Forum Upgraded!

[Ian]

We've now completed the upgrade to the new forum software!

Everything went very smoothly and all of the data has been moved over to the new system. We've still got loads of tweaking to do, so it may take a few days to have everything as we'd like - but we're 95% there and the site should function really well. I'm adding things like the tutorials section back over the coming hours.

Please let me know if you encounter any bugs or problems, or if you have any comments or ideas . I'll post more about the new features once I've sorted out the rest of the upgrade (I'm still rebuilding search indexes and doing behind the scenes work).

 

[Ian]

Not a reply .... Just a question .... WHY ?

Lots of reasons, but primarily because the older software we were using was coming to the end of maintenance releases. It also was no longer compatible with newer versions of PHP (used to run the forum software). In the next year or so, we could have easily found ourselves in a position where a security hole was discovered in PHP and we wouldn't be able to upgrade to it because we'd break the site. Another thing is that newer browsers aren't compatible with some of the older coding in the previous software we used and we've been using proverbial band-aids to try and fix this. If we hadn't made a planned move, we may have found that we'd need to make an unplanned move after finding a more serious problem - there are going to be quite a few other sites making the same jump, as it was a popular bit of software that has reached end of life.

I'm not one for changing software for the sake of it (quite the opposite!), ElectronicsPoint ran on the same software since 2006 (with minor patching) - so we've had a good run on the old version .

 

[CDRIVE]

Hi Ian,

Yeah, I noticed the change when I had to re-log in today. Within seconds Norton alerted me that it blocked a Trojan trying to steal my passwords. Coincidence or is there a security hole?

Chris

 

[Ian]

Hi Chris,

I'm certain this is a co-incidence, as I performed the installation myself (and it's clean!) - plus we're a website without plugins, so it should be doubly safe as there is nothing to download. If you have a screenshot or log of the data, I'd be grateful if you could PM it to me so I can take a look . I wonder if it's because Norton has noticed that the site has changed and guesses it's something malicious. Just to double check, I did a Norton SafeWeb scan and it comes back as clear: https://safeweb.norton.com/report/show?url=http://www.electronicspoint.com/

Cheers,
Ian

 

[jpanhalt]

Is there a way to collapse the right-hand side of the display?




1) I very much like the ability to paste a snippet.

2) Also like going to the first unread when clicking on a thread.

Thanks.

John

 

[Ian]

Is there a way to collapse the right-hand side of the display?

Glad you like it . There's not a way to do this yet, but it's on my list .

 

[Arouse1973]

Looks very good. I like the alerts function, beats going back to see if there has been a reply. I miss the light bulb, knowing when some ones online or have I just missed it.
Adam

 

[(*steve*)]

If I look for unread posts, that's fine. When I have none it offers me "recent" posts. Is there a way to see the recent posts without having to read (and deal with) all the new ones?

 

[Ian]

If I look for unread posts, that's fine. When I have none it offers me "recent" posts. Is there a way to see the recent posts without having to read (and deal with) all the new ones?

Not sure I understand Steve ?

 

[(*steve*)]

Figured it out.

I can use https://www.electronicspoint.com/find-new/posts for new posts

and https://www.electronicspoint.com/find-new/posts?recent=1 for recent posts.

 

[jpanhalt]

Came across this a comment in a thread under general electronics repair:


There was no reply panel. How can one find out what privileges he has or doesn't have? Are these something like private threads that are publicly viewable?

John

 

[Ian]

Hi John, I suspect that was from a post in the newsgroup archive - was there a notice at the top of the page about it? The archive section is full of older posts (apart from one or two that slipped though before I added read-only mode to it again). All members can post in the main forum areas of the site, it's just the newsgroup archive that's in read-only mode - I'll improve the signage to show this .

 

[jpanhalt]

By golly, I think you've got it!

Now, I know we have "new groups." At least, I am in good company. Here is one of our moderators responding to a post from April 11...



Trouble is the year was 2004!

John

 

[Harald Kapp]

I admit I haven't looked at the date, just saw this post as unanswered. I doubt my answer wil be helpful by now

 

[Harald Kapp]

About Hyperlinks:
Inserting a hyperlink is easy, but finding one in a post is not. Hyperlinks look inconspicuously like ordinary text until you hover the mouse over them. Then they are highlighted.
Is there a way to automatically highlight hyperlinks permanently without resorting to manual formatting during entry of a post?

 

[Ian]

About Hyperlinks:
Inserting a hyperlink is easy, but finding one in a post is not. Hyperlinks look inconspicuously like ordinary text until you hover the mouse over them. Then they are highlighted.
Is there a way to automatically highlight hyperlinks permanently without resorting to manual formatting during entry of a post?

Yes, that's a very good point! Let me take a look

Test Link: Electronics Point

 

[Ian]

I've made links in text Orange now - is that any easier?

 

[duke37]

What does 'report' and 'like' mean?
My eyes are getting on in years, I would like darker print and mybe little larger. The old forum let me run at 125% but this one disapproves.

The system is much slower, I don't have broadband, the best it can be described as narrowband.

It will take a while to get used to it.

 

[Ian]

"Report" can be used to report spam or inappropriate content - once you click that and tick an option, the mods will be alerted to any content on the forum that shouldn't be there (similar to the old warning triangle we used to have). The "Like" buttons are things you can click to approve or give thanks to a post - it's something that is becoming common place on apps and other bits of software, but it's not something that you have to use if you don't want to.

The new site seems to load pretty speedily for me, but I'll run a few speed tests and see if there's anything I can do to optimise things. The server cache should be running at around optimal now as the site has been online for a day or so. I'll see what I can do .

 

[CDRIVE]

Hi Chris,

I'm certain this is a co-incidence, as I performed the installation myself (and it's clean!) - plus we're a website without plugins, so it should be doubly safe as there is nothing to download. If you have a screenshot or log of the data, I'd be grateful if you could PM it to me so I can take a look . I wonder if it's because Norton has noticed that the site has changed and guesses it's something malicious.

Cheers,
Ian

Hi Ian,

The Norton control panel has always been the pits! I looked but I have absolutely no idea how to access the log files. Malware Bytes makes it easy to find them. You probably (bold) nailed it

Thanks,
Chris