New Features and Changes

Re: Pumpkins, Leaves, and New Stuff!

I'm actually thinking the addition of snowflakes to our greyish/blue background could be nice.. It's actually snowing here as I'm speaking.. Unseasonably cold.
I will be speaking with one of the admins tonight no doubt, so I should hopefully be able to follow up soon

Re: Pumpkins, Leaves, and New Stuff!

Due to "popular demand", we have brought back the nice addition to our logo - removing the pumpkins with the remainder of the autumn leaves.
I do apologize for people in the world who are currently in a different season!


Thanks to Trouble, TorrentG, Bassfisher6522 for bringing the issue to our attention.

Early November Updates

I am pleased to announce that the Experience system has been updated. While the calculation methodology hasn't changed, the way the calculations are made has changed, and should improve performance overall. Among these changes were better compatibility for viewing your experience and forum activity on your profile. How does this system work? Simply participate, and you will begin earning points.

A minor review of the scripts and software that power the forum was conducted tonight. Some remnants of older features have been removed, but as these are "under the hood" changes, members will not notice much difference.

Forwarding looking indications seem to infer that we will be able to upgrade to a stable beta build of the forum software, which will include APIs necessary for iPhone compatibility. We expect to have the text editor (which is used by nearly anyone who uses the website) to be completely upgraded and replaced very soon.

Please look forward to further feature enhancements soon!

Mid November Updates

Hello everyone!

Whether this is your first time on the forums or not, I am pleased to announce the launch of our new theme and the following news:

We have currently launched our new theme, and with it comes some new features. Before we could release any announcements, we wanted to make sure that the theme, was at the very least, stable enough for all members. This announcements coincides with a fix for all user profile customization issues on the theme.

Beta Browser Advisory

Are you using Chrome beta or Internet Explorer 9 Beta? We would like to issue an advisory about using beta browsers on the website. While the site may render fine with Internet Explorer 9 Beta and Chrome Beta, the way that these beta browsers parse the website can result in some unexpected behavior. You may find yourself being brought back to the front of the entire website after making a post, or having your post made twice in a row. This is due to the new technology associated with these browsers. Development time is going into making Windows7Forums.com HTML5, CSS3, and IE9 compatible.

More on the New Theme

The new theme features the resolution of some known issues, and some new features.

Some of them are:

• "This message has been deleted by *" is too red.
• Tan color appears out of place in notification area -- whoosh, Trouble, Mitchell_A.
• Some block header elements may not have shadow.
• The non-Microsft disclaimer and Partner Program footer was accidentally reverted, even on 2.3.*
• "Welcome, Unknown" needs to be changed with a if conditional.
• Daylight Savings Time updated
• Consider a Start Orb large or large computer logo near the Welcome/notification area.
• "Latest Video" on forum home.
• Remove the icon legend from the footer on forum home.
• Make a RegistryBooster ad that is more prominent on forum home for guests only.
• Remove the BETA symbol from displayed graphics.
• Logo Enhancements on-going
• Remove black border from log-on UI
• Completely redact some advertisements in underused areas
• Adjust max thumbnail size so images don't clip off page, using additional JavaScript if necessary.
• All content of an edited post should be saved in Post Edit History.

Here is a list of Known Issues, which are somewhat minor problems that will be fixed before further features are added:

• Editor and form fields should be displaying white and not mixing in with the background, even on click.
• xperience.php fonts too large to render at fixed width. Either increase page size slightly or reduce font size there (preferred).
• The Bell Labs greeting.mp3 and Google Player for non-IE browsers is gone due to the template changes. An area to reintroduce it should be found.
• A way to increase the size of the text was accidentally reverted, even on 2.3.*
• The PDF version of the forum rules needs to be updated. A PDF version of the Privacy Statement should also be available.

And some issues which didn't make it to this round, but are still pending on the to-do list are:

• Postbit (area where posts themselves are displayed) can be adjusted to have gradient with Windows 7-style opaque fade-to-white in the userinfo area.
• "Latest Activity" on forum home with live updates or replace Recent Threads altogether.
• Simulate a browser notice for guests about registering to post at the very top of the page header as used on winvistaforums.com in 2006 and whoosh-around.com this year.
• Create "Most Viewed", "Most Replied", and "Top Rated" drop-downs for Downloads and Tutorials.
• Add an option to magnify (enlarge) the entire page on the footer using browser calls.

It is important to note that not all of these ideas will make it, but that they are in consideration, as development of the website continues. If you do not like the new theme, you can always switch back to the older one using the Quick Style Chooser. And, to make things better, we may just be rolling out some additional styles with various color and style changes as time goes on. But before we do that, we do want to make sure we can provide all of the best features possible in one roll-out.

With more style options must come more content, so expect more featured content as we hope to improve the Windows 7 Discussion forum with more entertaining thoughts and ideas.

Important Information about the Universal Translator

The universal translator is not perfect, so if you see it acting funny, please report these posts using the report button. We will try to fix the translation, but in many cases, Google and other services like Babelfish simply cannot translate them. I would like to thank everyone up front that has been constantly reporting these threads, keep up the good work!

Thank you. We hope you enjoy the new features. Stay tuned for more!

Mitchell Anthony
Public Relations
Windows7Forums.com

Updates, Changes and Need for New Moderators!

We're still working hard behind the scenes to improve the site.
We hope you like our new theme, the site owner is still working hard to fix a few bugs.

Coming soon we'll be changing the small but intuitive "moodlet" widget on the site.
For those who may not know or are just joining the forum now, this small widget allows you to choose your current mood from a list of pre-defined ones. You can access it from the cross bar at the top of the main page. The improvements will introduce more moods and hopefully a few other things.

Further continuing the improvements, the Experience system has been upgraded once again. This system allows users to essentially show off their achievements and activities on the site. A lot of these changes are small bug fixes which will go unnoticed. The experience system is just our convenient way of saying "thanks" to all of ours member who are actively participating on the site. Look for more achievements coming soon!


Last but not least, Windows7Forums.com is currently taking applications for new moderators! If interested, we encourage you to fill one out here:
Link Removed
It's a great experience and you provide a huge benefit to the site. We have a friendly staff and often times casually chat, play games and get to know each other. You're not just moderating, you're making new friends in the process. Most importantly, if you have an idea for the site, voice it! Together as a staff we will collaborate to determine the best outcome. The application is open to any interested member. There is a variety of questions, please take your time answering them correctly.

Thank you.
More updates coming soon.
Mitchell Anthony,
Public Relations.

Re: Updates, Changes and Need for New Moderators!

Hello everyone,

I would like to thank Mitchell for this great update, as it is always a concern of ours to keep our visitors up to date on the comings and goings of the website. I am currently working on some additional changes that should be well known in coming weeks:

• vBulletin Development: I am likely to begin working with the vBulletin alpha/beta development team again to provide you with the latest forum software improvements once it is deemed a safe enough risk vs. reward to do this. Until that time, we will continue to run the latest stable versions of the forum software. We do, however, have full access to the nightly repositories which are occasionally tested on clean-slate test areas. I am pleased to have been able to offer some minor assistance in tracking down some previous flaws with their system. Our website's contribution, as well as the contribution of others, led to the ability to set a default forum profile for all members. Our testing of the User Profile Customization was very extensive, and the feedback I received from members and moderators helped us provide the makers of the Internet's most well respected forum software some quick assistance, before they moved on to other issues. I hope it is possible for us to repeat this again to help make the software an even stronger product for all of our members and visitors. Running test software on a live site can have its advantages and disadvantages, but with many years of experience in dealing with this code, we are able to isolate and mitigate that risk once the software has reached a certain development point. From there, launching the forum software on such a well-used website helps us identify problems other websites and testers may not be able to identify on "clean installs".
• Moderators: As Mitch mentions, we are looking for some new mods. The questionnaire is quite a long one, but we are looking for people who are truly interested in being objective, friendly, and trustworthy. The questions (and their answers) allow us to take a lot into consideration. Giving someone moderator powers is a big deal, but being a moderator can sometimes be quite mundane. Fact is, you can help many others just by being a member. Moderators get the chance to keep the site orderly and participate in meetings about the direction of the website. I can't say enough about the hours of dedication so many of our members have put into the website. Its important to me that such an experience is very enjoyable. Sometimes being a moderator can take the fun out of it - but there are others who absolutely relish the idea of helping people with the backing of the website's name. Its my job, as the website's founder, to honor these people for their contributions.
• Known Issues: There are a number of known issues that we are aware of. One of those issues may have slid past everyone, but its the fact that our Facebook page syndication has gone down. The Twitter syndication is still up. I am looking to correct the problem. Other loose ends with our new website theme are well documented and these will be worked on as well.
• Product Development: This website relies on a lot of third party product development to give you the nifty features at hand. Some of those features, like Experience, give you an opportunity to have your name known throughout the website when you make a big impression. Other products are smaller, and we use many of them to provide the little tweaks here and there that make the website great. My job is to identify any problems with these products, and come up with programming solutions if they fail to perform. Our best products provide search engine optimization, resource savings, and under-the-hood changes no one sees. Others allow us to quickly draft up custom pages, fill-able forms, and surveys. The most recent example of the new form tech. can be seen in our moderator application.
• Premium Supporters: Premium Supporters make contributions to the website to keep licensing fees and server costs manageable. While supporter revenue counts for only a fraction of what is required to keep our server running, it is greatly appreciated, and we have all pretty much determined it is a "thank you" from our members who needed serious help and got it quickly. One of my goals, coming soon, is going to expand on explaining what Premium Supporter membership is, provide alternate methods of secure payment outside PayPal (a long requested feature), and see if there's anything we can do to make these members happier. We certainly haven't forgotten them, and are very thankful for their help.
• December Staff Meeting: Our next moderator meeting will be held, as scheduled, on Saturday, December 4, 9:00 AM US Eastern Time. Like our Link Removed, this one will also be podcast. You will be able to listen in and hear what our thoughts are, and given the latest staff shake-up, it should prove to be interesting. I am still working on an agenda list, but most discussion will be focused on improving the forums for all visitors. Unless there is a time conflict (we may change the time of this meeting), we expect at least a minority of our moderators to participate. For those of you who have been around for a long time, you may be interested in following the meeting to find out how we plan on making the website even better while you are on it.
• Keeping You Up-to-Date: We still provide a number of sponsored options to keep you up to date. Some of these are cloud computing solutions, the RegistryBooster, and our forum navigation and streaming news toolbar. I am looking to provide more robust information on the latest driver updates most computer users may need. This will include even better content, blogs, and multimedia videos that discuss technologies that enhance your computer experience. I am not alone on working on these projects, and everyone can chip in and lend a hand with many of the posts in both Downloads and Tutorials. It's important that we also provide the tools that make it possible for people to find and answer your computer questions easier. One way that you can contribute in that area is to try to articulate your messages, and provide as much information as possible about the computer you are having problems with. From there, many people, from all different countries, can give their advice.
• System Internals: Every once and awhile, the systems that power the forum are given a once over maintenance to ensure we are using the latest stable version of everything. On our database, we imply the strictest security standards, and our data center is located at a hub location that can be considered one of the best in the industry. You can rely on the fact that we will often use the latest OS upgrades, tools, and sometimes, even unreleased software, to accomplish the objective of making the website top notch for you. Expect much of this in December.
• "2.4B Style": Those of you who have been here for awhile know we recently launched our latest style for the website, and preliminary feedback has been good. Once known issues and final features have been resolved, we intend to branch off this design and provide additional color schemes, backgrounds, and options to let you view the website your way. Within a year or so, we hope to make it possible for you to make specific customizations to the entire forum for your account, just like you can change around your profile. It will be a very exciting time when this technology becomes available.

With a focus on premium content, and honest goals, we will bring you the absolute best forum experience you can find on the Internet. Holding no bias towards one technology or the other, our goal has always been to give all members a chance to express their opinions and beliefs. This is one of the advantages we have of being an independent website. We will also work with others to exchange links, when possible. This effort will hopefully be apparent next year. We will never hold a monopoly on computer information, and would never want to. So working with other sites will become a key focus point as next year looks very promising for that.

If you'd like to leave a comment on our latest progress, you are always welcomed to. Whether its a reply to some of our news announcements, or a message in the feedback forum, we thrive on your responses. These responses often help us to make the site better. We may launch a short survey through our form system that will be entirely optional to gauge your opinion on what we can do better.

Thanks for taking time to read our latest updates.

Sincerely,
Mike Fara
Administrator

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving goes out to our American visitors and members. Best to all of you today.

Welcome, zvit!

Please welcome one of our newest moderators: zvit. As a Tier 2 Moderator, zvit will help protect the website from spam and other violations of our rules. zvit has a fantastic background in computers and information technology, and he has shown that background on the website. His contributions to the website have been great, and we expect that this type of contributing will continue. It is an example to us all, and it can be truly said that zvit has helped many people who have visited Windows7Forums.com in solving their computer problems.

This is why I am pleased to welcome zvit and announce his presence as part of our next generation of forum staff. Welcome aboard, zvit!

Re: Welcome, zvit!

Indeed, glad you've joined the staff. Welcome aboard.

End of November Updates

In our tradition of always bringing you the latest and greatest forum software improvements, the core forum software has been upgraded in a stable end of the month upgrade. Here a quick summary of this fixes and updates in vBulletin 4.1 Beta.


Important
Two items that we had envisaged to make available as 4.1

• Updated Editor - to enable WYSIWYG editing in Webkit browsers (Chrome/Safari)
• "Flexible URL Mapping"

Are not included in this release. Due to both the editor, and the flexible URL mapping affecting all aspects of our product, development and QA has taken a longer period of time than we had initially envisaged, and we are not sufficiently satisfied with the level of quality of either item to release them as features in their current state. Both items will be made available in future releases.

Now, onto what IS included in vBulletin 4.1

Installer (under-the-hood)
The forums can now be upgraded using a CLI (Command Line Installer) for larger forums, and our entire upgrade process has been updated. and improved. Among the largest changes in this under-the-hood change.

• Ads disappear after executing upgrade script
• Blog upgrade steps are creating problems
• The template merge process takes up to much time
• Timeout on servers when importing vbulletin-style.xml
• Phrases in master language get cut off when installing/upgrading
• MySQL Error : Duplicate entry 'vbcms_dailycleanup' for key 2
• Blog attachments converter fails
• Upgrade and install folder with authentication changes
• Plugins Run During Install/Upgrade
• Blog database fails on upgrade of 3.8.4 PL2 to 4.x suite
• Templates Not Being Tagged As Needing To Be Updated

Mobile APIs (Early Smart Phone Support)
vBulletin 4.1 will include the APIs required to communicate with vBulletin's forthcoming Mobile Applications.


Profile customization
Here are some of the fixes to profile customization that are included:

• Invalid code in color box can cause Javascript errors"
• Profile Customization: There is no Admin Permission option for Set Site Default: All admins can set site default styles
• User able to exploit themselves in User Profile
• XSS Within 'Customize My Profile'
• Member profile JavaScript fails with null CSS files"
• If customize profile is disabled for a usergroup the SQL Query workaround does not work
• Centering Asset Picker causes problems on shorter browsers
• Language specific spacing
• Profile Customization doesn't work if using YUI hosted on yahoo or google"
• Save as Site Default button is white on top of off-white in IE
• The color picker popup always pops up in the same place
• The ""saved"" confirmation box sometimes pops up before closing the customization interface, and sometimes afterwards"
• enable_profile_styling bitfield needs to be uncommented -- this prevents using the global on/off switch for profile styling and prevents using the ""profile images"" album type"
• Some links seem to be an unreadable white color by default on profiles"
• Font size inconsistent.

Display Fixes
Fixes to the html/css to resolve cosmetic issues with the product, including rectifying some upgrade issues that occurred with vBulletin 4.0.8 upgrades with Custom Styles.

• IE7: Blog sidebar header contains text from pagination block; pagination block missing
• IE7/IE8 RTL issue with trackback/comment/rate this entry for blog page (entry.php)
• Text misalignment on group discussion page
• Icons overlap text in blog comment page for moderate width windows
• Quick Navigation button overlaps pagination display
• Side Bar links not bold
• Profile pagination arrow repeats
• Manage Groups displaying incorrectly and not aligning with content data
• IE6 View Filter drop down icon is missing in blog.php
• IE6 - Create Blog category page appears distorted
• IE7 & RTL - Show Groups Location Text
• Quick Navigation Menu appears too wide
• IE7 - Some text misplaced in thread attachments view
• Blog comment's title field oddly placed.

Misc fixes
Here are a number of the fixes made to everything else in the product:

• Drop down display is not proper in 'Group discussion' page
• YUI (Yahoo User Interface) Security Upgrade
• Visitor Messages can show up in search results for users not allowed to see them.
• Style Generator issue with 'Dark' styles
• Map the new Replacement StyleVars automatically to the old, deprecated StyleVars
• Limit total number of PM folders
• Time in CMS Comments Wrap on a New Line
• Simple pagination introduces a space in the url
• Redirection fails due to code changes
• Wrong filesize in Asset Manager if using "," as "Decimal Separator" in language settings
• Problem with marking a forum as read: "Go to first new post" Icon is Still Displayed
• View your "About Me" as seen by everyone else refreshes profile

Known Issues
The following is a non-comprehensive list of known issues in the Beta version, we will endeavor to have these items rectified in the final version

• Blog comment wrapped with quote aligned incorrectly in Chrome browser
• Incorrect padding on editor warning messages for Visitor Messages/Blog Comments
• Calendar overlaps with Background color in IE6
• Format buttons overlap in the Calendar when using IE6/IE7
• Pagination links are misaligned in Blog
• View Your Conversation text overlaps Visitor Messages tab in Chrome/Safari
• Reputation drop down overlaps in IE7
• Blog sidebar displays with extra shading/colors and missing block headers/titles in IE6

Our development and testing commitment with Internet Brands, makers of the popular vBulletin software suite, will allow us to continue to supply the forums with the latest core forum updates, and, arguably the most up-to-date forum code available on any major website. As part of the alpha development team for vBulletin, we will now continue an upgrade path on a nightly basis, or at least once a week. We will also continue to provide feedback.

We are excited about the new text editor, which is still in progress, as well as the Mobile Phone API that is being developed. Currently the Mobile Phone test application only works for the iPhone, but apps will likely be made available for other smart phones. We may choose to deploy this option for mobile phone users who want to talk tech on the go once it is available for most smart phones.

Linking Windows8Forums.com Here
With talk of Windows 8 on the distant horizon, we have re-united Windows8Forums.com with the rest of the website. We want all of our current members to be able to enjoy and use a new Windows8Forums.com without re-registering or starting a new profile. By the time Windows 8 nears availability, it will be very possible for us to link data between two sites using the central Windows 7 Forums database as the back-end. We expect to be able to combine all data related to Windows 8 into a separate website that still shares the same log-ins, user accounts, membership records, and improvements that the current forum provides. While Windows 8 Forums will have its own unique theme and domain name, any activity on that site will be recorded here, and there. You will be to use both sites and maintain one user profile. Until that is possible, we will safeguard, and present all information and discussion regarding the next version of Windows 8 in the current database. Continuing to develop that forum and drafting a unique theme, which will ultimately exist as its own website, is currently one of our top priorities.

Captain Jack joins the Windows 7 Forums Team!

It has been long overdue:

I am pleased to announce that Link Removed due to 404 Error, a long time and dedicated forum member, has been selected, and volunteered, to join our Windows 7 Forums Team. Captain Jack brings with him a great level of expertise and experience. He has moderated and answered questions on many different Windows communities. This experience he brings to the table is invaluable to our members and the Windows community. Captain Jack has proven his helpfulness on the forums for a long time now. That is why I am pleased to extend to him a warm welcome, as we begin a new era in our community. Over time, members of our team will leave to focus on more important matters, while new members join us in the spirit of helpfulness and sharing knowledge.

Our team of volunteers and moderators live in many places around the world. They act as unofficial representatives of Windows7Forums.com. Many of them are known for their good nature and great computer abilities: their willingness to help others with computer problems is second to none. Every member of our team brings something with them to the table that is treasured. While our team cannot answer every question, or be everywhere at once, we do work on the behalf of our visitors to provide you with the latest Windows information, tips, support, and news while also preventing spam and other junk.

Please welcome Captain Jack to our team. =D>

Re: Captain Jack joins the Windows 7 Forums Team!

Argh...welcome aboard matey.

Re: Captain Jack joins the Windows 7 Forums Team!

Thanks Mike ! Thanks Randy !

Re: Captain Jack joins the Windows 7 Forums Team!

Welcome aboard

If you have any questions, we're here
Hope you enjoy your new position, we certainly appreciate you submitting an application and showing interest.

Re: Captain Jack joins the Windows 7 Forums Team!

Thanks Mitchell ! I'm honored to be a part of this great Team

Re: Welcome, zvit!

Glad you've joined the team, zvit.

Looking forward to getting to know you

Re: Captain Jack joins the Windows 7 Forums Team!

welcome aboard

Re: Captain Jack joins the Windows 7 Forums Team!

Hey ya....glad to have ya as part of the team, fo sho...

Re: Captain Jack joins the Windows 7 Forums Team!

Thanks Josh ! Thanks TorrentG !

Re: Captain Jack joins the Windows 7 Forums Team!

Link Removed due to 404 Error


Welcome onboard Captain!