Upgrading these forums...?

Post by **garyb** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 7:08 pm

this forum is just fine now.
upgrade if you wish, but i don't know why...

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 8:54 pm

I just discovered something. In Firefox if you go to View/Page Style/No Style. It is easier to read and I can see more! I am going to use this.

On 2006-08-24 12:52, hubird wrote:
On 2006-08-24 12:23, alfonso wrote:
Anyway I'd like to keep the same colour and basical layout scheme, it's the less eye tiring forum I've ever seen.
yeah, i forgot about that, hope you can keep the forum appearence!

Lima · Post by **Lima** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:30 pm

Hi, I think these forums work very well, the only issue is in the search which is slow.
About the categorization, I've used it only in the early days of reading. Actually I read the forums more time in a week, and I "stay updated" on almost every forum. So categorization is not very useful for me (now).
I never used the voting feature. I see it's not often used and when used the votes are high (maybe giving a bad vote is not kind?!?!?

) so (actually) it is quite un-useful like tool to understand wich is good and wich not IMO.

I want to say very clear that IMHO this is not caused by the "quality" of the feature (wich is perfectly functional) but maybe by a n informal behaviour of the comunity.

FrancisHarmany · Post by **FrancisHarmany** » Thu Aug 24, 2006 11:35 pm

if we make the urls more descriptive we can use
google to search

katano · Post by **katano** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:49 am

i'd like to see a faster search. it would help new users to find answers in short time and for the longtime Z'ers the need to answer the same questions again and again...

as ReD_MuZe mentioned before, i'd like to see the older posts of the thread while writing an answer... i hate that switching between windows

finally, thanx john and all pulsarians for this outstanding community we have here!!

cheers
roman

Counterparts · Post by **Counterparts** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 12:53 am

As long as there's a good search facility on the forum, why not!

ReD_MuZe · Post by **ReD_MuZe** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 1:51 am

I think that the search function can be optimised for faster searching.

there is a module that optimises the search speed and efficiency, or we could just install a new search module which will offer more options for more efficient search.

there are 2 things that might be a problem:
1)if john has already installed that module, and its already optimised then i guess its going to stay as slow.
2)the forum is heavily modified so i am not sure if there are compatible modules, or how easy it is to make them compatible (john you can contact me for checking that out)

i also think that a recent posts module can be installed to the current version very easily.

also there are some issues with installing a new system. its true that they have fixed many bugs over the years, but they have created new bugs. since its a sport for some people to hack the most reacent versions of phpbb, it might be safer to keep this forum as is, since it has not been hacked (knock wood).

having said that, i think that a new version will make surfing here much more pleasant, effective and intuitive. keeping all of the info in-tact. it will support cookies (so you dont have to type your user/pass every time)and most important, it will be safer against email spammers.

as i said befor, id be glad to help with the work load, whichever the discision is.

[ This Message was edited by: ReD_MuZe on 2006-08-25 02:52 ]

John Cooper · Post by **John Cooper** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 9:28 am

Guys,

I've spent some time with phpBB 2.0 last night. I ran an upgrade conversion, overnight and tried out the results this morning. Quite impressive. The search is beautifully fast (they maintain a word-index in the database for all post text).

In general, it's a much improved system. A lot of the things which I had to implement myself (e.g. sticky, email notification, email-verified registration, etc) are all there natively.

I think the improved search text can replace the existing "filters", which not many people are using anyway...

So, I'm going to proceed with this. So far so good- the only thing I need to sort out is migrating the custom data fields (our file attachments, and post tags).

I'll keep you posted and let you know when a preview is ready.

Cheers,
-John

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 9:56 am

Thanks John.

Yes to new features, especially RSS. Some of us find it very useful. If you don't want to use it then don't. I'm finding web 2.0 to be great!

On 2006-08-25 03:17, stardust wrote:
I'd vote to change as less as possible (no additional fancy features).

The sorting in devices and modular based on the criteria is a very usefull thing.
It might be possible to achieve a similar result by allowing dedicated search criterias that work like categories if the posters fill them in their posts a s standards.

thanks for your work John.

John Cooper · Post by **John Cooper** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 10:13 am

There is an RSS mod available for phpBB 2.0, so I'll be investigating that. One thing at a time tho

-John

FrancisHarmany · Post by **FrancisHarmany** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 2:01 pm

On 2006-08-25 11:13, John Cooper wrote:
There is an RSS mod available for phpBB 2.0, so I'll be investigating that. One thing at a time tho

-John

please keep in mind this greatly increase load & traffic if people keep polling!

BingoTheClowno · Post by **BingoTheClowno** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 3:36 pm

Hey John, if the change is on the way already, have Hubert update the smileys. Maybe he can "spruce up" the collection.

John Cooper · Post by **John Cooper** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 4:58 pm

Hahah! Glad we've got our priorities straight

By all means, more crazy smilies!

-John

Post by **hubird** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 5:06 pm

ok then, once again john is saving our planet(z) (watch the ultimate end):

Btw, the smilies seem to loose their exact links, or the links are changed every now and then...?
cheers

edit: cookies making logging-in everytime superfluous is worth alone the upgrade, to me

[ This Message was edited by: hubird on 2006-08-25 18:35 ]

John Cooper · Post by **John Cooper** » Fri Aug 25, 2006 5:10 pm

Thanks for the laugh, huub

-John

katano · Post by **katano** » Sat Aug 26, 2006 1:44 pm

yes!!! give us more smilies and auto-logon

[ This Message was edited by: katano on 2006-08-26 14:44 ]

Nestor · Post by **Nestor** » Mon Aug 28, 2006 6:35 pm

Answering to your questions John, I don’t use the features you were referring to at the start of this thread. Perhaps I don’t need them because I know the forum pretty well already.

What definitely needs a lift is the search engine, if this can be done with a simple move as you suggest, I think it is most valuable because new members struggle much looking for answers. We perhaps can find what we’re looking for by remembering where a topic was posted, or through related memories.

I think this is great, if you can.

I also think that most advanced webmasters could help directly in the making of the changes, just an idea.

Leper · Post by **Leper** » Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:18 pm

Hello,

I love this forum and the easy access to information. In my opinion, for forums like this one usability and readability is key. Bells-&-whistles aren't as important unless they facilitate the sharing and reading of information on the forum.

The only real problem I have when using the forum often is that the search takes about 30-60 seconds to find anything. I'm not much of a 'forum browser', I like to search for the specific info I need or make a post about it - so the faster search is definately welcome.

Thanks for your fantastic service to all of us Creamware users, John!

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:20 am

People who don't like "Bells-&-whistles" simply are not tech savy.

braincell · Post by **braincell** » Mon Sep 11, 2006 7:21 am

need tags

On 2006-08-28 19:35, Nestor wrote:
Answering to your questions John, I don’t use the features you were referring to at the start of this thread. Perhaps I don’t need them because I know the forum pretty well already.

What definitely needs a lift is the search engine, if this can be done with a simple move as you suggest, I think it is most valuable because new members struggle much looking for answers. We perhaps can find what we’re looking for by remembering where a topic was posted, or through related memories.

I think this is great, if you can.

I also think that most advanced webmasters could help directly in the making of the changes, just an idea.