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Problems with new forum — Parallax Forums

Problems with new forum

RaymanRayman Posts: 14,891
edited 2010-08-07 23:00 in General Discussion
Maybe it's just me, but I think there are issues with the new forum...

First:
My password didn't work and I had to go through the process of getting a new password. But, this is just a minor inconvenience.

Second:
Seems like the attachement limits have been retroactively reduced so that attachments in older posts are broken.

Comments

  • RaymanRayman Posts: 14,891
    edited 2010-08-06 08:56
    Just notice some text issues with older posts like this:

    "you can capture very low quality b&w video "

    the "b&w" was replaced with "b&w"
  • SapiehaSapieha Posts: 2,964
    edited 2010-08-06 09:01
    As I see it --- It is much more problems that only them You describe.

    Search not work for me if I search only for word -- 3D -- else if I use multiple words -- 3D rendering of --.
    BUT if I use only -- rendering -- It works.

    NEXT ---- I are missing Active user's INFO on pages I are on --- It is only on Page that show Thread's type that that info is available.


    Regards
    Christoffer J
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2010-08-06 09:04
    I just tried a link (to a different thread) in an older post and it didn't work. I hope these problems are in the process of being resolved. I have lots of bookmarks to past threads I use for reference.

    Boy, our choice of icons has sure diminished. Grumble, grumble. I hope they charge less for our forum memberships now.

    Edit: I just checked. None of my bookmarks (at least none I tried) work. Aag! Oooo! Noooo! (Where is that crying icon now that I'd use it?)
    If you press "Go Advanced" you get to use the few icons. I think you can only use one.
  • John R.John R. Posts: 1,376
    edited 2010-08-06 09:07
    These posts should be put in the "Support for Using thisForum" section. Jim (the IT Guys) probably doesn't have time to monitor the individual forums right now :-)
  • Fred HawkinsFred Hawkins Posts: 997
    edited 2010-08-06 17:17
    I emailed this, and still stand behind what I wrote:

    Just letting you know that I will be boycotting your forums for the next
    month.

    I have been following the Propeller forum since June 2007.

    Your new forum is an insulting downgrade of capability. Not the least is
    the fact that my collected bookmarks are now rendered worthless.

    I will not be mollified by a corporate-speak apology.

    If in the meantime, if you come to your senses and restore the forums as
    they were circa Aug 5th, with membership lists intact and posting
    priviledges, fine, drop me a line. Otherwise, I'm shopping elsewhere,
    learning elsewhere and avoiding your sorry @sses until maybe September,
    if you are lucky.

    For shame, Parallax.

    Fred Hawkins

    Ps, Chip -- are they crazy? Have you gone crazy? WTF, guy.
  • Martin HodgeMartin Hodge Posts: 1,246
    edited 2010-08-06 17:46
    Just letting you know that I will be boycotting your forums for the next
    month.

    That might be a slight over reaction. ;)
  • SapiehaSapieha Posts: 2,964
    edited 2010-08-06 17:58
    That might be a slight over reaction. ;)

    Maybe.

    But You can't said - NEW Forum function that wanted.

    1. Search still not function correctly.
    2. EDIT/POSTING threads/posts not have any possibility to change Color/Font else other things that OLD one had.
    3. Avatars not function.
    4. Private Massages are gone.

    AND much more that not function.
  • Kevin WoodKevin Wood Posts: 1,266
    edited 2010-08-06 20:37
    Sapieha wrote: »
    4. Private Massages are gone.

    Wow, I guess I really missed out on that one... :)
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2010-08-06 21:03
    Your old private messages are STILL there on the old software.

    It's located at http://forums.parallaxinc.com/forums

    New private messages will go to the new software... No biggie really.

    ---

    I fixed my Hydra Project thread for now, it really wasn't that difficult to make
    a couple quick adjustments using select-all, copy-paste into an editor.
    A little find/replace later and good to go.

    Most of the adjustment I made were to change the domain name in the links.

    So much negativity.. Wow..

    OBC
  • SeariderSearider Posts: 290
    edited 2010-08-06 21:14
    Thanks OBC for a little sanity. Nothing has been lost because the old forums are still available. The new forums seem to be working fine for new post. :cool:
  • John R.John R. Posts: 1,376
    edited 2010-08-06 21:17
    So much negativity.. Wow..

    Who moved my cheese?

    For those that have lived through one of the many variations of the book exercises, I'll share my answer to "which mouse are you?"

    I replied that I wasn't in the book. The instructor/facilitator asked "what do you mean". I replied: "I'm the jerk who moves the cheese!". She just went slack jawed for a bit...
  • trodosstrodoss Posts: 577
    edited 2010-08-06 21:19
    @OBC,
    Looks like the Hydra forum links are in working order for now at least in the first post.

    I might see about consolidating a few of the later posts a little and doing the same. The bigger job will be trying to tie them back to the "new" forum posts.

    One of the major issues I have seen is that some of the converted attachments on the new forum do not work (mentioned here: http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?t=124524). If they cannot be re-converted/fixed it could be a pretty big job trying to track down and/or finding them a new "home" (some sort of offsite hosting).
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2010-08-06 21:31
    Someone was also complaining that colors didn't work.
    (See my post in the test forum for just how many colors I could come up with.)

    OBC
  • Oldbitcollector (Jeff)Oldbitcollector (Jeff) Posts: 8,091
    edited 2010-08-06 21:40
    trodoss wrote: »
    @OBC,
    If they cannot be re-converted/fixed it could be a pretty big job trying to track down and/or finding them a new "home" (some sort of offsite hosting).

    I'm already looking at this..

    I've been looking for an excuse to finally dump the last of the Propeller section on Warrantyvoid and it seems i have one now. I think I'm going to start rooting out the gems and hosting them on Propellerpowered for now.

    OBC
  • Heater.Heater. Posts: 21,230
    edited 2010-08-06 22:25
    Searider: "Nothing has been lost because the old forums are still available."

    Not true. Out there there are thousands of sites that have links into threads in the old forum. All kind of project pages, blogs etc. Not to mention all the Google index is now out of date for the Parallax forum.

    If I had my own project pages I could fix them. We cannot fix everyone elses pages though.

    It may have been better to lock down the old forum and start the new one on a new URL.

    OBC "..negativity" Perhaps. I just had a birthday and am feeling older and grumpier than usual.
  • SapiehaSapieha Posts: 2,964
    edited 2010-08-07 01:18
    Someone was also complaining that colors didn't work.
    (See my post in the test forum for just how many colors I could come up with.)

    OBC

    THANKS.

    BUT ned all people be Programing's GURUS to use that.
    Cna't t be placed some help buttons IN EDIT window th help have Colors/Bold text and like.?
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2010-08-07 01:29
    Go to the User CP,

    Choose "Edit options"

    At the bottom choose "Standard Editor - Extra formatting controls" instead of the default "Basic editor".

    Rich H
  • SapiehaSapieha Posts: 2,964
    edited 2010-08-07 04:31
    W9GFO wrote: »
    Go to the User CP,

    Choose "Edit options"

    At the bottom choose "Standard Editor - Extra formatting controls" instead of the default "Basic editor".

    Rich H


    Thanks W9GFO.

    Now I'm more convenient (Used WysiWyg).
    And have all functions I will have.
  • HollyMinkowskiHollyMinkowski Posts: 1,398
    edited 2010-08-07 13:46
    Had some probs logging in, had to go get
    a new pw emailed. Then once I was in when
    I tried to post it said I was not logged in..so
    again I had to log in...ugghhh

    Where are our avatars?
    How do I add an image to a post?
    I just can't live without the ability
    to add images to posts. :-(
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2010-08-07 13:55
    Where are our avatars?
    How do I add an image to a post?
    I just can't live without the ability
    to add images to posts. :-(

    You add inline images exactly the same way as before.

    uavatar.aspx?ImageID=1096

    Rich H
  • HollyMinkowskiHollyMinkowski Posts: 1,398
    edited 2010-08-07 13:55
    xDmkqBUL.jpeg

    Testing to see if I can post an image :)
  • W9GFOW9GFO Posts: 4,010
    edited 2010-08-07 13:56
    Ha! Beat you to it!
  • TubularTubular Posts: 4,718
    edited 2010-08-07 14:55
    In general I think the new vBulletin forums will serve us well. The mouseover preview is excellent, as is the 'related threads' links, and the search is much better. The forum text displays better on portable devices.

    However, the decision to shift the old forums to Parallaxinc.com seems to me a major error. This tears the fabric that links the forums to numerous external sites and potential new users linking from those sites. And for what? Why not put the new forums at parallaxinc instead and maintain the fabric?
  • potatoheadpotatohead Posts: 10,261
    edited 2010-08-07 15:09
    I agree with that. There are a ton of links out there, pointing to forum posts. IMHO, that should be fixed ASAP.

    That's a basic web content rule of thumb. Build out and on, but never move, unless it absolutely has to be that way.

    Just thinking of things like the Wiki, personal blogs, other forum links... There are implications on search too. With all that stuff broken, what propeller mind-share cred we do have will evaporate rapidly, needing to be rebuilt again.
  • TubularTubular Posts: 4,718
    edited 2010-08-07 15:38
    I did a bit of digging
    A quick google link check ("linkto:forums.parallax.com") announced about 90,300 links to the forums. Thats a lot, but when challenged to display all those pages google could only cough up about 450 real links, not all of which are true forum links

    I'd like to hear from parallax regarding their domain logic. They may have good reasons for doing what they did. Or it might just be to do with beta testing (its common to run a test site, say at parallaxinc, then "swap" sites to go live, more out of habit). But the way I see it the logo at top of forums page reads "Parallax Inc Forums", so why not put it at forums.parallaxinc.com?

    Finally, there may be another solution to this. A tradition link reads something like
    http://forums.parallax.com/forums/default.aspx?f=25&p=028&m=156993#m264813
    It may be possible to write a "redirector", called default.aspx, that takes those last arguments, and translates and links to the new relevant location. That might appease us. :)

    *edit: the last bit of the link got truncated by vBulletin. Since relevant to the post, its default.aspx?f=25&p=028&m=156993#m264813
  • HarleyHarley Posts: 997
    edited 2010-08-07 17:37
    [rant]
    I wasn't aware there was going to be a new forum. Must of missed that news.

    But the new forum sure didn't seem as cozy and friendly as the old, for some reason. More like the Microchip forum of years ago which turned quite hostile for some.

    And seems one had to keep logging in our forum for some reason. Without logging off. Next time I come back "Log in" please!

    Hopefully the benefits of the new site will out weigh the nuisance items.
    [/rant/

    Hopefully everyone will remain helpful and friendly.
  • WBA ConsultingWBA Consulting Posts: 2,935
    edited 2010-08-07 23:00
    Personally, I will be taking a break for a week from the forums until some of the obvious issues are addressed. I don't have time right now to wade through the details to get me back in gear.

    I have read several of the threads on the issues with the new forums and already changed some of my settings to take care of some of the annoyances discussed, but before I start my own fixes and/or band-aids to my posts for example, I'll give Parallax the chance to address them. The WYSIWYG editor for posts was the first change I made.

    Having gone through several ERP migrations over the years and having to sit through numerous CRPs (conference room pilots) to ensure that the obvious is addressed prior to release, my opinion is that the Parallax forum migration did happen prematurely. Things like the code formatting not transferring and broken links is critical and should have been a complete showstopper on the migration.

    Anyhow, here are some thoughts for those who will trudging through this next week:

    1. Someone should start a thread as a "New Forum User Issues List" and keep updating the top post with the list and each item's status (IE: open/fixed). This will help Parallax track issues rather than reading threads to find them. I would rather have them fixing the issues.
    2. Keep all venting on a single "I hate this new forum" thread. The venting is healthy in a way, but having random threads all over with both venting and issues for Parallax to address will make it difficult for Parallax to see all issues that users are seeing.
    3. When you post an issue, be as detailed as possible. For example, there are lots of pages in the control panel. If you have an issue with something there, make sure you list which page it's on.
    4. Be patient with Parallax. This migration is huge and NOBODY can say that Parallax doesn't see the VALUE of the forums. Ken himself has said that the forums are a staple to their success.
    Anyhow, hope things go smooth over the next week with the fixes. In the meantime, I'll be taking OBC's advice and be DOING something with the propeller in my normal "surf the forum" times. I am setting up a new project on my PPDB so I can work on it portably this week and hopefully finish it by next weekend.

    Andrew Williams
    WBA Consulting
    http://www.powertwig.com
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