Zroadster.org Is Now Powered By Xenforo!

[GazHyde]

For those brave enough to be using Internet Explorer 10* as their default browser**, I have just notice a small graphical glitch with the "What's New" indicator. Have reported it to the devs***, and hopefully fix it soon****.

*other web browsers are available, and are not a complete pain in the back side!
** seriously, download Chrome. Or Firefox. You won't regret it.
*** who will blame it on the poor development of the whole Internet Explorer range.
**** depending on the developer being able to circumvent the poor coding in Internet Explorer!

 

[GazHyde]

"What's New" indicator issue fixed. This also affect IOS 7 Browsers as I found out yesterday, and this sorts those as well

 

[GazHyde]

A small enhancement for you, which I'm running on a trial basis to see if you like it! If people 'like' it then I will keep it, and we also have the ability to add extra ratings as well.

It's called "Post Ratings" and it extends the inbuilt 'Like' system to be more flexible.

Where you had 'Like' you now have Like, Agree, Dislike & Disagree (Tapatalk users will only have 'Like' available).

Underneath the post it will list the ratings, with the option to remove the rating if you clicked the wrong one!

Click List and it will show you who rated the post.

Like & Agree give a positive rating, whereas Dislike & Disagree give a neutral rating. Whilst the system allows for negative ratings, I don't really think it's worth us bothering with those.

You can see all your personal ratings on your profile page & member card

 

[GazHyde]

Tapatalk has just been updated to v1.9.0. Any issues using it after the update give me a shout!

Works OK on my iPad so should be fine

 

[GazHyde]

A small update today - featured threads! At the top of the forum list and in any forum which has a forum thread, you will now see a featured threads displayed.

This will primarily be used to highlight threads which are of interest - such as upcoming cruises, meets, interesting posts, announcements etc. It should give those threads a bit more publicity. At the moment only I can feature a thread, so let me know if you have anything coming up that you want a bit of extra advertising for

 

[GazHyde]

There is a new version of XenForo which I am in the process of testing on the development site.

Not sure as yet when I will upgrade the live board, as it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes to run through.

If you have problems logging in, it may well be I'm running it at that time

 

[GazHyde]

Goodbye 1.2.2 hello 1.3.0! I know that doesn't mean a lot to you, but it does help me out as a forum admin a whole lot. Anyway, here are some of the extra bits you will find useful...

Spoiler: Video explaining some of the new functionality. Recorded by XenForo developer Keir

Note: There have been some subtle changes since the video as they developed the feature.

View: http://vimeo.com/84587188

"Spoilers" Press button

Spoiler: Spoilers

Spoilers allow you to create a hidden area on the post which is not displayed by default. You have to click the button to see the contents.

Can be used for lots of reasons, and the obvious one would be the F1 race results in the Fantasy F1 thread.

"Multi-Quote" (+Quote link) allows you to quote multiple posts, rather than reply which just quotes one. It's incredibly powerful, as you can actually quote posts from different threads as well.

Click +Quote next to each post, and it will store them up for you...

You then get an extra button to insert the quotes in to the current post. It also gives you chance to remove any quoted posts before putting them in.

"Back to Top" now replaced by functionality from the new theme

Becomes...

"EXIF Rotation" this resolves the issue with pictures not being displayed the correct way up.


"Smiley Tidy" allows grouping by type, making the interface less cluttered. Also means more smilies are on the way...

 

[TaffZee]

 

[TWO]

There will be so many features we won't know our arse from our elbow!

Spot on...........just completely OTT

 

[GazHyde]

just completely OTT

I'm not entirely sure what you refer to as "OTT", I have made the development plans for the forum very clear over the past years. Moving to a new forum platform which is being actively developed has been core to that plan.

The active development of XenForo will mean that new features will be coming online regularly. A lot of those are on the back end system and make my life easier, by reducing the overhead of actively managing the community. There were some front of house changes this time which some people will find useful if they choose to use them - but if you don't want to, that's fine. I could have run the upgrade and not mentioned them, but I like to let people have the choice.

If it's the new Light & Dark styles, that was announced on February 18th here. The reason for the change was clearly set out and I asked for feedback. I received it both in the thread and via personal communication and took most of it on board where possible.

I have never taken running this site lightly, and I spend a lot of time evaluating and testing things on our test site before I even consider adding them here. I've been planning and preparing for this particular upgrade since mid January.

I am acutely aware that occasionally I am pushing the boundaries on what a few people are used to. However, It's a fact that I could be pushing the boundaries a hell of a lot harder with what the software can actually provide over what I have made available.

 

[board]

Personally, I'm with Gaz. I love new functionality and features, I too don't understand the OTT comment as you don't have to use any extra features if you don't want to, the general use of the system has not changed? Why should those that want the new stuff be held back by those that don't, but have the option not to use it if it is implemented, seems a bit odd to me. I would rather have the option to use an extra function and then choose when to use it than not have it all.

Just my 2 pence. Keep up the great work Gaz and keep the upgrades coming!

 

[badman gee]

Keep up the good work gaz.

It's still a lot nicer place to be than other sites I could mention!

 

[GazHyde]

Fairly minor change which won't affect barely anyone apart from me, and new visitors to the site!

I've maintained a separate home page for Zorg since we launched, but since we moved to XenForo a lot of the features it was used for are now integrated in to the forum system. For example there used to be a gallery of members cars, which is now provided by the Media Gallery.

I'm now working to migrate the home page content, and then make the forums the home page directly on http://zroadster.org

We have a lot of content on the current WordPress installation which provides the homepage. I can't just dump it, as it brings in a large amount of visitors to the site (and potential new members). I've just invested in a new article system for XenForo which you can now see on the navigation bar.

I'm now in the process of migrating the existing articles, and it will take a while to do so.

• Technical wiki's >> migrating to the new Article system
• Information articles on the Z range >> migrating to the new Article system
• 3rd Party Product pages >> migrating to custom pages in the forum structure

Any new wiki articles will be added directly to the new article system, which will then create a discussion thread alongside. You will also be able to like & rate the articles as they are added to give feedback to the authors.

Once I'm on top of how it works, then there will be the ability for members to create articles on relevant subjects.

 

[GazHyde]

As an additional update:

You may get an alert similar to this as I work my way through the knowledgebase and convert threads to articles!

The first post of a knowledge base thread will look like this. Click the link to view it.

Use the tabs to switch between the sections.

 

[GazHyde]

I've moved about 50 articles over now, so plenty to see in the Articles section! Only another 30 to go...

 

[GazHyde]

Added a simple hover menu to speed your navigation around the site. Also gives a better visual overview of the forums available!

 

[oldcarman]

Gaz, I don't know what all this means yet but good on you for the time and effort to improve what was the best forum I've ever been on!! Thanks, JIM

 

[GazHyde]

Just ran a sneaky update to the latest version, so I can get the them upgraded to the latest version as well. Hoping the new theme should resolved the issue with the 'back to top' arrow not working very well.

Update you again in a bit

 

[hard top]

Gaz, lost 'latest threads' from top of page.

 

[GazHyde]

Gaz, lost 'latest threads' from top of page.

Good spot Mike. I'll sort that now. Still tinkering with the settings so if you see anything