ASF Mark III

[Julia]

Joe, scrub my comment about the slower speed. It's fine. Maybe just needed to get warmed up or something.
(I'll now duck for cover after such a technologically illiterate remark).

 

[roland]

Joe, the "New Posts" link changes positions when you go into a thread, so the menu selections alter their positions depending on where you are.

 

[shinobi346]

When we went from the standard forum skin to the one we just changed many of the coments were the same as now. "I don't like the size/color/contrast". Guys give it time. You have just woken up to find your partner of 5 years has had a face lift. Still the some gal, just a few changes to get use to.

Just a note when you use a smart phone you are more likely to use an app rather than a traditional browser. So the layout will not be what you see on a computer screen.

What app do you use to browse this site? I always use the built in browser.

 

[Joe Blow]

What app do you use to browse this site? I always use the built in browser.

There is a dedicated app coming from the developer of the forum software soon, but right now you can use Tapatalk.

 

[Joe Blow]

One suggestion I can think of is an increase in the amount of "recently posted" posts, I used to just cruize though the recently active ones, maybe double the amount currently on offer?

The amount of recently posted posts was designed to fit the new website design. For more, click on the "New Posts" link in the navigation bar. For even more posts than that, click on the "Quick Links" drop down menu and select "Today's Posts".

Hi Joe

Great evolution, good to see ongoing change, ASF is a great community.

I'm even starting to upload my pics.

Looking forward to a turbo charged NBN driven Mark IV.

Great to see you'e found the new "Albums" feature. The new image uploader is quite sophisticated too. It will take a little getting used to but it is much more powerful than the old one.

Hi Joe!
Hope you don't get too stressed out with change of Webpage.

Just wander, why new design had to be so difficult to implement?

Primarily because I was upgrading from a very old version of the forum software. ASF was stuck in 2007 in terms of the software we were using and now we have the latest forum software available. It was quite a challenge to make ASF seem vaguely familiar (menus etc.) but have a completely new look and also to convert all the customisations that the old ASF had to the new ASF.

Was this Web Forum specifically developed for you?
Or it was one off the shelf and all the changes that make you tear hair out are some improvements that were not part of original design?

This new design is an original design made specifically for ASF.

joe,

great hub and I hope the traffic contnues to grow......

cheers and merry christmas

may we all have a prosperous 2011

Many thanks, and same to you and yours!

Agree here. On the old format you didn't have to use the drop down box to see if there were any private messages. Now you have to specifically think about checking this. If we have previously enabled notification via email of PM's, will this continue?

Julia, you will continue to be notified of any private messages via the notifications box at the top of the page. You will also be notified of any comments others leave on your profile (this can be disabled in Settings) as well as any "friend" requests (this can also be disabled in Settings). This new forum software is a lot more customisable than the old software and I encourage you to go to your Settings - you will notice the link next to the "Notifications" box above - and spend some time working your way through all the options to ensure you have everything customised the way you like.

Agree absolutely. It becomes so annoying to see repetitive spelling and grammar mistakes. If there were some sort of spell/grammar check, it might actually help the people who have trouble in this respect.

This is coming very soon and would not have been possible with the old forum software.

Joe, what is the purpose of this upgrade? Presumably it offers additional features which I have yet to discover.

The old forum software was like owning a car that nobody made parts for anymore and nobody wanted to service. In short, it had no real future. This upgrade was necessary and was something I have agonised over for months. There is still a lot of work to be done and that it why I decided to do it over the Christmas break, as it is traditionally the slowest time of the year.

For a quick look at some of the new features click back to the first page of this thread and take a look at the first post. I give a brief overview of some of the most important ones there. Another way is simply to work your way through the options in the drop down menus. You will notice that all the old options are still there but there are also quite a few new options.

 

[Joe Blow]

Joe, scrub my comment about the slower speed. It's fine. Maybe just needed to get warmed up or something.
(I'll now duck for cover after such a technologically illiterate remark).

The host has been optimising the server for the new forum software and it is running quite well now. You should find that it is just as fast as the old software, if not faster.

Joe, the "New Posts" link changes positions when you go into a thread, so the menu selections alter their positions depending on where you are.

Yes, this is true. However, you should have access to the "New Posts" option in most places except the "Blogs" area, as it has its own options that need to be displayed. It still should be there when are reading threads.

Can you post a link to show me where the "New Posts" link changes position as it shouldn't be doing that.

 

[Joe Blow]

missing the quick search by title, now have to go the Advanced Search and fill out a form

The search index has now been rebuilt and this function has been restored.

 

[nulla nulla]

Hi Joe

Do we still have a "chat" room?
The access tab used to be on the top tab bar, is there a new link?

 

[outback]

Well I like it. New fresh design, more goodies, 'm still sticking my nose into the nooks and crannys, and looking forward to the new ones.

 

[Trembling Hand]

The amount of recently posted posts was designed to fit the new website design. For more, click on the "New Posts" link in the navigation bar. For even more posts than that, click on the "Quick Links" drop down menu and select "Today's Posts".

Joe I really really really liked the change when you excluded the general chat forum from the Home page on the last layout. We have now lost that feature? Especially in the new posts section?

 

[Joe Blow]

Hi Joe

Do we still have a "chat" room?
The access tab used to be on the top tab bar, is there a new link?

The complaints that always came in about the old chatroom is that people would come in and cause trouble or there would be personality clashes. For this reason I am trialling a Facebook style footer chat.

You will have to add those you wish to chat with to your friends list and then they will be able to see you online and chat with you. It is possible to chat with more than one person, but they will all have to be added as friends. People can organise this themselves via PM. This way, everyone can chat with whomever they want to chat with and I won't have to field complaints about people causing trouble in the chatroom. It got quite ridiculous at one point and hopefully this will solve the problem.

Those who do not wish to use the chat feature can simply hide the chat bar in the footer by clicking the down arrow on the far right.

I would be interested in any feedback on this feature.

Joe I really really really liked the change when you excluded the general chat forum from the Home page on the last layout. We have now lost that feature? Especially in the new posts section?

This is coming back - for the front page at least - as soon as I figure out how to do it.

 

[nulla nulla]

Will check into this. It should still be there, and is on my browser, but it could just be that it's still in the cache.

Thanks Joe

Problem was in my laptop. Cleared cookies, history etc in IE7 and back to coorect cookie.

 

[sails]

Joe, is there a bigger limit now on private messages? I was just over 90% full on the old system a couple of days ago, but can't see anywhere to tell if I am near capacity now?

 

[Joe Blow]

Joe, is there a bigger limit now on private messages? I was just over 90% full on the old system a couple of days ago, but can't see anywhere to tell if I am near capacity now?

It should be the same as no changes have been made. Check down at the bottom of the page of your inbox and you'll see details of what % you have used in a section labelled "Folder Controls".

 

[sails]

It should be the same as no changes have been made. Check down at the bottom of the page of your inbox and you'll see details of what % you have used in a section labelled "Folder Controls".

Thanks Joe. I have found it at the bottom of the inbox - not quite as convenient as before...

 

[OK2]

Nice site. It will take me a couple of years to work it out completely but I like a challenge.

 

[Garpal Gumnut]

I'm liking this more than the last upgrade Joe. It's instantly pleasing to me.

Good work Joe. So nice to see this upgrade after the last downgrade. As a chartist I understand the sine wave of development.

Overall an intuitive site and so nice to see that Good written English is being encouraged, even for those what can't spel or youse gramma proppa.

gg

 

[gav]

Hi Joe, loving the new look.

Now that it has the whole facebook intergration thing, I was wondering if we could "Like" a post, like how you can on Facebook?

PS. Looking forward to a dedicated ASF iPhone app!

 

[Joe Blow]

Now that it has the whole facebook intergration thing, I was wondering if we could "Like" a post, like how you can on Facebook?

You can "like" a thread but there is also a "Share with Facebook" link on each post that will achieve the same thing (i.e. Post about it to your FB wall).

PS. Looking forward to a dedicated ASF iPhone app!

Coming early in the new year.

 

[Joe Blow]

Just a brief note to everyone: the designer will be back working on the site tomorrow fixing up various bugs that have been identified, most of which are on the front page. I am hoping that by the end of the year, which is only a week and a half away now, that the new ASF will be pretty much bug free.

I appreciate all feedback, good and bad, and I hope that if you are one of those who is having difficulty adapating to the new design that you will find that over time things will become easier.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask them in this thread.