Technical Issues After June 25, 2012 Maintenance

tigerman

Could you guys add the forums to the bottom of the thread like on the old style, that way you don't have to scroll to the top every time to move along.

Yeah!  What he said.

And a latest post button at the top of all pages. Now, you have to go back to the main page every time and then to recent posts.

Help...I'm lost.. What have you done and why???. Every time I click on forums as we used to I get a message about mantainence..

Where is Armour, Dio's,  etc.

Don't like it...cheers....Kenny ( Grumpy Old Man )

i see that the titles change to thin font when you read them, but only in their forum. In my "discussions" list ALL of them are bold. Even after I read them. Makes it hard to figure out which ones have new posts

Craig Kuhlow

The issue with being able to click a person's post count and view all there posts I know about.  There is a slight issue with how the posts are being calculated which is why it's turned off at the moment.  Working on a fix at the moment and will post when it's been pushed out.

This should be fixed now.  You can either click a members badges in a thread to view all their posts, or you can also go to their profile by clicking their username or avatar, and then click their post total right next to their avatar in their profile.

Just as an FYI also for those that didn't know this, you can hover over any of the badges with your mouse to see the actual post counts as well instead of going to their profile.

Craig Kuhlow

The signature white space issue could probably be changed.  I'll have to take a look at the styling.

I just added some spacing to the top of signature lines to help separate between the post body and a members signature.  Hope this helps.

wing_nut

Can the rich formatting be made the default instead of having to click it every time?

Yes, however doing so would remove the "quick post" option for members that want to type a quick reply without the additional formatting.  So there is a trade off.  This is a decision that would need to be made from the powers above me.  But it can be done.

Hmmmm, getting the hang of where things have gone, or how they act differently. Just had an issue though!

I posted a pic from Photobucket in the Saab GB thread ( cs.finescale.com/.../1581686.aspx ). Saw it in my post afterwards, even had a reply from bsyamato, so he had seen it. Now the pic seems to have disappeared??

CallSignOWL

why aren't any of my subscribed threads sending me notifications when there's a new post?

I just looked at your account settings and it appears everything is configured properly.  I am subscribed to a couple threads in the forums and have been receiving them so the e-mail job appears to be working.

One thing that has come up in the past is that sometimes the e-mail gets flagged as spam by some e-mail clients or automatically goes into a junk folder.  So you might want to check those folders.  The e-mails should be coming from noreply@finescale.com.  You might want to try adding that address to your trusted list.

Hope this helps.

Scorpiomikey

This has probably come up, but i liked the old way of being able to click "Your discussions" or something like that and it would come up with everything you've posted in. Not just threads you started. And with the ones that havent seen activity since your last perusal being greyed out. Maybe thats just the "I hate change" person in me.

Hi Scorpiomikey.

There is a page in the community that will display all discussions you have participated in regardless if you started a thread or posted a reply.  You can find it in the profile box that is located right above the advertisements in the right column.  There should be a link called "Your Discussions" right below messages.

Alternatively, here is the direct link to the your discussions page for your reference: 

http://cs.finescale.com/p/discussions.aspx

Hi Borg.

According the system you joined the community on 9/29/2004.  Are you seeing something different somewhere else?  Or is it supposed to be something different?  Let me know I can investigate further.

The medals are kind of like bragger badges or rankings. Here's a quick run down of the medals and what they mean.  Eventually this information will also be on the help page.

No medals = Less than 25 posts (relatively new)
1 medal = 25 - 74 posts
2 medals = 75 - 249 posts
3 medals = 250 - 499 posts
4 medals = 500 - 999 posts
5 medals = 1000 - 2999 posts
5 orange medals = more than 3000 posts 

VanceCrozier

Hmmmm, getting the hang of where things have gone, or how they act differently. Just had an issue though!

I posted a pic from Photobucket in the Saab GB thread ( cs.finescale.com/.../1581686.aspx ). Saw it in my post afterwards, even had a reply from bsyamato, so he had seen it. Now the pic seems to have disappeared??

Did the path to the picture have a tilde "~" in it by any chance?  There is a known issue with image paths and tildes that I am currently working with support on.

Craig Kuhlow

VanceCrozier

Hmmmm, getting the hang of where things have gone, or how they act differently. Just had an issue though!

I posted a pic from Photobucket in the Saab GB thread ( cs.finescale.com/.../1581686.aspx ). Saw it in my post afterwards, even had a reply from bsyamato, so he had seen it. Now the pic seems to have disappeared??

Did the path to the picture have a tilde "~" in it by any chance?  There is a known issue with image paths and tildes that I am currently working with support on.

Nope, direct link to that photo is:

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af250/VanceCrozier/Saab%20JAS-39%20Grippen/IMG_3110sm.jpg

Might there be an issue with the web code for the spaces?? ( %20 ) I've seen that confuse the occasional browser.

VanceCrozier

Nope, direct link to that photo is:

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af250/VanceCrozier/Saab%20JAS-39%20Grippen/IMG_3110sm.jpg

Might there be an issue with the web code for the spaces?? ( %20 ) I've seen that confuse the occasional browser.

No, that shouldn't matter.  %20 basically translates into a space.  It looks like the photo posted for me.  Could you give it another try?  My hope is that it was the infamous Internet hiccup.

Craig Kuhlow

VanceCrozier

Nope, direct link to that photo is:

http://i1012.photobucket.com/albums/af250/VanceCrozier/Saab%20JAS-39%20Grippen/IMG_3110sm.jpg

Might there be an issue with the web code for the spaces?? ( %20 ) I've seen that confuse the occasional browser.

No, that shouldn't matter.  %20 basically translates into a space.  It looks like the photo posted for me.  Could you give it another try?  My hope is that it was the infamous Internet hiccup.

ahhh - the HiCCUP! I'll go back & try to add the image again.

Looks like it's holding this time. Thanks Craig,

Craig Kuhlow

CallSignOWL

why aren't any of my subscribed threads sending me notifications when there's a new post?

I just looked at your account settings and it appears everything is configured properly.  I am subscribed to a couple threads in the forums and have been receiving them so the e-mail job appears to be working.

One thing that has come up in the past is that sometimes the e-mail gets flagged as spam by some e-mail clients or automatically goes into a junk folder.  So you might want to check those folders.  The e-mails should be coming from noreply@finescale.com.  You might want to try adding that address to your trusted list.

Hope this helps.

ah, thats where they are! It didnt used to do that before. Thanks

Craig

Any chance on changing the way thread titles change when you have read them vs. not read them. Or when they have been read, but there are new posts?

And, as OWL said, while in the main forum a title will go from bold to regular when I have read the thread, in "My Discussions" everything remains bold. Very confusing and just a bit frustrating.

PS Thanks for adding the extra space between the end of a post and the signature line. It definately helps.

bbrowniii

Craig

Any chance on changing the way thread titles change when you have read them vs. not read them. Or when they have been read, but there are new posts?

And, as OWL said, while in the main forum a title will go from bold to regular when I have read the thread, in "My Discussions" everything remains bold. Very confusing and just a bit frustrating.

PS Thanks for adding the extra space between the end of a post and the signature line. It definately helps.

Hi Bbrowniii.

Unfortunately I can't change the thread titles based on whether a user has read or not read the recent activity in the thread.  It's difficult to do something like that based on an individual user level.  I did update the colors a little bit to try and distinguish a little more between a thread that was read versus ones that aren't though.

I noticed the issue with some threads appearing as unread in the actual forum and then appearing as read in the "Recent Discussions" page.  Not 100% sure why that's occurring.  I pushed out a minor change that I'm hoping will prevent it from happening.  I have to do a little bit more monitoring on this one though.  I'll keep you posted.  Thanks for letting me know.

I noticed the sort by date option is now gone (Recent Posts).  Are you bringing it back?

Nope.... That's it.

You also cannot get to your PMs.  At least without having to go to the regular site.  Maybe I too am missing something.

Craig Kuhlow

bbrowniii

Craig

Any chance on changing the way thread titles change when you have read them vs. not read them. Or when they have been read, but there are new posts?

And, as OWL said, while in the main forum a title will go from bold to regular when I have read the thread, in "My Discussions" everything remains bold. Very confusing and just a bit frustrating.

PS Thanks for adding the extra space between the end of a post and the signature line. It definately helps.

Hi Bbrowniii.

Unfortunately I can't change the thread titles based on whether a user has read or not read the recent activity in the thread.  It's difficult to do something like that based on an individual user level.  I did update the colors a little bit to try and distinguish a little more between a thread that was read versus ones that aren't though.

I noticed the issue with some threads appearing as unread in the actual forum and then appearing as read in the "Recent Discussions" page.  Not 100% sure why that's occurring.  I pushed out a minor change that I'm hoping will prevent it from happening.  I have to do a little bit more monitoring on this one though.  I'll keep you posted.  Thanks for letting me know.

So what your saying is all the code that did that on the old forums, you just threw away and started over?

Thanks for being so responsive Craig.

I did notice something else, however.  In my PMs or Conversations or whatever they are called in the new forum, it says I've got 86 unread messages??!! I've read EVERY message in there. Now I can't tell when I actually do get a new message. Is there a way to 'Mark all as read' so that I can start 'fresh'?

Scorpiomikey

Unfortunately I can't change the thread titles based on whether a user has read or not read the recent activity in the thread.  It's difficult to do something like that based on an individual user level.

Scorpiomikey

So what your saying is all the code that did that on the old forums, you just threw away and started over?

Not to be a ***, but that is kind of a good point - why could it work that way on the old, 'bad' forum, but it is too complex for the new updated one?

This new BLINDING WHITE background and TINY BLACK typeface is eating my lunch. I mean killing my old eyes.

But ... I am not a subscriber and therefore realize my ranking in things.

Scorpiomikey

So what your saying is all the code that did that on the old forums, you just threw away and started over?

To all,

Craig has been working hard to accomodate everyone he can. A little consideration and moderation of tone goes a long way. Nothing was simply tossed. A lot of things change because of the software package -- which was not designed by Craig or anyone else here. On the other hand, a lot of the cool things you're experiencing with the mobile side are because of months of diligent work by Craig and others on our online team. What we can change internally to make the experience better, we will. Other things will have to be taken up with the provider and may have to wait for a patch.

Stay experience specific and please refrain from editorializing.

Thank you,

TK

Scorpiomikey

So what your saying is all the code that did that on the old forums, you just threw away and started over?

I suspect it is just a case of "old software doesn't completely cooperate with old software". Dealing with this sort of thing (admittedly outside the actual programming) at the office, changing from one piece of software to another piece of software & still have it play well with pre-existing data (all the threads/posts/conversations/user IDs etc etc) is no small feat.

bbrowniii

 

Scorpiomikey

Unfortunately I can't change the thread titles based on whether a user has read or not read the recent activity in the thread.  It's difficult to do something like that based on an individual user level.

Scorpiomikey

So what your saying is all the code that did that on the old forums, you just threw away and started over?

Not to be a ***, but that is kind of a good point - why could it work that way on the old, 'bad' forum, but it is too complex for the new updated one?

You guys bring up a valid point and I understand where you're coming from.  One thing you do have to understand tho is that our company didn't build this community platform so a majority of the code wasn't developed by me.  We purchased it many years ago from a community platform vendor.  Around 2006 or 2007 I believe.  Anyway, it was before I joined Kalmbach.

The difficult thing with working with a platform that is built by someone else (as opposed to building it from scratch within the company) is that you're often at the mercy of what the software vendor builds since they write the code that you will be using.  Now I'm not saying that we can't change anything, because we can and did to a degree, but depending on what the change is, it can be rather difficult and time consuming.  There were quite a few customization's that were built into this system to accommodate  some of the items that were made obsolete or replaced with the newer release.   The previous site was 3 versions behind and was outdated and was no longer supported by our vendor for troubleshooting.

There's also the issue with support and future upgrades and releases.  The more you customize and tweak a system, the more complex it becomes to upgrade it when a new release come out.  Since we have 9 communities to maintain (Finescale is just one of them), we try our best to keep them all as uniform as possible so that upgrading becomes more seamless when the time comes to do it.

So we really didn't throw away any code per say.  We did however have to rewrite some things in order to keep some of the features that were no longer supported or replaced.

Hope that explanation helps.  There's a lot more to it than that, but that is the basis behind it all.  Technology advances and usually doesn't wait around unfortunately.  I know the pain of it too working in this field.  Something as basic as a new release of Internet Explorer or Firefox for example can cause some major headaches.  It keeps me and my co-workers busy though, and makes me feel special when I figure out how to fix it 

Will you be upgrading the Scale Auto forum as well?