New Features and Changes

Re: Welcome PatCooke to the Windows7 Forums Team

Thanks folks - pleased to be here.

@Mitchell_A - what infractions?

Forum News

As of July 2010:

The forum software has been updated to the latest maintenance release. This release fixes about 100 confirmed bugs.

The Experience Points system and 2nd-tier automatic award system have been implemented. This is a way of measuring activity on the website and awarding members for those contributions. This is the second time this software has been added to the site after being re-published for the latest forum software.

The Helpful Answers system which allows you to approve or disapprove of a post easily, using the reputation system, has been updated.

Link Removed due to 404 Error are continually being refreshed on an active basis.

Link Removed have been introduced.

Advanced members should be aware that Windows 7 Service Pack 1 Beta is currently available Link Removed.

A few new features should be noticed by now, if not by all members, then by most. These features include:

The Link Removed due to 404 Error function under Community - this feature allows you to view the latest activity on the website in real-time.

The Link Removed due to 404 Error - this feature gives you a glimpse at the locations of our members, anonymously and at random.

We are interested to learn that Microsoft has taken an active interest in the site, and as previously announced, Windows 7 Forums Administrator Ross Cameron (kemical), has been received the Microsoft MVP Award.

Windows 8 Forums will now syndicate to our Link Removed, accompanying our current Windows 7 Forums posts.

Please look out for members of the Microsoft Outreach Team. These individuals go to many technical support forums to assist people with their technical problems. We are aware of their presence on the website.

We look forward to presenting more, new powerful options to our members in the future. Our newer efforts are now focused on producing additional tutorial videos and making site navigation even easier.

Thank you for your continued support!

Blog Problem Resolved

I would like to thank Mitchell_A and geeklove2rock for helping identify some problems with the blog area of the site that should now be fixed.

Website changes

If you see the forum design change over the next few days please don't worry.

Several new designs are under consideration although this doesn't mean the site will be changing drastically. A few nips here and a few tucks there will help the site to look even better. (and hopefully run even smoother)
If you see something you like ....or hate, then please use this thread to post your remarks.

Thank you

Re: Website changes

So far so good.

Facebook Connect

Re: Facebook Connect

Is the theme selection removed ? I can't find it !

Re: Facebook Connect

Theme selection has been removed temporarily, as we look to test various styles on the website.

Re: Facebook Connect

Mike said:

Theme selection has been removed temporarily, as we look to test various styles on the website.

Click to expand...

OK great ! Thanks Mike

Integrating Social Experiences on the site with the Meebo toolbar

Windows 7 Forums is always trying to make you feel more at home. One way we have done this is by integrating several useful features from various social media services into one convenient toolbar that runs seamlessly IN the website, no downloads required. Using the popular Meebo service, we enable you to instant message your contacts across several services. You can also easily navigate the different forum sections, check out the latest videos posted by the administrators on the official Windows 7 Forums YouTube channel and see what others have shared and recommended on the site.

You can instant message your contacts from the following services:

• Meebo
• Facebook
• AIM
• Myspace
• Google Talk
• Twitter

To add the toolbar, select "W7F 2.3+Meebo" as the site design at the bottom left of any page.
If you don't like the toolbar, it’s easy enough to dismiss - just click the "hide" button on the right-hand side.

But this is just a general guideline for everyone - the best learning experience is hands on! Check it out today.

If you have an idea for something we could do to improve the site, please submit it in the Link Removed due to 404 Error

End of July Update

Ladies and gentlemen, the Golden Age of Windows 7 Forums continues with more updates. Thank you for your loyalty as valued members. As you help us expand our database of information with both questions and answers, good news is afoot:

• Our nightly maintenance procedure should now take less time.
• There are new selectable avatars under "2010 Edition" and new avatars for our Premium Supporters under the Premium category.
• You can now pull up stats from the bottom of the forum home.
• Thanks! system added with compatible mod added to the Experience system. Thanking someone does not give reputation, but adds to their thank count in their profile.
• Featured Blog Posts are now being re-enabled.
• There will be a User of the Month award for August 2010.
• Experience system has been upgraded.
• Slight template modifications should allow for better selection.
• The Meebo toolbar is available for the older themes, as we experimented with these themes somewhat this week. It can always be minimized.
• The Windows 7 Forums Toolbar notice has been moved to Downloads.
• Congratulations to those who have won the Windows 7 Millenium Celebration, especially sabrehagen for 1st place!
• Welcome back, Mitchell_A to our moderator team.
• Video tab restored to the site navigation.
• A full moderator meeting will be held on Skype in early August. We would love to have a guest speaker as a member to this event. If you'd like to be a guest speaker, please use the Contact Us option.
• Members can now adjust the text size on each page using the + and - buttons on the top-right hand corner of the page. Anyone can do this from their browser, as well, using Ctrl + and Ctrl -.
• One member, who opted-in to receive admin emails, was actually angry he was nominated to win a free copy of Windows 7 Ultimate Edition (valued at around $350 USD). This was not our award winner! If you do not like receiving admin e-mails, please disable it in your User CP.

Please provide feedback on what you would like to see on Windows 7 Forums. Some suggestions may be too unrealistic to pursue, but if it's a really good idea, we will see what can be done

Take care,
Mike
Windows 7 Forums Admin

Getting Your Question/Answer Seen: More Syndication Options for All Members

Please see the latest blog entry (and video) on how work is being done to improve the chances someone will see your message, from all around the world:

Staff Meeting Information

On August 7th, we will be conducting our second full staff meeting. While admin meetings are conducted over Internet phone nearly daily, this meeting will be an attempt at a structured discussion with all staff members involved. We are also looking for Premium Supporters who may be interested in joining this meeting.

We will be discussing some issues that are important to the website.

As this will be our second full staff meeting over voice, we have decided in an admin meeting tonight to make this meeting as open to our members as possible.

This meeting will very likely be podcast / published on the website after it takes place.

Once the meeting is concluded, more details will be posted.

Regards,
Mike

Re: Staff Meeting Information

Meeting tonight people... Coma along and enjoy the fun..

User of the Month / Website Helper

From time to time, the site owner does have the privilege of nominating the User of the Month and giving out website awards. While oft times we will call a vote for such things, I have deemed that no such activity is necessary in this regard. Without question, Link Removed instantly wins User of the Month for August 2010, and Website Helper award for his tutorial videos which are now being uploaded and up sampled to YouTube. It has been determined that no other contribution could be so great or important for this month. Therefore, this award goes into effect immediately and thank you to Joe for his great work. This will mark the first time we have received video tutorial contributions from a forum member.

New Videos!

We have a plethora of new videos hitting YouTube this morning, please see:

Are you interested?

Please see:


Learn everything you need to know about Windows ReadyBoost, as well as how to measure its performance, from Windows expert Joseph Stackhouse at http://windows7forums.com/




Windows 7 contains built-in support for disc image (ISO) files. Learn how to control the power of this feature from Windows expert Joseph Stackhouse at http://windows7forums.com/


Joe Stackhouse goes through the details of how to record YOUR problem using the Windows 7 Problem Steps Recorder. A very basic program to record and reproduce problems for remote diagnosis. http://windows7forums.com/


Make your desktop PC, workstation, or server lightning fast with state of the art solid state technology guaranteed to bring your computer to the next level of speed and reliability. - Mike

Re: New Videos!

Few audio problems in the ReadyBoost vid, but otherwise looking great

Mid-August Update

The forums have been updated once again. In this instance, there have been more important "under-the-hood" changes this month than visible updates, such as last month. The following updates have been made:

• Software Update: The forum software has been updated from 4.0.5 to 4.0.6, this thereby resolves over 100 bugs that have been confirmed by vBulletin for the forum software. You can view some of this here. This is a maintenance release.
• Future Upgrade: What is in store for the future? We are looking forward to user profile customization options for members, along with other features, which can be previewed here. Some of these features were once active on the site, but are now being given a much needed overhaul by the forum software development team @ vBulletin.
• Database Optimization: The database engine has been changed from MyISAM to InnoDB to reflect the growing needs of the forum. In non-technical terms, this has great potential to result in faster load times for visitors around the world. While we can not placate every member around the world, this is a major change, which may have far reaching circumstances. However, we are generally noticing an improvement in website speed. A good explanation of what this is all about can be found here.
• Who's Online has been changed to solve any problem which would slow down the site.
• Global Blog Categories: New ways to categorize your blog posts have been added.
• Attachment Uploads now support Windows Crash Dump Files and 5 megabyte files for all filetypes (up from 2 megabytes).

Many of these changes took weeks to plan with a a group of database administrators monitoring this site 24 hours a day. These changes are all designed to improve the overall speed and response time of the website, which is hosted at a fortified, high security, and highly reliable data center that is used by Fortune 500 companies. We expect only good results from this change, with much more to come in regards to features over the next several months.

Looking forward, a focus on content is being brought about through blogs, software updates, and other unique ideas. Recently I documented "a day in the life" of buying a computer, how to install Windows Home Server, while others are answering questions, busy writing up tutorials, and providing the best possible answers to our members.

The changes listed here, however, should result in:

Overall faster page load time
Faster search
Faster ability of the forum itself to update user status, profile changes, view counts, and so forth.

Thanks for reading!

Re: Mid-August Update

Hey, I just noticed this. All of that is very cool but the minidump attachment addition is excellent. Good job and thanks for the updates!

Re: Mid-August Update

I think the Feedback forum should be highlighted in a tab at the top of the site, I could see that generating way more feedback about things people like, dislike etc about the site, the staff etc.