Albert Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 As some of you may have already read, we have been planning to move our forums to new software for some time. After a fair amount of work on getting the UBB6 -> phpBB2 converter working so we could do a complete import of our existing user and messagebase, we are ready to make the switch. Sometime late tonight (central time), we will take the existing board down, and the message boards will be inaccessible for a period of several hours. During this time we'll be converting all the existing users and messages over. My guess is that it will take roughly four hours, assuming nothing goes wrong. We've already done a complete conversion as a test, so we don't expect any problems. When the forum goes back online, you'll be able to login normally. However, phpBB2 does not have a concept of separate logins vs. Displayed Names as UBB does, so many of you are going to want to change your login (which you can easily do on your profile page). The new software is a huge improvement over our current software and supports many new features not available now. Some of the changes include: Who's online: You can see who's online, where people are, and even see who's reading the same forum as you are. Local time support. You can now specifiy your time in relation to GMT, so posts will show up relative to your local time. Built-in Calendar. Easily see when upcoming classic gaming events are, and other important events (such as the birth of Atari or Nolan Bushnell's birthday). Private message support is much improved. Much better Avatar support. We can setup multiple Avatar Galleries, and users can now upload their own Avatars. Also, Avatars can now be up to 120x120 (vs. 64x64). Much improved search capabilities, not to mention immensely faster. Makes it much easier to track down discussions that took place a year ago. Polls. You can now create topics with polls as the first message. We expect this feature to get used fairly often. Topic Views. You'll be able to see how many times any given topic has been viewed. More moderation features. For instance, we can now split individual posts from one topic into a new topic. This is useful when a topic strays a bit too far from the original subject. You can now "watch" any thread and receive email notification when someone responds. UBB only allows you to do this for threads you have started. You can easily view posts since you're last visit, view your posts (to see if anyone has responded), and even view unanswered posts. Memberlist function that lets you view all the members and sort by name, joined date, location, number of posts, and more. Profile supports entering of AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, and MSN ids. If you enter these, icons are displayed at the bottom of your posts allowing people to send you messages. There's considerably more, but these are a start. The new forum is also a great deal easier to modify, and we will be able to accomodate requests more easily than in the past. Plus there is a large mod community already out there creating great additions to the software, some of which we've already installed and others that we'll add in the future. We hope everyone likes the new software and look forward to feedback. If you'd like a preview, you can check out the main phpbb support site here. Yes, I know this is off-topic. The new forums will have an announcements board at the top so I can post important information such as this. ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 Now I'll never be able to lurk...damn! j/k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 quote: Originally posted by Albert: ... we are ready to make the switch. Cool! quote Sometime late tonight (central time), we will take the existing board down, and the message boards will be inaccessible for a period of several hours. I hope this doesn't interfere with Ben's next hint in the Pitfall contest. quoteWho's online: You can see who's online, where people are, and even see who's reading the same forum as you are. Hmm, can I disable that feature, if I don't want this? quote: Local time support. You can now specifiy your time in relation to GMT, so posts will show up relative to your local time. Great! quoteMuch better Avatar support. We can setup multiple Avatar Galleries, and users can now upload their own Avatars. Also, Avatars can now be up to 120x120 (vs. 64x64). I hope that doesn't kill my 56k modem. (can you limit the image filesize?) BTW: Now that I've reached the 1000 post mark, will that number survive? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lonesome_pa Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 Sounds like the forum will be great. Can't wait to use it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted June 10, 2002 Author Share Posted June 10, 2002 quote: Originally posted by Nukey Shay: Now I'll never be able to lurk...damn! j/k Actually, you can set yourself to "Hidden" so you don't show up as being online. So you can continue to lurk as usual if that's what you'd like. Here is a snapshot taken from the phpbb support forum, where you can see there are "2 Hidden" users online: ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted June 10, 2002 Author Share Posted June 10, 2002 quote Hmm, can I disable that feature, if I don't want this? Yes, you can go into your profile and make yourself "Hidden" if you'd like (see my response to Nukey above). quote:I hope that doesn't kill my 56k modem. (can you limit the image filesize?) We can limit the size of avatars that people upload. Given that we've increased the avatar dimensions to 120x120 (from 64x64), we'll have to allow larger filesizes than before. But nothing unreasonable, by any means. I think this will require some experimenting on our part to find a good balance. I may also add a feature to the software that allows people to disable viewing of Avatars. quoteBTW: Now that I've reached the 1000 post mark, will that number survive? Yes, everyone's post count will survive intact. Here is a snippet of your profile in the new forums (this was from several days ago, before you reached 1000): ..Al [ 06-10-2002: Message edited by: Albert ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 quote: Originally posted by Albert: I may also add a feature to the software that allows people to disable viewing of Avatars. As long as all avatars have the same size (or only a few different ones) I can filter them myself using WebWasher. quoteYes, everyone's post count will survive intact. Thanks! BTW: I can change my public name, but not my login name. What name will the new software display: tjentzsch or Thomas Jentzsch. I would like my public name to stay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 So folks, if you see two "hiddens", you'll know that Thomas and me are prowling about. j/k Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 Progress in inevitable I guess. I don't really care much about who is online. And I hate polls. Usually there are only 5 responses allowed, and *some* people come up with the most stupid of polls. I like it better when people respond to polls with their own comments, not just by a click of a button. I hope AA isn't inundated with them. I can just imagine some of Tempest's "Polls" ... "Do you think CX123 is a better number than CX101?" or "Which Prototype do *you* dream about", yada yada yada ... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 Egad, does that mean we lose our stars and/or "!!!!!!!" ?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted June 10, 2002 Author Share Posted June 10, 2002 quote: Originally posted by Cafeman: I don't really care much about who is online. This is shown at the bottom of the main index (so you can easily ignore it), and at the top of each forum: quoteAnd I hate polls. Usually there are only 5 responses allowed, and *some* people come up with the most stupid of polls. I like it better when people respond to polls with their own comments, not just by a click of a button. I hope AA isn't inundated with them. While I understand your concern that they can be taken too far, I think they will be useful in many circumstances. We'll make sure the board isn't flooded with them. quoteEgad, does that mean we lose our stars and/or "!!!!!!!" ?! Nope! Although we are changing the ranks a bit and they are no longer represented by stars: ..Al Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NE146 Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 What about our "elite" statuses as the initial joiners of Atariage (or some of us who have been around since the Nexus days) will we lose those as well? i.e. Member #'s? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+-^CrossBow^- Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 I have seen it and yes..we loose the member numbers..however, if you pull up the memberlist and sort by join date...you basically see the info the same way... in that it will display when we joined and registered with AtariAge... Therefore Ben and I can still be the coolest being the l33test members with senority on this site... I am of course...totally kidding in the above remarks... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Albert Posted June 10, 2002 Author Share Posted June 10, 2002 quote: Originally posted by NE146: What about our "elite" statuses as the initial joiners of Atariage (or some of us who have been around since the Nexus days) will we lose those as well? i.e. Member #'s? As CrossBow stated, member numbers will no longer be displayed anywhere. However, you can now look at a Member list page, which defaults to sorting by joined date. ..Al [ 06-10-2002: Message edited by: Albert ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris++ Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 (Banging head against desk) Is there any way you can turn off the poll "feature"? This is going to turn into another one of those message boards full of brainless polls (i.e. "Which damsel would you rather rescue in real life: Mario's girl or Smurfette?"). I've seen it happen before; in fact, it's the reason for which this is the only forum I'm currently a member of. Anything resembling intriguing discussion will be minimized greatly. Don't do this to your nifty board, fellas! Anyone want to back me up on this? PLEASE? -- CF (Still banging head against desk) If it ain't broke, DON'T BREAK IT. Know what I mean? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
liquid_sky Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 ill back you up.. i can already imagine the stuff the 3 brain celled offtopic newcomers would start as polls... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osbo Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 only administrators or moderators should be able to start a poll, or at least approved 'em Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Cafeman Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 That's what I was talking about a few posts up ... I frequent a JP site now & then, for example -- it is filled with uninteresting "polls", often by people who stop in and have little to actually say. Polls ... I don't like 'em ... Nossir, I don't like 'em attall! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zraider Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 I agree that polls can be taken to the extreme, and usually are. I've been a member of the www.camaroz28.com board since '98 and now I seldom even visit the board, this being one reason. I like the old saying about "If it ain't broke, don't fix it", but I guess progress progrreses. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jahfish Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 quote: Originally posted by Albert: We can limit the size of avatars that people upload. Given that we've increased the avatar dimensions to 120x120 (from 64x64), we'll have to allow larger filesizes than before. But nothing unreasonable, by any means. I think this will require some experimenting on our part to find a good balance. I may also add a feature to the software that allows people to disable viewing of Avatars. why don't you leave this in the 8bit-mode? .... i really liked the small avatars .... and it's slow enough when you have a modem .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahsMyBro Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 NEW POLL!! Should the new AA Message Board allow polls, or not? A) YA! Pollz r da BOMB! B) No. No Polls. No. aw crap...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Osbo Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 see? see? I think a good option wold be erase my own post, of course my OWN... like a duplicate or something like that. [ 06-10-2002: Message edited by: osbo ] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Jentzsch Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 I think before complaining about member-ids, avatars, polls etc. we should give the "new" mb a try. Then we can start finetuning. To many polls? Restrict them! To large avatars? Make them smaller! No member-id? Add it to you name! (e.g. Thomas Jentzsch, #45) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pitfall Harry Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 I stand firmly behind those opposed to unrestricted member polls. Opinions may be a dime a dozen, but poorly authored polls are worse than worthless. They are an absolute cancer to every messageboard forum I've ever been to where members are granted unfettered authorship privilidges to polls. Rarely well thought out, polls often strain the bounds of what is topical. They limit those who care to respond to them to a mindless set of choices. Poll abuses are the NUMBER ONE REASON I no longer visit websites that indiscriminantly host them. Now, the Off-Topic forum is a great idea. It offers a place for members with a penchant for mindless prattle to get it out of their systems, much to the relief of the members whose time is much more valuable. Maybe the new AtariAge should leverage upon past success and set aside a dedicated Polls Forum where members may post polls to heart's content while restricting member posted polls from all other forums. That way, members who like polls know where to go, and the members who don't like polls can easily ignore them. Maybe a Polls Forum could be split out in heirarchical fashion for the benefit of those who yearn for topical-ness within it. I don't see why a few polls couldn't make their way into other forums, so long as they remain topical and so long as individual members do not abused the priviledge. In the absence of a dedicated Polls Forum, I would recommend placing a limit (preferably enforced by an extension to the phpbb2 software) on each member's priviledge to post polls to the topical forums. And I'd set it at a maximum of ONE poll per month per member. Should Atari Age permit members unrestricted polls? A) All of the Above B) My butt itches C) A and B, but not C D) I never respond to polls Ben Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nukey Shay Posted June 10, 2002 Share Posted June 10, 2002 I'm compelled to agree on the poll business. Forum killers, I'd say (filling the board with much more useless drivel than we come up with on our own by actually having to type). Still have my doubts that the split-topic feature is up to the job. "You'd probably short-circuit." -3PO Just keeping up with the number of topics in the Relationship thread would be amazing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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