Forum Upgrade Today, June 15th! PLEASE READ!

[+kheller2]

Thank you for doing the update!  Even though its different, and there are issues, its good to update things.  I'm a big believer in Skeuomorphism vs flat design, and there is research now showing just how much slower flat is for human interface design.  It will take a bit to get used to the new look, and my only two gripes at the moment is the massive amount of wasted space between posts in a thread (compared to the old version now each post has its own little block with header and footer banners vs a single banner separating posts) [I'll get over this], and the second gripe is its very hard to see which threads I've read and have not read anymore.  The bolding of the font isn't as dramatic as it used to be (besides the fact almost all threads seem light in color implying I read them, when I didn't -- I'm assuming its a database thing at the moment).

 

At least the site looks "modern" now.    There are also a lot of new features that people will enjoy using.

 

 

[Albert]

17 minutes ago, Flojomojo said:

"Knowledge based authentication" (security questions like, "what city is your mother from?") aren't so great unless there's a way to set your own questions.

That's why I'm not particularly fond of canned questions.  Much better if you can write your own questions and answers.  I'll have to test this to see what it allows.

 

 ..Al

[_The Doctor__]

I'd love to see this thread concatenated into a searchable FAQ sheet as it progresses. A help key so to speak.

 

I've noticed some simple continuity issues that might be addressed since all kinds of work is being done.

 

The subforums AA logo turn orange when new content appears and turn blue when nothing new is there, can that be made the same for conversation bubbles on all the forums and set the Blue folder icon to orange as well perhaps with the folders showing as the logo and bubbles?

[Tidus79001]

1 hour ago, Albert said:

All missing post content (images, attachments, quote boxes, etc.) will return as post content is rebuilt.  Not sure how long exactly this is going to take.  I filed a support ticket with Invision last night to ask them to investigate speeding this up, as it's taking longer than it should.  But it will all be back once the process is complete.  I know it's annoying right now, and trust me, it's probably more annoying for me than anyone else!

 

 ..Al

Was just inquiring.  No rush or complaint intended.  Thanks for taking the time to reply to my post.

[Albert]

15 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

I'd love to see this thread concatenated into a searchable FAQ sheet as it progresses. A help key so to speak.

 

Yes, a FAQ would be nice. Actually, I can setup a new "Questions and Answer" forum (which I've never used here before), where people can ask questions, then others (including me) can answer, and the highest-voted answers rise to the top.

 

15 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

The subforums AA logo turn orange when new content appears and turn blue when nothing new is there, can that be made the same for conversation bubbles on all the forums and set the Blue folder icon to orange as well perhaps with the folders showing as the logo and bubbles?

 

That might be possible, but that would have to be something for later.  I've already given Invision feedback on why I don't like the new Messenger, and working with a third-party to add back the ability to search for authors in conversations.. This was briefly in Invision 4.3.x, but they removed it in 4.4.x (apparently due to performance reasons).  I will probably put significant resources into revamping the Messenger at some point.

 

 ..Al

[TGB1718]

Hi, do you have any idea when the background tasks will be complete, as I can't see any content I've posted in, follow 

or created, it's a  bit difficult to try the new changes to the site.

 

Just on thing I have noticed is how slow the site is now, it used to load pages sub 1 second, now every page is a 3 to 5 second load.

[Albert]

55 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

Hi, do you have any idea when the background tasks will be complete, as I can't see any content I've posted in, follow 

or created, it's a  bit difficult to try the new changes to the site.

 

I don't, yet.  I have opened a ticket with Invision to get their help in speeding this process up. It's a big forum with a TON of posts and data, and it's churning in the background.  I'm just as eager as everyone else to have all the posts and other content back to normal. 

 

55 minutes ago, TGB1718 said:

Just on thing I have noticed is how slow the site is now, it used to load pages sub 1 second, now every page is a 3 to 5 second load.

 

It's pretty fast for me.  There is a lot of processing going on in the background, though, which will slow things down a bit.  Once the dust settles and all the background tasks are completed, I will address any performance issues that remain.   This forum should definitely be faster than the old one when everything's said and done.  It's using a much newer version of PHP which is much faster than the version we were using, and the forum makes much better use of caching, and queries are considerably more optimized than they were in the old forum.  It does use more Javascript, so on slower computers that could slow down the rendering of pages. 

 

Again, I'll do testing after the background tasks are complete and we can go from there. 

 

 ..Al

[Albert]

Just to give people an idea of cash I have been laying out for this upgrade, I just paid $600 for someone to properly rewrite the Indefinite Editing mods, as well as two others for this forum.  I did so in the interest of getting them done as quickly as possible, since I already have my hands full at the moment and it likely would have taken me weeks to get these done myself.

 

[_The Doctor__]

Being a critical individual about a great number of things, I'd say all things considered the performance of the forum has been fine considering the load it is under with the installation core and all the other background tasks translating the databases. Remember just how wide in scope this is! Also remember how many years back and deep the rabbit hole is. We are talking the tip of a melting iceberg here! Under the surface of the water can be one h*ll of a big ole continental sized piece of ice!

 

That being said, I can no longer browse using my Atari 8 bit at all :(...     I have hope once all of the conversion is done, fixes and flourishes are completed, bugs squashed.....  that some industrious persons will tackle a retro browsing doorway or module as the newer Dracary's (LAN card/carts)  come out, and the 8 bit browsers improve.

Edited June 18, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[Albert]

7 minutes ago, _The Doctor__ said:

That being said, I can no longer browse using my Atari 8 bit at all :(...     I have hope once all of the conversion is done, fixes and flourishes are completed, bugs squashed.....  that some industrious persons will tackle a retro browsing doorway or module as the newer Dracary's (LAN card/carts)  come out, and the 8 bit browsers improve.

I'm impressed that you were able to browse the site previously!

 

Now, it would be possible to create a very stripped down theme intended for Atari 8-bit computers.  Wouldn't it be something if the forum just used ATASCII?  ?  That could be a fun project..  

 

 ..Al

[Albert]

I have added a new Forum Questions and Answers forum..   People can post questions, and others can provide answers.  Popular answers will percolate to the top, and a mod/admin can select one as the definitive answer..

 

Have at it!

 

 ..Al

[_The Doctor__]

WOW now that would be a sight!   I'd never thought of an Atascii / themes core translating the forum on the fly... that would be over the top!

I'd suspect that given the ability to do feeds the meat (text) of the forum could indeed be placed in Atascii graphics (or line mode/ansi for that matter).

 

To be honest, the boxes and banners would translate nicely, atascii does boxes and lines easily, and banners can be inverse characters.

 

That emoji says it all

Edited June 18, 2019 by _The Doctor__

[Albert]

I did a ton of ATASCII graphics back in the day for the BBSs I ran.  I'd dig up one of my posts with examples, but I can't really search for anything right now..  You'd still probably need to support basic HTML tags, but nothing over the top. 

 

 ..Al

[+SpiceWare]

On 6/16/2019 at 9:27 AM, Albert said:

Please do, I know I'm gong to be extraordinarily busy for the next week. 

 

Done!

 

[_The Doctor__]

On 6/16/2019 at 9:19 AM, Albert said:

I assume you are talking about the breadcrumbs at the top and bottom of the page?  Looks like the last item in the breadcrumb (the page you are currently on) is not a link.  I think that would be relatively easy to remedy.

 

 ..Al

the breadcrumbs are not appearing in the mobile version, this has the effect of making the mark site read link that is normally in the right hand side of the bread crumb box inaccessible for folks wishing to do so.

 

The mark forum read button is fine and should definitely require confirmation..

The mark site read button should not require confirmation... and perhaps the word site should become topic or thread...

[+FujiSkunk]

Aww, c'mon, why can't we "like" and react to our own comments anymore??

 

[Rey]

Anyone else getting a ton of email notifications from here? I had to shut off any kind email notifications because I received over 30 emails in the last  5 minutes. 

[+save2600]

2 minutes ago, Rey said:

Anyone else getting a ton of email notifications from here? I had to shut off any kind email notifications because I received over 30 emails in the last  5 minutes. 

 

Yes, but only from stuff I want to receive e-mails from. This previously did not work for me, so am glad it is now. You can adjust what you want to receive in your account settings...

[+Karl G]

5 hours ago, Albert said:

Just to give people an idea of cash I have been laying out for this upgrade, I just paid $600 for someone to properly rewrite the Indefinite Editing mods, as well as two others for this forum.  I did so in the interest of getting them done as quickly as possible, since I already have my hands full at the moment and it likely would have taken me weeks to get these done myself.

 

Maybe that's a good reason to consider accepting contributions from users?  I see subscriptions as defraying ongoing site maintenance costs, and contributions as offsetting costs for specific projects like this upgrade.

[+wongojack]

10 hours ago, Albert said:

I figured out how to clean up the "All Activity" stream to remove all the superfluous crap.  It's much better now..

 

 

 ..Al

 

FYI that I believe this has also removed this other activity from the activity tab on our profile pages.  It was actually kinda cool to see the reputation items there.

 

Also, it now seems like All Activity and Unread Content are almost exactly the same.  I don't really mind seeing the extra stuff in All Activity if I have the option of clicking Unread Content.  It is called ALL Activity after all.

[Albert]

18 minutes ago, wongojack said:

FYI that I believe this has also removed this other activity from the activity tab on our profile pages.  It was actually kinda cool to see the reputation items there.

 

Also, it now seems like All Activity and Unread Content are almost exactly the same.  I don't really mind seeing the extra stuff in All Activity if I have the option of clicking Unread Content.  It is called ALL Activity after all.

While it is interesting, I don't think it's very important to see those things.  On a busy forum they just completely clutter the more important content like new posts, blog posts, gallery uploads, and so forth.  If this was a user setting, that would be great, but right now it's a global setting and for now I prefer not having all that fluff clogging up the activity streams.  

 

There is a big difference between "All Activity" and the other streams.  The "All Activity" stream will let you know if there's new activity, which you can then load by clicking the big notification button, so it's a nice page to leave open.  

 

 ..Al

[Albert]

Invision fixed the issue with the background tasks running slowly, so they are churning along much more quickly.  I was stressing a bit over that, so I'm glad they were able to figure out what was going on.

 

 ..Al

[+OLD CS1]

Parroting a previous comment about forum performance: even with the background tasks running (my blogs appear correctly, not, but my albums do not so I am certain things are still running) forum performance is leaps and bounds above what it was on the old server.  Fantastic!

[+Nathan Strum]

2 hours ago, Albert said:

Invision fixed the issue with the background tasks running slowly, so they are churning along much more quickly.  I was stressing a bit over that, so I'm glad they were able to figure out what was going on.

 

It's working - more of my blog is returning to normal*. 

 

Although this entry: https://atariage.com/forums/blogs/entry/15859-temporary-title/ is still showing links instead of thumbnails for all but one of the Vimeo embeds.

 

Embeddings?

 

Embedisms?

 

Anyway, it seems weirdly random. It did the same thing here, too: https://atariage.com/forums/blogs/entry/14686-421-minutes/ – just showing one of them. Limitation? Bug? Feature?

 

* I should note, "normal" is a relative term.

Edited June 19, 2019 by Nathan Strum

[Thomas Jentzsch]

@Al The thumb size of images displayed in the forums seems to have been increased quite a lot. This makes loading and browsing threads with such pictures slower with much more scrolling involved. Will this stay as it is now?