New Features and Changes

What do you think of the website's overall performance in terms of speed and connectivity?

  • Worse and Slow!?

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    7
  • Poll closed .
None taken - was only replying to the question of ideas - if it is implemented there is still the choice as to whether or not to use it. I myself would find it useful.

Basher
 
But it can be abused as some members already know.

This has been discussed in the Staff forum and can be a nightmare.
 
Facebook have set up an ability to reply to a comment by email - is there anyway that this could be done here?

Basher

It's possible, but this brings up the possibility of forged e-mails which is why its not used on most forums.
 
Sorry mike, didn't mean to step on your toes,I should have realized this forum is for you to supply the replies....DUH

On another note, is there any way to get rid of the reason for editing box, so we don''t have to scroll down to make changes. I personally never use it, I don't know how many people do.

Also, are the Trackbacks and Tag fields used that often?
 
Sorry mike, didn't mean to step on your toes,I should have realized this forum is for you to supply the replies....DUH

On another note, is there any way to get rid of the reason for editing box, so we don''t have to scroll down to make changes. I personally never use it, I don't know how many people do.

Also, are the Trackbacks and Tag fields used that often?

This is one I should support. I actually had an occasion,som months ago, when a moderator responded to one of my edited posts with a rude comment that I was obliged to state a reason! In my case, it was, as most of the time, typos as a result of the seven thumbs I seem to have on each hand. But, confirming Reghakr's comment, I do not see such a reason as being important to anyone. If, on the other hand, the substance of help is changed, then I could suggest another amedment to the new site. As I have seen on other sites, put a time limit on how long a period may go by before the edit facility is locked for the post - say 24 hours?
 
It's possible, but this brings up the possibility of forged e-mails which is why its not used on most forums.

I don't like this idea of
Facebook have set up an ability to reply to a comment by email
for me it defeats the purpose of being transparent and publically sharing information , after all we already get an email to let us know answers have been posted ;)

It doesn't suprise me either as I hate the "Ethics" that facebook seems to operate from, let's face it they are after sucking information from subscribers so they can gather information and sell things to them based on a built profile :(
 
As an update, there will be no reply by e-mail.. too many security holes...

Also the Facebook integration is just for convenience.. its not compulsory. You don't have to use it. Its there because even if Facebook is an "evil" company, as some have suggested, they have millions of users and we don't :D

Some of the suggestions about re-designing the entire site in terms of significantly changing features around is not going to be possible.

For now the current list stands... many of the compatibility problems are due for a fix next week (Friday), assuming no delays again. We were able to test on IE6 and its a mess. The WYSIWYG text editor when adding images is messy. The avatar issue may be solved in the next release, otherwise this becomes a priority. It is not affecting everyone.

The focus is now on browser compaibility which seems to be an urgent matter. I cannot fulfill every request, but I will try to improve the site as much as possible. After this run of changes is done, we look forward to yet another patch scheduled down the road, various updates to the existing software already installed to improve the code, and more content writing by myself.. I intend to add quite a bit of my ideas to the blog area and respond to help questions more. I think more of an emphasis should be placed in the content then the design at this point. We have exceeded what is reasonably needed with the design. At the end of the day looks don't matter much if the sites full of nonsense.
 
I just want to add to Mikes post about the patch next week. This patch is huge and applies many fixes. Some of them will be problems noticed by you guys and posted here.
Better browser support. Currently IE6 does not display the site correctly and fixing this will be a huge bonus for the site. Don't forget that IE6 is still used by the majority so having the site appear correctly is kind of a must..
Quick reply bug: If a user replies to a post but doesn't click reply first before writing the post out in the box beneath then the post will not go through.

Many of the fixes are 'under the hood' and whilst this a huge boost for the sites software not all bugs mentioned by users here will be addressed. The main reason for this is that some require 'custom' software to run and this will take time to implement..
Similarly we try to go through as many bug fixes as we can but it seems there's always something else cropping up. We have definitely turned a corner though. Site traffick is now rising again and rising fast! I can't remember the actual figures but it's great to see the users returning once again.
This is down to site stability improving as well as the work that we all do in answering posts.
 
Reply

For 1. this is supposed to be that way, unfortunately

That's no problem. Just thought it was redundant.

For 2. this could be a browser problem I have not seen this, what browser are you using again?

IE 8 here is the problem.. the fields show in my profile... but when I go to edit my profile there are no such fields to fill out.

Look at your own profile.. you'll see System and Level are blank. That's because there is no way to edit them.. that I can find. You did find a way to fill out the "software" field. I must have overlooked where you were able to edit that field.

For 3. This is a major problem that I am looking into and will hopefully be fixed upon the next major patch

I found it... there are TWO locations to edit my profile.. ONE of them does not include most features.. including the option to edit my avatar.


Something else.. I wanted to post an image of my desktop in that forum but I could never get it to display the image. I got it uploaded.. i think.... and tried both options.. inline and attach.... i think were the options.. still it only showed the X box where the image should have shown up. Everyone else seems to have figured that out but I must not know the secret handshake. The minions may have trouble too? haha
 
That's no problem. Just thought it was redundant.



IE 8 here is the problem.. the fields show in my profile... but when I go to edit my profile there are no such fields to fill out.

Look at your own profile.. you'll see System and Level are blank. That's because there is no way to edit them.. that I can find. You did find a way to fill out the \"software\" field. I must have overlooked where you were able to edit that field.



I found it... there are TWO locations to edit my profile.. ONE of them does not include most features.. including the option to edit my avatar.


Something else.. I wanted to post an image of my desktop in that forum but I could never get it to display the image. I got it uploaded.. i think.... and tried both options.. inline and attach.... i think were the options.. still it only showed the X box where the image should have shown up. Everyone else seems to have figured that out but I must not know the secret handshake. The minions may have trouble too? haha

There are two ways to edit your custom user profile fields (computer specs). One can be performed in-line by visiting your profile itself and going to the about me tab. In this case the URL is View Profile: tblount - Windows 7 Forums

The other method is to go to Link Removed due to 404 Error

Please see the images attached.

For your image attachment problem, what type of images were they and can you please provide a link to the thread.
 

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Link Removed due to 404 ErrorEveryone else seems to have figured that out but I must not know the secret handshake. - LOL. Yes it took me a while to figure the secret handshake! As I remarked in an earlier post, IMO the new attachment scheme is far too complicated, particularly, as you say, for a newbie. But, fwiw. This is what I do, it must be correct, as it works for me??
Of course, you must be in Advanced - Manage Attachments - mode
Click that function, and top right it says "Add files"
Bottom of the pane in the new window "Select Files"
This brings you to the browse facility on your computer (Windows Explorer)
Select what you want and "Open" - In the middle of the three options that then appear "Upload Files"
You can then choose to "Insert Attachment" (Bottom right) or just close the window.

From there it is the normal procedure. I chose here to close the window, but you can place it somewhere as an "opened attachment", in the standard way. Click the little paper clip and then your uploaded image, which will be on the drop down. Here there is a small glitch. The image will only appear as the first part of the text. To move it , to where you desire, you have to Ctrl x it and ctrl v it manually into a space. I have completed all those three in this post.

Link Removed due to 404 Error
 
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Please see:

Major Patch Rescheduled Again:
vBulletin had scheduled a major software patch for the 5th of February 2010. This date was then changed to the 12th of February 2010. Now it has been re-delayed to fix compatibility issues in IE6 to the 19th of February 2010. Please have patience as we are all waiting for this patch.

I will be working on video tutorials in the interim (No promises!)

 
Delay in Major Forum Patch

A detailed explanation of the delay:

There has been a further delay to the release of 4.0.2 and we felt an explanation to our customers for this delay is in order. Ultimately the release dates are almost always an estimate and we do our best based on the information and resources we have at the time of when weÂ’ll be done with the current fixes. However, continuous improvement is something we constantly strive for and, as a result, we are currently re-evaluating our process to make it better. Even the best process will sometimes force us to make hard decisions between meeting schedules and meeting the product goals. We feel that in this case taking the time to get this right is more important than any artificial timeline. We are sorry for any inconvenience this causes, but we believe the end result will be much better and the time well spent.

The process we follow for a maintenance release is that we first prioritize outstanding bugs, then the Development team implements a number of fixes for these most critical ones. After this, we split the code off for testing and stabilization (which is why you see bugs fixed for 4.0.3 even though we haven't yet released 4.0.2). At this point only fixes deemed the most critical get merged into the prospective release – generally ones most important to customers – to fix things broken due to conflicts, or to complete previous fixes that weren't quite done correctly. Once we have the build stabilized, the QA team does a final pass through the release to check for problems.

So why a further delay for 4.0.2? To start with, we went over the estimate of fixes that we initially gave to QA -- more fixes means more time to test. We also identified a number of bugs fairly late in the process that we decided had to get fixed for 4.0.2, particularly those around RTL issues (right-to-left languages) and related to IE browser. We knew this would cause a delay, but we decided it was in the best interests of our customers to resolve these problems now rather than push them down to a future release.

Once we started digging into those bugs, we quickly found that fixing several of them would require very substantial changes to how we are handling RTL in IE6 and IE7. This required going through nearly all of the CSS in the system to find all the places that needed to be fixed. The trouble with changes like this is that itÂ’s hard to estimate the time it will take to do the work. It also requires substantially more testing than we generally see with more focused fixes. Nonetheless, we felt what we could get done was of enough benefit to a significant number of customers that it was worth the risk to the schedule. So we went ahead with the fixes. As a consequence, our schedule became unpredictable and we've had to revise our release dates a couple of times as a result.

We hope you understand and we appreciate your patience while we make the new release the best we can before releasing it.
 
Great site with tons of help!

I really enjoy the new wider look. This site serves my purposes the way it is. Anything else would just be gravy.

Don


Once again we have introduced some changes!
  • Style changes: A bit of a throwback to our old look, we have re-instated the old background from our previous site design, while expanding the width of the site to be completely fluid to accompany the expansion of the site over time. It will look a bit different on each monitor, but should look well designed nonetheless.
  • New tabs: Some new opportunities for our members: RegistryBooster, Spyware Doctor, and our Forums Toolbar. This is to eliminate the need for so many notifications.
  • Ad Changes: Some of the ads on the site have been made a bit bigger to fit in with the overall largeness of the site on wide-screens. Advertisements have been removed from inside the actual posts.
  • Content Management: Upgraded our CMPS (Content Management Portal System) to the latest version (still in beta).
  • Member Profile Fields: Added new profile fields to search on in the Memberlist.
  • Search Time Restriction: Find what you're looking for faster. Changed search time from 20 seconds to 2 seconds.
  • PM Character Limitation Lifted: Limit on private messages characters has been removed.
Now In planning:

Free Software Promo: We will probably be planning to offer our users a promotion for a program called SpeedUpMyPC, a new product from Uniblue. Uniblue's products are really good and they are helping us keep the site up and running with their products. Plus, if we can help some people fix their computer with their products, it only makes sense to offer these incentives. There will likely be a contest held for free licenses for the software. Contest details will be posted soon.

Awards/Leveling System: An idea on bringing back the awards/XP system is in the works. Although it will be hard to match our old (and now defunct) awards system, an attempt will be made to bring one back very soon. For those unfamiliar with this, an awards/point system calculates everything you do on the forum and gives out accolades for those achievements. (Complete)

"Downloads" section may return as well, depending on how many people want it. We will conduct a poll.

Premium Member Perks: Premium Supporters will be given access to special downloads even if the Downloads section doesn't return despite any poll results.

Future Site Goals: From an administrative perspective, we are now focused on making the site as interesting and as usable as possible for our members again. This includes new features now that we know the server is stable and very accessible.

Custom Pages: Outside of blogs, custom pages may be introduced. What exactly will be on these pages, we're not sure. It will be something useful, undoubtedly so.

Certification Recognition: We need more IT pros to write in the blogs and Tweaks, Guides, and HOWTO's area to document their general expertise with Windows 7. We want to also recognize people who have Microsoft and CompTIA certifications, so if you have them, please e-mail or fax a copy of your certification to [email protected]. (Complete)

Feedback Accepted: We need honest feedback on what you want to see here. Besides asking and answering questions, we want to make the forums fun again. This can be in the form of games and other things that don't necessarily fit in with the Windows 7 theme. But we can add these things if there is a demand. Unlike many sites, feedback that is given here often times results in small to big changes on the site, sometimes within hours.

THIS WILL TAKE TIME!!! :p

Please note:
We want and depend on your feedback in all areas. This can include constructive criticism and new ideas. Do you have an idea for the site worth mentioning? Don't like something you see Let us know about it in this thread.

One very important area of feedback would be geared towards anyone who is using, or who can test for the site how it runs and looks on Internet Explorer 6. While we recommend you immediately upgrade to Internet Explorer 8, if you do not have Windows 7, some of you are still on IE6. That being said, if you notice any problems at all, or no problems at all, please make us aware.


Other areas of feedback we are looking for:
  • Are you getting the type of help from other people on the site? Is it from our moderator staff mostly, other people?​
  • Do you feel satisfied using the site? Why or why not?
  • Do you like or dislike the look of the site? What can be done better?
  • What feature or addition would you love to see on the site (within reason).
Anyone who responds to our feedback questions will be given extra reputation beyond normal for the assistance provided. Thanks and hope you genuinely like the new updates we are making.

Update Feb. 3. '10: Requests:
  • Fix QuickReply (in progress- feature currently disabled)​
  • Request for more images per post (in progress)​
  • Avatar option appears to be broken in UserCP (looking into)​
  • Hyperlink colors aren't immediately apparent on some monitors, or appear to be the same color as the text (looking into)​
  • Search Engine Results not relevant enough: (will try to fine tune the search relevancy quotient after Feb 4 patch -- please try using advanced search in interim)​
  • IE6 compatibility (looking into - expect more fixes Feb 4th)​
  • Slow rendering for some browsers/machines (looking into)​
  • System specs in postbit (in planning phase)​
  • Fix admin e-mail address (complete)*
  • Can't access thread: Printer page comes up when "print" is last word of the title (complete)*
  • Sitemap doesn't work anymore for any search engine (complete)*
  • Facebook Connect (complete)*
Update Feb. 8-10th. '10: Updates:​

  • Translator code has been updated. (complete)
  • Windows Experience Index has been added as a profile field. (complete)
* Should be fixed, working, or otherwise improved.

Major Patch Rescheduled Again:
vBulletin had scheduled a major software patch for the 5th of February 2010. This date was then changed to the 12th of February 2010. Now it has been re-delayed to fix compatibility issues in IE6 to the 19th of February 2010. Please have patience as we are all waiting for this patch.
 
New Search Feature

You may have noticed the 'New Posts' has changed and now contains little arrows pointing to 'New Posts In'. If 'New Posts In' is clicked on then a drop menu appears giving access and search to any part of the forum. Please see attached screenshot for clarity:


Link Removed due to 404 Error
 
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