New forum: early test version

Likewise, whenever I update my Blogger blog from my Mac, I use Firefox, because in Safari, I can only do plain text.

Certainly is fast, Jeff. Glad to see you've gotten the search function up and running. How exactly are you going to allow that function to work? Will there be a wide variety of variables? That's always been a frustration for me.

Cool beans, though.

I can't reply to anything from my Windows box at the moment.

Thats because the whole thing is spitting out a server error right now.

Yeah, I could be uploading stuff at any time. I downloaded the entire test database (a gig!) to my local machine, so hopefully I won't have to do that as much.

I've got some of the performance issues worked out now, as those were my primary concerns. Replies are still taking longer than I'd like, but I'll look more into that this weekend.

Search might have an all or some words option, as well as sorts by forum, search rank, and date. I still need to filter out results from private forums. *** Edited 1/5/2007 6:57:58 AM UTC by Jeff***

Sweet. I can tell you're working hard on it.

Any color scheme ideas yet?

I finally got some time on a "real" computer (heh) to play with it, and so far, I like it! A couple obervations/questions:

1. I like the addition of the '!' icon on the topics page to allow us to jump directly to new posts in that thread. I've been wanting that for months instead of having to try and guess which page I'm on, and then click the new posts link. As for suggestions of how to make it more obvious that's the function? What about a small graphic that actually says 'New'? I know it sounds cheesy, but it'd still be simple, and provide some hint of what to expect for people before they learn what it is.

2. Will there be an option in the future to mark a particular topic as read instead of the whole forum? Sometimes I only have a few minutes to read and can only read a topic or 2, but I don't like marking it as read because I didn't have a chance to read everything. It'd be very useful and timesaving to be able to mark that one or two topic(s) read so I know where I left off when I can come back.

3. I echo Nasai's wonderment about plans for color schemes... or even whether we'll be able to pick our own scheme instead of just one of a few pre-selected themes(upgraded members only, obviously).. Since do far everything is pretty much standard, solid colors, it seems as though you could always have each element as a selectable color (unless that's only because it's a test environment, and you intend to have custom-colored graphics similar to what we have available now, which is fine.. I'm just curious :) )

4. I actually like how the google ad on the main forum page is nestled in between the different forums, and even the topics when you click on, for example, 'General Buzz'. Ironically, I don't like how on the actual posts screen it plops itself between posts. I know it's a similar procedure, but I find it very annoying and was wondering if you could/would change that around? (Yeah, it's a moot point because I won't see it when it goes into production since the club members don't see ads, but I figured I might as well throw in the feedback)

Me likey!!

It certainly has a retro feel..for all the ol' skool peeps out there. The new format reminds me of what coasterbuzz used to be back in 2000.

Anyway, I'm not sure if anyone brought this up yet, but are you going to show the "post starter" for each thread?

It's been giving me:

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Server Error in '/' Application.
Input string was not in a correct format.

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Nonstop since last night.

Clear your cookies, you're holding on to an old session key format. Which means you haven't closed the browser since then you weirdo. ;)

Dan:
1: What I really need is someone to volunteer to make shiny icons that would make an OS X user proud. ;) I suck at making icons.

2: Viewed topics will be in a future iteration, and some code is already there to implement it. It might be on a per-session basis, the way vBulletin does it, but I haven't decided yet. Depends on what the database load is looking like at that point. The trick is how long to hold on to data if someone hasn't marked a forum read. Could lead to millions of rows hanging out for no reason.

3: No style has been created. It's all placeholder stuff. It's completely "skinable," and club members will be able to select from different skins.

4: Ad placement inline is more for people who decide to buy the forum (I'm not going to give it away anymore). It's configurable to go anywhere in the order, though for Google, it makes sense to put it between two posts so that it builds off of those keywords.

Like I said... don't get nutty about feature requests yet since it's not even remotely final. Whatever it ends up as, I'm sticking to the "less is more" philosophy, because every additional button on the page gets in the way of the communication you're trying to foster, little by little.

Faster is better anyways... I prefer content over style, personally. :)

I uploaded some new icons and graphics. I actually paid someone to do icons since I suck at that...

http://beta.popforums.com/forums/

The under the hood stuff is getting better. There is still much to add and refine, but it's getting there slowly.

Nice job, dude. Very nice. :)

Earlier the "Latest Post" column info was incorrect. There was a new post by you inside General Buzz but it said the last post for that forum was Jan 9.

Yeah, the build I put up there this evening fixed that. I didn't merge in the changes for the online user issues yet.

In tonight's build:

• Reply and quote links at the bottom of each post (provided you're logged in). Post is dynamically loaded as quote without reloading the page.


• Saving login actually works now.


• Post dupe/flood prevention.


• Gigantic performance gains in lots of places.

Three or four more items, plus some layout clean up, and we should be about in the same place as we are now.

By the way, it would be useful if people would try to register on that site for a new account, with some alternate e-mail. Try to do it with the e-mail you already use, and/or the name you already use, to see that it can't be done. I want to try to refine the registration process a little.

http://beta.popforums.com/forums/Register.aspx

Wouldn't let me use my screen name or current email address...

Regging with the email already in use got me: "That e-mail is already in use."

Looks great! Good job.