New Forum Upgrade - need help?

[Jordy]

Our forum software is newly upgraded and is so completely different, we will all have to learn how to use it. If you need help please ask here and when we figure out how to do it, we will answer your questions. If a forum member knows the answer please feel free to jump in and answer on the host's behalf. 

 

Perhaps the biggest challenge is going to be signing in. Please use your Diplay name and Password to sign in. 

 

Enjoy!

[mistermoose]

LOL, which is what I said

[RedPanda]

Thanks Mara, after I posted my comment here, the button magically appeared, where it wasn't before. So I jumped at it and quickly added a cover photo 

I really appreciate the work that Jordy does, especially at a time like this. I'm sure lots of people are going to be asking the same questions over and over, until we know how the new system works.

Thanks, and 'Sterkte!'   Jordy!!!

[Mara]

Jordy

People are getting confused with being able to post a status update on someone else's page... that could be dangerous, as I just found out... in the old system I do not think that was possible, I think you were the only one who could update your status on your own page.

Is there a box which can be clicked to turn this off? Otherwise we are going to be having a lot of embarrassment going forward!

[Jordy]

Thanks Panda for bringing this to my attention. It appears that we can have two completely different types of threads, namely:

1. Discussions and

2.Questions & Answers.

 

Each and every topic thread must be set to one of these two types. 

 

I could just make all of them Discussions as it was in the old software but I think that a Question and Answer type would be more suitable to some subjects.

If the thread is set to Discussions then one -

Starts a new topic

Makes a new Post

Makes a Reply

The Replies are shown in chronological order.

 

If the thread is set to Questions and Answers then one -

Asks a Questions

Gives an Answer

Up votes or down votes the best answer

The best answers are shown first and worst answers are shown last.

 

This makes sense to me and is a very nice feature. I will change the settings for the different threads to what hosts think is best. But whatever a thread is set to, it wont suit every type of post a member makes. So there will be times when you need to manually change the display sorting feature to suit the conversation. 

[Mara]

Has definitely been a bit mind blowing, but am slowly getting used to it. The only real problem I have found thus far is for those posts that have 14 pages... when you are in Unread items" and you click on that thread, it takes you to the very first post, then you have to select the last page... I do think that may be pretty confusing, especially for new comers!

[mistermoose]

It IS a little Beyond 2000, but it's a lot cleaner and nicer to look at. I'm sure that there must still be modules for the homepage available that show 'latest posts' and so on, so hopefully Jordy is looking into those.

In the meantime, Mara, if you click on the '1 hour ago' (or similar) TIME link in each of the 'unread' post rows, rather than the headline title link, you'll go to the LATEST comment

[Sunnyskies]

I agree with Mara, the go to last unread post worked very well previously, if we can get that feature back it would be great as I think people will get tired of having to look for the last item they read, particularly if they don't tune in daily.  I also liked being able to see how many new comments there were in a thread as it let me decide whether I was going to click into the thread or not.

[Jordy]

26 minutes ago, Sunnyskies said:

I agree with Mara, the go to last unread post worked very well previously, if we can get that feature back it would be great as I think people will get tired of having to look for the last item they read, particularly if they don't tune in daily.  I also liked being able to see how many new comments there were in a thread as it let me decide whether I was going to click into the thread or not.

In the "Unread contents" search results, you can either click on the Thread title which will take you to page one, or you can click on the Time of last post which will take you to the last post. The Time is how long ago the post was made so it will say something like, "4 hrs" or "7 hrs" etc. 

[ottg]

@Jordy - How do I manage My Attachments. In the previous version you were able to delete attachments selectively?

Alternatively how do I make space available for new attachments.

 

[RedPanda]

I can't turn my email options off, it says the "Administrators don't allow you to toggle this option"

And I would like to put a nice background picture on my profile, but I can't find the setting/option. 

Edited November 30, 2015 by RedPanda

[Mara]

@RedPanda. Top right of screen,  if you click on your name and select profile, then when you get to that there are two tabs in the banner on the right, one of them says you can upload a picture. Not sure if that will auto magically replace your RedPanda. It is also possible, hehe, that I have absolutely no idea what I am talking about!

[RedPanda]

I also noticed that it now sorts threads by default according to the 'rank' of a post, and not the chronological order? I know there is a button to change it, but it has to be changed for every thread every time you view it.

Otherwise we will just have to learn to quote everything we reply to. But this can often lead to long posts where the new content is buried under all the reposts?

[Jordy]

On 11/29/2015, 10:35:20, ottg said:

@Jordy - How do I manage My Attachments. In the previous version you were able to delete attachments selectively?

Alternatively how do I make space available for new attachments.

 

I have turned on the ability for a member to delete their own attachments, as it was previously. Try it again. 

[Jordy]

1 hour ago, RedPanda said:

I also noticed that it now sorts threads by default according to the 'rank' of a post, and not the chronological order? I know there is a button to change it, but it has to be changed for every thread every time you view it.

Otherwise we will just have to learn to quote everything we reply to. But this can often lead to long posts where the new content is buried under all the reposts?

There are two blocks per page. The top block will provide highlights of the particular thread. It is called Explore Questions and has has two tabs that show "Popular questions of the past month" and "Qustions with no best answers" The bottom block is all the posts in a thread. For this block mine is default to sort by "Recently Updated" on all threads. What is the default for others?

 

RedPanda are you not just confused by the new addition of the top block?

[RedPanda]

6 hours ago, Jordy said:

There are two blocks per page. The top block will provide highlights of the particular thread. It is called Explore Questions and has has two tabs that show "Popular questions of the past month" and "Qustions with no best answers" The bottom block is all the posts in a thread. For this block mine is default to sort by "Recently Updated" on all threads. What is the default for others?

 

RedPanda are you not just confused by the new addition of the top block?

I have included a snapshot of this thread, the two blocks at the bottom right (the top right,where the replies start). It has been my experience that when I go to a question from the 'unread content' page, then it looks like the snapshot here. So it shows the primary question and then it gives the 'answers' in order of rating. So for me the threads started as questions display differently from the threads started as topics. The questions also give the option to vote answers up, where the topics are just discussions.

I don't know if this is a setting or if it's just the way that questions work now.

[RedPanda]

This thread is in the question format.

Apparently it's now is not a question.

I don't know if this helps?

[RedPanda]

8 hours ago, RedPanda said:

I also noticed that it now sorts threads by default according to the 'rank' of a post, and not the chronological order? I know there is a button to change it, but it has to be changed for every thread every time you view it.

Otherwise we will just have to learn to quote everything we reply to. But this can often lead to long posts where the new content is buried under all the reposts?

I'm sorry, I meant it sorts the posts within threads in "Rated" order.

[GOOD2GO]

Hi RedPanda

I posted a reply yesterday that just disappeared -- I am still trying to find it 

Lost in CyberSpace 

[RedPanda]

3 minutes ago, GOOD2GO said:

Hi RedPanda

I posted a reply yesterday that just disappeared -- I am still trying to find it 

Lost in CyberSpace 

Have you tried to select "Sort by Date" when you view the thread? And then going to the place where it should be? Because if anyone 'voted it up' then your reply will jump in the order of the thread and appear near the top. (That's what I found)

[GOOD2GO]

3 minutes ago, RedPanda said:

Have you tried to select "Sort by Date" when you view the thread? And then going to the place where it should be? Because if anyone 'voted it up' then your reply will jump in the order of the thread and appear near the top. (That's what I found)

YES .... That is what happened. Someone voted my post to 1 and it jumped to the first position under the Original question! http://www.saaustralia.org/index.php?/topic/45957-189190s-lodged-nov-2015/&page=1

I was wondering why I am being ignored!!! But it seems like no one read my post.. I think we are all so use to going to the last post and picking up from there 

Will have to get use to this !!! It seems like this upgrade has some nice Features ... We just need to learn how to use it  

[RedPanda]

1 hour ago, Jordy said:

Thanks Panda for bringing this to my attention. It appears that we can have two completely different types of threads, namely:

1. Discussions and

2.Questions & Answers.

Each and every topic thread must be set to one of these two types. 

This makes sense to me and is a very nice feature. I will change the settings for the different threads to what hosts think is best. But whatever a thread is set to, it wont suit every type of post a member makes. So there will be times when you need to manually change the display sorting feature to suit the conversation. 

 

I also like the feature. We will just have to learn how to use it as a community.

(I can see a small 'User Manual' being compiled and put up as a sticky where people can read it. Unfortunately I can't help right now[last leg of masters dissertation], but from about Feb next year I'd be very happy to assist with small forum tasks.)

[ottg]

@ Jordy -

a. When you do a new posting with an attachment can we have a preview available before posting!

b. Also when you list <Activity < All Activity> is there a way you can only see the topics of the activities in a list, instead of the likes & replies to that one activity. 

Edited December 2, 2015 by ottg

[RedPanda]

I particularly like the new dark blue line in the discussion threads that tell you where to pick up your reading.

[Jordy]

On 12/2/2015 at 8:42 PM, ottg said:

@ Jordy -

a. When you do a new posting with an attachment can we have a preview available before posting!

b. Also when you list <Activity < All Activity> is there a way you can only see the topics of the activities in a list, instead of the likes & replies to that one activity. 

a. It gives me a preview once I have attached it. Not sure why it isnt for you. 

b. You are clicking All Activity (which will include likes. You can edit the stream to make it show what you want it to. 

[ottg]

@Jordy - Again it miraculously got fixed after I posted this on the 2 Dec. Thanks!!