Forum Suggestions & User Assistance - Problems, issues with the upgrade?

Just about done, need to fix a few images and change a few lines of code. But I can do that while you guys play around with the new software.

Let me know if you find any bugs, or problems with the new software.

The user i.d., avitor etc. are not appearing as of 8:54pm. Other than that I like the new format.

Hmm, thats odd... :)

Hmm, thats odd... :)
Problem solved. Thanks.

(-->) This.:)

yeah, thats on a few pages and pop ups... but not on the dev side. I'll try to track it down :)

Alright, got that one as well. There will be quite a few minor changes made over the next few days, if anyone has any usability / layout / feature suggestions. Let me know, now is the time to get them in.

Hmm, looks like the DHTML menus don't work...

cool, new smiley faces. I'm still waiting for the one with the devil horns and tail, tho...

This is what I've noticed: The user names of the people on my ignore list don't show up in the thread until I click on 'view post'. They used to show in the thread...

Only if it's not too much trouble and if you and the other users aren't totally attached to the new style, I'd love to see the little images on the left of each index telling me if I've viewed/replied/etc each thread revert back to those we had previously. Nothing against the new style, I guess I've just grown really accustomed to that style sheet in general.

Keep up the good work :beer:

Thanks, I'll fix the ignore issue ASAP.

Its all so new and pretty. :o

I didn't know you had upgraded until I read the thread, but I generally like the small changes to the user interface.

One problem I found, however:
- Post a quick reply doesn't seem to work -- or maybe it's a glitch tonight. I am using Mozilla 1.6, which uses stricter HTML policies than Internet Explorer. If I click in the Quick Reply box (at the bottom of the thread), the entire box (with B, I U...) is selected. I can't get the cursor to activate and can't therefore reply.


User Interface

- I don't know how much control you have on it. The Quick Reply box is slightly bigger than it used to be. A good thing in my mind. It still is only 60% of the window's width and 4-5 lines long. The Full Reply box is 3/4 of the screen width and 15 lines long. Basically, the larger they are, the better it is. I'd like to go at 75-80% of the width (IOW, just enough space left for smilies and other font-style icons), and I'd like the Full Reply box to be as long as the screen allows.

- General screen. I prefer when Bikeforum posts "Welcome mgagnonlv" at the top, like it does now. I know quickly wheter or not I am logged.

- Date and time stamping. I see it as a minor irritant.
No idea how much control you have, but date and time writing are "Regional parametres", according to Windows lingo. A date written "03-02-04" could be any of 3 things:
- March 2nd, 2004 (MM-DD-YY), in U.S. shorthand notation
- Februrary 3rd 2004 (DD-MM-YY) according to what's used in most European countries (some -- not all -- use dots as separators).
- February 4, 2003 (YY-MM-DD, but usually YYYY-MM-DD), according to the ISO "international" practice.
Here in Québec the latter two are commonly used in many documents, with the first one also used by credit card companies. In the rest of Canada, the first and third notation are used, although the last one is only found on federal documents... a bit confusing, isn't it?
So here is what I suggest:
- My preferred handling method would be to use the subscriber's own preference, whether Bikeforums actually uses the format as set in Windows Regional Settings (I know Perl can do it) or whether it's done via a user-controlled setting in the Control Panel.
- The second best would be to send the date chain in another shorthand notation: Mar 4. 2004 (best) or at the very least 03-04-2004 (so it's clear where the year is).

An advantage of using a user-controlled setting is that the same could be done for time: using the 24-hour clock if that's what the user is more comfortable with.

Don't ask me why, but the Quick Reply works for a few threads.

A little more left and right margin would make the pages easier to read. Otherwise everything looks great !! :-)

I can't reach the smilie box on my browser (netscape 7.1), its too far to the right.

I can't reach the smilie box on my browser (netscape 7.1), its too far to the right.

Is it a conservative conspiracy, or is the whole entire world out to get you?

Perhaps sleeping with Bill Gates for the money isn't all that a bad idea, I mean, 50 billion and getting your smilies?

Small price to pay...

:D

I typed the VB code for quotation around this message to test it. I could not get it to work earlier...........everything before these dots should be in a quote box unless the syntax is different in this upgrade.

testing quote without a username..

testing quote with a username..



testing quote without a username..

testing quote with a username..

hmm..

So a quote without a username isnt working, correct?

OK now I'll try a different approach...


this might work by adding an =>.

So a quote without a username isnt working, correct?

It seems so. By adding the = and a charactor it will work.

I see the problem in the code, I'll fix it after work.

Who da man... Joe be da man!

I can't reach the smilie box on my browser (netscape 7.1), its too far to the right.
Netscape? Did your dreadlocks shake out some dust onto your Yosemite's keyboard? Be careful when you post the word "n3tscap3" as the Feds have spiders that crawl the web and track down your IP addy if you are not using IE. I heard it was one of Bush's hidden agendas. I guess Gates finally got those raquetball matches in with the Comm in Chief.
I bet TrekRider's are too far to the left, so it balances out.

Be careful when you post the word "n3tscap3" as the Feds have spiders that crawl the web and track down your IP addy if you are not using IE.

Hmmm... then I suppose I need to be doubly-careful since I use M0z1lla, lyn><, Ch1m3ra, \/\/\/\/\/\/ (the official web browser) and 0p3ra. ;)

I checked the site in Mozilla and Opera... didnt think about Lynx or Netscape... ;)

I checked the site in Mozilla and Opera... didnt think about Lynx or Netscape... ;)

Just as a datapoint, the site seems to work fine with lynx. I would have thought Netscape would have been okay too since it uses the Mozilla engine but maybe they're rendering certain things specially.

I bet TrekRider's are too far to the left, so it balances out.

Sure wish I could put a line of ROFLs here. But this is all that I can reach :o :p :)

I like everything just fine and would only suggest one small change.

On the index pages where all the threads on a board are listed I liked the way the old program alternated thread backgrounds light and dark, light and dark. I made it easier to track across the page to check the number of posts/ responses, etc.

I like everything just fine and would only suggest one small change.

On the index pages where all the threads on a board are listed I liked the way the old program alternated thread backgrounds light and dark, light and dark. I made it easier to track across the page to check the number of posts/ responses, etc.

On that note, could you make it green and white... and put some tractor holes on either side too? :D

In all seriousness, yes that was a nice feature for delimiting posts/threads.

On that note, could you make it green and white... and put some tractor holes on either side too?


Quotes don't seem to work for me. I see the header and footer, but it just shows up as regular text, like above.

Also, I canot check the quote option bo x at the bottom.

Joe, One thing you might want to look at is the ignore list option. The way you have it now it is pretty onerous to get to (not that I ignore anyone). Here is what I copied when I clicked on your screen name. Maybe you could also add ignore to this list.

Joe GardnerView Public Profile (http://64.191.20.129/member.php?userid=3)Send a private message to Joe Gardner (http://64.191.20.129/private.php?do=newpm&userid=3)Visit Joe Gardner's homepage! (http://www.bikeforums.net/)Find More Posts by Joe Gardner (http://64.191.20.129/search.php?do=finduser&userid=3)Add Joe Gardner to Your Buddy List (http://64.191.20.129/profile.php?do=addlist&userlist=buddy&u=3)

A real reply button. I don't always use quick reply and I don't always want to quote. I know I can hit advance reply but I don't always want to go to the bottom of the thread. Maybe back on the top line where it was last time :D

I didn't know you had upgraded until I read the thread, but I generally like the small changes to the user interface.

One problem I found, however:
- Post a quick reply doesn't seem to work -- or maybe it's a glitch tonight. I am using Mozilla 1.6, which uses stricter HTML policies than Internet Explorer. If I click in the Quick Reply box (at the bottom of the thread), the entire box (with B, I U...) is selected. I can't get the cursor to activate and can't therefore reply.


I'll install an older version of Moz and check this out.



User Interface

- I don't know how much control you have on it. The Quick Reply box is slightly bigger than it used to be. A good thing in my mind. It still is only 60% of the window's width and 4-5 lines long. The Full Reply box is 3/4 of the screen width and 15 lines long. Basically, the larger they are, the better it is. I'd like to go at 75-80% of the width (IOW, just enough space left for smilies and other font-style icons), and I'd like the Full Reply box to be as long as the screen allows.


I can ony set reply boxes to a fixed width, not a liquid design. I'll make changes to the quick reply tonight.



- General screen. I prefer when Bikeforum posts "Welcome mgagnonlv" at the top, like it does now. I know quickly wheter or not I am logged.

- Date and time stamping. I see it as a minor irritant.
No idea how much control you have, but date and time writing are "Regional parametres", according to Windows lingo. A date written "03-02-04" could be any of 3 things:
- March 2nd, 2004 (MM-DD-YY), in U.S. shorthand notation
- Februrary 3rd 2004 (DD-MM-YY) according to what's used in most European countries (some -- not all -- use dots as separators).
- February 4, 2003 (YY-MM-DD, but usually YYYY-MM-DD), according to the ISO "international" practice.
Here in Québec the latter two are commonly used in many documents, with the first one also used by credit card companies. In the rest of Canada, the first and third notation are used, although the last one is only found on federal documents... a bit confusing, isn't it?
So here is what I suggest:
- My preferred handling method would be to use the subscriber's own preference, whether Bikeforums actually uses the format as set in Windows Regional Settings (I know Perl can do it) or whether it's done via a user-controlled setting in the Control Panel.
- The second best would be to send the date chain in another shorthand notation: Mar 4. 2004 (best) or at the very least 03-04-2004 (so it's clear where the year is).

An advantage of using a user-controlled setting is that the same could be done for time: using the 24-hour clock if that's what the user is more comfortable with.

I changed the date type, but dont have the time to code in a user-controlled setting at this time. Thanks for the feedback!

A real reply button. I don't always use quick reply and I don't always want to quote. I know I can hit advance reply but I don't always want to go to the bottom of the thread. Maybe back on the top line where it was last time :D

Due to the different ways of viewing threads (see top right hand side of this thread, under display modes), the reply button has moved from the thread page, to the post area of each thread. If you are not using the quick reply, you will want to click on [reply] under each individual post.

Hopefully this will make it easier for those using the threaded or hybrid mode displays. Quick reply still messes up these modes, but that will get better over time.

Joe, One thing you might want to look at is the ignore list option. The way you have it now it is pretty onerous to get to (not that I ignore anyone). Here is what I copied when I clicked on your screen name. Maybe you could also add ignore to this list.



*nod* I'll see what can be done George.

Quotes don't seem to work for me. I see the header and footer, but it just shows up as regular text, like above.

Also, I canot check the quote option bo x at the bottom.

Thanks, I went back to the old quote text for now. Can you tell me more about the 2nd issue you posted about? When you click the quote box, is it not putting in the quote tags, or is it just not clickable?

I like everything just fine and would only suggest one small change.

On the index pages where all the threads on a board are listed I liked the way the old program alternated thread backgrounds light and dark, light and dark. I made it easier to track across the page to check the number of posts/ responses, etc.

I liked that too, sadly, the people who put out the software changed the alternate color layout. I'll have to see how i can bring that functionality back.

Due to the different ways of viewing threads (see top right hand side of this thread, under display modes), the reply button has moved from the thread page, to the post area of each thread. If you are not using the quick reply, you will want to click on [reply] under each individual post.

Hopefully this will make it easier for those using the threaded or hybrid mode displays. Quick reply still messes up these modes, but that will get better over time.

But that quotes...;)

Could you not just make a new button using the same linking info as the Advanced mode button in order to create a reply button?

It's really strange, but the icons on the side of the page that say whether you have read or replied to a post are different on my home computer than on my computer at work. I really like the way they were before- a little easier to tell the difference between them. Often I look for threads I've posted on, and it's hard to tell with the new icon showing a little downward arrow.

Other than that, though, its looking really nice.

98% sure that is due to an old cache copy of the icons. You can clear your cache if you want to see the new icons.


I think i'll bring back the old icons, most of the new icons are too "XP" like for me.

Just about done, need to fix a few images and change a few lines of code. But I can do that while you guys play around with the new software.

Let me know if you find any bugs, or problems with the new software.

I just registered with this site this week. Was wondering how I can add my location (NJ) under my name as I see some people have done. thanks!

Welcome to the forums SD,

Click on "User Control Panel" found on the right hand side of the navagation bar. Then edit profile, location is near the bottom of your profile screen.

http://www.bikeforums.net/profile.php?do=editprofile

One thing I noticed that is missing is the search box that is located at the bottom of each specific forum to search that forum. Now to search a specific forum you have to click the search link, select the forums, etc. Any way to get that feature back?

Joe,

Is there any way to get rid of the "Are you sure you want to Log-Out" pop-up? I hate pop-ups, and this one really serves no purpose. I realize that some might click log-out by mistake, but that would be relatively rare, and even then they would just have to log in again. However, I log out after every visit, and that pop-up gets quite annoying. Can it be disabled?

Thanks!

Please see my note on "Debugging" in "suggestions."

What the heck is going on with the signatures? They used to be all nice and under the post now they're a friggin' coupon looking thing and my link is gone.

I'm trying to figure out a way to limit signature size. Too many users were blatantly breaking the signature guidelines.

Text... Text signatures should be no more then 5 lines long. Each line should have no more then 100 characters.

Images... Signature Images should not exceed 70 pixels in height and 500 pixels in width. If you have more then one image in your signature, the combined size should not go over 70 x 500.

Right now, the sig is in a div tag, cutting off anything over the 100 x 500px limit. I'll continue to play around with how signatures are shown until I can come up with something acceptable.

I just changed to another design, let me know if this one works better for ya... :)