upgrade Forum Maintenance

[z929669]

You have probably noticed some slight differences in the forums. This is due to our recent upgrade to the latest version of the software, which we've been putting off for over a year now, due to server-level software compatibility blockers and bandwidth to do so.

The upgrade provides many enhanced features and better security. Several things will be changing on the fly as we update the configuration.

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Several post functions are now under the ellipse:

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UPDATE:

All members will need to be re-apply their customized account notification settings, due to the software consolidating in-app notification and notification email settings.
 

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UPDATE
10-19-22

There are several features that received major updates and we appreciate you sticking with us as we continue to address these. Ranks, being one of these features, will be reintroduced in the next week or two.

Until then, we'd like to receive your feedback on the Topics Feeds (Featured Topics & Topics with Recent Posts) on the forum homepage:

Since the update, this Feed no longer receives bold text for unread content. Invision removed this behavior, because it didn't clear from the unread (bold) to read (normal) status immediate due to caching (it took a few minutes to update), but many of their customers disagree (us included). These topics now link to the OP rather than most recent post, which is not as useful.

Since displaying unread content was the intended purpose of the Feed, we'd like to have feedback on whether of not it is still useful. This is especially important because the Feed has been present since...well, forever; even on our old platform and old forum software had it.

For those users finding it difficult to deal with the missing bold text on the Feed, the workaround for displaying all unread content is to use the Unread Content filter found under the Forum Activity menu (or link at top right of forums top level).
 

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UPDATE
10-20-22

File Types
We have reinstated a list of allowed file types for file uploads to the forums. Users will see the list below their edit boxes when posting, in the area where users can upload files. We believe this is a generous list that should fit the needs of the forums.

 

Ranks
Additionally, we have rebalance and redesigned the forum Ranks. Unfortunately, the data was reset with the update so everyone's Rank will be based their actions since the forum upgrade. The only way around this is for us to manual set the correct Ranks, but we have 16,000+ users so that is simply not feasible. (Ranks have been restored properly - 10/21/22 ) The new Ranks include new custom images and will appear on the lower left corner of the user's avatar.

There are also new custom rules in place for earning points, which increase your Rank. In the old system users would only earn points from posting. Posting still earns users points, but so do other community activities. Some of these new activities include:

• Signing into the forums will earn users one (1) point per day!
• Marking and earning a Best Answer post, so if you ask a question, be sure to mark a Best Answer
• Voting is polls

Other
Speaking of Best Answers, users who have asked a question and have not marked a Best Answer within two (2) weeks, will now be emailed to remind them to check up on their question or bump it, if there are no replies.
 

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We'll update this post with more information as we ourselves learn the details.

[LittleGuy]

With the previous forum I only needed to zoom out to 90% when using half the screen, but with this updated forum I have to zoom out to 67% to get things looking normal, Is there any chance this can be fixed? I'm fine with zooming out more if not.
Example:

 

[DoubleYou]

6 hours ago, LittleGuy said:

With the previous forum I only needed to zoom out to 90% when using half the screen, but with this updated forum I have to zoom out to 67% to get things looking normal, Is there any chance this can be fixed? I'm fine with zooming out more if not.
Example:

 

You're not supposed to zoom out. Bootstrap rearranges it so that stuff goes below the forum list. This is the expected and intended behavior.

[z929669]

Also, the width of the content area is exactly the same size as previously (area inside the darker background).

[LittleGuy]

12 hours ago, DoubleYou said:

You're not supposed to zoom out. Bootstrap rearranges it so that stuff goes below the forum list. This is the expected and intended behavior.

Without Zooming out a lot of details get lost, this is just me being picky I'll admit.

5 hours ago, z929669 said:

Also, the width of the content area is exactly the same size as previously (area inside the darker background).

Sure, but when zooming out to 90% before things didn't get left of screen.

[DoubleYou]

That doesn't happen for me, so I think that is a bug with your browser/cache.

[Greg]

I can reproduce that with Firefox by resizing the browser window with the default zoom. It looks as if the header row has a fixed minimum width and if I resize the browser window smaller than this, everything on the page except the header row resizes correctly. The style on the UL has an absolute position to keep this section to the right of the logo.

#elUserNav {
	position: absolute;
	top: 1em;
	margin-left: 68em;
}

The issue is that the header row does not dynamically change until the width of the window is next to the logo, so the UL moves into a scroll area off the right side of the window.

[z929669]

Looks like something related to @media thresholds. Looking into this, I noticed that some of the mobile styling needs some love, so I should be able to fix this in the days ahead.

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Well, I fixed the user nav, but still need to address the @media transitions. That's always a PITA, especially with the implementation in this software.

[LittleGuy]

All the problems on my end are fixed and the forum looks better then ever

[z929669]

OP updated

[CorneliusC]

Thanks for taking the time to update.

I noticed one small thing: On any forum listing on the right side of the column, the latest post in a thread is featured with the thread title, author and the date of the last post. I use this feature all the time, clicking on the date to read the last post. After the forum update this feature now unfortunately only works when logged in, when not logged in and clicking on the date of the latest post, you jump to the first post in the thread ...

[z929669]

3 hours ago, CorneliusC said:

Thanks for taking the time to update.

I noticed one small thing: On any forum listing on the right side of the column, the latest post in a thread is featured with the thread title, author and the date of the last post. I use this feature all the time, clicking on the date to read the last post. After the forum update this feature now unfortunately only works when logged in, when not logged in and clicking on the date of the latest post, you jump to the first post in the thread ...

Yeah, I have a few complaints about the 'upgrade', but most of the changes are an improvement. They probably did this as a side effect of security updates or possibly to encourage people to log in/register.

[TechAngel85]

OP update with request for feedback

[TechAngel85]

OP updated.

[z929669]

Thanks for keeping the OP updated. Good info