Moving in to this new forum is a very strange feeling. I feel a bit like I have just moved house and am surrounded by packing cases. Everything looks really foreign, I don't know the neighbours, I can't find my toothbrush and don't know where the light switches are. I imagine others may feel similar! There will be lots of changes over the next few days. We'll be 'styling' the forum to make it look more familiar, making sure you have all the functions you need to make the forum a pleasant place to be, things like fixing emoticons and avatars, and getting all the controls right so that people can send private messages etc There is an argument for doing all this behind the scenes, with the forum shut down, for a few days, but we decided that you would rather have some basic functionality and be able to use the forum whilst we beaver away in the background I thought it might be helpful to let you know our priorities, so that you know what is going on behind the scenes. Here they are - Priorities: 1. Forum software installation issues Fixing issues with basic functionality of the forum software, and ensuring that all the jobs which need input from the developers are completed this week. This includes making sure that tabs labelled "new topics" actually lead to new topics! Etc. 2. Server issues Fixing any problems caused by or relating to, our web hosting server to ensure that it can handle the new software and keep the forum running smoothly and without interruption. The fact that we cannot currently upload images (therefore avatars) for example may be an issue with our server and the way it is handling vbulletin. Our current server does not specialise in vbulletin and that may have to change. 3. Forum controls Vbulletin is a complex and sophisticated piece of software. The admin and mods team are all volunteers, and not trained in using this software, so it will take us a while to get up to speed with all the many different functions. From private messages to emoticons, to how many characters we can put in a post or how many posts display on a page, what size images we can upload and in what format, how many lines we can have in a signature, and whether to include images, these are all things we can adjust to fit our needs. 4. Forum style The way the forum 'looks' - its colours, header banners etc are all part of what make it familiar and homely. So we'll be styling the forum to make it more 'labrador relevant'. We'll probably need to hire some vbulletin experts to do this. Let us know what you want We'll be reading the 'bug' list and trying to fix all the issues that arise, one by one. We really do appreciate both your feedback and your patience. This thread is a good place to let us know what you would like in the way of controls and forum appearance. The bug issues thread is the best place to comment on technical issues or to report technical problems. Do feel free to let me know what you think, but please be constructive - there's no going back now so we need to move forwards and make this place seem like home.
Well, I feel like I'm at least 50% unpacked and have found the light switch....don't know where my toothbrush is yet, but it'll turn up. Change is always unsettling, but it'll be fine.
I'm sure we'll all be very happy with it once it's fully functional. Definitely nice to have the forum back even if it's still partly in boxes
Look forward to all the unpacking being finished I used to do most of my forum browsing on the phone but the UI is pretty unusable right now. Just think of all the things I will get done with the time I save Good luck with the tweaking
Just been using the new PM system and it is a thousand times better than the old one. Much more like email, and a lot more intuitive. Really like it!!!!!
I see that this feature is now added, which is fab (the double downward facing arrow to the left of the thread title). Just been having a go with it on my phone and it helps a lot with useability. Only thing is that on a phone the double arrow icon is probably a bit small for anyone without lady fingers, so the zoom function will help a lot too when that is working.
I like the way it displays 'latest topics' (a list of most recent posts) on the mobile version. I think I will use that a lot.
UPDATE: Ok, we have completed Stage 1 (software installation) and Stage 2 (we are now on a new specialist forum server) Our next task is to work down through any remaining bugs and fix them. Let us know if anything isn't working that hasn't already been mentioned - but please but all issues in our BUG LIST so that we can easily find them. Thanks everyone!
