Differences between the old and new version of phpbb & proposed changes

I don't know what to tell you if you can't handle this new theme + also can't find a theme that works.
There is no going back to old phpbb. In fact, we considered going with completely different forum software which would be a much larger shock to you. I strongly pushed in the direction of keeping the look and feel similar because i did not want to shock the users.

If you are visually impared, your best answer is a larger monitor because the larger web is going to be an issue for you as well ( especially with low contrast fonts being common these days ). I'm personally on the border of needing glasses, and i have a 28" 1080p monitor here. I run the endless sphere facebook group and the fonts are about 10px, which is smaller than what you see here. I can barely read it. But i deal.

I find that this theme scales well with ctrl+ and ctrl- in most browsers. Will work fine for 99% of most users. I cannot scale fonts to be much larger without putting many hours into reformatting the entire theme ( which is a multi day/multi week job ).

amberwolf said:
(Side note: most of those "40000" members are either long gone, never even came back to read or post, or were just spammers--I bet that if you removed all zero-post members that haven't visited the board more recently than a year ago (in case there's some that might still come back), it'd cut the number of "members" in half, at least--probably even further.)

Everyone is fleeing from web forums to facebook because facebook is more convenient, more responsive, mobile compatible, and cleaner.
And it's not just endless sphere facebook that is displacing traffic from ES. It's also a couple dozen other ebike groups on facebook that are taking the eyes away from ES.

ES has to keep moving forward in order to survive in this kind of web environment. I don't believe that phpbb3.2 adds enough features to make it modern, myself. We will be hacking on better functionality later on, once all the bugs with themes and such have been shaken out.
 
neptronix said:
Okay, there seems to be no civil way to fix this http/https cookie forgetting issue, so i patched phpbb's code so that it rewrites urls like:
https://endless-sphere.com to https://endless-sphere.com
and
https://endless-sphere.com to https://endless-sphere.com.

When you link to the site in the future, don't use endless-sphere.com or http://. use https://endless-sphere.com.

I understand that this is a hard habit to break, so the system will overwrite you even if you write the URL wrong :)

Note: i did not add this URL rewriting code everywhere. There are many places where it might not actually need it.. If you ever see the system mysteriously forget the fact that you're logged in.. please let me know where / how you got to that part, and i will correct it there as well.

Good fix, and quick work! I really like the new look. It's growing on me. I big blue bars on each side are going to continue to be annoying, however. Ah well, it's not like I actually _need_ endless sphere to be the full width of my monitor. If you ever need any volunteer help with such stuff, let me know. Javascript, html, etc. aren't a problem (though I much prefer C++ work).
 
neptronix said:
Dauntless said:
Wow, you added a border. That's what this upgrade was for?

The good news being it's still mostly the old board, which always suited me just fine.

How about you not troll me on my thread any further? thanks.

Oh relax, I made a perfectly good point with that.

All these other problems everyone is mentioning I haven't seen, though it's early on. My balky AT&T dsl isn't having extra trouble. So it's still mostly the old board. Happy ending.
 
Computer illiterate tablet user here if you could just bend a little and bring back tapatalk I would be very greatfull.I find it easier to navigate the site,post pics.I like the way I can change the back ground to black and I don't need to zoom in to read.I also like the app because it puts up a picture relating to the thread on the list of threads.
 
neptronix said:
danielrlee said:
Good work neptronix! This place was in need of a lick of paint. Is the Tapatalk plugin working correctly, since I'm unable to logon to the Sphere through the mobile app?

You're welcome.
No, we do not have tapatalk installed at the moment. The main reason for this upgrade was to make things usable on mobile.
Since i browse ES with a desktop only.. can you let me know what tapatalk does for you that the upgrade does not do?

I would prefer to avoid adding another layer of complexity to an already complex system.. but if tapatalk is really important, i can bend.

It's not so much what it does, but how it does it. Tapatalk is an extremely fast, efficient and slick way of using internet forums. Due to my current life responsibilities of caring for two small children (the youngest only 10 days old), I rarely get more than a couple minutes at a time to browse forums, but Tapatalk lets me do so by aggregating content from all my subscribed forums, letting me consume the information in a fraction of the time it would otherwise. It's so good, I very rarely visit forums using any other method (even if the forum does feature a mobile theme). To underline the point, I haven't visited ES since the upgrade, apart to comment on this thread. Otherwise, I would be catching up on posts throughout the day as time allows. I'm not sure if I am unique in my needs, but it would be very much appreciated if Tapatalk was installed on the new forum.
 
Is there a like button yet?
 
neptronix said:
When you link to the site in the future, don't use endless-sphere.com or http://. use https://endless-sphere.com.

I understand that this is a hard habit to break, so the system will overwrite you even if you write the URL wrong :)

FWIW, all of the URLs I've had issues with were simply copied from the PHPBB-generated links to things (as opposed to being typed in by someone). This includes the links in my signature to my threads. Hopefully the new PHPBB version's generated links will be correct to start with, so it won't cause any new links people post to be broken. ;)

Thanks for finding and implementing the fix to this, though. :)
 
Settings for the search index are wrong, in that they don't search for anything below 4-character strings, and that it is also set to ignore common words that we *must* be able to search for (like BBS) for it to be useful to us.

Previously it also ignored a number of useful strings we must be able to find, like "DC" or "AC", etc.,; hopefully this can be fixed in the new version while fixing these other new problems.

The following words in your search query were ignored because they are too common words: BBS*.
You must specify at least one word to search for. Each word must consist of at least 4 characters and must not contain more than 84 characters excluding wildcards.

One example of a problem created by this is I can't look for posts or threads with IGH, or Hub, etc.


Another example:

If I go to the Advanced search using the gear icon it takes me to this page
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php

then use these search terms and operators per the description instructions on that page
+BBS* +phaserunner

and choose the options for
"Search within: Topic titles only"
" Display results as: Topics"
leaving all others at the defaults

I get 20 results at this link
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=%2BBBS*+%2Bphaserunner&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search
that are only for threads with "phaserunner" in the title because it is completely ignoring my request to search for *both* of the terms (because it is ignoring one of the terms completely).

This particular search is not as tedious to look thru manually because of the problem, but other searches would be (as just a single term of a set might find hundreds or more threads, while using all the terms would find jsut a few threads).





MAC + Phaserunner + CA3, sometimes doesn't start

phaserunner.com domain name for sale.

Tats BigHit 3 BBS02 / Demo 8 ii phaserunner h35 Build

Data logging stream out of Phaserunner?

Using bicycle's frame as heatsink for the Phaserunner

BBSHD + Grin Phaserunner (52V okay, 72V problem)

Phaserunner or Infineon Controller for Geared Motor?

Field-weakening on Phaserunner (Advanced question)

Remote On/Off Switch for Phaserunner V2

The "Bonanza Bulldozer" Dual PhaseRunner 2WD eMTB

Grin Phaserunner - $250

Tangent Ascent Phaserunner and Battery - $2000

Hub motor steady acceleration using Phaserunner?

*Wanted* Grin PhaseRunner

Grin Phaserunner (sold)

Bi-directional twist throttle / regen on PhaseRunner ctrller

ezee motor + Phaserunner + 1000W limit obsolete?

MAC 10T + Phaserunner

DIY Phaserunner heatsink.

is there any way to fit a Grin Phaserunner inside a BBSHD?
 
Right now it shows:

Min characters indexed by search: 4
Words with at least this many characters will be indexed for searching. You or your host can only change this setting by changing the mysql configuration.

I cannot access where this gets changed.
 
fechter said:
To add a picture, use the "Attachments" tab at the bottom and Add files. You can add multiple files at the same time. Then they will show up in a list where you can insert the inline. Large pictures should automatically resize finally.

You can also drag a file from another window or your desktop into the text box and it will add the file to the list.

Great! that encourages me to take a pic of my HVAC that i am building.
 
The view your posts link should be on the top of every page like it used to be. I don't like how you have to click quick links first to find it.
 
fechter said:
Right now it shows:

Min characters indexed by search: 4
Words with at least this many characters will be indexed for searching. You or your host can only change this setting by changing the mysql configuration.

I cannot access where this gets changed.
I remember it was changed on the old version from 4 to 3, and was going to be changed to 2 but the host provider at the time had some sort of problem with 2; I don't remember what.

But I don't remember who did the change--it was discussed in the mod forum so once y'all have that accessible you could do a search for the word "search" or "index" in the mod area and see what comes up. :)
 
fechter said:
Arlo1 said:
Is there a like button yet?

I wish there was, but I haven't found it yet. There may be a way to add this in the future.

Me too!
Actually, some of the other packages of forum software have this sort of functionality by default. It's something that i personally really wanted, too.
There are a couple plugins for this which add a reputation system / like functionality.. i'm putting that on my R&D list.. ( which seems to be growing by the day :lol: )

amberwolf said:
FWIW, all of the URLs I've had issues with were simply copied from the PHPBB-generated links to things (as opposed to being typed in by someone). This includes the links in my signature to my threads. Hopefully the new PHPBB version's generated links will be correct to start with, so it won't cause any new links people post to be broken. ;)

Thanks for finding and implementing the fix to this, though. :)

You're welcome.. and thank you for pointing it out. I noticed that happening on the test site, but since the domain wasn't hooked up, didn't connect the dots on what the problem was.

So.. at one point, the links you set up WERE valid until we set up https:// and browsers changed their policies about sharing cookies between http:// and https:// links, a few years back.
Next year, our SSL certificate provider allows us to do wildcard certificates.. which means i can force the server to HTTPS mode at all times. You'll have a hard time generating a dud link then. Until then, my patch to phpbb's code will have to do the trick.
 
fechter said:
Right now it shows:

Min characters indexed by search: 4
Words with at least this many characters will be indexed for searching. You or your host can only change this setting by changing the mysql configuration.

I cannot access where this gets changed.

Right, so phpbb didn't add an interface to change that.
I poked into the mysql database and changed the value to 2.
However, phpbb seems to be hard coded to disregard this and use a value of 3.

Can we live without the ability to search for 2 letter words? i hope so, because the fix is probably nasty to get into..
 
I think 3 is good. If you try using 2, you will generally get so many matches it will choke the server trying to list all of them and it will be useless to the person searching.
 
Not necessarily; if you're using a boolean search for specific things it wouldn't.

But even so, just being able to list the topic titles of what it finds would let me find the thread the info was in (when I can't remember the title but know it when I see it :oops:).

That said, we have yet to be able to get below 3 character searches anyway, so we haven't lost anything, just not gained anything.

I don't suppose there's any plugins for teh search engine that let us do better boolean searches? For instance, to actually look for *exactly* what is in quotes, and not ignore punctuation (so it doesn't think DC-DC is a boolean term, as one example).

This would negate the need for some of the 2-letter searches, though not all of them.
 
Okay, I can't get Notifications to work. There's an iPhone spammer where when I clicked the Notifications I got a list of people I quoted in posts, but nothing about reporting the spam.
 
Still always requires login even though I have the remember password box checked and still new posts page won't scroll unless I use the left click button and laptop mouse window. This is minor compared to whatever y'all are talking about boolean and stuff ?? :roll:
 
Harold in CR said:
Still always requires login even though I have the remember password box checked and still new posts page won't scroll unless I use the left click button and laptop mouse window. This is minor compared to whatever y'all are talking about boolean and stuff ?? :roll:

My suspicion is that you have a bookmark for https://endless-sphere.com or something.
https:// and http:// are considered different sites by cookies.

new posts page won't scroll unless I use the left click button and laptop mouse window

WAT.jpg
 
Hey, just sort of curious if there is a bandwidth or latency issue with the new site?
everything is very slow to react and pages are extremely slow to load. I haven't been able to do much on the site from home or work. At home I have a 15m connection. At work I have a 100m connection downstairs to the edge router. Google [216.58.194.110] is the next hop out from that edge router, and i'm showing 4ms from my desktop to google.
 
This version seems to be a LOT slower. 10 second responses seem typical. Also, no response at all with the site being unavailable is occurring from time to time.

To be clear, I'm not griping. Just reporting so's ya know.
 
Don't know what happen'd with the forum upgrade but it seems this version is soo slow. So slow that we are closing in on an actual deal breaker.
Page load is like 30-40 seconds and have been like that for days. Does not matter if I am on Fiber, wifi or 4G still slow. Both on Pc, phone, and tablet. Tried various browsers and forum is still slow. And it is only this forum that is slow. I think this needs to be looked at.

Also some of the bookmarks I pointing to ES, just sort of work now. All bookmarks made before forum upgrade takes me to the forum root or to the correct sub forum but suddenly I am logged out. Bookmark breaks log-in. Used ID token in url? Why?
 
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