4-25-2010: Major Changes For The Forum!

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Steve Simmons
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1946 John Deere AN
1949 MG TC
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1965 MGB
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1967 Austin Healey 3000 BJ8
1969 MGC GTS
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4-25-2010: Major Changes For The Forum!

Post by Steve Simmons »

As everyone has surely noticed by now, there have been several drastic changes to the look and function of the forum over the past couple of weeks. Some necessary security and functional updates I performed were not compatible with the older code that gave the forum its visual appearance.

Forced to practically start from scratch, I took advantage of the situation by making further enhancements to the site. I feel the result was worth the effort and hopefully you all feel the same.

The primary upgrades to the forum include...

FUNCTION:
- Faster loading times for all forum pages
- Improved overall ease of navigation
- New icons installed, making it easier to follow new discussions
- External links now open in a blank window
- Primary site navigation tabs moved to top of screen to match the rest of the site
- Various other forum controls relocated for increased ease of use
- New code is more compatible with mobile devices (for those of you who post when you should be working... like I do)

VISUAL:
- Color scheme tweaked to ease visual searching of page
- Fonts re-worked for easier viewing
- Each user now has his/her vehicles displayed by their name with each post (enter your vehicles on your profile page, in the user control panel)
- Wider content area reduces scrolling up and down pages
- All pages reformatted to better fit common screen resolutions (1024x768 and higher)

POSTING:
- New clickable text color palette on posting page
- New image attachment console
- New "create poll" console
- You Tube tags now fixed so you can simply enter the whole URL (web address) instead of clipping out the video code.

SECURITY:
- Several security improvements to server, database and user information

With so many changes at once, there are bound to be mistakes or bugs in the code. Therefore, if you notice anything not working properly, no matter how small, please let me know! Also, don't be shy about posting criticism. It's quite welcome.

There will be further refinements over the next week or two, mainly visual, but for the most part I think we're looking pretty good.

Your humble servant,

- Steve
Martin Keller
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Location: Ventura, Ca.

Re: 4-25-2010: Major Changes For The Forum!

Post by Martin Keller »

Hi Steve,

Your doing one great job and a service for all of us CAR NUTS that are part of your forum.

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO FOR US. :thumbs:
Martin Keller
Ventura, Ca.
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tannyo
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Re: 4-25-2010: Major Changes For The Forum!

Post by tannyo »

Could you change the way images are displayed so that they don't have the large attachment box? Or is there a different way to place images inline?
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Steve Simmons
Site Admin
Posts: 4106
Joined: Thu Sep 07, 2006 9:45 pm
Vehicles Owned: .
1937 MG SA Saloon
1946 John Deere AN
1949 MG TC
1953 MG TD
1958 MGA Roadster
1959 Morris Minor 1000
1965 MGB
1967 MGB GT (UK-Spec)
1967 Austin Healey 3000 BJ8
1969 MGC GTS
Location: Co-Nay-Ho Valley
Contact:

Re: 4-25-2010: Major Changes For The Forum!

Post by Steve Simmons »

After you attach an image, you can click "Display Inline". It will insert the image anywhere in your post that you like. I did just notice that the image attachment boxes are not consistent in their appearance, so I'll look into that. Normally however, there is always a box or area of some sort to separate the attachment from the text. If you have something specific in mind then let me know!

Now if you're tech savvy, which I know Tanny is, you can do this instead...

- Add an attachment
- Preview the post, and copy the image location of the attachment
- Paste the image location into your post using the IMG tags.

This will give an image without any sort of attachment box. If the image is oversized or clickable, then it will no longer be without further trickery which I can get into if you're interested.
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