Forum Software Upgrade - and possible forum downtime

Hi Everyone!

It's been a long time coming, but in the next few days we're finally going to be upgrading the forum software.
There are a few reasons for doing this, the biggest of course is security. The current software is out of date and more susceptible to hacking.

We'll carefully back everything up before performing the upgrade, but the site will be down for approximately 30-60 minutes.

I'll post here when we have an actual time scheduled.

Thanks!
Mike

In case you didn't notice

Forum has been upgraded.

If you have any questions or concerns, please post them in this thread.

Thanks,
Mike

Change is always difficult so I’ll hold any comments about the new look until I get used to it. However, how can I see which threads have new comments and where do I click to go to the last unread comment in the thread - it was obvious on the old format? Just dipped in this morning so maybe I missed it.

MikeS said:

However, how can I see which threads have new comments and where do I click to go to the last unread comment in the thread - it was obvious on the old format? Just dipped in this morning so maybe I missed it.

Click to expand...

There are several post and topics filters in the "Quick Links" menu in the upper left corner of the page. In the previous forum version, I liked to filter by "Active Topics" which is still available under "Quick Links". However, I no longer see an indication in the list of active topics of which topics that I have not already read. This makes it difficult to avoid reading the same active topic more than once. If there is a way to restore the indications of threads that have an unread post within the list of active topics, please consider restoring this functionality, or explain how I might duplicate this functionality in another way.

There is a "First Unread Post" link along the top right side of the list of postings in a thread, but only if there is a post that you have not already read.

It seems like the default theme/color scheme (as ugly as it is) has that invisible.

The s[ace just to the left of the topic will highlight 'no unread' or 'unread messages' if you hover over it. but there's no visible indicator.

well from what i can see i would not call it an upgrade still dull blue and white with less options

Schnort said:

The s[ace just to the left of the topic will highlight 'no unread' or 'unread messages' if you hover over it. but there's no visible indicator.

Click to expand...

Ah, so it does! Thanks for pointing this out. I am now able to duplicate my usual way of reading this forum although slightly less conveniently. There is plenty of blank space to the left of the topic title to display an icon indicating whether the topic has any unread posts, but the designer has chosen to hide information that would be better shown.

alohart said:

Schnort said:

The s[ace just to the left of the topic will highlight 'no unread' or 'unread messages' if you hover over it. but there's no visible indicator.

Click to expand...

Ah, so it does! Thanks for pointing this out. I am now able to duplicate my usual way of reading this forum although slightly less conveniently. There is plenty of blank space to the left of the topic title to display an icon indicating whether the topic has any unread posts, but the designer has chosen to hide information that would be better shown.

Click to expand...

Nope not true, wasn't hidden intentionally
Thanks for pointing it out - it's fixed and now the icons are showing.

Unread has a red border:


Read has no red border:


Thanks for the feedback!
Mike

busaman said:

well from what i can see i would not call it an upgrade still dull blue and white with less options

Click to expand...

Perhaps update would've been a more appropriate term than upgrade!

The 'upgrade' portion is the backend code. It was 2 years out of date and a security risk, so it needed to be changed. This system is more secure and runs faster.

When you say 'less options' what do you mean?

Not an upgrade. The old format was better--much easier to navigate between different topics!

That’s better - I can see the read icon now.

ted99 said:

Not an upgrade. The old format was better--much easier to navigate between different topics!

Click to expand...

Hi Ted - can you be more specific? In what way was it easier on the old format? Perhaps there's something we can tweak that will improve this format....

Everything seems to work normally, although the new layout has a lot of wasted space and the color scheme is washed out.
Does the new software bring any new functionality?

These would be the big ones that are noticeable:

Responsive Theme

The forum style has been completely overhauled to ensure a modern experience on all of your devices. Give it a try on a tablet or smart-phone.

Notification System Notification System

Easily configure how you prefer to be notified about various events, such as when you are quoted in a post. The new extensible notifications feature lives in the header of every page and provides a centralized place to receive alerts and other information.

Click to expand...

Not working well on iPhone:

https://postimg.org/image/6buz3eorb/

Also, the postimage image doesn't seem to be able to be displayed in the forum:

I33t said:

Not working well on iPhone:

https://postimg.org/image/6buz3eorb/

Also, the postage image doesn't seem to be able to be displayed in the forum:

Click to expand...

An "img" tag won't display a page URL. You need to get the image URL from that page (https://s15.postimg.io/qj8evpm8r/newinterface.jpg):



This site displays a bit better in landscape mode on an iPhone, but it doesn't resize to the width of the iPhone display as your image shows thus wasting a lot of valuable real estate and reducing the readability of the site. This wasn't a problem with the previous forum version.

admin said:

Thanks for pointing it out - it's fixed and now the icons are showing.

Click to expand...

Thanks for (mostly) fixing this! Any idea why neither icon is displayed next to some topic titles including some that have unread posts?

Thanks alohart, looks like postimage has changed their layout as well. My mistake!

In any case, the previous forum filled the screen on a vertical iPhone display. Surely this issue can be resolved. MyNissanLeaf uses the same software, and it fills the width of the iPhone screen just fine.

I33t said:

Thanks alohart, looks like postimage has changed their layout as well. My mistake!

In any case, the previous forum filled the screen on a vertical iPhone display. Surely this issue can be resolved. MyNissanLeaf uses the same software, and it fills the width of the iPhone screen just fine.

Click to expand...

L33t, this should be fixed now. I don't have an iphone but tests on my android show it's fixed. Could you please confirm?

alohart said:

Thanks for (mostly) fixing this! Any idea why neither icon is displayed next to some topic titles including some that have unread posts?

Click to expand...

Are you talking on this page: http://www.mybmwi3.com/forum/search.php?search_id=active_topics
Every topic I see there has an icon. Which topic doesn't have one for you?