each post. It would be better if you got rid of all the stupid blue bars.

I've reduced the width of the bar in between messages and have tightened things up a little on all screens. If things look too crowded, then please let me know. Thanks

Just as a follow up, I've reduced the size of the separation bar down to 1 pixel. This should help show a clear separation between messages and yet still not interrupt the "flow" of the page.

[Jacob S]

It looks much better now after the seperation line was shrunk.

[BobaBird]

Found a small problem. After reading through the new threads in a forum and getting the message "There are no threads newer than the previous one...." you can not use the scroll mouse wheel to move up in the drop down list. It will only let you scroll down. The Forum Jump on this screen does not have that limitation.

The new version does fulfill one of my wishes. Text in the Quick Reply box is copied over to the full feature reply screen when you click the "Go Advanced ..." button.

[dtcarson]

Not sure if this has been posted, or if it's even a new feature, but I just noticed it--the email notification of replies to threads, where it includes the new post--that rocks.