We are getting close to pulling the trigger on a major forums upgrade.  There will be a whole new look and some really cool new features.  These new features may be initially disabled as we phase them in.

This is tentatively scheduled for February 14-15 in the middle of the night.  Happy Valentine's Day.   [smiley=kiss.gif]

This date is not set in stone yet and we will update you here with any changes.  

Between now and then, the forums may be briefly in maintenance mode as some preparations are being made.

When the upgrade is under way, the forums will be down for several hours....Estimate 8 to 10 hours.  There may be a maintenance message or even a page cannot be found error during this time.

This is long overdue and I think you will all find it worth the wait   ;)

I hope it goes smooth, i'll keep my fingers crossed

Tom,

This "old dog" is finally getting the hang of getting around these forums - now your gunna change everything  :P

I can feel the shakes and withdrawal symptoms already  :D

Are ya gunna have live web cam and audio for when members are online - - not that anybody wants to see my puss but - - - ;D

I hope all goes well with the upgrade.

dave

Well....the odds of this going smoothly are much better with Jon B the server geek doing it instead of me   :P

Don't get too dismayed or exited.  The forums will work in a very familiar way.  The appearance will be slightly different....new colors banner, etc.

The two main new features will be an event calendar and a member map.

I am excited about the member map.  This will allow users to plot their location on maps and eventually, if we can get most members to do this, we will have world regional maps with little pins all over them.   ;)

Tom Roberts wrote on Feb 8^th, 2012 at 9:15am:

I am excited about the member map.This will allow users to plot their location on maps and eventually, if we can get most members to do this, we will have world regional maps with little pins all over them. Wink

  Hmmmmm, this sounds familiar  ;)

PRESTON wrote on Feb 8^th, 2012 at 11:46am:

this sounds familiar

Indeed.   I knew you would like that one.   ;)

Totally!  Looking forward to the update too.

Just a quick word, this morning we ran a 'timing test' on the server, so I could make sure my estimates were pretty good and that I wouldn't bump into anything that went "BOO!" or "BUMP".

I took the forums off line for an estimated 1/2 hour, signed in on the server, performed the tests, and we came back online right on time, with about a minute to spare. OTAY - things are still on-track.

8-)

Cool deal Jon

sounds good cant wait to see it :)

Tom Roberts wrote on Feb 7^th, 2012 at 2:48pm:

February 14-15 in the middle of the night.  Happy Valentine's Day.

what a coincidence - my life is so Ironic
why cant I be 'normal'? ;D

I'm thinking you kissed "normal" goodbye a very long time ago scooter, he he he.

Tom Roberts wrote on Feb 7^th, 2012 at 2:48pm:

This is tentatively scheduled for February 14-15 in the middle of the night.Happy Valentine's Day.

aaaahhhhh, we love you too!!   :-*   [smiley=arms.gif]

 The member map sounds cool Good Luck!!!

PRESTON wrote on Feb 11^th, 2012 at 1:43pm:

I'm thinking you kissed "normal" goodbye a very long time ago scooter, he he he.

yep thats a whole different discussion though ;)

anyway i guess thats what makes me special is my crazy ass and my outside the box thinking - otherwise id be a 'normal' boring guy ;D

besides can anyone truly define the words normal, or reality?
And think about this:
if you hallucinate and see things are you really seeing things that dont exist at all or are you just seeing things you cant normally see that exist on a paralell plane to us?
:D

just some thoughts from my whacked out head ;)


Sorry for going off on a tangent - im bad about that

We have scheduled this upgrade to take place this Tuesday February 14th to 15th.  The forums will go down at 8PM Pacific time on the 14th and hope to be back up by 6AM on the 15th.  During this time, you may encounter a maintenance message or even a page cannot be found error.  

In any case, since this is Valentine’s Day evening, you now have no distractions and will be able to devote your full attention to your special someone.  I’m sure all the significant others on this side of the world will appreciate our timing.   ;)

Tom Roberts wrote on Feb 12^th, 2012 at 3:41pm:

In any case, since this is Valentine’s Day evening, you now have no distractions and will be able to devote your full attention to your special someone.I’m sure all the significant others on this side of the world will appreciate our timing.

Hey Randy, Valentine's day must be a busy day for a stallion like you hey mate ;)

Well.....Here we are again.  Murphy's Law was in full force but we are up and running now. 

Please let us know if you run into anything weird.

If you run Internet Explorer, you may have to select compatability mode or certain things may not work.

Looking good  :)

To place your location on the member maps:

Go to your User CP
Click Profile tab
Select location

The rest is pretty intuitive.  To place your push pin on the map, place the cross hairs on your location and click.

Then save changes.

If I may add one thing about the Member Map,  If you want your state, province, or country etc. to be listed in your 'hover' location, add the State/Province etc. abbreviation at the end of your Location field.

i.e Location: Sarasota, FL

-- the software does not do that automatically.  The software only uses the Country/State/Province to sort the member list.

Good Luck & enjoy.

[smiley=thumbsup.gif]

Nice job good to see it up and running again so quick.
Damian

Thank you Jon.  I am so glad you didn't blow your cerebral cortex until you were done.   [smiley=disimulo.gif]

Looks sleak and new! Welcome back  :)

lookin' good  [smiley=dance.gif]

i see the emoticons are easier to navigate  ;)

holy crap!  the little pins in the map blink if that person is online!   8-)

I cant reply to a post which has caps on

Nice job guys. Love the new look.  [smiley=ok.gif]

Looks great![smiley=arms.gif]

Mick wrote on Feb 15^th, 2012 at 12:39pm:

I cant reply to a post which has caps on

Testing that.....That is be because the subject line is all caps.  Change it and you should be able to reply.  This is a new feature that blocks the use of all caps (yelling).

I can turn that off if needed.

Mick wrote on Feb 15^th, 2012 at 12:39pm:

I cant reply to a post which has caps on

Trust me to find the first problem but I believe that Jeff and myself will not be able to reply to the post

I have a 1998 honda odyssey.......................................

Tom Roberts wrote on Feb 15^th, 2012 at 12:49pm:

Testing that.....That is be because the subject line is all caps.

No because Preston was able to reply

It’s because of the early replies before the upgrade that had CAPS in those replies

Mick wrote on Feb 15^th, 2012 at 12:52pm:

I believe that Jeff and myself will not be able to reply to the post

Brian just did (as a test)....changed the subject line to no caps.  If you leave it then it is copied and then you are the one yelling.

Brian is going to edit some of the caps out of that post.

Ok I can reply now but I still fear Jeff cant reply because he wrote reply 2. Maybe Brian can edit reply 2 as well. :-/

Nice job,

Looking good :)

I like the member map and the event calender too.

thanks,
Danny

Tom,

It looks very sharp  [smiley=thumbsup2.gif]

Can I reset all my topic notifications without going to each post or removing them?

Thanks,

dave

Dave,

You may have to go to each board and mark all as read.  There is a button for that so you only have to click once on each board to reset them all.

That's what I had to do to stop them from showing as new.

We turned off the all caps warning feature.  Seems more trouble than benefit.

Tom Roberts wrote on Feb 15^th, 2012 at 2:37pm:

We turned off the all caps warning feature.Seems more trouble than benefit.

ALL RIGHT :exclamation had me a little  [smiley=hairpull.gif] this afternoon  [smiley=disimulo.gif]

Well done, looking and working great and some cool new features.
Thanks Tom, Brian, Jon and everyone involved   :)

tom, i noticed something that really isn't a big deal, but figured it was worth noting.  if i click on someone's name, i no longer get the box that says 'view profile', 'send pm', etc.

crackerclicker wrote on Feb 15^th, 2012 at 4:47pm:

i no longer get the box that says 'view profile', 'send pm', etc.

We noticed that initially too using Internet Explorer.  Switched to compatibility mode and it worked.  Switched back and it still worked.   [smiley=idunno.gif]

Jon sez:

You should clear your cache, AND tell all the members to do that same.   

Also - anyone who had a 'for keeps' YaBB cookie may get a 'form spoofing' error, they need to use the 'logout' menu option, then log back in.

excelent job jon and tom  :D

ive even got a little scotland flag..... great stuff

;D ;D ;D ;D

Tom Roberts wrote on Feb 15^th, 2012 at 4:54pm:

We noticed that initially too using Internet Explorer.  Switched to compatibility mode and it worked.  Switched back and it still worked.

me too, thanks!


Tom Roberts wrote on Feb 15^th, 2012 at 4:54pm:

You should clear your cache

as in delete browsing history in the internet options tab, or go in and clear all temporary internet files?  or am i way off base?

crackerclicker wrote on Feb 15^th, 2012 at 6:39pm:

as in delete browsing history in the internet options tab, or go in and clear all temporary internet files?

Temp internet files.

For me, the the compatibility toggle fixed everything.

Tom, Brian and Jon,
Very nicely done.  This looks great!!  The forum facelift looks to have been well worth the effort you guys put in to it! [smiley=rockon.gif] [smiley=koolaid2.gif] [smiley=smileys-winner-131838.gif]  There are actually a number of smilies I could use but I better stop with these.
Thank you for all of the work you have done with the forums.
Doug S.

Tom, Brian, Jon, and any other unsung heroes:
Well done, [i]VERY FANCY SCHMANCY[i]! I had to rely on my failing memory for my password, never a good scenario.
Thanks again, very impressive!

WOW!!!! EXCELENT JOB GUYS!!!!! [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif] [smiley=thumbsup.gif]

test
Ok, just wondering why Ward's didn't come out right.

Very swish Tom keep up the good work!

Good job Tom....

Preston I betcha be laughing at dat reply to ya message..  Just tha truth about jerkwater mate...

Preston:
I tried to put the "fancy schmancy" in italics, and buggered it up. Not the first time, unfortunately likely not the last.

Checking Italics  By highlighting the phrase and pushing the italics button.

Thanks guys, glad you appreciate the efforts.  This is the kind of stuff we invest in rather than a bunch of advertisements in media and the like.  Instead, we invest in our members.... ;)

Tom,

The new look is Great!

I am running Opera as my browser and noticed a few minor things.

On the forum home page before I login the date and time is not displayed at the top for the window. When I login the date and time are there.

Also,  if i click on someone's name, i no longer get the box that says 'view profile', 'send pm', etc.

I tried several different site settings, deleting cookies, restarting Opera, and rebooting machines. I have this on 2 different laptops - one I'm running XP Pro and the other Windows 7.

Any thoughts or ideas?

Thanks,

dave

Dave,

Have you cleared the browser cache?

Not familiar with Opera....does it have a compatibility mode like IE?

Later....

I installed Opera 11.61 on an XP machine here.  I could not duplicate your issues.   [smiley=idunno.gif]

Tom,

I had deleted all cookies and histories a few times and the restarted Opera.

I just did it again on the XP machine and now it seems to be working  [smiley=scratch-head02.gif] but anyway  [smiley=jump.gif]

Thanks,

dave

@daveyK -

Do you have Opera Turbo or Opera Link enabled?

Thanks
8-)

Jon,

No I don't have turbo or link enabled.

It has been working correctly after I cleared the cookies and histories - several times.

Thanks,

dave

OK, dave - glad it's working.

LOL - I am one of the other 169 people who actually use Opera.  I like the Opera Link as I work in multiple locations and have many e-mail accounts and portals to monitor.  I actually use all the browsers for testing, but I use Opera a lot for browsing.

;)

Jon,

I never liked how IE worked from Win 95 on. I found I liked Netscape and used that for years until AOL screwed it up.

Opera does have alot of handy features  ;)


JonBFL wrote on Feb 17^th, 2012 at 9:35am:

I am one of the other 169 people who actually use Opera

make that 170  :D

It's unhandy when some site will only respond to IE.

dave

OK....Let's try another feature.  I know many of us can sure use it   ;)

I just turned on an integrated spell checker.

ha ha ha, that could come in handy for sure, in the longer posts too. [smiley=thumbsup2.gif]

Tom Roberts wrote on Feb 21^st, 2012 at 4:17pm:

I know many of us can sure use it

No more excuses for me then  [smiley=thanks.gif]