422 replies to this topic

[Albert]

We've updated the forum software to the latest version available (from 3.1.4 to 3.2.2)!  It's a pretty significant update, please play around to discover the changes and improvements!  This default forum skin (appearance) will be updated to reflect a more proper AtariAge skin, which should take place in about 48 hours.  Please be patient (although I rather like this skin, it has a nice, clean appearance).

Please leave feedback in this thread and I will respond as quickly as possible.  I do still have a fair amount of work to do, but I did not want to keep the forum down any longer than necessary.  I put this forum upgrade off long enough as it was.  

..Al

[Albert]

First, here's a list of some of the improvements:

• Completely revised View New Content and User Content system (and Part 2)
  
• Post Tagging and Prefixes
  
• Notification Enhancements: Part 1 and Part 2
  
• Brand new editor with Auto-Save
  
• New Post Alert when posting Reply
  
• New Photo Editor
  
• Shared Media
  
• New Mobile Skin
  
• Calendar: RSVP support for events
  
• Calendar: iCalendar support (import/export events)
  
• Member photos and member avatars are being merged into one function: member photo
  
• Improved Topic Preview system

Next, some general comments:

• This is the default Invision skin, with just the "AtariAge" logo at the top.  I plan on creating a new skin based on this one that will reflect the AtariAge color scheme, although overall I don't plan on making a huge number of changes.  Just too much of a pain in the neck every time a new forum version is released (especially a significant upgrade such as this).  I could pay someone probably $500 to redo the AtariAge skin from scratch, professionally, but I don't want to pay that just yet.
  
• Yes, this software looks a fair bit different than what you might be used to.  Please don't be discouraged, there are a lot of great improvements.
  
• The Gallery module is entirely new, please check it out.  I haven't yet had time to play with it too much.
  
• If you see any errors or other obvious problems, please let me know and I'll investigate right away.  I have a full day tomorrow to work on the forum to make improvements.
  
• The ability to edit specific posts beyond the normal edit window is presently missing.  I have to add this functionality back by hand, which is going to take several hours.

That's all for now, I need some ice cream.

..Al

[Itchy Koala]

Seeing that I don't have a facebook, your post was the first time I've ever "liked" anything. Boy was that exhilarating!

It will take some time to get used to, but I like it!

[Albert]

Itchy Koala, on Sat Sep 17, 2011 9:50 PM, said:

Seeing that I don't have a facebook, your post was the first time I've ever "liked" anything. Boy was that exhilarating!

It will take some time to get used to, but I like it!

Yeah, it's making me a bit anxious at the moment as I was seeing a lot of SQL errors after I opened the forum back up to everyone.  It took about 15 minutes for it to stabilize -- I believe the forum was building up caches for the most commonly viewed pages, plus since the pages are all new, your local browser needs to recache everything as well.  This was causing a bit of stress on the server.  I'll have to pay close attention to it tonight and look at the error logs in the morning.  It does take a bit getting used to, but there are some nice improvements to be had.

Now I'm going to walk to the store and get that ice cream.

..Al

[Random Terrain]

Once you get the AtariAge skin looking the same for posts, post previews, signatures, profile pages, and blogs, I hope it will become easy for future updates to use your skin settings automatically without you needing to do a ton of work or needing to hire anyone (seemed like the last guy you hired gave up half way through).

I hope all of your colors, fonts, font sizes, link colors, bold links instead of underlined links, custom status above avatars instead of below, and so on will seamlessly move from one upgrade to the next.

Edited by Random Terrain, Sat Sep 17, 2011 10:30 PM.

[Mayhem]

Yeah, I was thinking that there must have been an upgrade, because the usual skin had gone walkies again heh...

[nofrills100]

Like any upgrade - it will take a little time to get used to.
I can see potentially some of the new features are going to make browsing for the content you are interested in - a lot easier... now I just got to work it all out.
It will be nice to see the 'old school' AA interface back.
Well done

[DJT]

Looks great on the iPad!

[Albert]

Random Terrain, on Sat Sep 17, 2011 10:01 PM, said:

Once you get the AtariAge skin looking the same for posts, post previews, signatures, profile pages, and blogs, I hope it will become easy for future updates to use your skin settings automatically without you needing to do a ton of work or needing to hire anyone (seemed like the last guy you hired gave up half way through).

I hope all of your colors, fonts, font sizes, link colors, bold links instead of underlined links, custom status above avatars instead of below, and so on will seamlessly move from one upgrade to the next.

In theory, as they do now have a skin migration tool.  Yeah, it seems that unless you spend a fair bit of money to get someone to create a custom skin for you, you're going to get a somewhat half-assed effort.  Custom skins are always going to be a problem--anytime there's a major upgrade, you're probably going to have to redo most of the skin.  I will have the "Splat" and "Deflection" skins back in a day or two, and I may buy some other nice skins that have been created for IP.Board 3.2 (was browsing some of them earlier today).  Nice to have some choices.

..Al

[Albert]

DJT, on Sat Sep 17, 2011 10:28 PM, said:

Looks great on the iPad!

Ahh haven't even tried it on the iPhone and iPad.  It's a new Mobile Skin, one built into the forum.  The previous one was a third-party skin that I paid for, but the author has not yet updated it for 3.2.

Edit: Looks like the normal skin is coming up on the iPad and iPhone.  Will investigate that now.

..Al

[jsmith73]

The normal skin comes up on android as well. However, I found the button to change to mobile. The new mobile is much nicer than the old one IMHO. Thanks for all the hard work!

[Albert]

jsmith73, on Sat Sep 17, 2011 11:13 PM, said:

The normal skin comes up on android as well. However, I found the button to change to mobile. The new mobile is much nicer than the old one IMHO. Thanks for all the hard work!

I made a change that should make the Mobile skin come up by default on most mobile devices, and was able to see it on my iPhone and iPad.  

..Al

[Albert]

I discovered that notification settings for topics and forums you are subscribed to got turned off during the upgrade. Not very happy about this.  Until I can turn this back on for everyone, you'll want to go into your settings and turn them back on yourself.  You can do that here:

http://www.atariage....a=notifications

..Al

[thanatos]

Was going to post about the Android thing, but it has already been addressed!  Looks awesome.

[atari2600land]

The animated avatars don't work any more.

[retroclouds]

The mobile skin looks very slick on my IPAD.

One thing I noticed, is that the emoticons are missing in posts. I just see a question mark icon instead.
Would also be cool that you could jump back to the forum list when you are at the "bottom" of a thread.
Now you have to scroll all the way up.

Other than that, I think you are running one of the best forum packages out there.

Good job.

[kamakazi]

I like the upgrade so far.  And I know iOS is iOS but it works and looks great on iPod Touch.  I'd try a few skins on a test server and play around with changing the logo and colors to get back some of the old AA looks while keeping the skin functionality you like best.  Awesome job!  Looks better than most phpbb3 forums I've seen and tried to work with.

[kamakazi]

OK...now that was sweet.  First time posting in the new upgrade and I like the way it posted my message and then moved the reply area down.  That was freakin' awesome!

[Random Terrain]

retroclouds, on Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:57 AM, said:

Other than that, I think you are running one of the best forum packages out there.

Yep, why click once to do things when three clicks are more fun? I love scrolling down to click on "topics I participated in" every time. That's much better than a simple "my content" link. Clicking once to get what you want is so Web 2.0! More clicking and more scrolling is what we need!

[Kr0tki]

atari2600land, on Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:42 AM, said:

The animated avatars don't work any more.

Yeah, mine too.

However the avatar animates properly on the user's profile page.

[Albert]

atari2600land, on Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:42 AM, said:

The animated avatars don't work any more.

Ahhh, that is probably because the user photos and avatars were "merged" so there is only one photo per user now.  Previously you had an avatar that was shown in posts and a user photo that was shown on your profile page (and elsewhere). This has been changed so you only have one image that is shown consistently all over the forum for each user (which is a much needed change!)  I'll have to investigate to see what's going on with the avatars, but looks like they are being resized and shown in posts, rather than using them in their native size (which would likely kill the animation).

retroclouds, on Sun Sep 18, 2011 1:57 AM, said:

The mobile skin looks very slick on my IPAD.

Good, glad you like it.  

Quote

One thing I noticed, is that the emoticons are missing in posts. I just see a question mark icon instead.

Ahhhh, I will try to fix that right away, I think I know what's going on there.

Quote

Would also be cool that you could jump back to the forum list when you are at the "bottom" of a thread.
Now you have to scroll all the way up.

I'll take a look at that.

Thanks!

..Al

[jetset]

Where's the "my posts" ?

[Albert]

I just added the Content Spy application back to the forum.  This lets you see new posts (and other activity in the forum) in real time!  It updates every five seconds, so if you keep it open in a tab you can see new posts immediately, without having to poll the forum yourself.  Try it out!!  The "Spy" tab at the top of the page is what you're looking for.

Content Spy

..Al

[Albert]

jetset, on Sun Sep 18, 2011 7:17 AM, said:

Where's the "my posts" ?

Click on your name at the top right corner of the page and then "My Content":



You can also get to this link from your (or anyone else's) profile:

http://www.atariage....ser/997-jetset/

Look for the "Find Content" button on the right side of the page (above your reputation points).

I could add a "My Content" link to the top of the page next to "View My Content", but may need to move those links somewhere else to give them more room so the tabs don't crash into them on narrow displays.

..Al

[svenski]

Just wanted to say that I loved how the upgrade was handled - all seemed very smooth and professional (at least from outside looking in !) and put big outfits such as google to shame.

Well done Al.