Changes

[Admin]

June is experiments.  With new things, new softwares and servers and such.

 

So, this month I am compiling lists of the stuff I want to be sure the new software has.  And also looking at the board guidelines to update those for the new thing.

 

If there's stuff you like about SMF and this board, post and let me know so I can make sure it makes the list.  Also if there's stuff that we don't have that you might like to see included in the experiments, let me know here.

 

The current plan is to get our information together, then make sure the software is ready, including making sure all the volunteers are familiar with the software and how things work with it so they can master the differences and be able to help users with questions they might have.  Then, we will transfer the board data to the new software.  So we shouldn't lose any posts/threads or anything like that.  It won't be like the other transfer from Proboard where we had to leave the old data behind.  The data from SMF should port over to the new software.

 

When that occurs, and it won't be for some time (like maybe a couple months at the earliest), we will give people plenty of advanced notice, and also open up the backup board so that people can post there while waiting for the data to port over and the new forum to get up and running.  My understanding is there won't be a ton of downtime, maybe a few hours to an afternoon if all goes well.  But again, that won't be for awhile yet and we'll tell you before it happens.

 

so let me know:

 

1.  What you like/want to be sure we keep from this forum/software setup.

 

2.  Stuff you might like to see in the new software that isn't currently part of the SMF board.

 

[NaBarney]

Two things I really want

 

1. I want to be able to go through my past posts in my tracker and, like on lithium, be able to tell from that screen if a thread I posted in has new replies, and if anyone has replied to my post. Lithium did this by highlighting the thread title/link to the thread if there were new posts I haven't read, and included a little arrow indicator if anyone had replied to the post I made. Here there's no way to tell any of that stuff without reading through each thread individually which no one has time for, so if someone replies to something I wrote it's easy to miss.

 

2. Be able to reply to a post without quoting it in order for anyone to know who I'm replying to

[mthor]

I freely admit that I am old and crotchety - maybe you young'uns like it - but that autoplay thing is driving me around the bend. Is there a way that it can be burnt with fire and its ashes scattered at a crossroads? Or maybe just disable it?

[PerfectFlowingHair]

I freely admit that I am old and crotchety - maybe you young'uns like it - but that autoplay thing is driving me around the bend. Is there a way that it can be burnt with fire and its ashes scattered at a crossroads? Or maybe just disable it?

Autoplay EVERYWHERE needs to die in a fire.  If I wanna play something, I'll click the stupid "play" button.

 

I will gladly donate as much fire as necessary to make this happen.

[Admin]

that's toward the top of our list.  It's the thing we get the most complaints and reports about atm.  SMF is kind of all or nothing with the BBCode.  I'm hoping maybe the new software will be more adaptable.

[Top Gun]

Two things I really want

 

1. I want to be able to go through my past posts in my tracker and, like on lithium, be able to tell from that screen if a thread I posted in has new replies, and if anyone has replied to my post. Lithium did this by highlighting the thread title/link to the thread if there were new posts I haven't read, and included a little arrow indicator if anyone had replied to the post I made. Here there's no way to tell any of that stuff without reading through each thread individually which no one has time for, so if someone replies to something I wrote it's easy to miss.

 

2. Be able to reply to a post without quoting it in order for anyone to know who I'm replying to

1. Can't you already do that with the "Replies" option next to your profile pic in the upper-right?

 

2. Maybe it's just me, but I always thought that was an exceedingly silly quirk of LIthium's setup.  If you're responding to a point someone made, that's what quoting is for; if not, you're just making a post in the overall thread anyway.  All it seemed to lead to on Lithium was a massive pain in the ass when a mod would move an offending post, and then every single post in the reply chain from it would be removed automatically for no good reason.  It got to the point when I'd always make a point to only reply to the OP so that my posts wouldn't get inadvertently eaten.

 

And out of random curiosity, why are we moving away from SMF in the first place?  It's a nice fully-featured forum suite, and I've been around a number of sites that have been using it for more than a decade.

[Admin]

SMF is more than a little wonky on the back end.

 

that is to say:  It's very old software.  And the very way the internet moves and is processed has changed dramatically since it was created.  And they do issue updates to the software periodically.  But those updates aren't always compatible with your board plugins.  So, for example, you browse the SMF list of plugins and find something you need, odds are it already isn't compatible with either your theme or your SMF version.  So you either have to do without, or fix a ton of errors in the plugin to consolidate it to the version, and a ton more to consolidate it to the theme.

 

So - with SMF, you have a software package that, at its core, is way out of date.  And yeah, they can update it to a degree, but without scrapping it entirely and remaking it, there's only so much you can do with it.  And then on top of that, what updates they can and do come out with, fuck with your plugins and addons.

 

Since we began, KN has been pushing for a software package that is more current and actively developed, and rightly so as it provides a smoother experience for users and an easier experience for those of us behind the scenes. 

 

so, SMF works.  sort of.  It's still not really optimized by any stretch of the imagination for mobile and all the various devices used for internet surfage these days.  So - the choice is, do we limp along with SMF until they finally stop updating it (because it really is only a matter of time there) or switch it up to something that's current, actively developed, and will provide an easier time for admins in terms of developing the board and crafting it to the needs of UE and community, and a smoother experience for said community?

 

The choice I made was to go ahead and change it up to something else.

 

 

 

 

[naraku360]

I'd like to see me being a mod.

 

O0

[1pooh4u]

I'd like to see me being a mod.

 

O0

This infinity

[PerfectFlowingHair]

Lolol.  Sure, I too would like mod powers to promptly abuse. 

[Ginguy]

Hmmmm

Keep the dice, I think that has serious potential.

Quizzes are fun as well.

I could care less about autoplay, but perhaps not having YT videos being gigantic would be nice.

Some kind of indication as to who it is you are replying to would be nice.

 

 

 

 

 

[Admin]

I actually take my whole browser window down to 80% on the computer just because - at 100% it's all gigantic and blocky to me.

[Ginguy]

Supposedly, if you copy/paste the share link it will autosize to 640x480. I've seen that a couple times here, but it is hard telling if that was a board function or the people embedding inserting a size format code.

 

 

 

Confirm for using share link to get the smaller size.

 

 

[NaBarney]

1. Can't you already do that with the "Replies" option next to your profile pic in the upper-right?

 

 

 

When I go to Replies this post of yours that I quoted and am replying to doesn't show up. Top Gun[/member]

 

When I go to Replies I guess maybe it shows threads I posted in where people clicked Reply instead of Quote to my post, but it's impossible to tell which replies are to me... So it's a guessing game that I don't care to play

 

Edit: well no that doesn't seem to be correct either since the most recent thread under Replies is one in which only one person has posted after my post and they aren't responding to what I wrote but the op... So unless they clicked Reply on my post to reply to the op, which I'm pretty sure didn't happen (but again there is no way at all to tell) then I have no idea wtf Replies is for.

[Top Gun]

It's not meant to track threads where people have explicitly responded to you (how it would determine that in the first place I have no idea), but instead threads you've posted in that have new posts after yours.  You have to *gasp* actually read the thread to see who's talking to you.

[NaBarney]

Oh I see.

 

Well I don't want to read through every thread I've ever posted in to find out if anyone replied to me, I just want to go back to the ones where someone replied to my​ post. Lithium was able to let me know which posts of mine received replies, I like that feature and want it back.

 

So to answer

1. Can't you already do that with the "Replies" option next to your profile pic in the upper-right?

 

No.

[Top Gun]

Generally speaking, when someone makes a post in a thread, they're interested in continuing to read the rest of the thread, whether other people are directly quoting them or not.  I can't think of a case where I've only been interested in someone's direct replies to me: at that point, I might as well be having a conversation over PMs.  Plus this place isn't exactly the busiest forum on the planet, so it hardly seems like a major task to keep track of a few active threads that you've posted in.

 

Honestly, the Lithium system just made posting exceedingly cumbersome as far as I'm concerned.  The worst part of it was when you were trying to quote multiple people: I'd wind up having multiple tabs open for each individual "reply," then copypasta all of the code for each quote into another window.  With SMF, or most other forum software suites I've used, you can easily insert multiple quotes into the quick-reply box, or at the very least quote multiple responses on the full-reply page.  Lithium's still the only forum suite I've seen (outside of ancient comment-tree type setups) that treats a thread as a bunch of jumbled-together reply chains, instead of a cohesive conversation, which as I said before made modding in particular a real nightmare.  (It didn't help that most mods never bothered to go back and re-add posts caught in a removal that weren't offensive themselves.)  It just feels like reading a Reddit conversation in the default view, i.e. a fragmented pain in the ass.

[naraku360]

Lolol.  Sure, I too would like mod powers to promptly abuse. 

I won't abuse my powers......

 

immediately.

[Admin]

I'm thinking we're not ever going to get any kind of gigantic rush of new traffic.  At most it'll be kind of a slow/gradual steady climb.  Which has been the trend since the last big board reconfiguration.  we will be reaching out a tiny bit more with search engines, occasional invites, and other things, once we are on the new server and the IPB is all up and running.  it will never be like back on the ASMB where they just did a board bump and we got a few thousand+ people landing at once.

[SwimModSponges]

I want to be able to see exactly who is viewing my  fanfictions.

 

I need to know.

[K_N]

I spoke with the IPB sales team today, they already have a process for importing SMF data to IPB, so we're good.

 

The only stuff that wont come over automatically is plugin-based stuff like Quizzes.

[SwimModSponges]

... quizzes an fanfiction?

[Admin]

We'll figure it out.  We might have to set up a new section for it or something.  That's one of the reasons why it'll probably be a little while between the time we get an IPB set up and the time we move the stuff over.  for one thing, I'll need a little bit of lead time to figure out the admin, the volunteers will need time with the software so they can help answer any user questions, and then also part of that is going to be making sure we get the optimal possible port from here in terms of what we like transitioning over.

 

Things probably won't be exactly the same with the new software, but we'll definitely strive to include the stuff we need and you guys want.

[NaBarney]

I want to be able to see exactly who is viewing my  fanfictions.

 

I need to know.

 

You're sick.

[Guest The Hound]

We'll figure it out.  We might have to set up a new section for it or something.  That's one of the reasons why it'll probably be a little while between the time we get an IPB set up and the time we move the stuff over.  for one thing, I'll need a little bit of lead time to figure out the admin, the volunteers will need time with the software so they can help answer any user questions, and then also part of that is going to be making sure we get the optimal possible port from here in terms of what we like transitioning over.

 

Things probably won't be exactly the same with the new software, but we'll definitely strive to include the stuff we need and you guys want.

 

 

I'll have a server up on thursday if you want to play ball.

Otherwise have fun waiting. IPB, the full 9 yards. You can even import the DB to it. It's up to you, but I will not have one person on our forum running the show, as we're too old and there's no need for that. I will not import this place's DB unless you move on through. I'm even offering to pay you a domain here, and the hosting fees while K_N sets things up on his end. This forum's performance is unacceptable, and so is the way you're handing things. Leaving everything entirely to you is only making half of this place happy.

[Guest The Hound]

You did a great thing getting us all together - but the way you're doing this isn't fair and you clearly don't give a shit about us. If you do give a shit about us, you'll run this in tandem with me - because you keep saying I'm clearly invested into this place, while I've really yet to see any moves from you aside from "The IPB switch is coming".

 

You want a real change, let me handle everything thursday and you can still be admin. Either way I'm going through with this, and don't give me that "I'm staying out of it" shit. I have YOUR staff on board with helping me (who i suggested to you in the first place). Me and you did everything for this fucking place and you should treat me like it and have enough faith in my abilities to run this in tandem with you.

[Guest The Hound]

Other than that, please do explain to me why you are better than us and deserve to run this over all of us. Especially considering me and K_N have done 99% of the work.

[Admin]

Basically, here's what I think about all of it:

 

you always wanted your own AS board, and this ain't that.  So makes sense if you'd want to make a new board for that. 

 

I did trust you at one time with my data, and I did that against the advice of a lot of folks, but for reasons that should be fairly obvious, I definitely do not trust you with my data now.  mine or anybody else's frankly.

 

So, for me the quandry in staying out of it has been that I want you to move on and have fun with your own place.  But also I'm a little leery that the users signing up for it maybe don't quite know fully what they're in for.

 

My hope is that I will be totally surprised and everything will go well and it'll be awesome and people will enjoy it.  But what I feel about it is an over-arching sense of dread for all involved, you, as well as the users heading over there.  And even me, who is trying to stay out of it.  I mean - I've let you paint my board with your side of the story and not interjected.  Mostly because I just hoped you'd settle down once you made your board and maybe at least things would be okay again or something.

 

So - that guy you were a few weeks back, if that guy needs anything, have him contact me.

 

This guy you are right now - I'm just kind of anxious for this guy to move on with his board so I don't have to deal with his drama no more.

 

That's 100% really how I feel about the whole deal.

 

[Guest The Hound]

Basically, here's what I think about all of it:

 

you always wanted your own AS board, and this ain't that.  So makes sense if you'd want to make a new board for that. 

 

I did trust you at one time with my data, and I did that against the advice of a lot of folks, but for reasons that should be fairly obvious, I definitely do not trust you with my data now.  mine or anybody else's frankly.

 

So, for me the quandry in staying out of it has been that I want you to move on and have fun with your own place.  But also I'm a little leery that the users signing up for it maybe don't quite know fully what they're in for.

 

My hope is that I will be totally surprised and everything will go well and it'll be awesome and people will enjoy it.  But what I feel about it is an over-arching sense of dread for all involved, you, as well as the users heading over there.  And even me, who is trying to stay out of it.  I mean - I've let you paint my board with your side of the story and not interjected.  Mostly because I just hoped you'd settle down once you made your board and maybe at least things would be okay again or something.

 

So - that guy you were a few weeks back, if that guy needs anything, have him contact me.

 

This guy you are right now - I'm just kind of anxious for this guy to move on with his board so I don't have to deal with his drama no more.

 

That's 100% really how I feel about the whole deal.

 

 

The only fucking thing I ever wanted was to create the layout and color scheme for the site and keep the place looking fresh. LITERALLY the only thing I ever wanted, and still want. To give people custom titles, give them the user icons, and do fun quirky stuff for the board. Now I was DOING THAT, and made one lapse in judgement temp banning buddy, something that was resolved and something I've spoken to him about multiple times, and I ultimately feel your attitude towards me just steadily declined bit by bit after that, despite me doing things for the site and fixing things for the site. Do you have absolutely any idea how that made me feel? When here I am, the guy who designed what the site looks like and functions for the majority of people with a few users literally following me around trolling me and you doing absolutely nothing, except when it directly concerns your interest.

 

 

I'm a hot head. The moment I feel slighted or disrespected I lose my fucking shit. I can do great things with art and design and always have been - but doing that, and on top of dealing with users harassing me was something I could not handle. You keep bringing up "data", but changing someone's password that I NEVER could see anyway because it's all ****** hardly interferes with anyone's security. I spent hours on this site for you. I mean the biggest insult to injury was at the start when you gave me access to literally every single feature on the admin panel here, aside from moderation privileges. Even though you let a few of the mods here pretty much do what they want with the moderation toolset - with hardly any interaction from you. Not to mention you bring me on board and hide an entire sub-forum from me "Black Board", so there were a number of things that made me feel uneasy as we got to the point we are now. I dare say we're both guilty here of miscommunication.

 

 

 

 

[Guest The Hound]

I feel like shit for all of this but you made me feel like shit.

[Admin]

Black Board is just the mods board.

 

It's called "the Black Board" because I for whatever reason decided to call mods "men/women in black".

 

 

[Guest The Hound]

Black Board is just the mods board.

 

It's called "the Black Board" because I for whatever reason decided to call mods "men/women in black".

Check your PM. I'd like to say a number of things to you, for what it's worth - I'd like to resolve this.

[Admin]

I appreciate the gesture, but I'm not going to call you.

 

You can send me some more PMs though, and I'll read/respond to those.

[Guest The Hound]

I appreciate the gesture, but I'm not going to call you.

 

You can send me some more PMs though, and I'll read/respond to those.

We'll that's kinda insulting, but okay.

[SwimModSponges]

You're sick.

 

I know I have a problem.

 

It's the kind of problem I want to have.

[wacky1980]

yeah, whatever. this thread is devolving into another steaming pile (just like every thread that discusses this little breakup...i see a trend here) so i guess i'll put here what i was gonna put there.

 

/*

a few things...

 

stop tickling the rim and shove it in already! this is the biggest hype train i've seen for such an obscure, tiny, break-away backup group of people. this isn't like launching healthcare.gov or anything. if you're tweaking layout and themes and adding plugins, that's great, but that shit needs to either be done before you tout the new product's awesomeness, or after it's live and you get to test things in the wild. flip the goddamn switch.

 

i don't like the theme from your example link. i get it, opinions and assholes, etc etc. but it feels like a stargate fan forum from 2003.  the standard theme here is decent enough. strip out all the unnecessary bullshit and make it fast and light. again, that's just me.

 

i'm not ok with my user data being migrated. peer eee uhd. i know i don't really have a say in that, but don't be that guy.

 

i just ate a whole sleeve of ritz crackers while reading this [that] thread. so i've now dedicated that much to you and your project. don't disappoint.

*/

 

i'd like to add now, after seeing the fit thrown here, that i'm not terribly interested in staying on this forum, nor am i terribly interested in moving to the new one. anyways, there you go.

[SwimModSponges]

make sure to check out the fanfictions on your way out.

[MEXobiologist]

make sure to check out the fanfictions on your way out.

 

 

lol, sponges 

 

 

you are a vital part of the internet community and i thank you for your services

[SwimModSponges]

I do what I can.

[Guest The Hound]

yeah, whatever. this thread is devolving into another steaming pile (just like every thread that discusses this little breakup...i see a trend here) so i guess i'll put here what i was gonna put there.

 

/*

a few things...

 

stop tickling the rim and shove it in already! this is the biggest hype train i've seen for such an obscure, tiny, break-away backup group of people. this isn't like launching healthcare.gov or anything. if you're tweaking layout and themes and adding plugins, that's great, but that shit needs to either be done before you tout the new product's awesomeness, or after it's live and you get to test things in the wild. flip the goddamn switch.

 

i don't like the theme from your example link. i get it, opinions and assholes, etc etc. but it feels like a stargate fan forum from 2003.  the standard theme here is decent enough. strip out all the unnecessary bullshit and make it fast and light. again, that's just me.

 

i'm not ok with my user data being migrated. peer eee uhd. i know i don't really have a say in that, but don't be that guy.

 

i just ate a whole sleeve of ritz crackers while reading this [that] thread. so i've now dedicated that much to you and your project. don't disappoint.

*/

 

i'd like to add now, after seeing the fit thrown here, that i'm not terribly interested in staying on this forum, nor am i terribly interested in moving to the new one. anyways, there you go.

 

You don't need to leave. Nothing is happening. I'm immediately felt bad once I realized that at least 30 people were going to create an account on my forum and immediately steal traffic away from the little this site has already. I have not had a good month and I have been acting entirely irrationally.

[wacky1980]

i'm not leaving. shit, i've been around since '03. there's just not a lot to keep coming back to these days, and when someone marches off with half the tribe, that only makes both groups smaller and harder to enjoy. idgaf if someone wants to try and do it better, that's up to them and to you to take a swing at it. but i really don't see it being a good thing for either place, esp with all the cattiness going on before it even launches.

 

i propped up a forum because nodebb was doomed from the start, and i thought it might be nice to have a backup in the event that place went down for good too. but i don't want to compete, and i don't want to spend my spare time catering to every whim of a bunch of random fucks on a random message board. hey, that's just me. if that's your thing, by all means.

[Mix]

I have not had a good month and I have been acting entirely irrationally.

 

dude, my life is on fire right now and i'm not declaring cyber wars  >

 

alcohol is your friend....trust me

 

drugs are....not your friend '>.>.......they're your family ...trust me (maybe don't, idk)

 

 

 

 

[Still Me]

being back the YouTube button

 

 

[mochi]

being back the YouTube button

 

Admin[/member]

[Admin]

it doesn't need a button.  all you have to do to embed a youtube video is to cut/paste the url into a post.

[Guest The Hound]

it doesn't need a button.  all you have to do to embed a youtube video is to cut/paste the url into a post.

I was wondering when you  were gonna do that.

I'm surprised you didn't do it right away.

[Admin]

I didn't see a need to.  I was just going to leave it alone, but then we got a few more autoplay complaints and it only takes like a minute, so went ahead and pulled the plug.

[Still Me]

yeah no shit, all I see is the link not the video box

[DBZ4ever]

Interesting. Did not know this was happening, I have been gone for a while. Those that I play with in Team IB know why I left here and why I have returned. Won't say any more than that.

 

Anyway I hope this all goes well and smooth. Also does html work here? I've tried typing in code and it just ignores it. If it doesn't I'd like to see that as an option and if it does(and it probably does) someone please cure me of my ignorance.  >

[K_N]

Interesting. Did not know this was happening, I have been gone for a while. Those that I play with in Team IB know why I left here and why I have returned. Won't say any more than that.

 

Anyway I hope this all goes well and smooth. Also does html work here? I've tried typing in code and it just ignores it. If it doesn't I'd like to see that as an option and if it does(and it probably does) someone please cure me of my ignorance.  >

HTML doesn't work here (or most places) for good reason.

 

If you recall, I and many others abused the living hell out of it to do malicious and annoying things constantly. It's frankly, a large security risk.

 

When we make the switch to IPB next month, we should have some better formatting options though.