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FightBack Forums _ What's New _ Forum Software Upgrade

Posted by: Fredd Tue, 2 Jan 2007 - 14:41
Post #157592

The forum software upgrade has now been carried out, and the forums have been back online since 23:30 yesterday, 1 January.

We apologise for the unexpectely long duration of the downtime, which was due to the fact that the automated installation program was unable to deal with the size of the forum database on our server, and so the installation largely had to be done manually.

This upgrade hasn't changed the basic functionality of the forums significantly so you should find that it feels comfortable very quickly. A list of the new features is shown further down this post.

There are a few known oustanding issues with this upgrade:

Regards,
Fredd



______________________________________________________________________________


New Features in Invision Power Board 2.2

Personal Profile Portal
Invision Power Board 2.2.0 has a totally redesigned portal page with the following features:New Text Editor
New Style
The text editors, both standard and rich text (WYSIWYG) have been completely rewritten to make them more intuitive and faster to load. Clutter has been reduced with the new dynamic menus.

Switch
You can now switch between the rich text editor and the standard editor without the need to reload the page or visit your User Control Panel.

New Attachment System
Upload without the reload
IPB 2.2 has a new attachment system that enables one to upload attachments without having to reload the post screen. The new attachment area is directly below the text editor.

New Style
The attachment system has had a complete overhaul and is now styled along side the new text editor

New Thumbnail Design
Attached image thumbnail previews now have information above and below the thumbnail offering original file size and original dimensions.

Inline message system
Invision Power Board has an on-the-fly message system to confirm actions have taken place.

Updated CAPTCHA
Due to the increasing rise of spam bots flooding forums, and the increasing capabilities of scripts to bypass CAPTCHA protection by parsing the image for the registration code, our CAPTHA output has been updated to make it harder for scripts to read the CAPTCHA code IPB generates.

Per-Forum Capability to remember sort options
There is now a checkbox under the forum sorting options in each forum allowing you to select your preferred sort options, and have these options be remembered when you leave the forum and come back (or when you read a topic and return to the forum, for example). This option uses a cookie to remember your individual selections.

Minor Requested Enhancements/Changes
The following are not necessarily new features or bug fixes, but are changes commonly requested by members implemented in 2.2:
  1. The calendar you are viewing is now included in the breadcrumb (navigation) bar
  2. Subscript, superscript BBCODE added (with clickable buttons), and "unlink" button added to the RTE to easily allow you to unlink a link
  3. Only one email will be sent for topic notifications until you visit again, unless you have your email setting set to send the full post in your topic notifications (in which case you will get a notification for each new post)
  4. Forum read markers now updated via AJAX
  5. Search link now has a context sensitive drop down box. If you're in a forum you can search directly in that forum otherwise you can perform a global search.
  6. Modified top navigation area with subtle separators to break up the links into cleaner sections
  7. Enhanced 'mini-profile' drop down when clicking on an author's name in topic view or when reading a PM. This drop down includes the member's photo and current rating
Topic Rating via AJAX
When rating a topic your submitted rating will be sent to the server via AJAX allowing you to save your rating without having to refresh the page. Additionally, you will now be able to see two more pieces of information when viewing the rating menu drop down: total number of ratings, and your individual rating.

Multi-choice polls
You can now create multiple-choice polls. There is an additional checkbox next to the question line(s) in a poll form so you can do this on a per-question basis (e.g. - you could have one multiple choice question, and one single-choice only question).

Ability for members pending validation to change their email address
A member who registers on a site and is in the validation group will now be allowed to change their email address. It is possible for a user to register an account, and mistype the email address (twice) or use an email address that is filtering email from the particular domain, and so on. In this case, the user will be stuck in limbo since they will not be able to validate their account, and cannot change their email address.

With this change, a user can change their email address while validating, without breaking the validation process or status. This was previously not allowed.

Auto resizing of large linked images
Posted images are automatically resized on-the-fly if they are larger than the available screen width of the browser. Clicking the image displays it full size in a pop-up window. Each reduced image has information above stating how much reduction has taken place and the dimensions of the original image.

Ability to reset password by email or username
If the login type is 'username' a second field on the reset password screen will display to allow a user to reset their password by their email address. That is, they can enter their email address (i.e. if they forget their username) and the process will proceed as normal.

Posted by: Insider Tue, 2 Jan 2007 - 19:45
Post #157646

QUOTE (Fredd @ Tue, 2 Jan 2007 - 14:41) *
AOL users may find that they are frequently logged out.
While we will try to fix this over the next day or so, it will involve reducing the security of the site.
Seriously guys, why are you using AOL? Just about any ISP would be better, for you and for us. Try typing "AOL sucks" into Google if you want to know why (assuming AOL will let you, of course...)
Regards,
Fredd


Just in case you really can't find such websites using AOL (I wouldn't put it past them rolleyes.gif)

http://www.escapeaol.com/

http://www.geeksbearinggifts.com/AOL/aol_hell.htm

http://deanhunt.com/aol-hell/
Just listen to the recording.... blink.gif


And finally


And even worse... AOL UK has just been taken over by the Carphone Warehouse icon_hang.gif

QUOTE
Tuesday, Jan 02, 2007 - LONDON (AP) - Carphone Warehouse Group PLC said Tuesday it has completed the acquisition of the U.K. customer base of AOL's Internet access business from Time Warner Inc.


http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/04/20/carphone_asa/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/internet/internet_20061003.shtml
http://www.broadband-help.com/providers/reviews/156
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast/5274468.stm
http://www.oliverbrown.me.uk/2006/05/17/talktalk-problems/

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