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Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Thursday Dec 02, 2010 2:03 pm
by Oliver
Hi beer lovers and homebrewers,

Today the forum's phpBB software was upgraded to the latest version from a very, very old version.

If you notice anything unexpected when using the forum, please post a message on this thread immediately and we will investigate.

The changes include:
  • Fixing the long delay before a post appears after pressing Preview or Submit.
  • Minor changes to many of the forum's features. Some you may notice, others you won't.
  • About 300 bug fixes, which will mean fewer unexpected or odd things happening.
  • Performance improvements in many areas, including the time taken to perform searches and to post messages.
  • Security patches.
  • Better methods for prevention of spam registration (which should mean that we can spend more time on the forum, rather than checking the 50+ registrations each day and deleting most of them).
  • Better support for the forum appearing as intented on versions 8 and 9 of Internet Explorer.
If you experience insomnia, you can cure it by checking out the full list of changes between the old (3.0.0) version and the one we've just updated to (3.08) here.

We have also decided to proceeded with some of the proposed changes, and ditched others after feedback from the forum's members.

There is now a section called The store, which includes:
  • Members' trading room (for members to buy, sell, give away and swap stuff).
  • Retailers' trading room (for retailers and beer and homebrew companies to advertise their wares, advise of promotions, give us stuff)
  • Bargain bin (tip-offs about cheap beer, and homebrew equipment and supplies).
A Forum news and updates section, which is under the new section called Homebrewandbeer.com forum along with the old Support and suggestions section.

Over coming days we will rearrange some posts, and delete some that are now out of date, such as those about spam.

There will also be some further, minor updates in the next few weeks.

If you've got any feedback, good or bad, please let us know. We're always open to changing things based on feedback.

Cheers,

Oliver and Geoff

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Thursday Dec 02, 2010 4:20 pm
by rotten
Correct me if im wrong, I think view active topics isn't working properly. It has the upgrade notifications but nothing else.
Thanks guys.
Still no drool smilie :cry:

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Thursday Dec 02, 2010 4:42 pm
by earle
My guess is that they were reset with the upgrade.

"View active topics" enabled

PostPosted: Thursday Dec 02, 2010 4:51 pm
by Oliver
Hi guys,

Active topics should be working now. It's just that I had never enabled it :oops:

Let me know if you have any more problems.

Cheers,

Oliver

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Friday Dec 03, 2010 4:23 pm
by hirns
The homebrewandbeer.com link at the top of the page in front of >board index>hombrewandbeer is not working... Or are you changing webhosts as well?

Hirns

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Friday Dec 03, 2010 4:36 pm
by Oliver
Thanks Hirns. That was due to a mis-typing on my part. I added an "l" to the end of an .htm link and didn't test it :oops: Fixed now.

Also, I'll get in first and let you know that I'm aware that the "Advance search" link at the top right of each page is white text on a white background so doesn't appear unless you hover over it!

I'll fix that shortly. (I'm a bit busy at the moment ... I got a to-do list from 'er indoors while she was away for work for a couple of days. Needless to say I am trying to do them all at the last minute :wink: )

Cheers,

Oliver

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Friday Dec 03, 2010 4:51 pm
by hirns
Well I must say that this upgrade has certainly added a new life to the forum. I'm so impressed with the increase of speed and ease of navigation!

Cheers :D

Hirns

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Saturday Dec 04, 2010 12:52 pm
by Bum
Favicon has reverted to what I assume is the phbb one.

Not an issue, obviously - just thought you may or may not like to be aware of it.

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Saturday Dec 04, 2010 1:04 pm
by Oliver
Thanks Bum.

It was broken but I fixed it yesterday. (For those who don't know, favicon is the little icon that appears next to the website address at the top of your browser. For homebrewandbeer.com it's a yellow beer glass.)

I tested (and just retested) on Opera, IE 8 & 9 and Firefox and all are working OK.

With FF and IE I had to close the browser and reopen it. You may also need to clear your browser's cache.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you still have issues.

Anyone else having this problem?

Cheers,

Oliver

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Saturday Dec 04, 2010 1:22 pm
by Bum
Oh, my apologies. I had restarted Firefox and cleared the cache at separate times eariler and neither did the trick but tried both together now and it's all systems go. Thanks.

Favicon

PostPosted: Saturday Dec 04, 2010 1:25 pm
by Oliver
No worries. Glad it's working :wink:

Oliver

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Monday Dec 06, 2010 7:32 pm
by Oliver
The "Advanced search" link at the top right is now blue on white :) instead of white on white :shock:

Cheers,

Oliver

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Tuesday Dec 07, 2010 11:07 am
by drsmurto
Loving the quick reply option. The whole forum seems quick and streamlined.

Nice job Oliver and Geoff

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Tuesday Dec 14, 2010 9:45 am
by drsmurto
Being the absent minded professor that i am i have only now remembered something i was going to suggest for the upgrade.

The strikethrough text option.

Is that available?

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Tuesday Dec 14, 2010 10:00 am
by Oliver
A bit like this? :-)

I've added it as the "s" icon on the formatting toolbar.

Ask and you shall receive!

Cheers,

Oliver

Re: Forum upgrade complete

PostPosted: Tuesday Dec 14, 2010 10:45 am
by drsmurto
Fantastic Excellent Awesome :D