Comments (constructive) on the New Forum Software

[Neil Wyatt]

On Neil Wyatt Said:

On Neil Wyatt Said:

On Brian Wood Said:

Has the Wanted category got ‘lost’ in the Classified section?

Brian

Ads are no longer split into ‘for sale’ and ‘wanted’. Just choose ‘wanted’ as the category when placing an ad.

Neil

Correct answer here, not lost just not uploaded

I think both answers are ‘correct’ the new ‘wanted’ category’ just hasn’t got old ads in it.

Wrong again Neil, there is no Wanted category, you can choose Wanted as an option when placing an add but it does not even display Wanted until you actually click the advert. Go and look at the one I have just posted for a new Editor

This is Why Dave, Colin and I spent time trying things so we can help people you are just confusing things

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:

Font and Background improved

Cheers, certainly an improvement as I mentioned elsewhere, particularly with quotes such as yours above, which are now smaller/less dominant than they were previously, as well as being italicised. (In the preview/edit window, those changes don’t show until the post is submitted)

On a purely personal note, I’d prefer a lightly higher contrast between adjacent posts, and a line of space between them, to make it clear whether the post details banner/line is above or below the relevant post.

Some of these comments from me, and others, about contrast may not be relevant to everyone, particularly those with younger eyesight; it might not be obvious to the site developers, who may have better eyesight.

As someone who’s recently had cataract surgery in one eye, but not the other, and awaiting a new glasses prescription, the lack of contrast and brightness is an issue.
(The operation is the reason I’m spending so much time here, as opposed to the workshop, is that I’m not safe near moving machinery until my new specs arrive)

I get the feeling that many of our most experienced contributors, though clearly not all, are also of my age or quite a lot older. It would be a shame if they limited their forum visits due to difficulties viewing the screen.
They and the rest of the community will lose out.

Bill

[Jason BallamyParticipant @jasonballamy]

Peak, I went back to admin and said better but still needs more work so remove the “resolved” from that particular item and keep it as in progress

Both a bit more contrast and gap have been mentioned

[Neil Wyatt]

On Neil Wyatt Said:

 

 

Wordpress uses different terminology, so this is an ‘engagement’ not a ‘reply’ and the whole ‘thread’ is called a ‘topic’ and what were ‘topics’ are now ‘forums’.

Lets get it straight

In your profile when you click forums you get

Topics Started, This would be the same as threads started. It only lists ones on this new site

Replies Created, This would be posts on the old forum but only lists replies on this new site. As time goe sby this will become more like the old “posts” as you get more listed.

Engagements, This lists topics or what would have been threads on the old forum that you took part in and includes all the old topics (threads) you were active in on the old forum. It does not list individual replies (posts) but you may find one or several under each topic (thread) listed

[SillyOldOrdinaryMember]

On SillyOldOrdinaryMember Said:

On Journeyman Said:

On Phil Whitley said

XENFORO!!

The RCME forum  (also a Mortons one) is powered by Invision Community. That seems to work quite well.

John

You boys do love a Brand Name!  If ‘X’ doesn’t work out of the box, try a different one.  If only it were that easy!

Wordpress is a respectable platform, probably the most common web base on the internet. It works.

Dave

 

Trouble is that WordPress was never designed to run a Forum. It is blogging software which works in a fundamentally different way. It is also designed to do things that forums don’t require like SEO and probably not designed with things quite as large as this forum in mind. Worst of all because of it’s popularity for small web sites and blogging sites it has become a major target for hackers, spambots and all manner of other dubious pass-times.

At least the other named software are designed specifically to host forums. They will cost but then again it costs plenty to employ a developer to untangle what we have at the moment.

John

[Neil Wyatt]

On Neil Wyatt Said

The big change will be when they can switch off the regular Cloudflare checks (which are stopping bots crashing the site, as they were last week).

Neil

That is unlikely to happen. As soon as you open a WordPress site to ‘Comments’ it is instantaneously deluged with spam. The built in filter ‘Askimet’ works but I doubt it is as strong a defence as Cloudflare. WordPress also has another little problem the bigger the database gets the slower it tends to run.

John

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

Document folders seem fixed and .doc and .dotx now included

This is likley to be my last input on the testing/reporting side. Going to just Moderate for a while.

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:

On Neil Wyatt Said:

WordPress uses different terminology, so this is an ‘engagement’ not a ‘reply’ and the whole ‘thread’ is called a ‘topic’ and what were ‘topics’ are now ‘forums’.

Lets get it straight

In your profile when you click forums you get

Topics Started, This would be the same as threads started. It only lists ones on this new site

Replies Created, This would be posts on the old forum but only lists replies on this new site. As time goe sby this will become more like the old “posts” as you get more listed.

Engagements, This lists topics or what would have been threads on the old forum that you took part in and includes all the old topics (threads) you were active in on the old forum. It does not list individual replies (posts) but you may find one or several under each topic (thread) listed

Not for me it doesn’t;

Under peak4 > Profile > Forums >  “Topics Started” for me shows only stuff on the old forum; I haven’t started any completely new topics on the new forum, only replied in current ones, though if it follows with the two next tabs, I’d expect it to show new topics on both old & current forums.
“Replies Created”, and “Engagements”, both show posts etc from old & new forums.

Under peak4 > Profile > Activity > “Personal” tab, I only get stuff I have written on the current forum.

Under peak4 > Profile > Profile > “View” tab, I still get the error message.

This is what I was trying to illustrate with screenshots previously.

From what I can tell, the same is true if I access another user’s profile.
I’ve got stuff showing on both old and new forums on “Replies Created”, and “Engagements”
Currently just Old stuff on “Topics Started”

I’ll deliberately not start any new Topics for the time being.
Have a look at my profile, by clicking on my user name in this post, and you should see that illustrated in action, rather than me clogging up this thread with yet more screenshots. N.B. probably best try it from a non-Admin account.

Bill

[JasonB]

On JasonB Said:

Peak4

FAQs state 30mins editing time. Not found a way to remove the list of edits from the bottom of the reply as you could before.

Rest of your points Admin can deal with.

Jason, I think I’ve sussed that one, though you may have already worked it out by now.
When you edit, as opposed to quote or reply, there is an extra radio tick box below the actual posting pane.
If you uncheck that, the edit line doesn’t show you’ve edited the post.
I’m not sure whether that’s a good or a bad thing, as it’s helpful to know if a post has been edited for etiquette reasons, though maybe no need to know it’s been updated 7+ times etc, as that just wastes page space.

Bill

I’ve now edited this post once, without unticking the box.

I’m about to edit it again, having included the screenshot, but unticked the highlighted box

I’m hoping only one edit tag below my post will show.

Now edited a third time, as that worked OK; re-ticked the log box, but added text into the Optional Reasons For Editing box

[VicParticipant @vic]

Do we really need two of the same adverts on a page at a time?! Surely someone can fix this.

[Roger Williams 2Participant @rogerwilliams2]

Hello all, why has the site been changed , seemed fine to me before ?.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

Well it appears, that contrary to my view expressed above, that Cloudflare has indeed been turned off or at least tweaked to be less obtrusive. The site does appear to be running a bit faster so well done the Admin/Developer chaps. I still wouldn’t like to be seeing the spam figures showing in the WordPress dashboard though.

John

[Vic]

On Vic Said:

Do we really need two of the same adverts on a page at a time?! Surely someone can fix this.

 

I stand to be corrected, Vic … but I think they are just ‘placeholders’

In the fullness of time, most places will be occupied by a different [paid-for] advert

MichaelG.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

The one that pops up on a mobile like your screenshot is not a place holder it was intended to be there, it was the first thing I filed a report about when I tested with my phone but still there.

Even if you click the hard to see X top left of the overlaying advert it will come up again each time you view a different page

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

It’s interesting that I have had no new 1st posts by spammers since the site went live, I don’t expect many over a weekend but often upto 10 or more a day. These are spam done by humans not the many automated ones that tend to get screened out elsewhere

So just shows that the old site was indeed becoming insecure

Will see if the removal of Cloadflare makes a difference

[vic neweyParticipant @vicnewey60017]

We have now discovered that all our old posts are still intact together with any included album photo’s and can be be viewed in our profiles, also they can be reactivated and posted to and linked to etc

One thing I notice is that Google search used to bring up links and photo’s to some of my threads on a rare lathe I own but now they are all gone, are they stored somewhere that search engines can presumably no longer find them or are they likely to reappear sooner or later ?

[Mike HurleyParticipant @mikehurley60381]

I think you may find that the website is blocking site information for Google (and probably other search engines). If you check the details on a search it will say –

‘It means that the website prevented Google from creating a page description, but didn’t actually hide the page from Google.’

Seems less than helpful though to possible new memebers trying to find what we are about!

As an aside, I’m personally getting on OK with the new site  – it’s just a bit of a learning curve, but do appreciate the hard work put in by the developers, mods and testers.

regards Mike

 

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

If anything is going to put me off this site for good … it’s the obnoxious

AllMyReads advertisement  in the sidebar

MichaelG.

[JourneymanParticipant @journeyman]

A bug or a feature:- I notice that pressing the ‘Latest Activity’ button puts the site into ‘phone’ mode ie one column even if viewing on a PC where the side bar would still have room rather than being shunted below the main page. Not of course that there is anything useful ar usable in the side bar at the moment (a widget free zone).

John

[Frances IoMParticipant @francesiom58905]

Michael – there are extensions to Firefox to block annoying images – must admit the old Firefox browser was very good in this respect and because of the flashing images I accessed this site with images turned off and opened those I wished to see in their own tab – yet again ‘improvements’ are only for the advertisers benefit – there is an expression used elsewhere that all sites generally see a ‘sh_’tification’ as owners push the monetisation too far

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thanks Frances … but I almost never use anything but the iPad for forums.

and even if I block that advert, it still offends me, simply because it exists

MichaelG.

[MadMikeParticipant @madmike]

Having been involved in a previous life in a number of wholesale upgrades of sites like this, websites and accounts systems in multi-site large companies I have learned to be patient during these processes. So after checking on a daily basis and getting no access I am pleasantly surprised to see that today we appear to be alive and kicking again.

I have logged in using my original user name and password with absolutely no problems. Congratulations to everybody concerned in the construction, including the subsequent migration of data etc.

I am sure that there may still be some minor issues but for most people seeking normal access all seems to be settling down. Well done everybody.

[JasonBModerator @jasonb]

It is now possible to set your preferences for various types of email contact.

Profile – setting – email

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Thanks for the heads-up, Jason

I have just visited my Profile and set all those options to No

… warning to others: the default is Yes

MichaelG.

[Michael GilliganParticipant @michaelgilligan61133]

Trivial in the grand scheme of things, but this 404 error is untidy:

.

.

MichaelG.

[Author]

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