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Suggestions for the Rebuilding of the Forum

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Josh started this discussion 12 years 8 months ago

Note: If you haven't read about the recent migration of the forum software, please click here for background information.

This forum that you are looking at now is something that I put online quickly, just to keep the site from being offline for a longer period of time. I'm looking for suggestions about how to improve the new forum and make it better than the old one.

If you have any thoughts or feedback about specific things I could change to make it better, please post below.

For example:
Do you prefer threads like this, where the profiles are on the left side of the posts?
http://www.hostelmanagement.com/forums/tips-finding-hostel-job.html

...or should I try to put the profiles back on top of each of the posts?

Should I leave the sidebar on the right in the forum, or make the posts full width?

(I thought it would be useful to have the search box in the sidebar, as well as some links, but I could move it.)

Do you have any other suggestions?

I'm working as quickly as possible to get the design fixed up and fill in some missing features (like editor buttons in the text areas).

Some of the broken links will repair themselves soon. There are so many posts that it takes the internal search engine a few days to index everything.

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Josh Hostels

12 years

Correct - you don't receive any notifications by e-mail. I've checked my spam to make sure it didn't end up there, and it hasn't. Are signatures working?

Sorry about that... I guess I need to find the settings to turn on the notifications.

Signatures should work and they should have been imported. Can you check your user page and see if a signature option is there?

The quote button is back, but I haven't made the quoted sections look right yet.

I would leave the Facebook login to last - not an important feature on a website like this. But adding maybe a Facebook, LinkedIn, Website, ICQ, MSN, AOL, BB MN, Skype, picture of them etc, etc links on posters' profiles. :)

I think all that data was imported, but I have to theme the user profiles. I'll do that a little later in the process, but it's on the list. :)

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Josh Hostels

12 years

And one more for the to-do list:
* put the original smileys back :)

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santa klaus

12 years

the old forum had a "new posts" button. that was helpful.

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santa klaus

12 years

ah, found it again :)

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Josh Hostels

12 years

Ongoing updates:
* Signatures are back on.
* I think notifications are back on, but if not, let me know. I might need to edit the notification content.

Next up:
* Add editor buttons to the comment forms.

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Josh Hostels

12 years

I'm not sure if notifications are working yet, but the editor buttons should be showing for everyone now. Push the question mark icon to see what the buttons do.

Up next:

notifications
import old smilies
User titles
Show post counts
Wiki

There is also a voting widget on the right side of posts and comments...

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Josh Hostels

12 years

The original smilies are back:
:) :D ;) :p :eek: :( :confused: :cool: :mad: :rolleyes: :redface:

I formatted the quotes a little bit more like the old quotes. I'll be able to improve that soon.

Also some smaller design details.

More soon... it's almost 2am. :)

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rjd1983

12 years

Looks like you've done most things to get the forum back on track. :) I don't suppose you can get a 'skin' to make the forum look more like the old one? Same colour scheme, and layout as before.

No notifications as of yet.

With the vote buttons, perhaps you can make them bigger, or more obvious for their purpose. To me, they look like page up/down buttons rather then like buttons. It's kinda like Gmail's new minimalist look, they give you hieroglyphics without the Rosetta Stone to give you a translation! Ok, slight exaggeration on my part there. ;) Perhaps like in the old one, a simple text-link saying like or dislike. :~

Please don't ban me for not liking your vote buttons. :)

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Josh Hostels

12 years

I don't suppose you can get a 'skin' to make the forum look more like the old one? Same colour scheme, and layout as before.

The other software works out of the box, but it's difficult to customize. This software is more of a framework that needs to be built from a rougher state, but it's much more customizable. There aren't any real "skins" other than what I'm in the middle of building now. Sorry that people have to see the forum while it's still under construction. :)

No notifications as of yet.

I think you may have to comment once after I activated it. You should get a notification now. If not, I'll have to check again tomorrow.

With the vote buttons, perhaps you can make them bigger, or more obvious for their purpose.

I can make them larger, but that might take a little longer. I'll work on that after some of the other things... :)

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rjd1983

12 years

A feature missing from the old version is seeing who liked what in their profile. Not an urgent one. Something that can be looked at when you adjust the hieroglyphics. ;)

Thanks for everything again.

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