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A new forum? Why??

Discussion in 'Forum rules and information' started by Forum Administrator, Jun 23, 2013.

  1. Forum Administrator

    Forum Administrator Member Forum Staff

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    Welcome to our new forums!

    Please be patient with us as things are still very much in flux! We welcome your feedback as we tweak the site to get things dialed in to match our final desires.

    Why have you changed my site?!?!
    The software we have been using for years had gone through significant changes that we did not find favorable, in both the product and the company that published it. Because of this, we had been sitting on an older release that was getting stale vs the rest of the web. We have now found a new product that we think will modernize your forum experience and give you new features you will enjoy!

    Everything has changed!!
    Yes and no :) This is an entirely new software package, but is actually written by the same guys who originally wrote our old forum software. So you will find lots of things familiar, but lots of things changed as well! If you have any problems finding something, or need help in how to do something, please just ask in the Questions and Answers thread and we will help you find your way!

    Is this the final product?
    No - we have focused on getting the basic site up first, with a first draft of our visual style. This has some things that stick out as poor still, but we wanted to get the new site live for you. We will continue to tweak the visual look and features of the site in the coming weeks. New features and site style and organization will continue to roll out in the coming weeks.

    What's new?
    Alerts
    The most significant change from the old system is the idea of notifications. Similar to facebook, you will get a red indicator at the top of the page that alert you to something of interest and gives you the ability to quickly jump to the post. Examples of things that will generate an alert are someone quoting one of your posts, someone 'liking' your post, when you get a new private message, or when someone tags you in a post

    Likes
    Much like facebook, the site now allows you to 'like' a post which adds to the user's like count as well as being shown on the post that was liked. It is up to you to decide what you should 'like' or not.. be it support for the idea of the post, or that you think it's a well thought out post, etc.

    Tagging Users
    When mentioning another member in a post, you can draw their attention to the post by tagging them. Tag a member by using the @ symbol followed by the member's name. The page will
    help you find the member's name once you've typed a few characters.

    Private Messages/Conversations
    You will find the private message interface has changed into something called conversations. Instead of one message per screen, conversations appear as a single thread with all messages in the conversation shown together. The basic idea is the same, just a new presentation.

    Points/Trophies
    Based on likes and other actions, members can build up points, which award trophies on your profile. These are intended to be fun! We will customize this feature to our needs in the near future

    and lots more! We'll keep adding to this thread as time permits and we roll out new features
     
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  2. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    And one of the most significant new features... the mobile version of the site! Please try the forums from your mobile phone (iPhone/Android) and see how the layout adapts to the device.
     
  3. KTdid

    KTdid Well-Known Member

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    Where can I find the Q&A's? I saw it mentioned a moment ago somewhere...:)
     
  4. KTdid

    KTdid Well-Known Member

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    Disregard. I see it's for new queries. I was looking for a Q&A that talked about navigating the new site.
     
  5. T8erman

    T8erman Well-Known Member

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    Me like so far!
     
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  6. Chsalas

    Chsalas Active Member

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    Some of text is hard to read, is there a setting or preference I can change to make the color of the text stand out a little more?
     
  7. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    That is some of the style tweaking that must be done yet. The forum listings in particular are poor. Hopefully you find the view where you actually read the thread fine - that is where I started.
     
  8. KTdid

    KTdid Well-Known Member

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    Is there a limit to the number of private conversations allowed/stored? Also, when trying to retrieve a message in my personal mailbox via the forum notification, a message returns "not found". Does this mean all private messages must now be viewed by logging on to the website first?
     
  9. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    First, make sure the email notice you are reading is not from the old site. The email should be from after about 2am this AM to be from the new one.

    I do not think # of conversations is limited at this time - but that may come in the future.

    And yes, you are forced to read the private messages via the website instead of just through email. This is a conscious choice because no matter how many times, or how big, or where we put it in the email to NOT REPLY TO THIS EMAIL.... countless people every week reply to the private message notices as if they were simple emails thinking the other party will get their reply.
     
  10. KTdid

    KTdid Well-Known Member

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    After I post a message, the option to "edit, delete, report" remains on the page. Does this mean I can delete/make additions to a previous post for an "unlimited" time?
     
  11. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    Currently - yes. But this may be tweaked in the future.
     
  12. KTdid

    KTdid Well-Known Member

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    At first glance I didn't mind the new website other than I thought its appeared a tad unsophisticated - that's just my own personal opinion. And while the color green is supposed to be pleasing to the eyes, I'm finding the green color scheme tiring. You mentioned that there may be some changes to it. Can you expound on that?

    Secondly, I like the ability to hover over a post and read it quickly. Is there any way to use this feature and remove it from the "unread" posts and bypass having to open the thread? Thanks.
     
  13. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    The main thing lacking in the current theme is the bright green being replaced with something suitable. This style is intended to be 'softer' with less harsh contrast than the old forum so there will be things that don't stand out as strongly.. and that's intentional.

    If you take a look at the main site homepage, you can see the color scheme there.. which has a darker green. The green in this style is actually based off the green of the old site. I started with that color and tried to work around it. I think I will look more at the front page's color scheme and try mimmic'ing that a bit.

    Alas I've been working 12-14hr days all week so have not had any time to tweak the site.. but I will soon :)

    On your second question... no the hover is just a preview, it's not designed to mark the thread as read. My suggestion would be to just use the 'mark forum read' link once you've browsed to your liking to clean things up once your done. The 'whats new' link will always put things in descending date order... so just going off that page will always show you the latest activity. Activity you skip over will sink on its own as it ages. I find on higher volume sites I simple skip over topics I don't want.. and they move down on their own. When I find the 'whats new' too daunting, I use the mark forums read to catch up. Same with 'watched threads'.... I just skip over some and they sit at the bottom. If that bottom gets too crowded, I either unwatch the thread or just do a mark as read.
     
  14. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    I've been playing with a new format today... please checkout the Prototype style. Scroll to the bottom of the webpage, and in the very bottom left corner it will say 'BHOA Style' - click there and pick the prototype style.

    Try it out and let me know what you think. This one tries to follow the main site better.. and shifts to a white background. I'm also experimenting with brown as the contrast color instead of the orange.
     
  15. Chsalas

    Chsalas Active Member

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    Prototype Style is nice, I can see the text in the bars much more easily. Thanks. Keep up the good work.
     
  16. KTdid

    KTdid Well-Known Member

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    I prefer the prototype more than the default. I think the stronger colors/contrast is easier on my eyes; less so with the pastel colors, and more gray/blue appears more professional than the baby blue imo. Thanks!
     
  17. shim

    shim shim

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    Seems like traffic has plummeted since the re-design... New Coke?
     
  18. KTdid

    KTdid Well-Known Member

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    Hovering feature. :)
     
  19. flynnibus

    flynnibus Well-Known Member Forum Staff

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    It's summertime...
     
  20. Mr. Linux

    Mr. Linux Senior Member & Moderator Forum Staff

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    Looking at our stats, we're in line with our normal summertime traffic, maybe a small tad above. Concerns shift to more selling of items (people moving), etc. In August it begins to get back to what you're used to seeing, as vacations come to an end, people get ready for school, get back to their routines, etc.
     

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