Xenforo conversion thread
- Thread starter neptronix
- Start date
Thanks AW. I finally found it under 'my account'. It's called following. I don't remember following anybody, but who knows...
Updated the navigation to return 'what's new' and 'mark forums read' functionality. New (unread) is now = 'what's new'.
As you notice, we removed the left hand menu in the navigation options because it's redundant and confusing now. We have a new problem in that these displays are now 'too wide' as a result.
I have a counter-adjustment in mind that should come in a few weeks.
As you notice, we removed the left hand menu in the navigation options because it's redundant and confusing now. We have a new problem in that these displays are now 'too wide' as a result.
I have a counter-adjustment in mind that should come in a few weeks.
Actually I think the width is perfectly fine. It exactly fits the window like it should, when I resize it, so it should work for anyone else, too, just automatically fitting the width of their browser. 
I do like not having the waste of space on the left, so thanks for that, too.
There *is* something funky about the time the (presumably) cached list of new stuff takes to update. I have to retest later when there's unread stuff again, but what I saw just now was that I opened all the new posts in tabs as usual, then after they'd finished loading I clicked the New (unread) link again, and all the posts were still shown, but no longer with the red Unread icon (and it did not show my filters as it did before), as if it was instead showing me the "view all latest posts" version.
Then JellyBeanThePerfectlyNormalSchmoo came in to see what I was doing so I didn't get to recheck it for a few minutes, but when I clicked it again it refreshed to the normal version, no list of posts and my filters (unread and unanswered) in place. Closing the unanswered filter kept no posts on screen, since there were no unread ones.
So I'll recheck the page later and see what happens.
I do like not having the waste of space on the left, so thanks for that, too.
There *is* something funky about the time the (presumably) cached list of new stuff takes to update. I have to retest later when there's unread stuff again, but what I saw just now was that I opened all the new posts in tabs as usual, then after they'd finished loading I clicked the New (unread) link again, and all the posts were still shown, but no longer with the red Unread icon (and it did not show my filters as it did before), as if it was instead showing me the "view all latest posts" version.
Then JellyBeanThePerfectlyNormalSchmoo came in to see what I was doing so I didn't get to recheck it for a few minutes, but when I clicked it again it refreshed to the normal version, no list of posts and my filters (unread and unanswered) in place. Closing the unanswered filter kept no posts on screen, since there were no unread ones.
So I'll recheck the page later and see what happens.
I haven't found a definite pattern to the above yet; it happens sometimes, but usually doesn't.
A note about the search results page though: it returns more results for a term, but it still shows them in an order I have yet to determine. Posts from a few days ago may be interspersed among weeks-old, years-old or months-old results.
It does now allow wildcard * at the end of a term (like Condition*), and appears to properly find variations on that term. But it no longer bolds the found term, or attempts to show the part of the post that contains the term (both of which it does if you don't use a wildcard).
It does let you find things like posts with how many Ah or Wh something has, by *Ah or *Wh, which is good, as it means it is responding to stuff the old PHPBB generally would blow up for. (BTW, it will search for just Ah or Wh as separate two-character terms, too, which is also handy).
Now if we could get the option to search within the results like PHPBB had, refining the search would be easier. It's *almost* as easy now, since at this point you can click the search term you used in the phrase at the top of the search, which brings up advanced search with the term already included. You can then add more search terms, and it appears to correctly find things with all of the terms in it. It also appears to correctly use boolean "-" to find things without a particular term.
But it isn't obvious that you can do any of this, or noted anywhere, so you have to already know how to do this. With the PHPBB search refinement it was already labelled as "search within results", so obvious to at least be able to do it (though you'd still already have to know boolean search stuff if you need that kind of thing).
A note about the search results page though: it returns more results for a term, but it still shows them in an order I have yet to determine. Posts from a few days ago may be interspersed among weeks-old, years-old or months-old results.
It does now allow wildcard * at the end of a term (like Condition*), and appears to properly find variations on that term. But it no longer bolds the found term, or attempts to show the part of the post that contains the term (both of which it does if you don't use a wildcard).
It does let you find things like posts with how many Ah or Wh something has, by *Ah or *Wh, which is good, as it means it is responding to stuff the old PHPBB generally would blow up for. (BTW, it will search for just Ah or Wh as separate two-character terms, too, which is also handy).
Now if we could get the option to search within the results like PHPBB had, refining the search would be easier. It's *almost* as easy now, since at this point you can click the search term you used in the phrase at the top of the search, which brings up advanced search with the term already included. You can then add more search terms, and it appears to correctly find things with all of the terms in it. It also appears to correctly use boolean "-" to find things without a particular term.
But it isn't obvious that you can do any of this, or noted anywhere, so you have to already know how to do this. With the PHPBB search refinement it was already labelled as "search within results", so obvious to at least be able to do it (though you'd still already have to know boolean search stuff if you need that kind of thing).
I know that I previously said I was ok with it, but it's really starting to bug me that I have to log-in every time even though I have the appropriate box checked. Is there something I can do?
Thanx
Thanx
If you have to log in every time, there's probably something in your browser that is not saving the cookies, or something that is removing them.
If you are clearing all browsing data upon browser exit (or tab closure, etc), it may be set to clear all cookies too.
There is often a setting that allows you to keep cookies from all sites, no sites, only first party (no third party) sites, and specific sites (whitelist), or prevent certain sites from leaving them (blacklist).
If you allow all sites, it removes the problem entirely, but allows advertising/tracking/etc cookies from any site you visit that has that stuff...but it means that sites that share the code to do it will track your visits around the web, if you care about that.
There are also plugins/extensions/addons, etc., that can block cookies or clear browsing data under various conditions, so if you have any of those, disabling them or fixing thier settings to not do it on this site, would clear it up.
If you are clearing all browsing data upon browser exit (or tab closure, etc), it may be set to clear all cookies too.
There is often a setting that allows you to keep cookies from all sites, no sites, only first party (no third party) sites, and specific sites (whitelist), or prevent certain sites from leaving them (blacklist).
If you allow all sites, it removes the problem entirely, but allows advertising/tracking/etc cookies from any site you visit that has that stuff...but it means that sites that share the code to do it will track your visits around the web, if you care about that.
There are also plugins/extensions/addons, etc., that can block cookies or clear browsing data under various conditions, so if you have any of those, disabling them or fixing thier settings to not do it on this site, would clear it up.
Was the latest activity option causing problems? I sort of like that one, since it showed all activity on the forum chronologically, so if there were 3 or 4 responses to a thread, you could see them all there, with the first couple sentences of the responses. The current options only provide the latest post on a particular thread, but not all of the activity since you were online last (it also helps to see the duplicate posts, etc., since you can see the first sentence).
Last edited:
No, not causing problems, but the menu is quite busy already.
I think it would be reasonable to remove 'watched' and add 'all activity' in it's place, because all threads you reply to are 'watched' already; which makes the feature redundant for anyone other than thread stalkers.
What does the crowd think?
View counts are fixed; this plugin was responsible:
We'll see if we can come up with a replacement for it in the near future.
Message counts are still incorrect, 1,504,377 messages are shown but we're in the 1.7-1.8 million range.
Member counts are still incorrect, ~55,000 shown, ~83,000 is actual.
Will get to the bottom of it!
We'll see if we can come up with a replacement for it in the near future.
Message counts are still incorrect, 1,504,377 messages are shown but we're in the 1.7-1.8 million range.
Member counts are still incorrect, ~55,000 shown, ~83,000 is actual.
Will get to the bottom of it!
JRP3
1 kW
What does "all activity" show, everything? I use "watched" more than anything so would not like to see it replaced with something that includes other threads.No, not causing problems, but the menu is quite busy already.
I think it would be reasonable to remove 'watched' and add 'all activity' in it's place, because all threads you reply to are 'watched' already; which makes the feature redundant for anyone other than thread stalkers.
What does the crowd think?
JRP3
1 kW
Also "New" and "New (unread)" seem redundant since the vast majority of "New" will also be unread.
I would replace the first "new" with "all activity", because they most closely match the same function, of all the things that could be replaced, and "new (unread)" appears to be a more useful version of "new" if both can't be there.I think it would be reasonable to remove 'watched' and add 'all activity' in it's place, because all threads you reply to are 'watched' already; which makes the feature redundant for anyone other than thread stalkers.
What does the crowd think?
Watched is useful to me because there are many threads I keep an eye on for developments that I have nothing useful to input and hence do not post to, but am very interested in what is posted.
FWIW, the ACP says there are 65,997 members (on the List All Users page) in 3300 pages of 20 users each. This list appears to include all banned members and spammers as well as inactive memberships (deactivated or never activated by the user).
I'm for "new"; it seems most useful since it's not filtered/narrowed, while "new, unread" applies a specific filter (based on user login; odd that the system is tracking and storing each action a user takes, but I guess that big data). The ability to mark something read or unread, beside opening a thread or logging out, only appears at the subforum menu level. At that level, the user can mark the entire subforum as "read", but there's no ability to mark it as unread (or mark any thread or forum as "read" or "unread").
On the other hand, I'd think that "new, unread" option might be more useful for an administrator.
EDIT: I just used the "new" option because someone wanted a link the the Luke Workman video, and I read the post earlier today with the link, but didn't recall what subforum it was on. The "new, unread" of course didn't have it listed, so without "new" or "latest activity", I would need to go to each of the usual suspect subforums to find it.
EDIT2: I noticed something else, and not sure what it does. On the results screen, after clicking the "new (unread)" option, a button appear that says "Show only Unread" which is odd, since I thought that is what the option results would be. Clicking the button changes to results, and in my case increased the number of (unread) posts. What does that button do, and is there a way to move the button to the "new" results screen, thereby allowing one to see all new posts, and then filter for unread??
Last edited:
And then on the front page we have 55k users. So we have 3 different counts... wonderful
Here's where i'm quoting my counts from.
Possibly these include banned users, partially signed up users, posts marked deleted but not actually deleted, etc.
The on-forum count might actually be more 'real world' accurate instead of literally accurate, and since it's working again, maybe that's what we should trust.
Looks like user preferences are all over the map for which of the 7 forum displays.
I wanted to keep this menu uncluttered but I have a solution to this dilemma in mind... will execute later this week / early next week.
This turns new(unread) into new, and so i can see how this is confusing. This is one of the aspects that's left over from Xenforo's clunky navigation. Maybe we should get rid of that button also and also rename the titles of the pages accordingly if possible.
I wanted to keep this menu uncluttered but I have a solution to this dilemma in mind... will execute later this week / early next week.
This turns new(unread) into new, and so i can see how this is confusing. This is one of the aspects that's left over from Xenforo's clunky navigation. Maybe we should get rid of that button also and also rename the titles of the pages accordingly if possible.
You can tell there's tweaking going on. Something is there one minute, gone the next, then comes back.
Anyway, is there a wish list or suggestion thread for the XenForo implementation?
The members page needs help to make it usable, and there may be some quick/easy fixes to help with navigation. Find a Member search is pretty much broken. Navigating to find someone in the middle of the alphabet takes some doing, even with editing the url page number with guesstimates. Adding an alphabet navigation option as a quick fix would help until the search works.
A couple of things that aren't really suggestions, but maybe food for thought. It really depends on the the kind of culture or community feel you want ES to have, I guess. Part of that is the look and feel, and part is the content:
Anyway, is there a wish list or suggestion thread for the XenForo implementation?
The members page needs help to make it usable, and there may be some quick/easy fixes to help with navigation. Find a Member search is pretty much broken. Navigating to find someone in the middle of the alphabet takes some doing, even with editing the url page number with guesstimates. Adding an alphabet navigation option as a quick fix would help until the search works.
A couple of things that aren't really suggestions, but maybe food for thought. It really depends on the the kind of culture or community feel you want ES to have, I guess. Part of that is the look and feel, and part is the content:
- I see that some forums have added a subforum for new member intros. Voluntary, but it's one place where new members can add a little intro post and others can go see who's joined lately. That might go in the Biker Bar, or incorporated in the members page.
- Another subforum that I've seen has been something like "In memory of". ES has been around a long time. I belong to some other forums with a long history, and the subforum is a nice place to recognize the contributions of members who, in this case, have ridden off into the sunset.
I would like to see a "in memory" section somewhere too. We have lost a few who deserve a memorial. farfal, etc.
My dudes;
I would like to address things like that once we've got some fundamental stuff down.
We still have past broken content to fix, for example.
We spent ~2 months making a tool that would make it easy to recategorize posts in forums. So we have a possibility of improving forum organization in a radical way. Right now we have too many subforums, and some organization that makes it not easily apparent as to what post goes where. As a result, we have a lot of improperly categorized posts.
Even with a bespoke tool, It is a massive effort to fix this, but once done, we have room to talk about adding to what we currently have. What we currently have is overload for many.
I would like to hold a vote on future subforum propositions once we've finished that process and also have some other things settled.
I would like to address things like that once we've got some fundamental stuff down.
We still have past broken content to fix, for example.
We spent ~2 months making a tool that would make it easy to recategorize posts in forums. So we have a possibility of improving forum organization in a radical way. Right now we have too many subforums, and some organization that makes it not easily apparent as to what post goes where. As a result, we have a lot of improperly categorized posts.
Even with a bespoke tool, It is a massive effort to fix this, but once done, we have room to talk about adding to what we currently have. What we currently have is overload for many.
I would like to hold a vote on future subforum propositions once we've finished that process and also have some other things settled.
Totally understand. I'm in no rush for any of my suggestions and don't really expect any of them to even be useful or approved.
However
What this joint really needs is a new 'smilie' added to the like box to express dislike. A simple frown would be fine. It would add an easy quick way to let off steam and might avoid a flame post.
However
What this joint really needs is a new 'smilie' added to the like box to express dislike. A simple frown would be fine. It would add an easy quick way to let off steam and might avoid a flame post.
While I would like to see the ability to give negative feedback, when I asked about that previously, I was advised that only positive feedback would be allowed, for reasons I'm sure make sense.
well the smiling poo emoji is more positive than a frowning poo...While I would like to see the ability to give negative feedback, when I asked about that previously, I was advised that only positive feedback would be allowed, for reasons I'm sure make sense.
well the smiling poo emoji is more positive than a frowning poo...
That would work! Just so it was in the 'like' box
To me, the beer emoji in the like box is a negative comment (because I dislike alcohol and don't have positive experiences/opinions of any of the drinkers I've been around while/after they were drinking) but I know that isn't true for almost anyone else.
Similar threads
