Forum software upgrade tonight

I'll be upgrading the forum software tonight at 6pm PDT/MST. During that time, there will be a 10-15 minute downtime.

Users may notice slight changes, but visually, there shouldn't be a huge difference.

Started an hour late, but upgrade complete at 7:13pm.

Ouch! It looks different. Is there any way to revert back to the compact list view of Active topics? Without a portion of the message attached (no preview)?

Or at least shrink the left colum (forum) because now the center column where the actual posts are
looks
like
this

Looks and acts the same to me, EXCEPT that I can no longer tell which posts I have already read, all of the little folders are buff colored, no white ones. @#$%^&*(*&^%$#$%^&*!!!

New messages should now be bold, and use a different folder icon. I've updated the style to use a slightly darker background for new posts as well, and enabled the alternating colors to differentiate lines w/o too much contrast.

I'm not sure what you're referring to here - the layout I see only uses a main, larger column and a smaller set of right "island" columns.

The total "width" of the forum is adjustable, and is presently at 95% of the screen size. That leaves 2.5% of each side as "blank" for padding.

For those complaining of layout issues, what is your browser type and version, and what is your screen resolution (i.e. 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024, etc.)?

Attached image shows what I see at 1280x1024 using Mozilla Firefox under Vista.

No immediate way that I see w/o editing the code itself.

..
using windows 2000 ( ima dinosaur) and firefox, mine looks fine w/the upgrades as mentioned.

When I do the active topics /past 24 or 48 hours I get an extra colum on the left
Forum Subject
The Survival Forum Re: Window Punch and Seatbelt cutter

The forum colum takes about 25% of the width and resozes if I resize the browser window. Then subract the colum on the right with the calendar and whose online and there isn't a lot of space in the middle.

I'm at work so I'm stuck with IE and can't upload any screen shots anywhere.

Using a resizer plugin for Firefox, the Active Topics screen is really unusable at 640x480, usable w/ some side scrolling at 800x600, and viewable as intended at 1024x768 or higher.

IE7 handles the page slightly differently, rendering all 3 columns regardless of screen size, but the middle column is the one that loses out at resolutions below 800x600 (which about 9.5% of you are using).

If you have the option of changing your screen resolution to 1024x768 or higher (reasonable size for 17" CRT), you'll enjoy this site (and many others) as they were intended.

It is unfortunate, however, that the author of UBBThreads chose that limitation. However, according to the stats we keep, almost 75% of the visitors to these forums use identifiable screen resolutions of at least 1024x768.

Here's the breakdown:


A manual viewing of the logs do show a smattering of 640x480 users, which would fall into that "Others" category.

Can someone who doesn't see this report their browser version and/or provide a screen shot?

Colors for new vs. old are done with CSS style sheets which won't work for very old browsers.

Dell laptop, 1280x800, Firefox 2.0.0.6 -- no problem at all. I reduced the res to 800x600 and it still worked but got real fuzzy.

Everything works fine for me (IE 6.0.29) on XP 02 SP2. I like the extra highlighting - visually processes much faster. Thanx.

bluecimmers

Same for me

Using W2000 Pro SP4, along with IE 6.0.2800.1106

Along with the "coloring" problem, it also mean that you are directed to the very first post each time you open the thread, and no longer to the first unread post.

As for the folder icone in front of a thread , it looks like it doesn't turn white if ALL posts have not been read. Not sure ; had this on one thread.
If confirmed, that would mean it's no longer possible to mark a thread as read, just by reading one post and ignoring the others (if not interested)

Eugene and Alex are talking about the leftmost column in the Active Topics View. It's really not useful and rather annoying.



(By the way, the Switch to Full Reply Screen Button at the bottom of Quick Reply window is nice, but doesn't work!)

Works for me - it does require JavaScript to be enabled.

I noticed this too on some threads. However, for newer threads, it seems that in flat mode, I jump straight to the newer post. Maybe it's a matter of the info being stored for the first time. I guess we'll keep an eye on it moving forward.



Do you view flat or threaded? I view flat and don't note this problem. Flat is also now the new default for new users.

I've changed the template to give more proportion to the Topic column. Before it was 75% and a minimum width of the left column of "25". It's now minimum "15", and 85% for the center column, which seems to work much better.

I've also reduced the number of characters displayed in the preview to 150 from 250, which should make the "previews" a bit smaller.

Thanks! That's really looks better. Any chance to make them both 0? 0% for the column and 0 chars for the preview, as it was just yesterday?

Ok, Ok, Just kidding.

BTW, The Full Reply Screen Button works fine now (not sure why it wasn't just with the previous post attempt, but that could be my browser glitch).

Let's see if I can post again- it wasn't letting me earlier, you have a PM on that Spinnr.

That it works in flat mode is great. But for more than a few non-US member, and for anyone on dial up, threaded mode is the best option due to bandwidth limitations. And more than a few users us threaded mode in forums becuase they find it much easier to manage and look through. If it doesn't work in threaded mode, then forum policy forbids me from expressing my opinion on this "update".

I'll dig around the UBB Site to see if others have reported similar issues.

A way around bandwidth is to break it up into smaller "pages", assuming you're brought to the right page in the first place. While it appears the default posts per page is 10, some users may have been incremented to a much higher number. Under "My Stuff" -> "My Preferences", you can alter the number of posts per page.

The author of UBBThreads is trying to track it down to include the fix in the next point release (7.2.1) which should enter beta testing shortly. Some folks have posted snippets of code to attempt to fix the issue, however it seems to only last the session, which isn't good enough for me to include here.

You'll find most forums now-a-days use a flat style, which I also use. It's not better, but what I'm used to, so I guess I find it hard to relate otherwise. For me, it offers less clicking, but more scrolling.

And you'll find that not having the choice to use threads costs most forums members, and right now, it can either work in flat mode or sorta work in threaded mode. That is part of why my primary online "home" is this forum, and I know I'm not alone. And I tried the "fix" you suggest for flat style- guess what, it didn't work, I get this massive dump, so I put it back. At least this way I can get a clue as to what I have and haven't read by the posting time, rather than down loading a bunch of posts I've already read.

Is there something in the contract that says we have to upgrade when UBB sends out an "improvement"?

OK, works right at home with firefox. At work IE6 is all were stuck with and it seems it has problems with many web sites, maybe that intentional to keep me focused on work

I'm sorry the fix didn't work for you. I'm fresh out of ideas.



Not at all. However given UBBThreads track record of exploits in older version, I'd personally rather have a few people dislike change as we keep current and running (vs. totally down and hacked).

Most of the upgrades have been good. Some of the upgrades have brought important features on the backend, including CAPTCHA registration to thwart board spam and whatnot. Unfortunately, those come with UI changes, and we don't have the luxary of picking and choosing. This particular version has a problem w/ the threaded UI. I promise once 7.2.1 is released, we'll evaluate it and apply if it solves the problem.

I'm sorry I don't have a better solution for threaded users. I've enabled some checking in the stats program to see just what percentage use threaded vs. flat to gauge the severity of the problem.

How many times has this forum actually been hacked? I'm honestly curious. Because I've been around for at least five years now on a steady basis, and I honestly can't remember this place ever going down due to a malicious action that was aimed at ETS. Server failure, too much load, yeah, those I know all too well about, but I can't recall this place being compromised intentionally.

As for a "few people", look at the people who don't like the effects of the "upgrades"- a lot of them are the people who've been around the longest and have contributed a hell of a lot to this place. We aren't complaining because it is different, we are complaining becuase it doesn't work.

I'm not trying to be nasty, but please, stop breaking things. Or you aren't going to have to worry about server load.

OK, despite the fact that I really don't have time for this crap, I am going to step in here. I happen to be one of those who prefers the treaded mode and it's broken for me to. Crap happens, With luck, they will fix it. Just the way it works.

However. Rick (HTML Spinner) is a volunteer and doing the best he can and he has been 100% responsible for keeping ETS going the last year with two server changes and numerous other challenges. If he wasn't helping, ETS would probably be gone. No site, no forum, no nothing. I am sincerely thankful for him stepping in and helping. You should be too.

What he doesn't need, and I will not allow, is abuse. You got your message across the first, second and third time. He understands. He'll fix it when it's fixable. If that's not good enough, then there's not much we can do for you. But, you will not abuse him! You will not be "nasty" and you will not have to apologize for even sounding "nasty." You are welcome to point out problems and ask for them to be fixed, but I really appreciate it if you don't make demands and don't get testy. I trust I'll not have to make this point again.

We will continue to upgrade the forum software because not doing so damn near put it under last time around. Some upgrades are better than others, but that's the nature of the beast with all software. I hate this software crap, but it's what we have to live with these days. It's not a bug, it's a @!#*%&ing feature. <~>

As for being hacked, yes we have been. We've also had to deal with a lot of instability in the forum, spam and other crap before the forum upgrades.

Hopefully this clears things up and everyone understands where things stand.

I appreciate your understanding and cooperation.

"...a @!#*%&ing feature..."

Now that I understand. I seem to spend half of my time on the computer complaining (not just this site) about some a @!#*%&ing feature. I'd hate to lose you. Keep up the good work you guys!!!