Thoughts on forum changes

[otseng]

Here's a PM exchange I've had with Zzyzx that I want to share. I think many on the forum might also be interested...

Have you received indication that members and moderators dislike the new format? I am trying to withhold judgment, but am leaning negative after a week of use. It is not a matter of resistance to change (which typically troubles me very little).

No, nobody has complained to me yet, but I can understand the sentiment. I've spent years customizing the former forum to what I wanted and now I have to start all over. I don't think anyone is more frustrated and disappointed than me that we're losing a lot of the former functionality.

The problem is the forum software and the OS is obsolete. It's been running on the same software for over 16 years, which in itself is pretty amazing. But, now I'm not able to run the latest software. I was using an older version of PHP and the latest version of PHP doesn't support the old forum.

There's pretty much no choice but to upgrade. By the end of the year, the old OS (CentOS 6) won't be supported anyways. Over the next several years, I'll be modifying the forum, but it will take patience as I do this. And just when I get it to how I would like it, I'll probably have to start all over again.

[Overcomer]

I like the new forum. I like the look of it. I like the features it has. I have had no problems cutting and pasting. I have had no problems navigating from page to page. I can't think of a single feature on the old forum that I miss and would like to see return. And the reality is, in a matter of weeks, this will be the new normal and most of us will forget what the old one was like. It served its purpose for a time. Now it's onward and upward. Thanks for all the work you have done, do and will continue to do to keep this place up and running, otseng.

[brunumb]

I am amazed at how well the changeover has gone. A credit to otseng. Just about everything we need is still here. If I may make one suggestion it is that it would help if there was a bit more contrast between the background of the 'current' post and the quoted posts within it. Otherwise, great job.
Oops. A second suggestion. Could the posts in a thread possibly be numbered? But, no biggie.

[brunumb]

Is there a way to freeze animated avatars without turning them off altogether? I like being able to quickly identify posters via their avatars, but I find the animated ones very distracting, even annoying.

[otseng]

How much hassle would it be to experiment with a couple of different board styles?

There are now 3 more board styles that you can use. You can try them out in:User Control Panel / Board preferences / Edit global settings

Please, keep a back-up of the old, Forum, Otseng. As you know, the registeries, the likes, etc., can become useful once Version 3.3 gets to mature and then maybe we have our old forum back! Yay!

Yes, will keep a backup of the old forum database.

I am amazed at how well the changeover has gone. A credit to otseng. Just about everything we need is still here. If I may make one suggestion it is that it would help if there was a bit more contrast between the background of the 'current' post and the quoted posts within it. Otherwise, great job.
Oops. A second suggestion. Could the posts in a thread possibly be numbered? But, no biggie.

I've added 3 more styles for you to choose from. If you see any styles here that you want to try, post it here.

Yes, post number is on my list of things to add.

Is there a way to freeze animated avatars without turning them off altogether? I like being able to quickly identify posters via their avatars, but I find the animated ones very distracting, even annoying.

That is an interesting request. Will have to think about that one.

[otseng]

I've modified the Thanks for posts ext so that it support 3.3. Your are now able to a post at the top right corner of the post.

[Difflugia]

Is there a way to freeze animated avatars without turning them off altogether? I like being able to quickly identify posters via their avatars, but I find the animated ones very distracting, even annoying.

Animated gifs are animated in the browser. To fix it on otseng's end would require the server to run a conversion on images that are otherwise just stored.

If you use firefox, type "about:config" in the address bar and find "image.animation_mode". Change the "normal" to "none" or "once" (for whatever twisted reason, it's a string; you'll actually have to type the word out).

Chrome doesn't have this option, so Chrome users will need to find a plugin.

Here's an animated gif to test with.


Otseng, if you do want to do something server-side, this scriptable ImageMagick command will extract the first frame (frame 0) of "Animated.gif" and save the result as "SingleFrame.gif".

Code: Select all

convert "Animated.gif[0]" SingleFrame.gif

If you want to extract all of the frames in numbered files, here's the command:

Code: Select all

convert Animated.gif Frame-%d.gif

[brunumb]

If you use firefox, type "about:config" in the address bar and find "image.animation_mode". Change the "normal" to "none" or "once" (for whatever twisted reason, it's a string; you'll actually have to type the word out).

Thanks Difflugia

(P.S. Can't see a "Thanks" button in the top right hand corner of posts)

[otseng]

(P.S. Can't see a "Thanks" button in the top right hand corner of posts)

It won't show up on your own posts, but you should be able to see for other's posts.

For example:

[tam]

That doesn't show up for me, Otseng. I tried logging out and logging back in as well. Maybe a different style? I am using the we_universal.

[otseng]

That doesn't show up for me, Otseng. I tried logging out and logging back in as well. Maybe a different style? I am using the we_universal.

Give it a try now. I had to manually activate the permission for every forum. If there's any forum that is not able to like, let me know.