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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

Forum Upgrade 2017

Discussion in 'Communications' started by Grimby , Dec 23, 2017.

  1. Grimby

    Grimby Technical Consultant & Former Head Admin star 7 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Apr 22, 2000
    Welcome to the New Boards™!!!
    (Yeah, the upgrade took way longer than expected, but hey, at least it didn't take 8 months this time!)

    We have upgraded the boards to Xenforo v.1.5, and with it comes a lot of new features:
    • New forum layout - The new layout is mobile optimized, so you don't need an app to use the boards on your phone.
    • Watch Forums - you can now watch forums instead of just threads. Favorite boards are back! :cool:
    • Quoting part of a post - you can highlight any portion of a post and a button will pop up to quote only that portion.
    • Post drafts - The system will automatically save your unfinished post, in the event you accidentally refresh the page or your keyboard starts on fire.
    • Prefixes - Threads can now have more than one prefix. Yay!
    • Reply Editor - The buttons in the reply editor are a little more streamlined, and there are a few new ones, including the the Insert button, which includes the a list of extras like the Spoiler tag.
    • Media Button - This is the holy grail of embed options. You can embed videos from Youtube or any other major site, posts from social media sites like Twitter and Facebook, or even embed an audio track from a site like SoundCloud. No coding necessary, just cut and past the link!
    • Username Colors - Usernames with custom colors should now show up pretty much everywhere. VIPs and above who have custom color permissions have a new interface under account preferences.
    • Locked threads - Locked threads now have strike-through formatting like the old IGN boards. How did we live without this?!

    Please post questions and any issues you encounter here and we will do our best to address them in a timely manner.

    Enjoy!
     
    Last edited: Dec 23, 2017
  2. Boba_Fett_2001

    Boba_Fett_2001 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Dec 11, 2000
    It appears to be mobile optimized on desktop too....
     
  3. Juliet316

    Juliet316 37X Hangman Winner star 10 VIP - Game Winner

    Registered:
    Apr 27, 2005
    Was starting to wonder if we were going to be in limbo until the New Year.

    And another Pizza Run just as they come back up.
     
  4. Lady_Belligerent

    Lady_Belligerent Queen of the RPF, SWC, C&P, and Pancakes & Waffles star 10 Staff Member Manager

    Registered:
    Jan 29, 2008
    Looks fabulous! Great job!
     
    Luke'sSeveredHand likes this.
  5. EzraSnoke

    EzraSnoke Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Jan 25, 2017
    Mobile friendly is a huge plus. Great job updating guys and gals.
     
  6. Alpha-Red

    Alpha-Red Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Apr 25, 2004
    I don't suppose there's a skin we can select to make it look the way it did before?
     
    MrZAP and V-2 like this.
  7. KnightWriter

    KnightWriter Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Nov 6, 2001
    The look of the forums is reminiscent of the IGN days. Things look good-- great work all around.
     
  8. Grimby

    Grimby Technical Consultant & Former Head Admin star 7 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Apr 22, 2000
    The old style is incredibly out of date and not compatible with the new software. This is the only option for the moment.
     
    Vialco likes this.
  9. dp4m

    dp4m Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2001
    Two immediate questions:

    1) Is there a plan to make the styles/CSS normal so it actually will take up the entire width of a screen rather than black-barring normal people instead of less-normal people?
    2) Is there some reason we didn't jump to the (apparently currrent) XF 2.0.1, and will this necessitate another upgrade in the nearish-future?
     
    Ezio Skywalker and Dandelo like this.
  10. Rylo Ken

    Rylo Ken Force Ghost star 7

    Registered:
    Dec 19, 2015
    Thank you forum gnomes. I know this kind of stuff doesn't happen on its own. It requires deep magic.
     
    Snokers and Ewan Tibbetts like this.
  11. Alpha-Red

    Alpha-Red Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Apr 25, 2004
    I thought skins are just cosmetic and there shouldn't be any reason why a particular style wouldn't work with the underlying software? Ah oh well...I just got really used to the previous one and I hate it when websites change their look.
     
  12. dp4m

    dp4m Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2001
    Third question:

    The performance doesn't seem to be any better, is that still a known issue and planned to be sorted from more time on this new DB version (and/or are things still churning in the background)?
     
  13. Grahame

    Grahame Former Server Admin star 2 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Sep 3, 2012
    The performance was WAY better on Wednesday afternoon and Thursday before the upgrade so we believe that problem is fixed. There are still indexes building and other things going on and we're hoping once they're done performance will be back to pre-upgrade speeds. If not we'll be looking at other things we can do to improve performance.
     
  14. Grimby

    Grimby Technical Consultant & Former Head Admin star 7 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Apr 22, 2000
    1. The definition of "normal" is quite subjective.
    2. We wanted to go with 2.0, but it's only been out for a few months and almost none of our add-ons are compatible yet. Yes, we will need to upgrade at some point once we're in a position where all of our features can remain intact when we do so. However, it shouldn't require nearly as much prep as this upgrade did.
     
    2Cleva and EHT like this.
  15. Grimby

    Grimby Technical Consultant & Former Head Admin star 7 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Apr 22, 2000
    It's actually way more complicated than you might think.
     
  16. jcgoble3

    jcgoble3 Chosen One star 6

    Registered:
    Nov 7, 2010
    Did we lose the ability to collapse forum categories on the home page? It's really annoying having to scroll past all of the movie forums that I never look at every time I want to head to the RPF or Fanfic.
     
  17. Grimby

    Grimby Technical Consultant & Former Head Admin star 7 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Apr 22, 2000
    This feature will be back soon. It's on my short list of things that still need to be done.

    In the mean time, you can make use of the Watched Forums link at the top of the page to keep a list of your favorite boards.
     
    SWpants likes this.
  18. Coruscant

    Coruscant Chosen One star 7

    Registered:
    Feb 15, 2004
    Can banners be more easily changed now?
     
  19. dp4m

    dp4m Chosen One star 10

    Registered:
    Nov 8, 2001
    Okay, coolio -- thank you! (what I thought but figured could ask)

    Can confirm! (even worse once you move onto portals... oy)

    Okay, let me ask again in a non-funny manner: is there any plan to move the themes/CSS back to the previous version of filling whatever the screen resolution of the device using it is again, so we don't have black bars?
     
  20. Oswin Oswald

    Oswin Oswald Jedi Knight star 2

    Registered:
    Apr 16, 2017
    Why is it going so slow? It's taking from 30 seconds to 1 minute for the pages to change.
     
  21. Nanaki

    Nanaki Jedi Grand Master star 4

    Registered:
    Sep 5, 2016
    I'm having trouble logging in via Tapatalk. Is the forum still going to be compatible with that app?
     
    jcgoble3 and Ewok Poet like this.
  22. Boba_Fett_2001

    Boba_Fett_2001 Chosen One star 8

    Registered:
    Dec 11, 2000
    In case this wasn't clear before:

    [​IMG]
     
  23. BookExogorth

    BookExogorth Force Ghost star 4

    Registered:
    May 4, 2017
    Oh my. We have boards again!

    Thanks to all of you who brought this.
     
    Dagobahsystem likes this.
  24. Grimby

    Grimby Technical Consultant & Former Head Admin star 7 Staff Member Administrator

    Registered:
    Apr 22, 2000
    The idea is that we'd be able to get back to the way banners used to be set up - where forum mods would be able to set a banner for each individual forum. We're not there quite yet, but I've laid the groundwork for that to happen in the near future.

    We'll take a look at it. However, like this one, most of the styles for Xenforo are fixed width, including the default style on Xenforo's own forums.

    We still have some background processes running that are slowing things down for the time being.
     
  25. Ramza

    Ramza Administrator Emeritus star 9 VIP - Former Mod/RSA

    Registered:
    Jul 13, 2008
    Worth noting that you can even completely disable watch notifications so it can literally function as just an easy-to-bookmark list of your preferred boards. Actually somewhat preferable to the tabs route for curmudgeons like me who want nothing to do with crazy, uncharted lands discussing "Star Wars films," whatever those are. :p
     
    Master_Lok, jcgoble3 and Grimby like this.