New Forum & Banner Design Help


Jamie_Beatson

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Hello all,

As you can see we have changed our forum software!

We've managed to import all the old usernames/passwords as well as the threads and posts from the last year or so. However, we were unable to transfer private messages across.

I would like to pass on a big vote of thanks to 101 Saint - owner of the One o One chippy - whose kind sponsorship has helped cover our hosting and upgrade the forum.

The major bonuses with this new software are increased security, a better search facility, better admin options and hopefully a much easier interface and more features for everyone that uses the site.

Please make sure you update any bookmarks/favourites you have for this site - the address is now www.weareperth.co.uk/vforum rather than www.weareperth.co.uk/forum

As this is a new installation and we had to transfer a lot of data across there could potentially be some teething problems. Please use this thread to highlight any issues you find while using the forum so we can try to fix them!

Also use this thread for any comments you have about the new forum!

Thanks,

Jamie

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Im possably being thick here but how do you upload an Avatar in the new board? I have gone to edit Avatar in user CP but it just comes up with a radio button saying do not use avatars and a blank box saying this is your current avatar, does not appear to be anyplace to put in a URL or upload.

I am quite possably looking in the wrong place mind you

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Im possably being thick here but how do you upload an Avatar in the new board? I have gone to edit Avatar in user CP but it just comes up with a radio button saying do not use avatars and a blank box saying this is your current avatar, does not appear to be anyplace to put in a URL or upload.

I am quite possably looking in the wrong place mind you

It's a legitimate problem. Looking into it just now!

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No smilies... The Site Admin thing is probably the User Group that everyone has defaulted to when the data was transferred.

Site Admin thing is now fixed, it wasn't quite as simple as that but it is now fixed.

The lack of smilies and font settings can be fixed if you go into User CP > Edit Options and then at the bottom of the page select Standard Editor instead of Basic Editor. I'm not sure why that isn't the default setting for everyone because it is the default in the Site Admin settings.

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it doesnt say if its a new post or or not like the other one when it went orange

yes it does, look down the bottom and it tells you how it changes when a new post has been made!

p.s is the Avatar problem still happening, i saw the upper post and just wondering if its been fixed because am problems with it as well!

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p.s is the Avatar problem still happening, i saw the upper post and just wondering if its been fixed because am problems with it as well!

Sadly the avatar problem has still not been fixed. Hopefully in time this can be sorted out but for the moment the forum runs fine without avatars.

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Sadly the avatar problem has still not been fixed. Hopefully in time this can be sorted out but for the moment the forum runs fine without avatars.

yeah thats cool, was having a go or nothing, just making sure am not being stupid, and doing it wrong.

Thank you!

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I don't like it, I think it's far too busy and squashed into the centre of the screen (although I stand corrected if that's just my settings). I preferred the old, more simplistic look, but of course I will still enjoy using the forum and please do not confuse this with criticism. I do like this quick reply feature though, it's fab.

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Got to agree, is the screen meant to be like that?

Yeah its the way VBulletin is set out, theres the idea of skinning to make it more pleasing on the eye, but im not sure if anyone on here is skilled enough to do the full whack, but i'd be plesantly surprised if there was :)

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Hmm, I hate being critical and don't like dismissing new things, but I find this format awkward. It's squashed into half of my screen. To mark a forum as read I have to do two key strokes instead of the one it used to be. The whole look and feel seems more old fashioned than the previous version.

Sorry guys.

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Also, you have the Avatar size limit set to 1kb, could you change this? its virtually impossible to get an avatar that small

If you read this thread, you'll see that the avatars are not working properly just now. We're working on it.

hes already stated above he is having problems with the Avatar!

Cheers!

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The whole look and feel seems more old fashioned than the previous version.

The old forum was positively archaic compared to this. The old phpBB software we were running has hardly changed in years whereas this new vBulletin forum is far more powerful. I promise you this is definitely not old-fashioned compared to the previous version!

There were a few reasons for upgrading the forum software. Partly this was done because bits of the old forum were actually broken and completely malfunctioning, although they could have been fixed with some effort. A big reason was the amount of spam users we had signing up which we couldn't prevent. As most people will be aware we had daily spam posts linking to all kinds of explicit websites, drug websites, etc. We couldn't allow that to continue as this is an open board with no age limits. Hopefully the new forum is more secure and will be able to prevent the spam we received before. Finally another important reason for us to upgrade the forum software is to allow us greater moderating powers. Administration and moderating tasks are easier and far more efficient now.

The least important thing about the new forum is how it looks - although actually I personally much prefer the design and layout of vBulletin rather than the old phpBB. A number of other football forums I browse use also this forum software, including Celtic Minded, The Huddle Board, Follow Follow, and PNE Online. (Please don't ask why I've been on those Old Squirm boards!)

The new forum design is almost entirely based around the design used on the hugely successful Sunderland Message Board. If you click that link you'll see how similar this forum is to the SMB. Essentially this is the same board in blue instead of red. I made it look like that specifically because of the success of the SMB and I don't think there have been many complaints on there. They have thousands of members and even in the middle of the night there is always a minimum of 100 people viewing. If it works well there then there is no reason why it won't work on our forum.

Aesthetically it could perhaps be better but none of us are graphical geniuses. If anyone fancies designing a banner for the forum then they're welcome to give it a go - if it's decent enough then we could adopt it. Before long there will also be the addition of an advert for the One O One Chippy in the top right corner of each page since it is their sponsorship which is allowing the forum to stay online.

I knew there would be a few moans initially as people are always scared of change. However, this is definitely change for the better, we needed to move on. I'm positive it will grow on you as you get used to it. Trust me! :cool:

We're always open to constructive criticism though so please continue to post any comments/suggestions in here.

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