What's New in the New Forums???

[Jim]

First off, A list of things that are the same:
1. Your user name and password from the old forums should work
2. The list of forums and threads should be the same.
3. Your post history should be intact.
4. Your Profile is still customizable and is located by following the "USER/CP" (control panel) button at the top of every page.

New Stuff:
1. This forum is PHP/mySQL based and should be noticeably faster.
2. Searching is greatly improved. You can now easily find member posting histories by clicking on usernames and user profiles.
3. Members panel - A list of all registered members, their home pages and posting history.
4. Who's online - At the bottom of the front page, a list of who's logged in and how many others are lurking. If you click the text "Currently active users" you will see a list of what each browser is actually looking at.
5. Calendar - If you edit your PROFILE page to include your birthday, it will show up on the calendar and you will receive a happy birthday notice on the front page. The calendar is also a place to post upcoming gigs and events for the community.
6. Polls - There is a polling system built right into the forums now. Look for upcoming polls to start popping up.
7. Posting - there is a "preview" feature now so you can review what you're about to post. After composing your message, click the "Preview message" button to the right of the "Post message" button and you'll see how your composition looks before posting.
8. You can now subscribe to threads and be notified by email when a new post occurs.
9. There is a rating system for you to vote on the usefulness or coolness of a particular thread.
10. Avatars - You are able to assign a picture to appear under your user name. More info coming soon.
11. TIME ZONES!!!- You may now specify what time zone you're browsing in! Go to your PROFILE (USER/CP button) and click on "Edit Options" and make the change to specify where you are. This should give you the times of posts relative to your time zone! Yay!
12. View Recent Posts - This will give you a list of all posts since you last logged in. Or a list of all posts you haven't read SINCE you logged in. It's not "Daily" topics anymore. If you want to see "Today's Active Topics" You need to log out and THEN go look at the front page. If you're logged in, you only get posts you haven't seen yet. If you're not logged in, the system assumes you're a guest and gives you the day's "Latest topics."

There will be more coming soon.

What's broken?
Links- I know for sure that some of the links within old posts that refer to old forum threads will be broken. If you are trying to follow a thread link and get a broken link, there's not much to do about it. However, if you know what the thread is about, the new search function on these forums is very powerful and you'll probably be able to find what you're looking for with a simple search.

Quotes - The old UBB code seems to have been a little messed up in the import. If you are reading a thread and find messed up quote tags, you can go ahead and edit the post if it is your own. Or let me know and I'll go in a fix it. Bold and italics tags may be a little messed up on old threads, too.

[Jim]

More New Things

The more I use this new system I keep finding COOL new stuff!

Thread Sorting - When you're looking at the top level inside a forum like this: Click Here you can SORT the threads using any criteria within the columns. The default view is sorted by "Last Post, descending order" as denoted by the arrow next to "Last Post."

Then try clicking on "Thread," "Thread Starter," "Replies," "Views," or "Rating."

The colums will re-sort themselves! Very cool. Then you can click the arrow that appears next to the sorted column and re-sort them in ascending or descending order.

Thread Rating - I mentioned this below, but I didn't tell you how to do it. At the end of a thread, at the bottom RIGHT of the page, there is a "Rate This Thread" drop down menu. If you find the thread to be particularly useful or interesting or of value to others, Rate the thread accordingly. After at least TWO people have voted on a thread, the average rating will appear in the "Rating" column of the forum thread display window.

Report Post to a Moderator - Within the display area (bottom/right) of each individual post is a link to "Report the post to a moderator." If you come across a spam, inappropriate gig posting, vulgar or profane message or some kind of technical display problem, feel free to click the link, fill out the form and send it in. It goes directly to me. I'll look into it ASAP. This will help me out with the moderation of the system.

More stuff on the way...

[Jim]

FAQ's Updated

Just to let everyone know, I've just updated all the FAQ's in the "Forum FAQ" Forum.

A lot of the questions and answers were regarding the OLD system. Now they pertain to this system. If you're confused about the new icons, adding images, signatures, or thread basics, go check out the FAQ's and your questions should be answered. If you still have a problem, ASK a question there.

Jim

[Jim]

AVATARS and Custom User Titles

Avatars - If you look to the left of a post you will start to see images appearing under people's names. These are called AVATARS.

If you have more than 5 posts, you can apply a custom avatar to your name using your USER/CP control panel. Just click "Edit Options" and scroll to the bottom to the Avatar section. Avatars are like "signatures." You can post your avatar somewhere on the web and link TO it in your profile. There is also an option to UPLOAD your avatar into the system.

Keep in mind there are strict size requirements to avatars: 50x50 pixels and under 19k file size. You can create your own avatars in Photoshop or grab one off the web. Just make sure they're 50x50 pixels. Try Googling for "buddy icon" because 50x50 is the popular size for AOL AIM buddy icons and there are tons of free sites out there where you can grab something pre-made for free.

Custom User Titles - User titles are the "Member," "New Member," "Administrator" titles under your user name in your posts. If you have more than 100 posts to your name, you are eligible to add a CUSTOM title like "Throbbing Member" or "Large Member" or "p.net addict!" or "I Love Jim" or any words you want. Have fun with that. Go to your USER/CP and click "edit profile" to make changes.

[Jim]

Logging In / Logging Out - If you're on a computer that is only used by you, you can log in once and choose to accept cookies and come and go and never have to log in again. Once you're logged in, the system will know when you're browsing here and when you leave the site or close your browser window. When you come back, you'll be logged in automatically... Just click "View posts since your last visit" on the home page and anything posted since you last browsed a forum page will be listed.

If you're sharing a computer or using cafe computers, You should log in and out each time you come here. I've moved the log in/log out links to the top of the main forum page so they're easy to access. Just log in and accept the cookies. When you're done browsing/posting/etc... just go back to the main page and click "Log Out" and all cookies will be cleared and the next person in line at the cafe won't be able to browse in and post using your name.

[Jim]

I've added a new link at the top of the forum home page for "Logged In" users...

Look at the top right of the main forum page and you should see something like this:



So now you can view "All Posts since you last logged in or visited" OR "Today's Active Threads" from the last 24 hours.

This is the same "Today's Active Threads" search as the NON-logged in users have, but now logged-in folks have the choice of either search.

Jim